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Post by daydreamer on Nov 16, 2020 18:34:10 GMT
Hi Alison,
The rear bulk head is key. everything is aligned to it, without fitting it first there will be a lot of issues.
I'll send you a PM with my number if you want to talk it through, I'm happy to do that.
The key to linking everything is as follows.
0 - Do not fit roll bar yet - do that last. 1 - Fit rear bulkhead. 2 - fit side panels , side panel engine cover supports must line up exactly to top of bulkhead.
Regards
Daydreamer
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Post by daydreamer on Nov 16, 2020 18:50:33 GMT
This picture shows, top right and top left , how the folded top of the rear bulkhead aligns with the engine cover support flanges on the side pods.
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Post by buildityourself on Nov 16, 2020 18:56:59 GMT
No Problem, its an expensive 3d puzzle that you don't want to get wrong. In your picture Thanks for the warning! Our alloy panel is to the rear of right of the pink panel. You will need to cut the front of the dash off as you have seen on others as this is to let the air out from the radiator (so the bonnet does n't blow off?). In our final position the front upright overhung the chassis at the front by approx 5-10mm which is what we cut off. This is very different to the early cars as they have an extra plate to support dash behind the chassis, as below. I don't fully undertand the changes as the rear panel/engine bulkhead seem to be in the same place but the EKC kits have improved the dash mounting by moving the body forward, and updating the suspension hole locations (from the original scribes in the side pods). I don't believe your roof joining dash to the rear should make any difference to the side pod positioning. The dash location is dictated by the bonnet and grill positions. The rear engine cover is dictated by the rear panel. When the roof molds were made they would have been taken off an assembled car with these position dictated. They will either be correct or not, but won't be something that can be adjusted? Summary I think your measurement will end up the same. Hold the rear panel on too as this sits in line with the chassis, it can't go any further forward because of it, and this should confirm correct positioning of the side pods, then check out the dash/engine cover and roof. Good luck, I really should be updating our build thread....
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Post by daydreamer on Nov 16, 2020 19:00:56 GMT
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Post by alison on Mar 3, 2021 9:45:51 GMT
Some progress on my build to report. Last time I posted we were confused about how far forward/back to put various panels but with help from other builders we felt confident enough to have a go. The car is made up of three parts - the "normal" sonic minus the engine cover, the roof and B-pillar as per the original "sonic with a roof and a windscreen", and the brand new rear sloping back that Angus designed. Obviously if you're not building a sonic with a full roof this won't be of interest but I'm adding it in case it helps any future builders. In the end we ignored the holes cut in the side pods for the suspension, and decided that the B-pillar fixing to the rear aluminium bulkhead was the fixed point to start from. We stuck the B-pillar, roof, A-pillar, windscreen and dash together with duct tape propped up on piles of books so as to get them to connect together with the windscreen fitting properly - this involved cutting/filing a bit off the ends of the A Pillar. We picked it all up as a unit and fitted it to the car. We made sure the side pods weren't forced apart by the chassis so that we could still fit the front grille, and that the scuttle rested on the chassis in the right place (front edge not overhanging the chassis). We did get the front of the bonnet to line up pretty well with the side pods and the dash. The windscreen fits beautifully. I've got to the point of not worrying any more if we did that lot right, as we've bolted most of it on now and I've no desire to move any of it unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm just concentrating on getting the B-Pillar vs sloping rear to fit. I've been reluctant to shave anything off the bottom of the sloping rear as the sides of it curl under at the bottom to make it stronger where it fits in the grooves in the side pods, but it's too high where it meets the B-pillar so something has to give. You may be able to see here that the -pillar needs to tilt forwards to align along the bottom, and the sloping read looks as though it too needs to tilt forward/drop down.
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Post by alison on Mar 3, 2021 10:16:50 GMT
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Post by alison on Apr 28, 2021 18:52:38 GMT
We've now fixed on all the panels. The idea is to fix the permanently (hopefully) and not keep taking them on and off, partly as we don't have anywhere to store them all. This is how the dash now looks from underneath: Apart from the dash we made small pieces of aluminium to spread the load when bolting bits of bodywork together. This is the B Pillar at the back This is the roof This is the front grille We also used a strip of aluminium where we screwed the side pods along the bottom We used these We wanted to put the side pods on and ideally not take them off again but we will at some point need to get the fuel pipe and the wiring down the sides. We've put a couple of bits of pipe down each side, firmly tie-wrapped on, with string for pulling things through. Hoping the sides can stay on. It looks a bit strange but hoping it works. If not the sides will still have to come off again at some point. Happy with the panels now. Still some work to do at some point to waterproof the joints.
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Post by alison on Apr 28, 2021 21:19:42 GMT
Next we had a look at the Rally Designs Cortina aluminium uprights RCV02. We found this guide on the internet which was helpful. rocket2kitcar.blogspot.com/2018/12/assembling-rally-designs-forged-front.html?m=1 In the end we had one washer and one top hat shaped bit left. The washer was used on the large main central bolt in the guide, but with the replacement bolt ours goes through the wheel arch support and ends up with slightly less thread than the original bolt, so we haven't used the washer. The top hat bit seems to be a spare - two identical bits that fit in the steering arm. The wheel arch supports are handed so we just held them up and decided by eye which to put on which side.
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Post by alison on Apr 28, 2021 21:31:52 GMT
The wheel arch support didn't hve enough room on the back to get a socket on the large central bolt. So we filed it a bit. The front face of the wheel arch support wasn't flat. With the large central bolt tightened the other two bolts were going to have gaps. Thanks to the Facebook group for suggestions. In the end we decided to sand them flat and then paint them with Hamerite. I used some coarse grit disks on the angle grinder and the orbital sander. We then needed to open up the holes as they weren't quite lined up so the bolts wouldn't go in more than a couple of threads. Having done that we were ready to assemble everything.
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Post by alison on Apr 28, 2021 21:53:14 GMT
Next we fitted the bearings. We tried knocking it in with a suitable sized socket but it didn't go all that smoothly and ended up wonky so we knocked it out and started again. This time we put the bearing housing in the freezer and the front hub in the oven at 100 degrees. We carried it outside with the oven gloves and dropped the bearing housing in. It dropped straight in to the correct place. A quick check that it was home tapping it with a screwdriver. The bearing in this picture is a lovely fit on the spigot which means it can be taken on and off as needed. Putting the brake caliper on (Wilwood Powerlite) we found that the pads weren't central. This means we need the 1mm shim washer that comes with the RCV02 kit. This isn't a perfect fit on the spigot as the ID is a bit small but I checked with Rally Designs and it should squash down to fit when it's all tightened up. The brake calipers weren't the right distance out so the brakes would have been off the edge of the disks. The details about the Wilwood calipers said they would fit 265mm disks and the calipers had come with some 16mm spacers. These were too large, but it wouldn't fit round the disk without them either. Rally Designs have said we need 10mm ones instead, so sorting that out. Once we have those we should hopefully be able to refit it all with the appropriate grease, locktite and torques.
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