427 replies to this topic

[Duncan VXR]

I would love to fully strip / rebuild a vx but know I would get carried away faaaaaaarrrrrrrrr too much Great work

[theolodian]

I would love to fully strip / rebuild a vx but know I would get carried away faaaaaaarrrrrrrrr too much

Great work

Yeah, it is really hard to resist mod fever!

Cheers.

[theolodian]

Well, as a sign of accelerating progress, my credit card tripped fraud control twice in as many days. Just the service on the engine is about £400 in parts. Other than the bodywork, the main thing left to order/sort out is the rear toe links. Of course they're on backorder until the fall. Hopefully someone can get the EP kit to work ( rsg )

[theolodian]

Productive few days. First, after a couple of practice runs on broken ones, I got the one good sill I have off with very little damage. Result! Still have a ways to go on the crash box though. As mentioned in another thread I figured out how to lube the rack. Neat trick that. Anyway, got that done and the rack loosely in the car. Only got my reduced bump steer plates from B&C today, so I haven't had a chance to bolt the rack down yet. 3rd and biggest item is that I've been Vocky'd! Big thanks to Vocky for coming over and doing my cam chain. Oh, and he deleted the balance shafts while he was at it. My contribution was to replace the water pump and generally natter about. So the engine itself is almost ready to go back in. The new gearbox should arrive this week, have all of the other bits. Not a lot left to do to get that stuff ready. OTOH, still a bit of prep to do on the car. Some things left to do on the car that are really better done before the engine goes back in. Maybe 4hrs work left on that front. Doop doop dee doo! Theo

[FrankenJim]

Sounds good keep going and keep us updated. Jim

[vocky]

you are very brave re-tubbing a vx220, I could not believe how many parts you had on the shelf which you had removed from the damaged tub and now ready to refit to the new tub ps: remember, engine out of car = balancer delete

[theolodian]

you are very brave re-tubbing a vx220, I could not believe how many parts you had on the shelf which you had removed from the damaged tub and now ready to refit to the new tub



ps: remember, engine out of car = balancer delete

Thanks, there are parts from about 1.5 VX220's though. They aren't that bad to retub from a number of parts standpoint, just surprisingly rusty.

Soooo many other things that I wish I had the time/money to do while it is all apart.

[rsg]

Theo, fitted my new seal today . They need a bit of butyl bead around the top corners otherwise theres a leak path. I got loads at home let me know if you want some

[theolodian]

Theo, fitted my new seal today . They need a bit of butyl bead around the top corners otherwise theres a leak path. I got loads at home let me know if you want some

Cheers, it will be a while before I get to that point though.

[theolodian]

Put in 10 hours yesterday. Not wrenching on the car though. Went to pick up a replacement fiberglass sill, the one body panel that I still needed other than the windscreen. It was supposed to be 2.5hrs away, but it was down the M5 and it just happened to be the first Saturday of summer Hols. This was after junior junior woke us up at 4:30am and I could not go back to sleep. That's my weekend done, but at least almost all of the pieces are in place now. Gearbox showed up this week. I still need a few bits to finish the car, but nothing that is necessary much before the end (mainly one transmission mount and the rear toe links). I'll be really happy when the next major phase is done, engine and fuel tank in. Then it is all little projects until the bodywork goes back on.

[theolodian]

Minor update. Got the gearbox cleaned (used an entire can of Gunk), stripped of the Astra bits, and most of the bits moved over from my old gearbox. Only need the clutch slave cylinder and pipe mounting and it is ready to go back on the engine. The engine now has everything on it that can go on it while on the engine stand. When the car is ready, all that is left is to put it on the engine crane and bolt on the; flywheel, clutch, tranny, starter motor, and in it goes. I am taking the broken transmission mount to the machine shop tomorrow to be welded back together.

[theolodian]

Update on what little I have managed to do over the last 6 weeks. OK, so the machine shop did not take the rubber mount out while they welded it up like I asked. Of course it disintigrated. At least the new Astra box had the mounts with it and got the rubber part swapped over, so back in business. Also had the broken windscreen removed from the new tub. The frame had sagged 12mm from the weight without the fiberglass sills to support it. I didn't want it to get any worse. Completely not an issue to resolve later. Good thing that I have a hardtop to help line everything up when it goes back together. It became obvious while they were removing that windsceen that the other one would never have been moved over in one piece. Not the end of the world that I broke that one then. At least I still have a good surround if I manage to find the money for a heated windscreen. Would require getting it off the car in one piece though. Main milestone reached is that the wiring harness is now un-twisted and starting to be permanently mounted. The dash bit is done, now I need to run it out the back. Then the fuel tank and engine can go in. Well, I do need to find grommets for the rad hard pipes first. They are proving difficult to source for 5p items, I may need to take a tour of the Lotus factory and wander off when they're not looking.

[Duncan VXR]

Well done Theo got a load of grommets will see what sizes I have Looks like we both had a productive vx weekend Got to love the wring lol DG

[theolodian]

Well done Theo got a load of grommets will see what sizes I have

Looks like we both had a productive vx weekend

Got to love the wring lol

DG

I need 32mm ID to go into a 36mm hole in a panel, 2 of. Cheers!

I certainly feel like I'm moving forward again. Had to make a step back first. I guess you saw my pic in the other post? I seem to have run into some total upload limit or something, or I would have posted it again here.

Glad to hear that your torrid relationship is on an upswing. It's so frustrating when things aren't quite right.

[theolodian]

Finally! Major milestone reached. The wiring harness is now routed all the way back to the rear clam. It is quite daunting when it is laying in a pile outside the car, but each area is pretty straightforward to sort out. (Well, at least I can say that now. We'll see if I run into any issues later.) The main trick was getting the 3-way junction un-twisted. You have to make sure that is straight before you run the rest of it or you end up pulling it all back through and starting again. It is best to start under the dash, including the accelerator pedal. The rest of it sort of flows from there. I also put the brake hard lines back on the rear subframe. Now all I need is those effing grommets and then the fuel tank can go in, and the engine soon after that. I have a couple of possibles for helping me out this weekend, so now the priority is those d@mn grommets.

[theolodian]

Man those grommets are hard to find! Googled all sorts, eGay, etc. Finally seem to have found them, 49p each, £3.75 shipping, and the VAT. Hopefully they fit. Otherwise it was going to be that grommet strip stuff. Considering that you have to take off the crash box to get to these I really want to get it right.

[Ouchie]

I need 32mm ID to go into a 36mm hole in a panel, 2 of. Cheers!

Will these (QT97F) fit or are they too small?

[theolodian]

I need 32mm ID to go into a 36mm hole in a panel, 2 of. Cheers!

Will these (QT97F) fit or are they too small?

Thanks, but no those are too small. They are 25mm ID for a 32mm hole. That is the largest size that you can find normally though.

I got those other ones in today that look like they'll work, got them from Automotive Electrical Supplies.

[Leon_1984]

good effort!!!! your workspace looks like a dream too I reshelled a car on my drive, and would have killed for somewhere like that!!! mind you, it was easy compared to what your doing...... how long till you finish do you think? as always, the last 20% takes 80% of the time!!!

[JG]