A day of contemplation!

Fans of the series American Chopper will be more than familiar with our day today - you know the scene, 'Pauly' gazing wistfully at uncompleted bike, 'Senior' walks in - what the **** are you doing?, when will you finish?. Today, John and I spent a couple of hours plotting and scheming, working out the best way to run the gearchange. To help, we lifted the car onto axle stands and carefully levelled it. Yesterday, I drove to Thetford to Ellistons and collected my hubs. uprights, discs and calipers, which took some time, but well worth it as they look great.

Latest 'progress'

We've had a busy week. I got lucky and won a set of wishbones on e-bay - should save a lot of time and the parts that we've already made can be used when we start on Johns car. As we have decided to ditch the Fiesta rear subframe, I've also been getting quotes for the CDS tube for the rear suspension - it was much more reasonable than I thought so I will order that soon. Had a minor panic when I could not contact Ellistons kit parts for a while - I've paid them for a reconditioned set of cortina uprights and hubs, however, eventually contacted them, thanks in no small measure to those helpful people on the locostbuilders website. Finally, John and I spent Sunday morning making the rear gearbox mount and working on the gearchange mechanism - pictures of the mount are here. Plans for this week include collecting the front hubs, when it will at last be time to finalise the front of the car and get some wheels on!!
Finally, this week was novel for one final reason. For once it was John who left the workshop dripping blood - this is normally my speciality and I've been keeping antiseptic manufacturers in business for some time!!!

Progress.....

Spent the last week making the parts for the front wishbones, ready to assemble them this week. Showed Johns father in-law the project and couldn't resist doing the following!

Finished with Fiesta!

A profitable morning today (despite a few bottles of red wine last night!).
John stripped the last of the donor parts - the rest of the loom, the master cylinders and the gear change. I acquired some miscellaneous parts from a scrap Fiat Coupe and a Mondeo. Now we can make a bit of room in the workshop and get cracking. Hopefully I'll get to collect my reconditioned Cortina Hubs this week and work can begin on the suspension.

More progress

It's been a busy week. While John removed the wiring loom/ECU, steering column etc. from the Fiesta, I continued to make the secone engine mount. I also had a busy e-bay week, securing an escort steering column and some track rod ends, and some Fiat Coupe back lights from a friend. Tonight, the fuel pump was removed from the donor - just the pedals and hydraulics to go. Here are the pictures of progress so far

Engine Mounts...

Spent some time this evening aligning the engine within the chassis - took a while to get it perfectly square. Then fabricated the right engine mount and tack welded it in position. Photos to follow...

Progress again

Decided to junk the subframe from the donor car. After a little work, it was off - when we tried to move it we discovered that it was bl***y heavy - good decision I think! The rear of the car was the next part to be fabricated and welded on - looks great. A day at the Donington show yielded lots of useful info chatting to people, and lots of goodies from the various stands, although my plans to buy suspension brackets from MK were foiled - they forgot them! This evening has seen the creation of the strut brackets and part of the engine mounts. All in all, a good weeks work!

Stripping the donor car - again

The new donor car has been delivered - a 1996 Fiesta 1.25. Stripping this car was much easier than the Rover. After an hour and a half, all the under bonnet connections were undone. Removal of the subframe mounting bolts was east, it was then a case of removing the engine mounts and the strut top mounts. A minor delay occured whilst searching for an 18mm ring spanner - remarkably elusive!!! The engine was then lowered onto a low trolley under the car. The front of the car was then lifted on the engine hoist and the tiny, all aluminium engine and gearbox wheeled out. The engine is now resting in the chassis awaiting construction of the engine and suspension mounts, while the donor car awaits the removal of all the ancillaries to make the engine run. Photos to follow...

Top Tip Three-Measure Twice, cut once...

I wanna tell you a story....
When the build began, I understood that Mini's and Metro's had a 4"PCD (diagonal distance between wheel studs). When I was offered the Rover, I measured the PCD - 4" - great, I'll use Metro front hubs.
I duly sourced front hubs from a low mileage Rover Metro, put them in the corner of the workshop and forgot about them....
Big Mistake!!!!
A chance conversation with a 'Font of automotive knowledge' (whose Mastermind specialist subject is 'PCD's from 1872 to the present day') set me on edge. To the workshop.....

What we found:

1. The 'Rover' Metro uses a PCD of 95.6mm, unlike its A series predecessor.
2. the Rover 200/400 uses a PCD of 100mm, not 4" (101.6mm).

So nothing fits anything. B****x.

After long deliberation of the options, the difficult decision to ditch the Rover was made. Using a Rover Metro front subframe at the back was briefly considered but with the future supply of Rover parts in the balance, Uncle Henry's parts bin called.

The local tame scrappy is very keen to use my engine in his Banger racing car, so has offered me a deal on a Zetec-s engined Fiesta 1.25. This is a light, revvy engine that will fit in the chassis with no modifications. It also allows the use of standard 'Locost' suspension with Cortina Hubs at the front.

Stay tuned for 'Stripping the Donor part deux'...........

Catch up on the build so far

Building the Space frame

Step 1 was to purchase a sheet of 18mm MDF to use as a jig for the frames. The upper and lower planform were marked and holes drilled either side to accept a length of threaded rod. The cut tubes were put in place and clamped to the board using offcuts of plywood. This ensured that there was no distortion during the welding process. We then spent some time learning to weld, and here is the first Top Tip – MiG welding works MUCH better if you have gas in the bottle……..nuff said?


The top and bottom frames were then accurately positioned using a precision jig and the corner uprights cut to fit. Some time was spent ensuring an accurate fit prior to welding. As this was the first angled weld, a test piece was welded first – eventually with good results. However, when I tried on the chassis, it was awful! Nothing for it but to grind it off and start again. And again…Returning home in a foul mood, I kicked the cat and went to bed. Next day, same settings, nothing changed produced decent results. Doh!


After the considerable effort cutting the uprights, for the diagonals we used a long length of paper to prototype the tube. This was wrapped around the tube then marked and cut. This gave excellent results with a good fit virtually straight away. Top Tip Two – Paper is SO much easier to cut than steel!

This is what we are building!

Here is a quick picture of a MODEL of the Mistrale. It is not a full size car on giant slabs!

Stripping the Donor Car

The donor car was a 1990 Rover 416GTi that was purchased from a friend for the princely sum of £10. It had failed its MoT because of a small area of rust next to a suspension mount - no problem to fix once removed from the car! Other that this, the car had had much attention and money lavished upon it including nearly new back brakes.


The first evening was a bit like a feeding frenzy. With the help of two friends, most of the under bonnet connections were undone, along with the front crossmember - all of this taking about an hour. We decided to strip the car outside to ease disposal of the bodyworf once it had no wheels. On the second night, working alone, I disconnected the steering column, pedals and gearchange - again about an hour before the light faded. On the final night, a friend helped lift the front of the car with an engine hoist, and prop it up. A trolley was then wheeled under the engine and gear box. The final mounts were undone and the car lifted off the engine/trolley assembly!



We then returned to remove various other parts from the car. The back axle and rear uprights were removed as a complete unit - in case anything proved useful! Next followed the fuel tank, filller neck and the remains of the exhaust. The wiring loom followed after a very hot evening of work and finally, an angle grinder was taken to remove the thick walled bushed that the two fornt cross members bolted into. The full leather interior had already been removed and has been put aside - if it is not used, e-bay calls!