Woohoo!! Reassembly starts!

[jsf55]

Trial it as is first Mark ?

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[Blackpopracing]

It's already beng remade at work - we are not too busy this week

[Blackpopracing]

MkIII version completed (ish) The wiring will be replaced with more flexible wire with proper sheathing and a weatherpack connector.



I managed to put a small extra angle at the top of the tubing, so it's left a good amount of the fan entry clear. Flow seems good with it all fitted.



It needs a little bit more internal bracketry for fixing the 2 halves together which I'll do tonight, but the good news is it all fits yes!

The tube will get an extension/(possible adaptor for round tube) to get the air intake lower but I might just try it for now as it may already be low enough to not get engine fumes in the car.

[mygasser]

that'll look just fine mark, plus if you were to paint the 'box' bit and the lower duct (satin?) black it would make it look much smaller when in place. just the curvy bit to polish then, lol.
neil.

[v8pop]

Lovely job, looks spot on Mark. Once it's painted I bet you'll hardly notice it.

Cheers Tim W

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[Blackpopracing]

It's all going to be painted BMW silver to match the rest of the bulkhead.

[Blackpopracing]

It is now finished in terms of construction. It will be painted to match the rest of the silver in the engine bay. I need to get some more stainless 4mm button head bolts to replace the temp Philips screws.




Ducting welded to the cover;





top clamps.




Propped up in roughly the right place in the engine bay. Hopefully over the Christmas break I can pull the bulkhead out and fit it properly.
I need to relocate the screenwash bottle as well now.

[v8pop]

Looks good sat there Mark, job well done mate.

Cheers Tim W

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[Blackpopracing]

Thanks Tim.

Having done all the Christmas shopping I had some time in the garage today so I thought I'd get the firewall out.

Fortunately I built the car so all the panels are removable, unfortunately it does require a lot of other parts to be removed to get the firewall out. That would be; Seatbelts, seats, gearbox tunnel, steering column, fuel line, brake reservoirs & piping, gearbox dipstick, throttle cable, ignition units & fuel regulator.



Dashboard access panel removed,




Firewall loosened off,




I cant get it right out just now as I built the steering column wiring so it can all pass through the bulkhead connector hole - sadly the immobiliser was added afterwards for the BIVA test and this cannot pass through. I'll have to cut this off and re-wire it in the next few days to get the firewall right out.



It does give me a chance to freshen up a few things - the brake fluid reservoirs I had overfilled so they had leaked on the pipe fixings and damaged the paint, I can strip this off and probably polish the aluminim brake fixings rather than repaint as it will be easier. I might look at the immobiliser as it's a pain to use and was only fitted for IVA but it's also nice to have - if I can move the key socket to somewhere accessible (it's a bit of a reach to get to) it would be more user friendly.

With the firewall out I can give the back of the engine a good clean at least.

[Fegsta]

That’s dedication.


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[jsf55]

It never finished Mark !! Can you not extend the wiring/add a multi plug too the imobiliser ?

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[v8pop]

That’s dedication.


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Certainly is.

Cheers Tim W

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[Blackpopracing]

John, yes thats the plan I think. I'll tidy the wiring up as well while I'm at it.

I'm also looking at a second immobiliser socket wired in parallel so it could be fitted by the ign key.

[Blackpopracing]

Had an unexpected garage day today.

We were meant to be going down to my mums with my sister for a Christmas dinner on Boxing day but she cancelled it as she is not very well. We have a freezer full of extra food now!

So wires cut and firewall out. Time to start drilling;



Lots more drilling later it was mostly done.



Tidied up the edges & drilled the fixing holes.




And all the cut edges primed and the lower section now with an inner blanking panel to keep all the air going where it should do.



Heater housing now primed.




The leaking brake fluid reservoirs have caused more paint damage than I realised, the ally brackets are now stripped of paint and polished up like chrome. The bulkhead was also damaged, so the bad paint got cut out with a razor blade and the areas thoroughly cleaned. They are touched in with silver paint with a brush for now.

I'll lower the fluid level in the reservoirs as I had them filled almost to the brim. I guess racing with the hard G's off the startline spilled fluid out of the breather holes in the top. I'll need to keep an eye on this in the future to avoid any further paint damage.

[mygasser]

nice work as always mark. i've got a multi coloured workmate like yours, lol. re the fluid leak, could you fit small pipe fittings to the caps and pipe any leaks away under the car?
neil.

[v8pop]

Nicely done Mark, it's all going to look as if was meant to be mate.

Cheers Tim W

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[Blackpopracing]

Thanks Tim.

Neil, it's not that much of a leak - it's probably where the caps have been adapted for the warning light plungers. there is just a thin film of fluid on the reservoirs (like they have sweated) so the paint damage is where the fixing blocks bolt to the bulkhead, its wrinkled the paint around the edges of the blocks.

It's also my fault as I filled them to the brim and the 'full' mark is about 1cm down. I'll drop the level a bit lower than the full mark when I put it back together and then it's probably a case of checking/cleaning them off every time I wash the car.

To be fair, the damage is minimal and it's done 10,000 miles now with Drag racing/Goodwood track racing, Hill climb racing and Lake district 1in 3 hills as well as some 'spirited' road driving

[Blackpopracing]

Another afternoon in the garage today, my new deisel heater making it quite pleasant - 15 degrees.

Heater casing is now painted;



Then it was time to start stripping out the old heater, now you see it;



Now you don't - all that space! The two rear fixing platforms will be ideal for the oil cooler fixing. The front one can be for the front number plate.




I've mentioned the brake fluid damage to the paint, this is the worst bit on the inside of the bulkhead - hidden by the trim. It leaked in via the cable gland (big hole where I cut out the discoulored clearcoat) and a ring round the column flange (column flange undamaged - black paint must be more brake fluid proof). The black bits are velcro for holding the trim to the panel.




On the engine side the brake pipe fixing blocks were painted as was the reservoir block. The paint on these was wrinkled so I took the easy option of stripping them and just polshing them instead. The bulkhead paint is undamaged but is a little discoloured.




I cut off the damaged paint around the cable gland and just touched that in with a brush. Luckily the silica heatproof coating (the textured finish) was completely undamaged.



The wiring for the immobiliser is now sorted, annoyingly I have run out of male pins for the weatherpack connector so I'll have to wait till the new year to source new ones.

Moving the heater hoses has shown I need some extra AN10 connectors as well as some new AN10 Aeroquip hose - which is fairly hard to find now? Anyone have about 18" of AN10 stainless braid hose laying around?

[Blackpopracing]

Another good afternoon in the garage, deisel heater worked so well I had to switch it off

I spent most of the time doing small maintainance jobs like cleaning the back of the engine and the plug leads. I stripped the oil pressure sender T peice & adaptor and gave them a good clean as they had left a small seepage of oil down the back of the block. They went back together with some PTFE tape so hopefully they will be bone dry from now on.

The firewall went back in, but the column wiring gland refused to play ball as it kept cross threading the locknut, in the end I stripped it all out into the engine bay so I could clean the threads and add a little grease as the plastic likes to grip itself. Reassembled it and it went straight on correctly.......

Then it was the brake reservoirs, pipe fittings were loosened to relax the pipes into the correct place and carefully nipped up again. It took considerably longer to do this than that sentence makes out!!

Ignition panel wes reassembled next and then the tunnel was bolted back in. I had covered the front section of the tunnel in Dynomat, which meant it had a bit of black carpet over it to hide it. I never really liked this, the Dynomat did nothing (its 3mm thick ally) so today it got peeled off again (it came off fairly easily - a bit of acetone worked wonders) and its now back in its full glory of silver paint again - I much prefer this.

Seats and seatbelts refitted, just the column to refit tomorrow. This is going to have a minor modification done to it before refitting - to make the self cancelling indicators work better (they don't always cancel).



Heater housing waiting on assembly;



I'll be a bit held up soon as I'm waiting on delivery of hose fittings and some hose (thanks Paul) One job will be seeing how I can fit the heater valve form the previous heater - it will need a bit of modification to work.

Then it will be altering the wiring loom to get the heater wiring back to where the new heater is. I'll do a quick test with a PSU before committing fully, as it's still reversable at present!

[jsf55]

Looking smart already Mark