Mopar Muscle Association UK

Whilst the engine was in I trial-fitted this radiator that I'd had hanging round for ages, after I'd bought it from Summit for my Australian Ford Fairmont and never fitted it.

It may or may not be big enough to cool the engine - but it looks like it'll *probably* do the job. One way to find out.

It did, however, take me some time to notice that the outlet (at the bottom) was on the wrong side for the small block. And if you swap the outlet, you also have to swap the inlet - as it's a crossflow rad. Time to get the holesaw out. A quick favour from the welder later:

You amaze me at times Matt Keep up the excellent work.

I had booked a track day at Brands Hatch for last Thursday, as an incentive to get the car ready. Needless to say, though, the schedule has carried on slipping, with the car still at the painters after two weeks. (Still, you don't really want to rush a painter)

I got chatting to John who rents a unit adjacent to mine at the farm over the road, said that my car wasn't ready, and he said - "No problem - we'll take my two Renault Clios"

So that turned out to be quite a laugh.

Nice day for it


Two Clios prepared for track days. Not V8 or RWD, but hey any practice on track is well worth having.

Turns out they're quite difficult to get much out of shape. If you go a bit too fast into a corner,just keep your foot in and the car eventually pulls itself round.

Just to keep things on-topic, I had a good chat with the owner of this Camaro. It was his first time out with the car, and he's racing with Bernie's V8s at Speedfest this weekend. Apparently the brakes work quite well - which is reassuring as they're a similar size to the ones on the Cuda.

Excellent!

See you at Speedfest this weekend??

Cheng and Bernie's are there too!

Meanwhile at the painter's

Initial filling and blocking. And a lovely job of pulling out two dents in the nose that happened during shipping


And finally - colour ! What a milestone. It's a 1970s Maserati metallic blue (did I mention the painter's Italian ?...) The apparent distortion above the rear arch lip is a trick of the light - it's actually turned out very well.
The detachable panels will be painted next week, then a final coat of lacquer applied once the car is mostly assembled.



From Monday I'll have a bit of free time at work, so we can crack on with the fitting up. First job, dashboard and wiring loom.

Draft #1

Hi Pete,

Yes see you at Speedfest. I'll be bringing the Charger. Really wanted it to be the Cuda this year, but I guess it'll have to wait.


Cheers

Matt

stunning

What a colour, its going look stunning once back together

Weekly update time.

Been doing a bit of everything to start getting the shell fitted up .


Fuel tank.

After some head scratching (a few months ago) I decided not to use an original style tank , but fit a fuel cell inside the boot. Ideally it would be sunk down through the boot floor to get the weight lower down in the car, but for the time being I'll set it on top of the floor and change it later if I feel like it .

Reasons to use a fuel cell:
a) Almost cheaper than a reproduction tank , straps, sender, filler neck , etc
b) easy to connect to - AN fittings already on there
c) already comes with anti-slosh foam and baffling inside, and a rollover-safe breather with ball valve.

I was going to fit a swirl pot as well, to eliminate any possibility of fuel starvation - but it may not be necessary, and the swirl pot (and second pump) would be extra weight and complexity.


Summit 20 gallon cell will just about fit through the boot aperture, and should be big enough for up to an hour's racing.


Needs a few modifications though:

1) The sender unit supplied is very poor quality, and is held in with self-tappers (aargh horrible). Quality VDO cylindrical senders are available in a whole range of heights, and happily the bolt pattern is the same. I drilled out the self-tapper holes and fitted M5 countersunk rivnuts . Much nicer now.


2) Got some mounting tabs welded to the lower sides.

3) Since the cell is inside the boot, regs dictate that the filler must have a spill tray that drains to the outside. Bent up a strip of ally and had it welded on, with a 10mm drain tube as well. Also - the filler neck is plastic and not great quality - I replaced the washers under the fixing nuts with larger ones, to reduce the distortion already present.

Brakes

Got the Dr Diff front disc kits assembled to check parts fit etc. Replaced the supplied pads with Wilwood racing grade/ high friction ones. No big surprises with the kit, although the flexibles don't locate positively in the chassis brackets, and will rotate if twisted hard. I don't like this much, but in practice probably not a big problem.
Bent up the lines for the rear axle. All the front-rear services (brakes, fuel, wiring) run through the inside of the car to keep them out of the way of damage.


Bulkhead fitting at the front end

Twin master cylinders, and clutch master

Wiring

Made a good start on this.

The battery will be in the boot for better weight distribution (although ironically I've used a quite a few extra kilos of heavy-gauge cable to get it there). Through-feed fittings used at front and rear bulkheads to meet regs for bulkhead integrity.

I blanked off the heater motor hole in the front bulkhead and used the blanking plate to pass fuel and electrical fittings through. Individual wires will all be sleeved into looms once complete.


Dashboard coming along . Switch panel mounted just below eye line , and also within reach once strapped into harness and seat. Fuses and relays in glove box hole.

Slight hold-up with the 5-speed conversion, after starting final assembly on the flywheel/clutch .

The hydraulic release bearing has to be shimmed quite carefully to keep it operating within its designed range of movement . The two shims supplied weren't quite enough (only by 2mm), so SST are going to send me another.



And finally today - steering


I'm going to look into fitting a Vauxhall Corsa electric power column. It's almost a self-contained unit - just needs a little gadget (widely available) that generates the vehicle speed info that its ECU's expecting . You can control this fake speed signal with a dashboard knob, which results in a variable level of assistance. Bosses are available to fit aftermarket steering wheels. I think the hardest bit will be finding an M15 Bolt to fit the top thread in the column.

Looking good!

You're getting there Matt , is this going to be race only, or will you be able to drive it on the street is you ever wanted to.

Hi Derek,

Sorry to miss you at Speedfest - thanks for organising.

The car has a V5, but will be missing (initially) the following required stuff, all of which can easily be added:

Handbrake
Horn
Headlights
Indicators

I've left wiring in place for the lighting additions, and the rear brake calipers have handbrake cable provision built in.

Apart from that , I don't *think* it'll need anything....

Cheers

Matt