v6Max Clio Build Stuff

[v6Max]

I'm kicking off this topic as a container for what will turn into a sort of ad-hoc diary of the work that I'm carrying out on my v6. The intial posts will give you some context and backstory so apologies now if it's all just too boring

For those of you who would like to see pictures of the project/progress you should be able to get to:

Clio Project

I'll use the the gallery at the link above for all pictures and if I have the time I will add descriptions to them etc;

 

[v6Max]

I needed a car; the M plate 405 diesel estate wasn't really the right sort of thing for a newly single bloke to be driving around in. Mind you that estate had it's uses as a load lugger and had done sterling service as I gutted and then refurbished the ex-marital home prior to selling it.

A list then, that's what all organised people make isn't it? On mine there were 4 cars; a Mondeo ST220 (don't ask it seemed a good idea at the time), Mini Cooper S, Civic Type R and the Renault Clio 172 Cup. And so began a scouting mission to the enemy territory of wide boy car dealers with expensive premises and pretty receptionists to fund.

My first stop was Ford and initial impressions were not that good; stains on the carpet, a young couple arguing in the corner (she says "but there's no room for the baby or mum" and he says "but it's got graphics and a cd player"), 2 salespersons huddled in another corner sniggering over something on a computer screen.

Never mind "don't judge a book by it's cover" etc, so I take a look but there's no ST220 to be found, ah but to my rescue comes a salesman complete with cheap suit and a tie knot whose size would make any provincal town estate agent insanely jealous. "Can I help you sir", er well yes - actually it turned out he could'nt although I did come away from the experience with a couple of, frankly, unbeleivable statements delivered in a deadpan manner:

"No Sir, you won't be able to drive it but I can assure you the experience will be everything you hoped"
"No Sir, we can't offer a discount because this is a "halo" model and we lose money on each one"

Goodbye Ford and hello Honda. Now Honda nearly got my money even before I looked at the car; god she was stunning with a little bit of a cheeky/flirty approach... Thankfully common sense kicked in and with a test drive arranged for an hour later I left to ponder whether it was probable that she did not have a boyfriend and found herself attracted to 30 something year olds with no hair, hmmm.

Unfortunately it turned out that behind the looks there was no substance (not her, the car). First thing I noticed was the steering feel or to be more specific the complete and utter lack of any whatsoever. Next was the crushing disappointment of the vTec; I'd already sneaked a drive in an S2000 and in that the vTec moment was akin to being ejected from a 1.0 diesel hatchback into some turbo equipped v8 weapon, in the Type R it was all a bit "so what". Ho hum, next stop BMW/MINI...

Now this is proper service, I have to give credit where it's due and this particular dealership had got the balance exactly right. After exactly the right amount of time I'm approached by a very professional salesperson - he's immediately suggesting that I spend a couple of hours with the car, just to see if it's the right kind of thing.

I can honestly say that if it hadn't been for that pesky list thing I'd made myself write out the Mini would have been mine and this would be a different kind of blog altogether. What a superb bit of kit - easily the best front wheel drive car I'd ever driven until I rebuilt my own 205 GTi (oh and pinched a go in a Clio Trophy at Donington), but the list, the list so onto Renault...

This is where it all went a bit "pear shaped"; oh they had the smarmy sales people, the Ford approach to test drives, the slightly shabby dealership but none of that mattered because they also had a v6 Clio. I actually received (and continued to receive) absolutely the worst level of customer service from Renault but it didn't matter because all I could see was that V6. To get a test drive required escalation to the Dealer Principal following several increasingly agitated phone calls by me. I didn't need one really, the money had already been spent, it had to be mine, it would be mine and on February 9th 2003 it was.

I'd had new cars before and of course since the v6 but nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever compared to that experience of driving it away from the dealership and into the local town. I knew that this was not a car I was going to tire of, a car that would likely remain in my posession irrespective of what happens (and this has indeed proved to be true).

So why the title "A difficult birth" well I indicated that perhaps Renault's customer service was somewhat lacking; I won't bore you with the details but the actual process of buying the car was an absolute nightmare. Any reasonable minded individual, not blinded by their desire, would have simply gone elsewhere or at the very least never returned but the v6 gets under your skin and means that you'll put up with "stuff".

 

[v6Max]

Yes the Clio v6 has a fearsome reputation especially in this, the Mark 1 guise. Keen to avoid ending up in a potato field having exited stage left through a hedge I decided to swallow my pride, admit that I wasn't Schumacher without an F1 car and buy some tuition. So I found myself along with 2 friends in the Bruntingthorpe diner eating bacon sandwiches and introducing myself to a certain Don Palmer.

5 minutes later, I'm in the back of an M3 feeling sick but with a grin etched wide across my face as the mild mannered Don drives us around a course of cones looking out of the side window because that's what's now pointing forwards and calmly discussing what we hoped to get from the day.

By lunch time we had learned a bunch about tyre theory, found out that you can drive with only a single finger and developed an appreciation of the "less is more" ethos of Don's technique. At the close of the afternoon we'd all learnt so much more than we thought possible. We'd also chopped and changed the cars; so I'd also spent time in a S1 Elise (so good I nearly brought one the next day) and a E46 M3 SMG (hmmm, awful brakes, poor damping, too clinical - I'm not the biggest fan).

It was a day that opened my eyes and was to change my life forever - I can still vividly remember the drive home afterwards as I took stock of what was then and what was now; just how had I not died in the years leading up to this day? How could it be that driving tuition in this Country can simply not teach fundamental skills that immediately make you safer?

It was of course like that first hit of a drug, instantly addictive, to not carry on doing "car things" simply would not be possible; I was hurting already and I needed a fix. That fix came in the form of a track evening courteosy of Goldtrack and taking place at the iconic Silverstone. Now if ever there was a perfect introduction this was it; imagine an absolutely perfect summers evening, not too hot, superb light, oh and arriving at Silverstone to find that the day had been an exclusive Ferrari GB day and that all manner of wonderful machinery was still in the paddock.

To be honest I was awful, everything, and I mean everything Don had taught me fell out of my brain. All the time spent the previous night watching the Mark Hales Silverstone DVD had as much value as that frantic night before an exam cramming session but it didn't matter; this was the best thing full stop.

Of course I did notice some things that could do with improvement (not my skill of course) and this is probably where my downfall truly began.

 

[v6Max]

So track days it was going to be then; time to get serious. I'd never really got involved in the car modification process before having confined myself to just have a very nice exhaust fitted to the V6 to replace the shoddy OEM one but I was about to move up a gear (sorry!).

Seats, that what I needed, proper ones that would support me as I pulled a mythical 6g in a corner whilst dangling the rear end out. Carbon fibre, just thought I'd throw that in to this, light, cool, got to be worth 1000hp or so. I nearly did you know, I honestly nearly managed to justify spending over £1000 on 2 carbon fibre seats from Reverie but then a bloke called H talked some sense into me (well to be honest he pointed, laughed and said "You must be f*cking joking, if you think they're worth it you're a w*nker") - now at this point I should add that this was the first time that I met H so you can probably see he has a somewhat unique approach to customer relations.

So with my dream brought, thankfully, down to earth the car was booked in to have some Cobra Imolas fitted; my one concession to my carbon fibre fettish being that they would be mounted using carbon fibre seat mounts. So that was it, just some seats, only it wasn't and within 1 year the car was changed beyond all recognition as my addiction to track days grew and took more and more of my rationality.

So what, I hope you ask/want to know, did I manage to justify in that year well here goes and let the following serve as a warning to you all:

Aforementioned seats
Harnesses
Complete interior strip out - I was taking this seriously so even the heater went
Multi-point weld in roll cage
Carbon fibre bonnet
KW Variant 3 coilovers
Quick release steering wheel/boss
Data logging

Notice anything missing from the list? What no turbo, no nitrous, no v8 transplant; well sorry folks no. You see the v6 does have a dirty little secret; it's a production cut 'n' shut with a split identity, is it a GT is it a sports car? So with the single gram of sense remaining in my brain I elected to sort out the handling of the car first. I made a conscious decision that I would pursue weight reduction as my first goal; the simple laws of physics mean that less weight will present less of a challenge to acceleration/decelleration/handling and so it proved.

How much weight then? and what quantifiable results do you have sir? Well see that last item on the list above; Data Logging that was my chief "weapon" to validate my decision. Although I live many miles away Donington Park had become my notional home circuit; I knew it and knew it well. I'd driven it in pretty much all conditions and knew exactly how the Clio behaved and so without much more preamble; Weight saved 150kg, lap time improvement of 10.5 seconds per lap...

 

[v6Max]

Life is about the pain/pleasure, good/evil balance so to redress the overwhelming goodness of the prior posts we need now to move into the darkside of my V6 experience and it all started with the Baldrick quote above from a friend.

I hadn't been doing track days on my own I'd pretty much always gone with my friend, lets call him Mr S. I got to know him through his girlfriend, Ms. R (there's a whole other story there), and cars were our common ground. We hatched a plan, that plan was track-club (www.track-club.com) - 9 cars, a points system and mucho time on track. A years worth of preparation prior to presenting to the bank(s), securing the large statup capital and backing from the government saw our dream turned into reality (a harsh one)

The business was launched at Autosport and although not exacltly a roaring success (in other words memberships sold = 0) we did secure a lot of bookings for our launch event. This event was to take place over 2 days at Bruntingthorpe Proving ground and would see our entire fleet open to use by paying members of the public. I'd love to say it was a success netting us numerous members but in reality it was very nearly a catastrophic disaster and to this day remains the single most expensive outing our fleet ever experienced.

We made the classic error of offering a deal too cheaply and attracted some of the most brutal, ham fisted driving neanderthals in the UK. There were some high points; the fastest lap was in the Renault Spider driven by a 68 year old club racer who had finesse that I've not seen since. The low points however, well it was like a destruction derby, no car to car contact but at the end of the 2 days we had; a broken 205, a broken Renault Spider, a broken Caterham Roadsport, a broken Lotus Elise and finally a broken BMW E30 M3.

Starting a business, any business is a challenge, but Motorsport is in a different league. The industry is rolling in money and obscene amounts of it, graphically on display in the form of expensive cars, kit, staff but starting out is almost impossible. Arranging the insurance took 8 months, securing funding took 12 and when finally you press the go button you have to hit the ground running because people want their money back quickly.

Now track-club has made it so to speak, the fleet is full of interesting and, crucially, reliable machinery. We have a good reputation and work with all the major TDOs and our reach includes Northern Europe and the ring but it has cost; it has cost money (lots of) and it has cost a friendship.

Ok, at this stage your wondering what on earth this has to do with the v6 well remember that 2 day launch event where we lost so many cars? Well I did the "honourable" thing and I threw my v6 into the fleet - yes I watched my car being driven by other people, I even pulled some stints as the notional instructor - it was horrible but it was the right thing to do for the business.

Needless to say, this set a precedent and the v6 became part of the fleet and then the inevitable happened it got broken. Then it got really messy and without getting into the nitty gritty that's how I find myself 3 years later with a broken car and clutching a copy of my tendered resignation from track-club.

Now I've got some advice, if I may humbly offer it;
1) Never go into business with a friend - your friendship is in doubt from the moment you do
2) If you're thinking there's money in motorsport, you're right, if you're thinking it's easy to get by opening a supercar hire club, hiring out your track toy you're wrong - plain and simple
3) If you think you've got an idea about motorsport and specifically track-days or arrive drive racing talk to me; I'm not interested in stealing your idea but I've got relevant and current experience and I can tell you whether your idea is bordering on insanity or whether you should save your time and book yourself into the nearest asylum now
4) If you're thinking about buying a track day car; I've driven loads of them, I can't claim to be an expert but I may be able to provide some advice/experience

 

[v6Max]

A short post this one; the more astute of you will have noticed the comment in my last post about "how I find myself 3 years later with a broken car". This is indeed and it's still the case - I've no intention to dwell on the nature of the delays, of the issue of who is to blame so I've opted to refer to this period as limbo.

 

[v6Max]

How to alleviate the disappointment, frustration, depression of having your most prized possesion in limbo was the question and it turned out that the answer was, of course, another car. In this case the need for a sensible daily driver turned within 5 minutes into a decision to buy a G plate Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi.

Not some 100k leggy example with more shades of paint than Dulux but a straight 79k mile example. It was/is a fantastic bit of machinery right up until I noticed that when idling there seemed to be a lot of white smoke from the exhaust; that'll be the head gasket then.

I'd not really had any experience with the actual mechanics of a car but I do have a background of extensive building, electrical and plumbing work so although I'm a soft handed IT geek during the day by night I'm a DeWalt wielding DIY maniac. I also hate, absolutely hate, paying people to do work/jobs that I think I can do so it was that on a surprisingly warm September afternoon in 2007 I found myself wielding a set of spanners and heading off with intent towards the engine end of the 205.

The next 6 moths or so was a steep learning curve but playing with cars turned out to be superb; it's like Technical Lego but for "big boys" and with none of the slightly concerned looks. I made a decision to use the 205 as a sort of apprenticeship and if I'm honest I threw far more time and money at it than I needed to but I was intent on learning as much as possible so whilst the job started as just a head gasket replacement 6 months later I had rebuilt the head, the entire front suspension, the rear beam, changed the braking system to a front/rear split with a bias valve, moved the battery to the boot, put 207 266mm discs and calipers on it etc etc.

The car passing its MOT at the first attempt was a superb experience and since then it's been utterly reliable. It's also been something else; absolutely wonderful. Sure it's not as fast as a modern hot hatch, yes it has the structural integrity of a 100 year old baked bean can but on a twisty B road in the dry it's amazing to drive. For me it has lived up to the hype and then some. The track-club business did get me access to a whole range of machinery, I've driven most of the so called modern hot hatches and they're not hot; they're soft hatches, they're safe, comfortable, reliable but oh so sanitised.

I've got a whole series of posts about the 205 which cover my experience in far more detail than would be appropriate in a blog about the v6 but safe to say it's a keeper, like the v6 there's just something special about, some undefineable quality that means the inevitable compromises the car has mean nothing.

 

[v6Max]

With the 205 finally finished it was time to get back onto the process of managing the v6 project so it was a certain sense of new beginnings and renewed fervour that I headed down to H's garage; imagine then, if you will, arriving at the place where your pride and joy has languished to find 3 fire engines, a couple of police cars and the charred remains of a once busy and thriving motorsport garage.

The local scallys had, in a moment of inspired boredom, decided that setting fire to an Audi shell parked outside the garage office would be a good idea. The petrol tank exploded sending a combination of metal parts, hot fumes and impending delays through the office window. The fire brigade claimed a flash over temperature of 800 degrees and judging by the state of anything in the way I have no reason to doubt them.

Now, in a past life I worked for a loss adjusting company who specialized in commercial fire loss assesment so I've a fair amount of experience with the process and I knew that at a minimum I was looking at 6 months of delay and that pre-supposed the Clio wasn't now a molten lump. Fortunately it transpired that the Clio had survived although it did now resemble something that had been slow cooked @ 100degrees and was covered in ash.

I can still remember returning to my desk and making a depressing sounding post to the v6Clio.net forum regarding the transition from glacial timescale to an intergalactic timescale for the project.

In the following months it became clear that my provisional estimate of 6 months was proving a little optimistic and that the harsh reality was that work would not restart on the project till late 2008 or even early 2009. Something had to be done, and that something was a decision which I'll possibly regret but which should lead to some interesting and amusing future posts from me; the Clio would come home.

I took the decision that I would leave the engine with H so that he could work his magic and focus only on that whilst I would do the other jobs. So without further ado let me introduce Project Phoenix:

The Clio has been repainted inside and outside and the shell dropped off to my garage and now the process starts in earnest; so what can we, I and you expect to see me doing over the next few months well here we go:

1) Fabrication of bulkhead between passenger and engine compartment (the new inlet manifold precludes using the existing covers and besides, it'll look cool on display)

2) Fabrication of a centre console and dashboard

3) Installation of polycarbonate windows

4) Installation of light weight doors and rear hatch

5) Removal of ABS, switching the braking system to a front/rear split

5) Installation of a RaceTechnology DASH2 dash

6) Complete re-loom of the car

Whilst this is happening H will be working on the engine and management thereof with an alledged timescale for the project to be completed by May 2009 - we shall see.

For those of an inquisitive nature who may be interested in what's happening to the engine well the edited highlights are; Trophy inlet plenum, Trophy spec inlet and exhaust cams, lightweight flywheel, Quartermaster motorsport clutch, equal length exhaust manifold/headers, KMS ECU, oil cooler, extended sump, ARP rod bolts, new bearings etc etc. The engine will be mapped on an engine dyno so it'll be "interesting" to see what it makes.

 

[TRW1]

[smilie=icon_eek.gif] Welcome back Max.

 

[Jamesv6]

Quite possibly the most interesting volume I have read in many a year. :approve:


When it's all sorted I think a free sticker will be in the post to you.

 

[v6Max]

Saturday, November 29th the day the project begins in earnest. Although the shell has been painted inside and outside the sprayers seemed to decide to avoid the front bay or engine bay preferring instead to do the easy bits and therefore I had two areas of the car still covered in soot and dust from the fire so I knew from the start that some cleaning would be required...

From working on the 205 I already knew that working on a clean bits and pieces is infinitely preferable to getting yourself covered in oil, grease and grime and gives you a chance to inspect everything for any potential "issues".

Before I could even begin the cleaning process there was the small matter of removing some odds 'n' sodds from the front bay; radiator, TPS, ABS valving, brake pipes, wheel speed sensors etc. First thing though was to get the shell up on axle stands (the wheels were going to need to come off, the undertrays etc and this would save time later on). As most of you will know the cheap £20 jacks from Halfords are no use in lifting a car like the Clio because you simply can't get the jack under the sills to the jacking point so I'd picked up an aluminium low entry jack which made the whole process much easier than rolling the wheels onto blocks or using a 2 stage lift process.

With the car up in the air (axle stands under the front subframe mounting points) I took the wheels off and put them under the sills (that way if the axle stands collapse the car doesn't fall all the way...) and then the proper work began.

First job was to get the rad out - very simple job; it's floating at the top just located in position with a simple bar and at the bottom it's locates in two chassis brackets with a simple pin type arrangement needing just some brute force and ignorance to pull out.

Next job was to remove the ABS valving (I'm changing the braking system so the ABS is no longer needed) - this is a simple but messy job because you have to contend with the inevitable brake fluid which has a nasty habit of getting everywhere and then slowly eating its way through your paintwork.

There was a "strange" box attached to the ABS valve bracket which turned out to be the throttle position sensor (TPS). I'd assumed that this would be somewhere on the pedal box itself but no - there's a dinky throttle cable from the pedal, through the bulkhead and then to the TPS. I'll be eBaying it and the ABS valve because a) they're in full working order and b) Renault almost certainly charge a kidney for each part.

Then onto removing the brake hard lines running to the front callipers and to the master cylinder - again simple enough but messy. There's always a bit of "fun" removing the hard line to flexi calliper hose mounting because they're done in a number of different ways; fortunately on the v6 it was trivial. To get the wheel speed sensors out required removing the flexi connection from the calliper to give enough clearance but all in all a messy but simple enough job.

With the "fun" bits out of the way it was on to cleaning; I hate doing this; it's boring and takes forever but it's also a necessary evil - and so finished the first proper day of work on the project with me in the near dark cleaning soot and dirt off the Clio.

No work on Sunday due to the inevitable requirement to balance work/play! just time to take some pictures (see the gallery)

 

[Rich]

If you were near me and I had the time, I'd be happy to help with the cleaning. oddly I like cleaning stuff to as close as it could be when new, the best way to do that is when it's in bits... Something I'd be far too scared to do if I had a Vee!

 

[v6Max]

A question that frequently crops up when people talk to me about the Clio is "how much have you spent then?". Now I'm not shy of admitting the total figure (well with the exception of to my girlfriend who, believe me, is better off not knowing) so I freely tell them that it currently "owes" me 35k.

The inevitable response to this is "Why, are you serious, you could have a <insert name of persons favourite "fast" car> for that". I've grown tired of trying to explain, justify because in reality if they don't "get it" at that point they never will. For some the very notion of spending the sort of time and money that some of us do on making a car ours is simply alien.

Of course the other side is that in the real world were your head should rule your heart there is no sufficient explanation or justification. People who do get it don't even raise the question, they know, they understand the desire to have something unique, they understand the desire to really make the car your own.

I've got a good friend who, whenever the subject of the Clio and it's costs is raised, looks at me with a combination of concern, amazement and dumbfoundness - you see he's a Ferrari fan. Everything is judged by that single marque and as the costs of the Clio approach 355 money he finds it hard to not to point out that I could be driving one; he doesn't get it

I've got another friend who, whenever the subject of the Clio and it's costs is raised, looks at me with a combination of understanding and a far away look that says "I wish I could do that". He never questions the expenditure, he is fascinated by the whole process of "evolving" the car; he does get it

I know there are others on this forum who understand what I'm struggling to write coherently; Mike could have had a fleet of Ferraris, Tim at least 2, Ray and the "other" Tim one each but they've got the same "problem" as me, they share a desire to shape and mould their cars to truly make them their own, truly create something different and that is why, I suspect, that given the choice none of us would swap our cars for a Fezza.

 

[v6Max]

Sorry guys I missed your responses;

Tim - it's good to be back and finally doing something with the car; You'll have to pop over and join me in the garage to see what's going on

James - many thanks! Wasn't sure if this was the right place but I thought I'd just throw some stuff up to see how it went down. I should be doing something around 1 or 2 updates a week; mostly about the actual work but some of it will be random v6 type thoughts that occur to me during the project

Rich - Why do you have to be all the way over in Somerset

 

[k1ano]

Max,

I just read the full post as it warrants that much ... and ... echoing the words of James ...

What an amazing and insightful post, it was a most interesting and enjoyable read [smilie=bowdown.gif]

It is great reading background on how people reach certain decision points and ultimately make decisions in their lives and car ownership etc.

I will continue reading future posts with interest and I am sure it will all turn out how you want :approve:

Martin

 

[v6Max]

Do it yourself

So this weekend the agenda was, in theory at least, quite simple:

1) Drop the front calipers so they can be sent to BigRed for refurbishing
2) Drop the KWs from the front for a clean and to install the new alluminium solid top mounts
3) More cleaning
4) Remove the ignition barrel, wiper and light stalks and prep the steel steering column support for painting
5) More cleaning
6) Drop all the undertrays

Firstly the good news (for me anyway) - I did complete 1 through 6 but the bad news is the "challenges" that came to light when doing so; let me explain:

Getting the calipers off was not a difficult job; a long breaker bar + a T55 Torx + swearing = loosened caliper bolts. The calipers are surprisingly light, definitely lighter than the ones on the front of my 205 for example. Removing them did, however, highlight that my concerns about the way the car had been looked after during it's tenure with Track-Club were entirely justified: 2 of the bolts weren't tightened properly, only 1 had threadlock on it, the discs were badly lipped (in fact they were right on the minimum thickness limit). I hasten to add that this car hails from a time when the cars were looked after a company that has since gone out of business - as we shall see later the same company had also made a mess of my KW height adjusters...

So with the calipers off the dics were next; nothing to report here other than the afformentioned wear issues. For those who are interested in these things; the discs are located on the hubs using 2 T40 Torx screws which are threadlocked.

Next job was to drop the KW struts out; some of you probably know that the one of the many advantages that they bring to the v6 is adjustable camber and unfortunately I don't own a camber guage so I couldn't measure what it was set to but my distant memory suggests about 1.5 degrees negative. Anyway, big and tight bolts aside removing the struts from the hub was nice and simple but then came the top mounts.

The struts bolt to the hub using two bolts and then top of the strut is bolted into a rubber and metal component (top mount) at the the top of the strut tower. There's a 21mm bolt that locks the threaded end of the damper rod into the top mount and in order to drop the strut out this needs to be removed. Now, the damper rod turns (it's supposed to), and the bolt is a nyloc with 3 years of rust/corrosion on the threads above it. Any force applied to the bolt simply turned the damper rod and it was quickly apparent that the notion that I'd simply unscrew the bolts was naive in the extreme! 1 hour later and I had in my possession yet another power tool; an impact wrench; cue lots of noise but about 20 seconds later the job was done.

Just a word of caution at this point for anyone who's thinking of doing this sort of job on any car; not all top-mounts are the same design and if you start blindly unscrewing the damper rod top nut you could do yourself or the car a lot of damage. On the v6 the spring on the strut is held in place by a nut that also secures the lower part of the top mount so you can safely unscrew the top nut knowing that the spring is safely retained but if you look at something like a 205 (other Peugeots are the same) the entire top mount is integrated into the strut; if you undo the top nut on one of these you will end up with the strut rapidly firing off in a random direction - which at best will cause much swearing and a trip to the loo but at worst could put you in hospital.

Remember that comment about the company making a mess of the KW height adjusters? well, the height adjustment is done by using a collar that runs around the threaded damper body; once in the right position the collar is locked in place with a 4mm (roughly) allen headed bolt that stops the collar from rotating. The bolt only needs to be fairly tight (lets say one white knucke) but for some reason the "company" had used a gorilla to tighten the bolts resulting in one being completely rounded off and the other containing the broken off remains of a Torx bit which had clearly been hammered in to the top of the bolt - arggh!!

It's inevitable when doing any work on a car that at some point you'll get a "challenge" like this; a stuck nut, a sheared bolt etc and it's very frustrating when it's caused by someone else who has clearly never heard of the concept of torque as a quantity anything other than "bastard tight". KW can supply new collars and it's going to require much patience and time with the Dremel and other tools to get the old ones off.

Next job was the undertrays; nothing to much to say - it's easy enough; 10mm headed bolts by the way and you work from the front to the back. If you need to take the front one off watch for the bolts at the very front; they're obscured by a subframe member and easy to miss.

Now I could get started inside the car; the first thing to do was to get the sidemounts, seat and harnesses out. Easy job but one which revealed an annoying problem and a problem which should never have been there had the "job" been done properly in the first place; The passenger seat, left hand side seat mounting point had begun to tear out of the floor. To be honest it had not been installed in the way it should have been; It had been welded direct to the floor with no additional strengthing and it was pretty inevitable it would tear at some point. The "fix" is outside my abilities - I've no idea of how to weld but it's going to need to be done and it's going to make a mess of the repainted floor - damn!

Removing the switching and ignition barrel was a simple enough job although getting the ignition barrel out was a little fiddly requiring a combination of turning the key and pressing in two spring loaded tabs. The supporting framework for the steering column is made from unpainted steel and has, of course, rusted; Not to the point where serious corrosion has set in but given that it will be "exposed" when the car is finished enough to need dealing with but time had now run out so that "delight" will need to wait until next weekend.

So in summary then, quite a lot got done but 2 problems remain which are going to take time and money to sort out and are, frustratingly, nothing to do with myself or normal "wear and tear".

I'll sign off with a few recommendations; things that've made my time easier this weekend;

Firstly Dremel - a little powered tool that can accept a variety of bits including cutting discs, grinding wheels etc. Proved to be invaluable in my quest to reduce weight by removing all unneccessary bolt threads, also did excellent service in cutting parts of the front panel work to allow me to fit a bonnet pin properly

Secondly McAllister Impact Wrench - I'm normally a tool tart and won't buy anything that doesn't have DeWalt or Bosch written on it but @ £70 how can you go wrong; makes removing highly torqued nuts seconds of work rather than hours of swearing and sweating.

 

[v6Max]

A short update this week to match, sadly, the short amount of time spent on the car. In one of those inevitable complexities of balancing the realities of life with the desire to work on the car I found myself unable to spend much time working on the car. I'll also lay the blame at the feet of whoever decided that it should rain continously, howl with wind continously and hover around 1 degree centigrade all day.

I did manage to test fit the Clio Cup dash panel which needed a little "alteration" to fit around the a pillar parts of the roll-cage. The dash panel will neatly solve the problem of glare from the exposed scuttle area and also give a support for the demist vents and the small pod that will contain the Race Technology DASH 2 system.

Of course more cleaning also took place but more time was spent removing bits from the car using the Dremel; I removed superflous threaded studs and also cut out a number of brackets that held trim or provided to support to components that will never be re-fitted. For those of you interested enough in the process of weight saving to go to the lengths of actually cutting off brackets etc you may want to know that even at this early stage, with minimum effort, I ended up with a 2kg bag of bits and pieces - may not sound much but every Kg is "worth" it...

And that was it; Saturday ending on a flat note but optimism was high for Sunday which was soon lost when, unfortunately, one of our geese needed the attention of the vet, David needed to be taken to football and I had to put some practice in behind the drums.

Hopefully more interesting "stuff" will happen next weekend; I've got some spares from KW turning up, a duck tale spoiler, some Krontec fittings and with any luck, assuming I win the auction, a dirty great big compressor which should prove useful (anyone want components soda-blasting by the way?).

 

[ray]

david browns looking for a duck tail

 

[v6Max]

A major portion of the work I'm carrying out on the v6 is the replacement of the OEM loom with something a little lighter and less complex. There's some solid "pros" for doing this...

1) Any OEM loom is always a compromise between cost, time to fit & generic use (i.e. applies to multiple models)
2) In my specific case there's so little left in the car that I'm driving around with a loom which is probably getting on for 75% redundant
3) Integrating new functionality with an OEM loom is prone to many challenges and potential impacts on reliability

But of course there're also some big cons...

1) It's complicated to rewire an entire car especially if you've never done it before
2) Cost can be high, with no discounts for volume that the OEM enjoys, the cost of wire, connectors, fuses etc can quickly mount up and don't even think about the costs of some of the tooling required (£90 for a crimper for battery terminals for example)

I've already bought, read and digested a bunch of books on the subject of automotive wiring ranging from text books through to specific books about Competition car electrics so I've a good idea of the theory side of how to wire the car but actually doing it for real presents some choices; decisions that need to be made now rather than when I'm 50% of the way through the project so this post is really about an insight into my decision process...

Convention dictates that a car loom is normally comprised of relays for switching high current loads, fuses to protect the loom itself, switches to actually turn bits on and off and of course special components to deliver things like indicators, hazard warning lights, wiper motor control. Typically a loom is logically divided into different parts according to function; so you have a charging circuit, a lighting circuit etc.

My initial decision was to go with convention but also to wire to "competition" spec; this would mean circuit breakers instead of fuses, Raychem or similar wiring, Souria aerospace connectors (i.e. milspec), high current toggle switches and solid state battery isolation. This is, in no way, the cheap option but would in effect produce a FIA compliant wiring loom and would look "spangly" too!

Then a chance conversation with Scott and a follow up with TRW1 led me to look at the MoTeC PDM technology. PDM does away with the need for fuses or circuit breakers, allows you to use low current wiring for switches, adds logic operations so that you can, for example, implement indicators or hazards purely in "software" - in short it's very clever and will make the wiring job much simpler but...it's MoTeC and that means it's not cheap in fact the harsh reality is that I don't "play" at the level where I can justify dropping the 2.5 to 3k on the technology (and don't forget I'd still need to buy wiring, switches etc).

So off to Google then because a) it's must be cheaper in Australia b) the Chinese must be producing something similar with a slight increase in the risk of fire etc or c) someone else must have come up with a similar system. What I quickly found was that...

1) It's not cheaper, anywhere else
2) It's not expensive compared to Pectel
3) There's an equivalant made in this Coutry by Add Engineering called IPU16 but..it's the same cost
4) Everybody who uses it thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread

Then, by accident, I found the website of ISIS ( http://www.isispower.com/index.html ). Their solution is sort of halfway between the "old" way and the new way of PDM, IPU etc. It offers many of the advantages of the MoTeC technology, and in some cases expands upon what PDM can do, but crucially it's much, much more affordable. There's a video on their home page of the technology being demonstrated at SEMA - if you have, even a passing interest in this area of motorsport, watch it - the technology is very impressive and if you like the idea of being able to remote control you're entire car electrical system from an iPhone sized touchscreen then you need this system.

So then my decision is to go with ISIS - it's going to offer so many advantages to my specific application that I can justify the cost. They don't have a UK distributor...hmmm, I wonder if this is a business opportunity, but they proved to be very responsive over both email and the telephone so I'm not overly concerned.

Of course I didn't spend the entire weekend just thinking some practical stuff took place as well; I can confidently report that removing the last of the loom from under the car is a painful and frustrating experience. None of the parts that were supposed to "definitely be with you before the weekend, sir" arrived. Work began on creating the bucks for the center console and dash panels and hopefully by the end of the Christmas period I'll have these done ready to go off to the laminator. Tim helped me clarify my ideas around how to produce a bulkhead so that's probably the next thing to do and I will, honestly, take some more pictures.

 

[TRW1]

Look forward to reading these updates...Remind me at Autosport to arrange a day to drop round and take a look...

Cheers
Tim