DAX Build Up

[David Morton]

Well done guys.

[Graham Inchley]

Ian,

Damn good effort and thank you for sharing your build experiences - so far!

[Graham Inchley]

Ian,

Good luck on your trip also.

[Ian Anderson]

Got the registration number this afternoon.

She'll have plates on tonight then the miles have to start

Ian

[Keith Hardy]

Fantastic tale of perseverance over adversity and the faceless jobsworth's from the Ministry! Well done also Paul, who really must be either a saint, or has a rather perveted passion for "fiddling" with GT40's. My question is: Was it more satisfying for Paul to fiddle with his own or Ian's?



Graham is right about the speed traps on the new road section to Le Mans, but just in case no-one has mentioned this before, automatic fixed penalty speeding tickets have also been issued based on your entry (ticket) time at La Plage and your exit time! Simple deduction really and a real sneaky deal....

[Simon H]

Well done Ian on getting your car finally sorted out. It sounds like you had quite an epic SVA test on the car. I hope all goes well driving down to Le Mans for you.

Simon

[Ian Anderson]

How time flies! I have just realised that it is about 6 months since my last post on the thread and a fair amount has happened since then - not all of it too good!

Shortly after the last post I was the first casualty for the LE Mans Classic trip as the bolts holding my CV to the right hub worked loose and after ripping some out the others spiralled (Turned out it was a blessing in disguise) - grinder job to get them out but replaced and then found half the reason was that the wheel was too far out on the suspension and there was no play in the CV on Bump. Result broken roll pin and a hell of a lot of swearing and hammering to get it out.

Then each drive resulted in a loss of gear box oil and I fnally found that there are 2 types of speedo take offs on the Renault 21 gearbox and I had the sort that "counts teeth on the diff" but the bung was not oil proof so it leaked out and dripped / poured on the drive shaft spraying everywhere thus making it incredably difficult to find the leak. 5 litres of gearbox oil later and the leak was stopped!

The engine is a Rangrover unit with EFi and was proving to be a pig to get tuned - 3 sets of tuning "experts" later and none of them could get into the ECU to get the diagnostics out. The engine had been heavily breathed on and so too had the ECU. Each tuner was a few weeks wait to get into and hence slow progress.

The diagnosis was it would idle at cold but once hot would not, it would run well but between 1200 & 2200rpm on low throttle (cruise in traffic mode) it would suddenly kangaroo like crazy as the ECU was trying to correct things

I finally got a standard ECU off E Bay and found that with this ECU the engine idled all the way to hot. Seemed that I had won. Then I took it for drive and the Kangaroo had grown up and was more like a bucking bronco!

Today I played about and found the standard ECU and the tune resistor that tells the ECU to ignore the lambdas got an engine that runs and the Kangaroo is minimised. The idle still seems a little low as it dies occasionally at traffic lights. The power output seems to be down on the modified ECU but I can live with this to get some miles on it.

I also filled the radiator system with antifreeze as it's starting to get cold here and running a heater in the garage is a bit OTT

I had also chosen not to go aircon - the originals did not have it and aircon is for whimps right? Well I think I am going to become a whimp as it gets really hot in this car. In the meantime I am running without a drivers side window - ok till it rains as there seems to be a high pressure area around the rear view mirror that spurts the water direct into my face.

So now about 250 miles on the clock - need to reset the suspension as it has settled slightly. Also have to iron out a few bugs in the electrics (left tank fuel gauge on the cross over switch not working) Also had bad contacts on rear lights but sorted out a couple of weeks ago.

For anyone interested the electric heaters were enough to get through the SVA test but are not really man enough to clear the screen on a cool evening.

The brakes Princess 4 pot on the front and SAAB on the rear are good and progressive - right there too when you stomp hard - just like a large hand grabbing the car to stop it!

Still need to get the door handles fitted on the outside and the a paint job - White all over (Except matt black in headlight recesses and under rear glass) then a trip to Brian Magee for stripes on the sills and roof in stickers. Probably black for the stripes.

I was approached by another company so start a new job in March - bigger salary so more to spend on the car!

Cheers

Ian

[David Briggs]

We think that we have it tough here in California!
You must love that car a lot, your perserverance is commendable!
Congratulations, your car turned out great.

[Keith Hardy]

Ian your story is an inspiration and I suspect in tune with many members' experiences. Whilst the turnkey and part built market is growing exponentially, reflecting a sea change in contemporary attitudes (not to mention a rapid growth in personal "wealth") the replica market owes it's very roots to the hundreds if not thousands of die hard enthusiasts slaving away in dimly lit unheated garages, searching, skimping saving for parts, recreating their dream machine. That many never got finished and probably never will is no surprise - building any car from scratch which is safe, fast and eye candy is for many, a lifelong and sometimes too onerous task.

I would be extremely happy to get my feet wet in this way rather than a turnkey as it must be ultimately the most satisfying experience plus I have built race cars virtually from scratch in the past, but I fear that poor health & advancing years is rapidly putting paid to this likelyhood, so I'll get my kicks out of stories like yours instead.... yeah...

[Ian Anderson]

Guys

Yes tahnks for the comments the car has been a dream since I was about 10 / 11 years old (1972 / 1793) and my dad bought me a GT40 / Mirage Scalelextric car. And now I have one I can drive - just not brilliant at the moment but it improves all the time.

I must also thank the wife and family for supporting me during the process of building that Damn car! Still both Simone (wifr) and Alana (Daughter) have been out in the car and suddenly knew part of what the dream was about.

Oh yes and Xmas surfing the net has probably turned up a big fault on the way the car is set up. In the second last photo above the rear clip can be seen really close to the plemum inlet on the left hand side. On the Rande Rover unit the vacuum advance unit comes out at the butterfly and goes straight up about an inch - OK on a 4x4 but not on a 40. So we took a vac of the plenum. It thus means that it has full suck on the distributor all the time.

Call me crazy but this will probably help get the idle sorted and hopefully assist in stopping the kangaroo as the pulses in the plenum feed to the vac advance unit. See always something else to play with on a car like this! So now to decide if it's better to trim out the rear clip and refit a Range Rover part or lock the distributor with no Vac movement. Probably also give better consumption - about 140 litres so far on less than 250 miles (I make that about 9mpg)- not good!

Now if the rain wold only turn off today I'd get sme more work done! (Yesterday was dry but the ceiling in the downstairs toilet collapsed with a leak from the shower upstairs so my plumbing sills were needed inside. And I'm an accountant!

Cheers - time to post on the Enthusiasts site and see if anyone fancies an end of yoer drink

cheers
Ian

[Ian Anderson]

Tried the car in earnest at Gurston Down yesterday

Video of 2 runs and a blast in 4th

Some Video of the day
YouTube - Gurston run1
YouTube - Gurston2
YouTube - Gurston3

For those that don't know the track

At bottom af dip I hit about 85mph before braking as the hollow unsettled the car

The sharp right hander is at about 45 degrees climb
The next left is negative camber

Second run I fluffed the gears because gear change linkage slipped on Renault Gear box


Speedo is a blast in 4th gear on the return. (hand held camera so excuse the wobbles)

Ian

[Ian Anderson]

After the initial build things were a bit quiet.
I had a bad gearbox oil leak that I finally got sealed and working properly).
I have had the ECU checked over and it is working fine - just the cam is too lumpy for smooth slow driving in traffic so I'm the noisy bugger holding 2nd gear around town to keep the revs up and get it to not kangaroo.
Brian Magee did a great suspension set up and the car handles a load better (it would as it was originally fitted with 175lb springs front and 350 rear - now has 350 front and 600 rear)
A good few trips and the car gets better all the time with more miles on the engine.

The bank account has also now had time to recover a bit!

Today I took the plunge and dropped it off at the painters (Thanks to Tim Martin's recommendation) Should be back in a couple of weeks in a shiny Diamond White, blacked out light, indicator and rear window area and inside of doors.

So the Le Mans Classic is looking a lot more possible 2 years on after the "birth" of the road car.

Ian

[Tony Hunt]

Originally Posted by IanAnderson

Today I took the plunge and dropped it off at the painters (Thanks to Tim Martin's recommendation) Should be back in a couple of weeks in a shiny Diamond White, blacked out light, indicator and rear window area and inside of doors.
Ian

So, it'll still be in gelcoat then?..................
Good to hear the gremlins are getting nailed one by one.
Tony

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

Bravo Ian,
U made a wonderful car,and really happy for u enjoy driving that soon.

[Ian Anderson]

Hi Tony

Yes the car is still in gel coat - really was not that bad as a colour nut all the joins etc were needing finished and painted.

The shut lines too were very good and NO prep had been done on the body in any of the pictures above.

Perhaps the saving grace is the DAX body is really thick and probably holds it's shape better than some.

Paulo
Just because it was not painted I still drove it! And it always makes me grin.
(And Sweat - need to get more ventilation through the cabin)

I accept there are still bits that need done but they are being nibbled away slowly as and when funds / time and weather permits - Hopefully this is the last big one for a while until I decide to swap motor for a Ford. (This needs to wear out first!)

Cheers
Ian

[Ian Anderson]

Dropped the car off on Tuesday 18 March
Today is 28 March and we had Easter weekend in the middle

Herewith pictures received today
1) As she arrived at the paint shop
2)- 4) Shots of the work on the rear clip

Front has already been prepared and is ready for paint
Fuel tank covers have also been prepared.
Drivers door had a lose hinge and this too has been repared
Both doors are off the car and ready for paint.

Also advised he expects it to be in the oven overnight on Tuesday 1 April

I think this must be a record from no body prep to spraying!

Thanks again to Tim Martin who supplied the contact!

Cheers
Ian

[Simon]

In the oven? that's brave!