The Rocket ST159

[Paul (madeye)]

they are 'R' clips, they are not meant to push through.
I personally would seriously think about new rear hoses. the rubber perishes over the years, the contents of brake fluid is corrosive, when they degrade they expand under pressure, contributing to poor feel and splitting/failure.
Again pauls opinion, but remember it the brakes or the wall.

[Deleted]

Can't get the photos on this crappy hotel wifi.

I assume we haven't mixed braided lines with rubber too?

[sandancer73]

I bought a set of standard E21 pads but returned them as the compound was too thick. 13 mm rings bell. I ended up buying from RTR. Did you get the anti-rattle spring supplied with yours?

[casesensitive]

paul (madeye): I'll buy proper flexi pipes when I'm getting all the other bits the donor ones partly to keep muck and metal dust out of the calipers and partly so I know where everything goes :-) Cheers on the 'R' clips, another new term for my taxonomy to store away.

steve: for the moment, just the old donor flexi lines. Planning to reuse the donor copper (I have two full-sized cars' worth of it in the yard) if it can be done, and get a pipe flaring kit to make up my own lines.

sandancer73 I got those from RTR, I'll measure them if I'm having them out again, but they were certainly 13mm thick, if not more. I did get a little pack of spring clips with the calipers rather than the pads. The fit is snug, certainly some rolling resistance, but hubs can be rotated with one hand. Rears are much tighter, I think I may have issues there, between donor discs and pads, which will be replaced before it goes anywhere near a road or track. Once the protective coating comes off the discs they corrode quickly, and until she's rolling I can't easily 'scrub' them. Using same brand of disc (MTEC) on my daily driver, and if I don't drive it for 2/3 weeks they go orange.

[sandancer73]

Thanks for the info, I will contact RTR for the missing clips.

[mawdo81]

Jun 10, 2014 7:26:20 GMT casesensitive said:

And all put together, somehow I only have 1 blurry photo:

The lugs vertically above the hub with the holes parallel to the axel, are these the calliper mounting points for the donor rear brakes?

What are they used for on the rocket and would it be the same on a sonic please?

I've had trouble with getting my donor callipers off, and thinking I didn't need these I've cut through the lug with the angle grinder... Is that going to be an issue?


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[Froggy]

Those two holes on the hub are for the wing stays mate, offer them up and you will see, you will possibly also need to space them slightly too so the wing stays dont rub on the wall of the tyres. The only calipers off the donor that you can use are rear calipers which then go on the rear of the rocket, the front focus calipers can not be used with the kit unless you made all your own spacers etc, dont know of anyone thats done it so it mustnt be worth the effort. hope this helps anyway. make sure to look through other build diaries as you can often find answers just by seeing others cars and pics, and theres some great diaries on here too.
wayne.

[casesensitive]

Jun 18, 2014 18:47:32 GMT mawdo81 said:

The lugs vertically above the hub with the holes parallel to the axel, are these the calliper mounting points for the donor rear brakes?

What are they used for on the rocket and would it be the same on a sonic please?

I've had trouble with getting my donor callipers off, and thinking I didn't need these I've cut through the lug with the angle grinder... Is that going to be an issue?

Hopefully I'm reading that wrong and you've cut the donor somewhere and not the RTR-supplied wing stay bracket :-O

free has a good picture of how they attach here, and I he's also managed to create a bracket/spacer that allows the Focus ST170 front brakes to be used. I ended up selling mine and buying the Hispec ones, which ultimately I'll be happier with, but will cost a good deal more.

[mawdo81]

Thanks both. I'm yet to get my kit so no damage to the wing stays. I had looked through other build diaries but it wasn't clear and given that you've just done this thought you'd know the answer.

Looks likei have an extra Weld to do!

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[casesensitive]

Front grille

Not much project time this weekend, daily driver making me jump through hoops to keep the CEL off, so I thought I'd tackle an 'easy' job, the front grille. An hour or two, surely?
Ha…

I traced around the piece of diamond perf RTR provided onto cardboard, and roughly wedged it in place, marking the bend points. I fit and refit it a rake of times; marking and cutting more off each time with a box cutter. Yep, that's a slab of concrete.  





I used the 'final' version to make a second cardboard template, and when I was happy with how it fit, onto the perf sheet.



Made a bending rig out of some 2x6 and a slip of 3/4" I had knocking around, held with screws.



The edges were pretty ropey, as I cut it with a tin snips, so I wedged the line into the bending jig, put it in a vice, and used a flapper disc to make a decent edge.  If I did this again, I'd sort the edges out before I bent it. Learn from my haste.



Made a small one for the other bits.



Edges are a little better now.



Final-ish fit. Will order some thin IVA-trim to edge this, the stuff I have is too thick. Drilled 6 holes and rivnutted, M5 screws with washers to hold perf in place.

[casesensitive]

Jun 10, 2014 20:50:18 GMT sandancer73 said:

I bought a set of standard E21 pads but returned them as the compound was too thick. 13 mm rings bell. I ended up buying from RTR. Did you get the anti-rattle spring supplied with yours?

Measured them today, looks like 14.5mm, and they do catch very slightly, the gap between pads with pistons fully open is 11.4mm, the disc is 10mm thick! Rears are catching a little too, so when I rolled it up the drive today they definitely caught.

Should I grind 0.5mm off my brand new pads? The rolling resistance could be a problem when I put the engine in, it'd be an awful shame to be unable to get it back in the garage when the weight doubles!

[casesensitive]

On all fours

Finally got the chassis off the pallet-platform and axle stands on onto its own wheels today, which was a big moment. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember why I didn't just drop it right on the axle stands once I had the floors on..



Took my little brother for an 8ft spin down the drive, and back up again.

[casesensitive]

Geometry

I pretty much knew I was going to struggle with this..

Where are people putting the washers? I followed Mark's guide, putting 3x 2.5mm washers at the back of the wishbones, and 1 in front.







And for the steering rack, I wound the rod ends all the way up as far as they would go. But I'm still toe-ing out, and I *think* it's not even, if that's even possible, the nearside is out further than than the off.

In terms of camber, do you set it up with the weight taken by axle stands and the wheels off? when the weight comes down on the wheels, isn't it going to change quite a bit?
I didn't do a wild lot with the coilovers either.

[casesensitive]

Been nearly 2 months since I updated this. Moving house and subsequent legal action against previous landlord, all done now thank fook.
After so long away, I took on something I've been dreading; there was no fixing my front bulkhead, I had to admit it was only good to serve as a template for a new one. Whole job took about 6 hours, compared to 3 Sundays the first two took. Third time's a charm!


I can't remember who told me to ditch the fancy tools and stick to a drill and some files, but they were right. Jigsaw and 3 followed by 6mm drill bits, tidied up with a flat file and all my manky old edges were replaced with neat little boxes exactly the right size for the protruding chassis part.  

Marked out the bit the pipes go through, 190x110mm, 20mm flaps, scoring heavily with a knife. Cut out the inner rectangle, cut along diagonal bisectors.






Using f-clamps from Lidl, the edge of the bench and a big rubber persuader, I folded down the edges. These'll fold into the inner tunnel and hopefully prevent a gap.



Bit of a PITA this, lined the pedal box up, holding in place with 2 g-clamps, 4x12mm tall spacers made of 8mm ID, 12mm OD stainless tube spacing it from the chassis mounts.



Got a very decent fit first time. Slightly widened the drill holes with a round file at the bottom to allow the pedal box to pivot a few degrees up on second go.



Punch, 3mm drill, then 6, 30mm holesaw (broke on 3rd hole!), and then file out to 40mm with a half-round file. Very snug fit on the rubber parts of the MCs.



Got to make a hole for the steering column yet, but MKI and MKII bulkheads are already just right, so it should be handy enough.
Only part I'm not looking forward to now is drilling the dozen or so holes to land *exactly* where the rivnuts are.





Good to be back.

[casesensitive]

This weekend was mostly about tidying up, losing a lot of my storage space soon, so old bumper and timber and nearly all my random scrap had to go. Got to cut up the remainder of the Focus for weight yet too, that'll be fun

Much happier with front bulkhead, and the cut for the spherical bearing went in without much drama.
The holes for the M5 nuts though, jeez.

If you haven't done this bit yet, for the love of god don't drill these holes until you're not going to take it back out again, or only drill a few. Having had to remake the panel after drilling through it into the chassis, and rather than measure them by any scientific method, I drilled where there was an appropriate space to stick one, I'm left with a very irregular (and therefore not predictable) layout of holes to match up.
Not 100% happy with it yet, but the general gist was that I used the old template to mark the new one (they're not even identical around the outside!), drilling 3mm holes to 'sight' the rivnuts.

With the panel clamped in place, I drew around the edges of the 3mm holes with a red sharpie where the holes needed to go. It's a WIP, and one or two were pretty wildly off, but it is now in place and doesn't rattle, particularly with the pedal box providing another mounting surface.