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Post by buildityourself on Jun 12, 2020 19:55:33 GMT
Light SwitchThe Focus light switch can't be reused as without front fog lights it will cause an IVA failure as the rear fog light can be switched on with just the side lights on. Plus its a huge thing with headlight level adjuster and dash dimmer that would look out of place. I did a bit of research and found a Mondeo Mk2 light switch that only has the rear fog light rather than fronts aswell. When I got the switch I found out that this too allows the rear fog light on in the side light position. After checking the pins I found that I could power the fog light switch from the dipped beam output meaning that while the switch could be pulled out in the side light position the fog light would not come on unless the dipped lights are switched on. Feeling smug this was wired up and tested with a multi meter and seemed to work as expect. We set about marking and cutting out the dashboard for the switch. Initially thought that removing the knob would allow a small hole to be drilled but the extra thickness of the fibreglass would mean that the knob would not latch on. The plan was changed to open the hole out to show the full black dial with symbols. I even made up a complex (by my abilities) alloy bracket to hold the switch to the dash. At this point with it all done I came across the original fog light so we connected it up to see it all working. Unfortunately this is where it went a bit wrong. With the load of the bulb connected it caused the field in the dipped relay to collapse causing the relay to chatter on and off repeatedly. I considered whether a diode would solve this or to use a relay to switch the fog light. I was about to embark on the relay option but decided to have a look online wider than Ford switches and found a VAG switch that functioned as originally wanted. This is from a Polo, but also on a Passat and T5. its part number is 6q0941531b The only issue was having drilled the hole I didn't know if the new switch was smaller. Luckily it was a few millimetres bigger so a bit of filing and it was sorted. After an evening of reverse engineering the pin out it was later wired in and tested. All now working perfectly! I even found a guttering adapter in the garage that was the perfect diameter to work as a fixing sleeve for the switch tabs.
This all took a lot longer than originally anticipated but was a good learning experience.
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Post by stevew on Jun 13, 2020 9:15:25 GMT
Stu, do you have to physically turn the rear fog light off when switching off the headlights so that when you switch them on again the fog light doesn't come on? That is a requirement for IVA.
Cheers Steve
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Post by stevew on Jun 13, 2020 14:35:23 GMT
Also forgot to say, rear fog light should not come on again if the ignition is switched off and back on. Obviously this is usually when the headlights are wired to go off with the ignition.
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Post by buildityourself on Jun 13, 2020 17:42:47 GMT
Yes, that was one of the requirements of the switch which I why I stuck to an OEM one. When you turn the headlights off it pulls the switch in turning the fog light off. I didn't know about the preventing it switching back on though so will need to check that. Does that apply if you have left the lights on?
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Post by buildityourself on Jun 13, 2020 17:47:51 GMT
Exhaust ManifoldI bought a shiny cheap Fiesta sports CAT manifold 18 months ago to avoid having to fabricate the Focus manifold as the packing is different. This was checked on the engine at the time and it seemed to fit as shown below. However having now temporarily fitted the drive shafts we found that the manifold collided with the shaft as shown below. I contacted the supplier and after a few emails and photos, they just said we don't do them anymore so can't help!! As the engine/gearbox in the Fiestas is the same, I'm pretty sure these were Friday afternoon / apprentice efforts. Unable to find any other alternatives I decided to try to resolve and work around the issue by spacing out the manifold from the head. First attempt was buying a Zetec SE exhaust manifold flange from Kits Spares (GBS), but these have round ports which is not correct for the SE which has oval ports. Annoyingly after months of adverts I had just sold the donor manifold and scrap yards wanted a lot more for a replacement so I purchased a NEW Focus after market manifold for £30! to use the flange as a spacer. This was cut off with a grinder. A friend cleaned up the face with a mill to ensure it was flat. I started blending the ports from the head to the larger manifold. Fitted to check. Final fitting with now >5mm clearance on the driveshaft. Problem solved, although now even less room for the actual exhaust.
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Post by stevew on Jun 13, 2020 18:15:57 GMT
Yes, that was one of the requirements of the switch which I why I stuck to an OEM one. When you turn the headlights off it pulls the switch in turning the fog light off. I didn't know about the preventing it switching back on though so will need to check that. Does that apply if you have left the lights on? If you leave the light in the switched on position and turn them off with the ignition, then when the ignition is switched on the rear fog light must not come on. Presumably if the lights do not go off with the ignition (and potentially run down the battery) it wouldn't matter if the fog light stays on, but I'm not sure. Cheers Steve
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Post by buildityourself on Jun 17, 2020 21:01:43 GMT
Coolant reservoir
To mount the Focus reservoir meant a couple of bracket had to be made. This was to mount to a chassis rail to hold the tank high. The more complex of the 2 after 1/2 day in the sunny garden. After mounting I noticed that the cap was a bit higher than the engine, and after checking it seemed that this might have clearance issues with the engine cover. Positioning components on the chassis is one of the trickest parts of the build when you don't know where the body panels exactly sit as there is little correlation between the two. It would be really useful to have some box dimensions from the chassis to know the constraints. Lowering the tank where it was would have restricted access more, so it was moved and new brackets were needed. This required much more complex brackets due to the angles and available mounting points. Even added some curved edges to avoid sharp edges when later working on the car and added some speed holes. Test fitted to the gearbox mount. First pic shows the second original bracket in the middle. Powder coated the finished brackets. All fitted and finished. :-)
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Post by familyguy on Jun 18, 2020 20:31:56 GMT
Yes, that was one of the requirements of the switch which I why I stuck to an OEM one. When you turn the headlights off it pulls the switch in turning the fog light off. I didn't know about the preventing it switching back on though so will need to check that. Does that apply if you have left the lights on? If you leave the light in the switched on position and turn them off with the ignition, then when the ignition is switched on the rear fog light must not come on. Presumably if the lights do not go off with the ignition (and potentially run down the battery) it wouldn't matter if the fog light stays on, but I'm not sure. Cheers Steve Providing the rear fog light only illuminates with the main / dip beams and not with side lights only there is no need for the fog light to self cancel. If the fog light can be illuminated with the side lights only then it must auto cancel. I have an email from the DVSA to confirm this as I had heard that some IVA inspectors were asking for this requirement when others had said different.
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Post by buildityourself on Jul 17, 2020 20:25:25 GMT
Clutch HoseOriginally we had intended on removing the Focus hardline from the alloy fitting and fitting a flexi hose directly into the alloy fitting. However when we broke the donor, the hardline union would undo but not come out from the fitting. After reading other builders threads, it seems that when originally tightened at Ford the internal flare grows so big its too big to come out the threaded hole. There is no easy way to get it out without damaging the thread. With this knowledge we reverted to a plan B. This was to use the original hose and change the union on the other end. This became more complicated after cutting the pipe as only then did we realise that the clutch pipe is 6mm (1/4") not 4.75mm (3/16") like the brake fittings. To solve this a M12 6mm male union was bought along with a Brass Brake Union M10x1 Male to M12x1 Female. The shortened hose looked like this. After connecting up the master cylinder line and hose to a separate fluid reservior (new bracket made as the supplied one wasn't suitable) it was filled with fluid and bled. ALL the home flared fittings and adapters were fine!, but the original Ford line into the alloy fitting would not stop weaping when under pressure. I kept tightening this slightly until it eventually made it worse and destroyed the fitting. Hours were spent fruitlessly googling for replacement ford alloy fittings. However one ford forum thread hinted at a company called Proline. After more googling I found their website and that they did replacement hoses for various Ford clutches. 1.6 zetec se hose1.8 zetec hoseUnfortunately these have a special fitting on both ends which we don't use the pedal end. However after speaking to Joshua @proline it turns out that they actually make the hoses so can do custom versions. I ordered one with the IB5 end and a male M10 fitting at the other. This would remove the alloy ford fitting and the adapter/union from the previous attempt. Due to Covid19 this took a few weeks to get the parts for the hose, but once available was made and arrived within days. This was duely fitted and after feeling understandably a bit cautious over further tightening the connection to the hardline eventually a small weep stopped and we have a working clutch. We had to readjust the pedal positions higher initially as the pedal was hitting the bulkhead before the clutch was engaging. This was extremely difficult to do due to access. Brake booster portAs the vacuum pipe for the brake booster servo is not needed the port in the plastic inlet manifold needs to be plugged. The fitting seems to be similar to a plumbing fitting with a red release collar to lock/remove the pipe. I was thinking of cutting a section of pipe and blocking but crate engines come with a solid piece of plastic blanking the hole. (whether this is temporary shipping/storage protection or for final use is unclear but if it blocks the hole it works! A sample piece of acetal plastic rod was purchased and turned down on a lathe to 12.3mm leaving a lip to grip to aid removal. Then simply pushed into the port.
These should have been fairly simple tasks, but seemed to take up a lot of elapsed time at least.
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Post by buildityourself on Jul 28, 2020 20:53:07 GMT
Lighting loom wiring
Using the Focus loom most of the light wiring remains the same apart from minor layout changes and an important change to the headlight wiring. The Focus has twin bulb headlights so the dipped beam is an individual bulb and the main beam is a separate bulb. When on main beam the main beam is lit in addition to the dipped beam. If using combined twin filament headlights leaving the wiring will overheat the bulb or headlights on the Sonic 7. Luckily this is a simple wiring mod to do. Move GN/BU on lightswitch to unused stalk pin 9 if present. (Note it does mean that if you hold the flash function for long enough you could still cause overheating but should be fine for normal flashing) The wiring was stripped back at the front to allow routing along the chassis, but removing shared earths and unused levelling wires. Old headlight connected up and tested for the 3 functions (indicators separated as they will be separate to the headlights somewhere!) Side position lamp Dipped beam Main beam The rear light wiring again mostly remains the same just some tidying of routing to suit. On the focus there are 2 separate parts to the loom, one (grey connector) that goes to the boot for the high level brake light, number plate lights and one (blue) that goes to the side, brake indicator lights and fog and reversing lights. The wires for the highlevel brake light and number plate lights were moved to spare pins on the blue connector, leaving the rest of the grey connector redundant (could be then stripped out if desired, I've left this for any extra future functions such as engine upgrades etc) Basic routing layed out Mounting for the connector cut down and reused Starting to tidy up after spliting into positions. Testing with the old focus lamps Electric Mirror wiringThe Focus mirror switch is going to be reused so was mounted into the dashboard. This could n't be inline with the lights due to the chassis bar behind the dash. The mirrors are going to be Fiesta mirrors, so the connectors are different and the mirrors have the side repeater bulb also. new connectors were fitted to the loom and tested for the correct function. Drivers Side Pin 1 - heater (brown) - GN/BK Pin 2 - earth (yellow) - BK Pin 5 - motor up/down (red) - BU/RD Pin 6 - motor common (white) - W Pin 7 - motor left/right (green) - YE/BU Pin 8 - side repeater (blue) - (existing repeater wire) Passenger Side Pin 1 - heater (brown) - GN/BK Pin 2 - earth (yellow) - BK Pin 5 - motor left/right (green) - YE/VT Pin 6 - motor common (white) - WH/GN Pin 7 - motor up/down (red) - BU/YE Pin 8 - side repeater (blue) - (existing repeater wire) The pins are labeled on the back 1-4 on the top and 5-8 on the bottom as shown for drivers side mirror.
Power Steering pump wiringAs there is no power steering, the existing pressure switch connector needs to be bridged to ensure that the engine idle speed is correct. If the connector is left open then the ECU will believe the steering is being turned and increase engine RPM.
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Post by buildityourself on Aug 14, 2020 19:49:07 GMT
Steering rack quick rack conversion
Following the recommendation from mawdo81 I decided to upgrade the steering to a quickrack during the build rather than afterwards. This was on the basis that removing/dismantling the rack once the car was finished would be more challenging. A Sierra quickrack shaft and pinion gear kit was purchased. This reduces the steering ratio from 4.3 to 2.7 turns from lock to lock. When it arrived we removed once of the gaitors on the new after market Sierra rack that came as part of the kit package. This was when we noticed that the rack shaft was 25mm not 21mm like the new rack. This temporarily scuppered the plans so the gaiter was refitted and the new rak put aside. After some investigation it appears that there may be different racks depending on engine type etc. A few months later a refurbished Ford rack was won on ebay. This had the same 21mm rack shaft so the conversion was back on. Aftermarket and Ford racks. Interestingly the ford rack was from memory roughly 1kg lighter. Following the steps from this quide we set about the conversion. Quickrack guideTo remove the large hex fitting securing the rack, a tool was made from a nut and piece of angle iron. Once this and the pinion retaining nut/pinon were removed the shaft could be removed. Comparison of the two rack shafts. Inserting the new rack shaft. As a precaution to limit the travel of the rack and provide slight self centring a 22mm valve spring was obtained from a local engine rebuilder. This was cut into 2. Each half fitted to each end of the shaft. The dust cover from the rack was missed so a jam lid was used. The rack was now ready for reattachment.
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Post by buildityourself on Aug 22, 2020 20:05:30 GMT
The Body
The time had come to retrieve the body panels from the rafters in the garage as we were finally ready to fit them. First they were unwrapped from the packing and wrapped in floor protector sheeting as recommended by skyquake . This changed the colour of the panels slightly as the film is bluish. The side, rear and grill panels were then clamped together for 2 purposes. The first was to align the panels and drill the holes for bolting together while off the chassis. The initial tendency was for the panels to pull apart, as the side panels had been lying down for 2 years. The second was to leave it bolted in this position with the engine cover and bonnet fitted for a couple of weeks, to allow the panels to adjust to the new position. Looking good. The next step was to try to fit the drivers side panel, our previous earlier attempt at this had failed as the engine mount prevented easy fitment of the panel, so this time we supported the engine and removed the mount. I'm not sure if this is also a problem on 1.8/2.0 cars or just due to our custom engine mount? We had learnt from a previous attempt that its wise to tape up the fibre glass as it rubs on the chassis and will act as a abrasive against the chassis. Marked up the chassis rail so the edge could be be determined once the panel was fitted. Fitting the side panel
This first appears to be a daunting task due to the size and clam shape, however once you have prepared the above the technique its actually straight forward. I'd read previous guides/advice from other builders on this, however with the EKC kit I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend the following for an easy fit. You will need the following. - 2 additional pairs of hands.
- 3+ wide paint scrapers or similar
Then do the following steps. - With a pair of extra hands holding each end of the panel, you stay on the outside of the middle section.
- Holding the panel vertical slightly rotate it outwards at the bottom and move the panel over the chassis in the cockpit.
- Leaning over the panel with a scraper in each hand slide this under the body flap inside the car.
- Then instruct the pairs of hands to ease the panel downwards using the scrapers to tease the panel over the cockpit chassis at end end working towards the middle with an extra scraper.
- Whilst easying downwards rotate the panel back to the upright position so that the bottom goes over the bottom of the chassis.
- Take a breath!
This picture probably makes the final position clearer. The engine mount was refitted and it looked like this at this stage. The passenger side fitted. We fitted the rear panel to both side panels and then had a head scratching moment as captured here. The side panels did not overlap the bottom chassis bar for fixing the rear. It looks like they were trimmed to short. To solve this a couple of angle brackets were made give a surface to to secure to. We then fitted the engine cover and this cleared all the engine parts easily. Then fitted the bonnet and this is when it highlighted we had previously made a bad assumption. More on this in the next update.
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Post by buildityourself on Sept 2, 2020 20:41:09 GMT
The body continuedWhen we fitted the bonnet it would not fit at the rear as it was coming up 30mm short of the dash/scuttle molding. At first we thought this was due to the side pod fitment, but this is essentially not adjustable as the fore/aft position is determined by the flaps into the cockpit area. We then looked more at the dashboard as this is where we had made 3 assumptions. The dash molding arrived with cut outs on the end which allowed it to sit on the chassis. This was the position we had settled on, expecting to adjust the height and fore/aft position slightly. Reading other build threads and seeing completed cars they all had alloy plates to support the air scoop/rain duct at the front of the dash to the chassis as the molding did not reach the chassis. Ours was sitting on top of the chassis in its position. The original MEV build manual states 6. FIT DASH. From top front corner of grille to top front corner of dash measures 1390mm.Measuring this prior to fitting the bonnet as per the picture in the build manual looked like the assumptions were correct as moving the dash rearwards would get closer to this measurement to the front corner of the dash. Therefore the expectation was that the dash would move rearwards not forwards. You can see that moving the dash forward would be a problem as the brake,clutch reservoir and fusebox had been positioned with the dash in the "most forward position" expected.
This was not a simple problem to resolve as moving the dash forward compresses the available space as it tapers towards the nose. To solve the fuse box, it was flipped around and angled to give better access to the hinged cover. (The lid is actually tapered side to side as well as at the front which helps with the bonnet clearance. We had not noticed this previously until fitted). This meant that the bottom section could also be refitted the way Ford intended. New brackets were made to secure it to the bulkhead. The brake reservoir was more challenging as in a tight spot and an awkward shape. After much head scratching a flat piece of alloy was cut out and folded. Hole drilled for the filler neck. to aid supporting the reservoir as the rear lug on the reservior had to be cut off to clear the side pod. Fixing holes drilled to line up with the existing holes and test fitted. Powder coated complete with a level viewing window. Final fitting. Its close but the cap can be removed ok for servicing. To improve future access to the GEM unit this was moved from below the brake reservoir to on top of the pedal box area. The clutch reservoir was moved forward after a new bracket was fabricated to aid angling the hose as now a shorter run. You can see in this pic that the scoop/air duct comes right to the front of the chassis, in fact some had to be cut off to avoid an overhang. This is about as close clearance under the bonnet as you can get away with. As the dash had moved forward by 30mm it was now touching the chassis cross bar. This meant that the final casulty was the mirror switch as there was no longer room for the switch and the connector behind the dashboard panel. This was able to be mounted to the alloy panel below by flipping the switch vertically (hence the upside down car graphic) to allow the markings to be seen, and help with the connector location. To do this and allow the switch to work the connectors were swapped to reverse the directions. This was a big set back on the build as it caused 3/4 weekends of garage time to correct and get back to fitting the bonnet. This now fits at the rear correctly. Conclusions- Don't base decisions/assumptions on previous builds/cars
- Test fit the body before starting a build to get an understanding of the fitment and available space
- Fit the dash after the body
- The MEV manual description for the dash dimension is not helpful
- The side pods are fitted further forward than early cars. (gap at front of chassis, suspension holes further back)
- Dry builds start to make sense
- Not sure where the 30mm difference went between early and later cars as the rear bulkhead/engine section seem to be the same.
I recommend a new more useful dash position location when fitting components prior to the body. The dash is located 1120 from the rear bulkhead measuring along the chassis/sidepod to the first top edge of the dash.Now the next stage is to secure the side pods more permanently. A future problem is where any securing mounts/brackets for the bonnet could be fitted.
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Post by buildityourself on Sept 8, 2020 20:12:32 GMT
Side pod fixingsNow the all the panels were aligned on the chassis the side pod fixing could be undertaken. First a protector sheet was stuck to the floor and interior panels and the chassis position was marked with a very useful white tyre lettering pen (£1.59 delivered next day on ebay!). I marked 80mm not to drill to but to help measure from incase the GRP covered the 40mm mark. It didn't. Instead of fixing with bolts with washers to spread the load onto the GRP panel, some 25mm x 1 metre lengths of alloy strip were purchased to be used instead of the washers. These were marked out at approximately 100mm centres and pilot drilled. The first hole was drilled through the GRP and chassis at one end and the alloy fixed on with a self taping screw. The other end of the strip was lined up and this end drilled and screwed into place. The remaining intervening holes were drilled using the alloy strip as the template. We had previously left any fixings out of the alloy floor along the side rails as these body fixings would sandwich the body to the floor to the chassis. It also meant we did n't have to worry about hitting existing fixings, doubling up fixings or have to work out where to drill the GRP to find the existing holes. At the rear the same was applied to the angle alloy secured to the outer chassis rails. To allow the side pods to be removed easier in the future we decided to use rivnuts and bolts rather than riveting to the chassis. As the alloy floor was already fitted this meant that the material was really too thick for the rivnuts to squish. To solve this and create a true flat for the GRP the holes for the rivnuts needed to be counter sunk. A neat 9mm/13mm fixed step drill was found online and purchased. This enabled the correct size hole in the chassis and in the alloy to be drilled in one step. Halfway through the first side the cheap rivnut tool became really tough to use. After trying a bolt through the handles to allow them to be closed. I decided to give up and by a new tool I can't state how much easier it is with this tool, and if you are thinking of buying one, spend double on one of these. Finishing off the other side was so quick in comparison. Where the body changes angle the strips were cut and mitred on a bolt hole so each strip had half a hole at the end. A strip of chassis foam was stuck to the floor, the GRP panels positioned and then the strips bolted on.
The same process was used inside the cockpit flap, but only a single fixing at each end. Conclusion
At end of this task there are a couple of thoughts. In hindsight the fixing spaces could have probably been doubled as the number of bolts seemed like an overkill. Even with the chassis mounted on high tressles and a rubber matted floor, physically doing this lying down marking/drilling/rivnuting/bolting was tough. If we did it again, I think putting the rivnuts into the flipped chassis stage early on would have been the easier option even with the marking issue.
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Post by buildityourself on Sept 10, 2020 20:34:54 GMT
As proboards logged me out mid creating the last post and lost everything, what you previously read was the second attempt. I realised I left out the brackets to secure the dash to the side pods and to the chassis. A rivnut was fitted to the chassis and the bracket had a slot hole to allow some adjustment not knowing the final position. Bracket loosly fitted to the chassis. The remaining challenges here are to blind drill the hole in the side pod to match the bracket, and to work out how to fit the bolt on the drivers side now the brake reservoir is blocking access. May have to use this just for the side pods, and secure the dash in another way. Radiator BracketThis has been a part of the build that has been postponed and caused a lot of thinking. The radiator floats somewhere in front of the chassis, but without the body fitted its very difficult to work out where and what angle is best. With the side pods in place this could be worked out easier. For reference these are the level dimensions to the body work from the front of the upper top chassis rail and the lower bottom chassis rail. I didn't want an alloy bracket as felt this would not offer any energy absorbtion benefits in a front impact. The solution aimed for may or may not look identical to skyquake build.... This meant fabrication stepping up a gear with some welding. A length of 25mm box steel was purchased and along with some angle iron from an old bath was cut to make each bracket from. This circular saw was a bargain build buy. From Lidl half price at £20! It even allows a angles to be setup for cutting. To ensure that each bracket was the same angle etc, a jig was made to aid fabrication. Wood probably isn't the best idea to use as a jig when welding, but was intended to be used just to tack together. Previously we had used a borrowed stick welder. While this worked it was very hard to start especially if not a wide flat piece to allow striking. I decided to try buying a cheap flux cored welder. This has a trigger to start the current and wire feed so starting is incredibly easy. First task was to workout the right settings and practise joining, laying down beads. Using a work mate to hold the work piece is not a great idea and the black scorching is absoluting not evidence of it catching fire from welding to close ;-) The final constructed matching brackets. To allow some flexibility on the radiator the brackets would be mounted wider with extra alloy brackets to hold the radiator to the bracket. Powder coated for protection. We are using the recommended Polo radiator, so this was bolted to the brackets to check fitting before welding to the chassis. The chassis was measured up to centre and the paint removed. With a few nerves the brackets were welded onto the chassis. Despite the practising the actual welds didn't turn out as pretty as hoped but they were solid. Primed and painted. This was quite a daunting challenge on the build, and I think this would be a worthwhile chassis option for builders that would not want to undertake something like this.
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