Bruce's Exocet Build

[bruciebonus41]

Been a bit (very) lax on updating this, but a fair bit of progress has been made.

First up was the brakes, all looking a little tired. Purchased caliper refurb kits will all new seals/pistons, and found a great YouTube tutorial for the tear down/rebuild process, especially the rears which are fiddly- if it helps anyone.

Primed



Painted



Also, decided at this point to give the hubs a clean up and quick paint

Before 




After




Onto cutting the banana bars, I wanted to keep as much of the original control arm as possible to marked out and out came the dremel.



And onto the car, at this point I still wasn't sure what suspension I was getting so was hoping I'd done enough and wouldn't need to cut any more.




Next up was fitting the wing stays, no drama here, and after lining everything up I decided to take Stewarts advice and bin off the ABS, so out came the chisel to take the ABS rings off the hub.



Can anyone also spot the complete noob error I made with the caliper here?
.
.
.
.
.
.

I put the rears on the wrong sides  

[bruciebonus41]

Next up I gave the pedals a clean and paint, and made the hole for the throttle cable, all in and fitting nicely






Time to turn my attention to running the brake lines, I'd never done flaring before, and after a good few (loads) of practice runs I had it sorted. Rear lines run with copper- but then I ran out. I ordered a set of fully braided hoses for the front and the flex lines for the rear. As I was removing the ABS, rather than change the MC I've used a second T-Piece for the front lines, held in place with a modified bracket.







Rear lines are now fully secured in place, and while the fronts have been run, I'm going to wait until the footwells are in place in case I damage them in the process of fitting those.

Lines are bled, and no leaks from my flares! Interesting to learn a new skill, but next time I would just fun fully braided the whole way through and save myself the hassle/time.

[bruciebonus41]

Time to order some suspension. After a lot of debating/reading/peer pressure/soul searching I decided to take the plunge and order a set of Meister R Zeta CRDs. As I'll be using the car for both road and track days I'm telling myself I'll be using the full adjustment options at one time or another 




I had an issue fitting one of the rears, where the captive nut broke off within the control arm as I began to tighten the bolt. Out came the dremel to make the hole slightly larger to I could fit a new nut and hold it with a spanner- took a few attempts to keep everything in place, but when the bolt started biting it was all good.



Rest of the coilovers in and looking very pretty if I say so myself



Rear (complete with calipers on the right side now)



Felt good to see the end of the wooden block suspension I'd had before

[bruciebonus41]

Time to look at the radiator, I was torn between the colour to paint the MEV brackets, so decided to go with black on the outside and orange on the inside, which looked awesome when painted





Bought a new Mk1 aluminium radiator and after a test fit, I'll need to adjust the bolt holes on the radiator brackets as the new rad seems to be about 5mm too long




And here is the current state of the car, I have a few things to buy before taking a much needed week off work in July to really crack on with a lot more.

[stuli]

Would seriously consider test fitting bonnet before signing off the radiator placement and fit. I had to modify the brackets a lot to make it fit tighter to the chassis and clear the hood on both sides and the top.

[bruciebonus41]

Thanks for the heads up, I've mounted them as low as I possibly could to begin with, but will get it all test fitted when I'm sorting out the mounting points prior to tightening it all down.

[hutchey]

Jun 15, 2020 10:21:12 GMT bruciebonus41 said:

Been a bit (very) lax on updating this, but a fair bit of progress has been made.

First up was the brakes, all looking a little tired. Purchased caliper refurb kits will all new seals/pistons, and found a great YouTube tutorial for the tear down/rebuild process, especially the rears which are fiddly- if it helps anyone.

Primed



Painted



Also, decided at this point to give the hubs a clean up and quick paint

Before 




After




Onto cutting the banana bars, I wanted to keep as much of the original control arm as possible to marked out and out came the dremel.



And onto the car, at this point I still wasn't sure what suspension I was getting so was hoping I'd done enough and wouldn't need to cut any more.


Hi, you'll need to cut the end off the subframe too - the bit nearest the banana.




Next up was fitting the wing stays, no drama here, and after lining everything up I decided to take Stewarts advice and bin off the ABS, so out came the chisel to take the ABS rings off the hub. 


You'll very likely need to extend these bars now and most likely raise the cycle wing supports higher to clear the tyres.



Can anyone also spot the complete noob error I made with the caliper here?
.
.
.
.
.
.

I put the rears on the wrong sides  


We've al done something silly.

[hutchey]

Jun 15, 2020 10:36:17 GMT bruciebonus41 said:

Next up I gave the pedals a clean and paint, and made the hole for the throttle cable, all in and fitting nicely


You might need to cut the tabs off the back of the pedals and put them on the other side of the bulkhead - loads of owners have had to do this and the manual says to do it. You might have issues with the clutch and clearance etc later.






Time to turn my attention to running the brake lines, I'd never done flaring before, and after a good few (loads) of practice runs I had it sorted. Rear lines run with copper- but then I ran out. I ordered a set of fully braided hoses for the front and the flex lines for the rear. As I was removing the ABS, rather than change the MC I've used a second T-Piece for the front lines, held in place with a modified bracket.


Remember that IVA says the clips must be no further apart than 30cm for fuel and brakes. It's also a good idea to keep the same for the loom and all electrical wires and pipes too.

Your fuel pipe - is it from ebay? If so then bin it off now! Get marine grade stuff! There have been too many instances of these alleged SAE ones cracking and pissing fuel out, already seen one Exocet go up in flames first drive out. Plus there were other kit cars this year gone up too. 

Your T piece needs moved - looks like pipes touch here and that's an IVA fail on brakes and fuel.


Rear lines need more clips







Rear lines are now fully secured in place, and while the fronts have been run, I'm going to wait until the footwells are in place in case I damage them in the process of fitting those.

Lines are bled, and no leaks from my flares! Interesting to learn a new skill, but next time I would just fun fully braided the whole way through and save myself the hassle/time.

[hutchey]

@ Bruciebonus - You are cracking on well - good to see.
I've added a fat few comments to help you out.

[bruciebonus41]

Cheers Hutchey, so to comment on your comments:

I can't see any clearance issues now the suspension is in, plenty of room where nothing will knock so I don't think I'll need to touch the subframe. There was still a fair bit of wiggle room where I could have moved the banana back even further- as in towards the subframe.

Thanks for the heads up on the pedals, I wasn't sure if it was something required for all models or not, I'll sort that.

Fuel line is from Demon Tweeks, I'd seen others comment on cheap hoses so I didn't take any chances.

Regarding the T-Piece on the back, I'll take a second look but I'm pretty sure theres clearance on all sides, coming up on to the subframe there's more of a curve than the pic suggests, will also chuck a couple more P-clips in

Appreciate the advice buddy.

[bruciebonus41]

Morning all, quick question on the panels/trans tunnel guys. I attempted cutting and fitting the pass and driver side footwells at the weekend and to say I screwed it up is an understatement. I've made a cardboard template based on the cutout that Craig from here/Facebook sent me and I'm going to be making a 1 piece panel- new sheet gets delivered this week, so I've treated the ones that came with the kit as a practice run.

Any tips/tricks that you can share with me would be massively appreciated, I've cut the hole for the trans tunnel successfully and that all lines up now.

Cheers

[hutchey]

Jun 22, 2020 9:17:23 GMT bruciebonus41 said:

Morning all, quick question on the panels/trans tunnel guys. I attempted cutting and fitting the pass and driver side footwells at the weekend and to say I screwed it up is an understatement. I've made a cardboard template based on the cutout that Craig from here/Facebook sent me and I'm going to be making a 1 piece panel- new sheet gets delivered this week, so I've treated the ones that came with the kit as a practice run.

Any tips/tricks that you can share with me would be massively appreciated, I've cut the hole for the trans tunnel successfully and that all lines up now.

Cheers


Yeah, make sure you cut your holes for loom and all the bits you need while it's off, any pre-drilling for mounting to frame too so it's all easier to assemble.

[russhowell]

If you have not yet fitted wiring tray then cut some u shaped holes in the flange\upright facing the engine bay. You can lay your harness through these U shapes and then offer the whole tray up.

Now you have nice neat wiring from engine bay to tray without having to go over the top, or make massive holes to fit fuses through etc etc.

[bruciebonus41]

Thanks guys, Russ I hadn't considered that, looks very tidy 

[camspeed]

Please can you give me the part number on the coilover springs? I want to order some, it should be easily seen in print on each spring. cheers John