Lonny Lonsdale's Junk

Answering a few Questions

2010-02-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

I've received an email from someone who is in the process of fitting a Zetec engine into a Spitfire and he has asked me a few questions so I thought I would make a blog entry to answer him that way it is here if anyone else is after the same advice!

I won't mention his name as I haven't asked his permission but if after reading this he wants me to mention him then I will. Maybe he has a few pictures of his project?

Anyway... On to question one...

1. Can you change the water pump without removing the timing belt?
No, even though the water pump is run by the outer belt, you will still need to remove the cam belt to change it. To be honest, it is a good opportunity to change the cam belt and tensioner anyway whilst you have the engine apart.

2. Engine mounts, can you buy a set that would fit or do I need to fabricate my own?
You will probably need to fabricate your own engine mounts unless you are lucky and can find some that will do the job. I didn't really look around for anything but there may be some ford mounts around than can be modified. I was originally attempting to use the left hand mount from the Mondeo and build a bracket off of that but it all looked too clumsy and the mounts I've made are perfect and neat. I am using poly bushes in them though which may make the engine vibration become apparent whilst in the car but hey this car isn't being built for comfort so what if it vibrates a bit!

3. Can I use use me full width spitfire radiator? Would I need a header tank?
I don't personally know much about radiators and their cooling abilities so I can't say for sure if a Spitfire radiator will be adequate. I do know that the Ford engine requires a certain temperature range to run well so too much cooling is as bad (probably not) as not enough. My digital dashboard will be displaying my water temperature so I'll find out if the radiator I've gone for is good enough. My main thing when choosing the radiator was one that had the inlet and outputs on the same side so my pipework was neat. I've bought a water rail that fits along the side of the engine and has it's own filler cap and thermostat housing, so I'm not fitting a header tank. If you are just going with the standard thermostat housing on the back of the engine (you'll be modifying ur bulkhead then!) then either you need a radiator with it's own filler cap like the Triumph ones or you will need a header tank.

4. What is Megabolt ignition? Can I use the standard Mondeo one?
Do you mean Megajolt? It's basically an ECU designed by the same lot who did Megasquirt but it only controls the spark side of the engine not the fuel injection. I'm assuming you would be able to use the Ford ECU but for all the other stuff it controls in a Mondeo I don't know if it can be trimmed down to do what you need. I know the Megasquirt setup is £300 (maybe different now) but it does do the ignition and the fuel injection and is completely controllable and programmable with a laptop. If you want to know about using the Ford ECU then there are loads of lads who swap these type of engines around all the time and will be able to help you. Try www.pistonheads.com

5. Can I use the standard pressure plate that comes with the 2ltr?
I changed my flywheel to one out of an 1800 so I've bought all new clutch and pressure plate but I'm sure you can get away with the one you have already.

6. Did you need to use any spacers for the release bearing?
I bought my release bearing and spacer from Burton Power but I had a mechanic mate looking over my shoulder and saying "that one will probably do" so I don't know what size spacer I needed. I think it comes down to the clutch that you use. We basically did a very rough measurement of the gap between the lever and the plate and bought a spacer/bearing setup that was the nearest. Again, a bit trial and error but most of this stuff is!

7. What did you use to plumb the oil, a kit or home made?
I'm not sure what you mean by this, if you mean the oil filter remote then that is made by a company called Mocal - I can't remember which website I actually bought it from. You need to fit the oil filter in a remote position as it is right in the way of the front turret. The pipes have yet to be made but I will be getting braided pipes from somewhere local to me. The oil cooler I'm using is just one I had on an old Mini years ago and had kicking around.

8. Did you end up with just 3 pulleys for the serpentine belt, crank, alternator and water pump? Any tensioner required?
Yes, just three pulleys. This is why you have to change the water pump for one from an 1800 because in the original setup, where it was also running power steering, then the back of the pulley ran over the pump. In this setup the belt runs the other way round the water pump so it is rotating the opposite way. The pump from an 1800 has the fins round the other way so is designed for running in the direction you need. You will need a toothed pulley for the water pump. I think Burton Power supplied mine.

I hope I have answered the questions sufficiently, if not email me again and I will have another go!

Tools, Tools, Tools... 1001 Tools to be precise!

2010-02-04T18:01:00.001-08:00

I've invested in a professional tool chest packed solid with most things i'll ever need. It's a joy to work knowing that every tool you need is at hand.

Dual Circuit Brake System

2010-02-04T17:50:00.000-08:00

I've bought a dual circuit master cylinder which I believe was fitted to American Spits and some European models. I fabricated a mount to hold it which works a treat but as yet I haven't taken a photograph of it connected to the pedal and working. Watch this space. The plan is to fit a bias valve in the rear circuit which will be mounted in the cockpit either down by the seat or up on the dashboard. I also want to get some inline pressure sensors which will feed the data to my digital dashboard and data logger.

Mounting a few engine bay components

2010-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

The alternator was allways going to be a tight fit wherever I put it but the neates (and possibly the tightest) position is just under the throttle bodies. There is litterally a few mm of clearance so I had to design a sliding bracket for the belt tension adjustment as there was no way the alternator was going to be able to rotate like usual.

I had to buy a slightly smaller belt than the one I had already purchased but here it is fully tensioned. It's only using about 20% of it's full adjustment capability so there is plenty of head room to cater for any belt stretch

I've built an all in one bracket which holds the radiator, oil cooler, and Mocal remote oil filter. The radiator is from a Golf GTI, it has the inlet and outlet on the same side and does not have a filler cap. I'll be using the filler cap in the water rail I fitted to the side of the engine. This setup means that I don't require a header tank. The direction of flow of the remote oil filter left to right as seen in the picture from the front but to neatly plumb the pipes it would be nice if it went the other way so I may see about exchanging it. I want the oil to run from the engine, through the oil cooler, then through the filter, before returning to the engine. This means any damage to the lines or cooler resulting in debris in the system will have to go through the filter before damaging the engine.

You can just about see the clutch cable (it has a blue sleeve) in the last picture, one of my next jobs is to fabricate a bracket to convert the hydraulic clutch pedal to activate the cable - shouldn't be too difficult.

Electric Trickery - ECU and Digital Dashboard!

2010-02-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I've posted a pic of my Megasquirt ECU but here it is in all it's spaghetti wire glory! Luckily, each wire is ;labelled and as you can see I've started attaching some of the connectors for things like the fuel injectors and flywheel position sensor.

Here's something I know you haven't seen, it's my digital dashboard from ETB Instruments.

The dash will display most of the data you need such as oil pressure, water temperature, fuel level, front and rear brake pressure, and obviously speed etc. It does a whole host of cool things, for instance, it comes with a data logger that allows you to record and display on a laptop (either live while driving or downloaded later) all of the sensor readings and settings for the dashboard. It also has an onboard G sensor and a seperate GPS receiver. When you go on track days it will log your position using the GPS as well as recording the latteral G forces along the way. All this data can be view in graphic form and you can even overlay a video (perhaps from a dashboard mounted camera) onto the various graphs and stats. All in all it looks like a mighty cool toy and i'm really looking forward to seeing it fire up! Oh one final thing about the digital dashboard is that it has a series of gear change LED's which start yellow and go through green to red as an indication of revs. The red light revs can be programmed and each yellow and green LED can be assigned it's own rev value.

Speed Sensor

2010-02-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

My digital dashboard (more later) comes with a speed sensor which needs to be mounted on the propshaft or a driving wheel but must be fixed so that it moves with any movement of the prop. I have fabricated a small bracket to hold the sensor on the differential pointing at the side of the diff plate.

Next I glued two small magnets 180 degrees apart on the edge of the diff plate. The sensor has to be mounted 1mm away from the spinning magnets.

Rear Suspension and Brakes

2010-02-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

I've fitted the rear part of the handbrake cable and the rear dampers. I'm still in half a mind to do a complete conversion of the rear end to a wishbone setup with coil over dampers like the front. Watch this space for my decision!

Spitfire 1500 Bonnet or GT6 Bonnet?

2010-02-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

First thing I did once I got the car to the workshop was loosely fit the body and test fit my Dad's 1500 bonnet to see if the engine fitted underneath. The cam cover at the front of the engine is just touching the bonnet although it shuts fully so with some slight fettling a normal bonnet will be fine. The alternative was to possibly use a GT6 bonnet although I doubt the bulge would be in the right place. Luckily I need not worry so I will shortly be ordering a new fibreglass bonnet.

New Year, New Workshop, New Start

2010-02-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a year since I've done any noteworthy work on the car but a friend of mine has just started a automotive fabrication and servicing garage and has allowed me a corner of his workshop for the foreseeable future to work on my car. I've also recently sold my company so have afforded myself some time off. I've been back working on the car for a couple of weeks now so get ready for a few updates soon.

Powertrain Complete!

2009-03-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

I received the clutch release bearing in the week and the adapter it fits onto and after some fettling managed to get the two joined together. Today's job was to get the flywheel and clutch on and mount the gearbox with the release bearing on it's lever inside. Here's a photo of the flywheel with clutch attached.

With the spigot bearing inside the end of the crank I then fitted the gearbox, propshaft, and starter motor - see below.

The propshaft (below) was built for me by a company called Bailey Morris UK Limited. I phoned them with the distance between the differential plate and the oil seal on the gearbox and the layout of the holes on the differential plate and they built me the shaft in three days for £128. It looks great. The Type 9 gearbox has splines on a shaft that goes inside the gearbox so that end of the propshaft was a smooth collar on the outside with splines inside. They make the shaft with a length that means this end goes three-quarters of the way inside the gearbox so that it can slide in and out as the engine/diff flexes.

Plates, Pulleys, and Quick Shifting!

2009-03-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

Like most engines, the Zetec has a plate that goes between the block and the gearbox bell housing. Unlike the one on the Spitfire engine this serves no purpose other than filling in the gaps! The plate from the Mondeo (my donor car) is designed for the front wheel drive gearbox and is the wrong shape for the Type 9 so it was tossed. (in fact it was cut up and used to make the brackets for the front Goodridge hoses!) Rather than hunting round scrap yards for an old Sierra with a plate I could buy I made one by simply putting the gearbox on it's end and drawing round it. A bit of cutting, grinding, drilling, filing, and painting and hey presto one plate was born. I'm getting into this fabrication lark!

I've bought Canley Classics' uprated 55amp alternator for this car which comes with a pulley designed for a standard V belt. The belt on the Zetec engine has 6 ridges so I need to use the pulley from the Mondeo's alternator. Here are the two pulleys:

You can probably tell that the pulley on the left uses a Woodruff key to keep it from slipping whereas the one on the right is just done up tight! unfortunately the diameter of the hole in the Zetec pulley is bigger than the thread it needs to fit on. I want the pulley to sit as true and as central as possible so I don't have drive belts jumping off and alternator bearings wearing out prematurely. My solution is to get the original pulley (left) machined down so it fit's inside the Zetec pulley and weld the two together. Talon in Yeovil (they make hubs and sprockets for race bikes) are doing the machining for me and I'll add some more photos when I get it back even if it doesn't work!

Final thing to report is the delivery of my quick shifter which I thing is ruddy cool! I've seen a Quaife one on Demon Tweaks for £75 and the one I bought (eBay!) is obviously a copy but it looks exactly the same (it's even the same shade of green!) and the quality of the machining is excellent and it was half the price.

Now and Next

2009-03-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

So this brings you all up to date on the progress. Today we removed the gearbox and welded up all the bits of the chassis that have been cut. We also started looking at the altenator and how to fit it - another custome bracket coming up. This week I hope to get the flywheel lightened and a thrust release bearing for the clutch. I've decided to stick with the cable clutch that is standard on the Type 9 gearbox so later on i'll have the fun and games of converting the Spitfire pedal.

I've ordered and received the prop shaft which looks great (photos soon I promise) and a flange plate for the exhaust. This plate will be bolted to the engine and the pipes welded to it.

I've also got the pulleys I need for the altenator (although some machining is needed to fit it) and the water pump so the three way pulley and belt system (crank, water pump, and altenator) will be fitted soon.

I bought a swirl pot ages ago from a company called SM Engineering and I'm going to get them to build me an alloy fuel tank. I want to make it slightly smaller on the drivers side so I can accomodate the swirl pot and pumps etc next to it. I know some people fit these in the bottom of the boot which does look nice but I want this car to be practical so I intend to keep as much boot space as possible.

My number one aim is to turn the key and hear those throttle bodies purr (or shout) as soon as possible so everything I'm doing and thinking about at the moment is aimed at this. Here is a list of what needs to be done and in the rough order:

Buy thrust release bearing and fit flywheel, clutch, gearbox, and prop shaft.
Body can then be fitted - this will initially be done without spraying it so unless I change my mind, look out for a patchy white and yellow (and surface rust) coloured Zetec Spitfire on this years 10CR!
Order fuel tank - turnaround should be a few days I am told.
Order fuel pressure regulator, fuel filter, pressure guage, low pressure pump, and pipes and fit this all when it arrives.
Water system: I'm currently looking at what radiator to use. I'm leaning towards a Pug 205 radiator as both the inlet and outlet are on the same side. With the water rail from raceline (already fitted) I can use the radiator without a header tank so this setup will be next on the list.
Electrics will be next, ECU, ignition etc.

At this point I will hopefully be able to fire up the car. I know the above list is not all of it but it shows the basic direction I'm going in.

Check back here soon for more updates.

Brake Pipes

2009-03-01T14:30:00.001-08:00

First job now that the car was back in it's spiritual home was to prepare the chassis as much as possible so that in the near future I can fit the body permenantly. We started with the brake pipes. All brake pipes have now been made and fitted and all goodrich hoses are also on.

Back to Mum and Dad's Garage

2009-03-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

So it's early 2009 and if I want to use this car in this years 10CR then I really have to get on with it. The trouble with my small single garage is that every time I want to work on the car I need someone to help me lift the body off and back on again at the end of the day. I asked Dad if he would mind me taking over his (double) garage for the forseeable future so I can get moving. He is very keen to see this car on the road so he agreed. With the help of my 5 year old nephew the two of us went top get the car...

Test Fitting the Body

2009-03-01T14:22:00.001-08:00

Just seeing the body back on the chassis was great. A fair bit of cutting of the bulkhead was needed although for some reason I never took a picture! I know these last few updates have been short and sweet and mainly just photos but I promise dear reader(s) I will try and keep the blog updated from now on with more detail.

Getting the body from Dad's Garage

2009-03-01T14:16:00.001-08:00

One Saturday afternoon out of the blue I turned up at Dad's house and grabbed the body leaving a gaping hole in the garage!! Notice the TSSC sticker from 1988/89 - the last time this car was on the road...

Rear Suspension

2009-03-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

The front suspension is all but wrapped up (see previous entries) apart from some final torquing etc. So in order to start thinking about the body I wanted to get the rear suspension done so I could at least roll the car in and out of the garage. Here are a few of the pics. All this was done back in May/June 2008.

Fitting the Engine

2009-03-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Having sat the engine down by cutting the cross member I marked and cut all the places where the gearbox fouled the chassis. We also made some cool engine mounts. See pics below.

WOW !!

2008-10-19T05:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, is it really that long since I posted an entry to this Blog?? March this year - 7 months give or take 10 days! It's time I pulled my finger out and gave you all an update (all 3 of you that is... leave me a comment if you read this just to let me know I'm not talking to myself!). As you know the original plan was to build the car ready for the Le Mans Classic in July 2008. That was obviously not going to happen so the next target (although I realised it was unlikely) was the Round Britain Reliability Run at the start of this month. Again, it was quickly obvious that I wasn't going to get it ready as I didn't have the time (or indeed the finances) to put what was required into getting the car built. Anyway, the Le Mans Classic came and went as did the RBRR - we did both events in my Dad's 1975 Spitfire 1500. Thats now several Le Mans trips, Nurburgring trips, two RBRR's, and a 10 Countries Run successfully completed in that car which is gaining the reputation of being bullet proof! We did burn two gallons of oil on the RBRR and the oil pressure is now slightly lower that desirable but still it is a fantastic car, fun to drive, and above all else, reliable. That car as you know is the inspiration for my project and I can't wait to get my Zetec Spit going and competing in more Triumph trips with my Dad. For those who have never seen my Dad's car, here is a picture taken on the RBRR:

Anyway... Down to business... Knowing that I wasn't going to make either Le Mans or the RBRR in my car, work kind of halted. I've had an incredibly busy summer and autumn so far and I never really had the time I wanted to do any work. Yes I could of found a day or three here and there and many evenings could have been in the garage rather than on the sofa but hey, I didn't so there we are - sue me!

I have however done some work since my last posts and even taken pictures but I just never got around to updating this Blog. So that's what I'm doing now - I want to bring you right up to date on the state of things and where I'm going next as well as showing you the pictures I've taken since the last Blog entry.

The last photo's I posted were of the engine on the engine stand with the throttle bodies loosley attached. The engine has now been built up as follows:

Throttle bodies properly attached
Water rail fitted which brings the thermostat round the side
New shorter sump and modified oil pickup fitted
New oil pump gasket
New cam belt, pulleys, and tensioners
New water pump (opposite rotation to allow for modified belt path)
Cam cover fitted
Gearbox attached although it will need to come apart again so that I can fit the flywheel, clutch, and hydraulic release bearing.

I've also stripped the wiring harness from the Suzuki GSXR motorbike (donor for the throttle bodies) and started wiring the relevant sensors to the Megasquirt ECU. I test fitted the engine and decided it needed to be sitting lower so with the help of a friend we modifed the main cross member:

Engine Test fitted sitting on the chassis

Cutting the cross member

Darth Vader? or me learning how to weld!

Welding the plates on and reinforcing

You can see the box steel reinforing welded into place

Just added this pic cos it looks cool!

Right, I'm going to publish this post now but I have more to add later...

Update...

2008-03-29T11:23:00.001-07:00

Because I'm converting to a rotoflex rear end I needed to weld some brackets to the chassis to acommodate the lower wishbones. This was done on Wednesday last week and has been painted with undercoat today. I'm still waiting for the rear spring - apparently there is a hold-up at the manufacturers but I have got the alloy uprights, wishbones, and all the nuts, bolts, and poly bushes waiting ready for assembly. I've also got the bearings, hubs, brake parts, and CV driveshafts so I'm looking forward to getting that on the car. I finally got the stainless steel disc brake shields so I have started re-assembling the front uprights and hubs. A few minor problems along the way with wrong sized bolts and stripping threads but I should have that finished shortly. I've also fitted the anti-roll bar at the front.

Engine Excitement!

2008-03-11T15:25:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are a few pictures of the engine. I've painted the sides of the block and loosely attached the shortened sump and throttle bodies - take a look at the custom intake manifold - how cool is that! I'm also going to paint the cam cover black so the engine will be black/alloy/black/alloy from top to bottom. With the stainless steel intake manifold on one side and a stainless steel exhaust coming out of the other side I think it will look brill!!

Blimey it's March already!

2008-03-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Progress has been so slow due to a number of factors such as weather (way too cold some evenings), illness, laziness, complacency, the list goes on but all I know is that I had better get a move on if I want to get this car finished by July!!

Here are the things that have happened since I last posted - sorry no photo's at the moment because I am at work but I'll post some soon.

Front suspension has been built, dismanteled, built, dismantled, and am just waiting for some new stainless steel disc shields to arrive before I build it for the final time.
Steering rack is in.
Anti-roll bar has ben painted and is awaiting fitting - all new poly bushes and the end bits are sitting in a box.
Differential is in - all new poly bushes.
Rotoflex uprights and brake back plates have been shot blasted and painted and are ready for assembly.
Someone is due to come and weld the extra brackets to the chassis next week for the rotoflex conversion.
Still waiting on the arrival of some alloy rear rotoflex wishbones and a new spring but apart from that the rear end is ready for assembly.
The zetec engine has been stripped and cleaned and is ready for a lick of paint.
I've received delivery of my modified sump and modified oil pickup which has been re-baffled and shortened for the new way round its fitting in the car.
Finally received my custom build intake manifold to connect my motorbike throttle bodies to the engine - this is the coolest bit!

So as you can see although the overall progress is slow I have been doing a few bits an pieces and I'm expecting to accelerate through the next stage of actually mounting the engine and fitting the body.

Watch this space...

Other bits and pieces

2007-12-20T14:26:00.001-08:00

Work has kind of stalled for Christmas now, the next job is to do the final fit of the front suspension, order what I need from the steering rack and fit that, and attack the back end. Once I have the chassis rolling I can bolt the tub on to work out the final placement of the engine then get the mountin sorted out. I'm expecting all this to happen between now and the end of January. I've sent my throttle bodies off to a company called Bogg Brothers who are going to make me a custome intake manifold to match them to the engine. This and the parts from Dunnell (modified water rail, sump, and oil pickup) will be arriving within the first two week sof January so I can then really start to get the engine back together. I was going to replace the oil pump purely because I had the cam belt off and it was accessable but at £140 or more I've decided to put the old one back on because as the bloke in the shop said - "if it aint broke don't fix it!". I've got a new water pump 0 one that is for an 1800 engine - this has the fins on the pump going in the opposite direction - without the pump for the power steering I will be running the pulley belt around the outside of the water pump so using the original one would mean the pump was rotating in the wrong direction and would probably just make a cappucino in the engine! I've also received my MegaSquirt ECU which looks cool - a silver box with a big connector and loads of cables - all of which are nicely labelled but still makes me think "where the hell does that lot go!". I'm sure it will all become clear as I get to that part (I hope!).

And so it begins!

2007-12-20T14:19:00.001-08:00

Okay so I've started bolting stuff to the chassis! The keen eyed amongst you will notice that the turrets have been swapped over - this is because I thought I might want the engine mounts further back but having bolted them up I now think it may be a little to far back so I may well swap them back to their proper sides. I'm also missing a spring on the near side - this is because I was sent a 380lb and a 33olb spring so I had to send one back. I've now received the correct one and will be fitting it soon. I've also just received some stainless steel disc shields to go behind the discs (obviously!) which will also be going on soon. I also haven;t painted up everything yet - partly because I'm impatient and wanted to get something bolted together! Before the car goes on the road I will spray or paint the exposed parts, none of what you see has been fully tightened or torqued up so it can all come apart easily - I just wanted to do a kind of test fit to see how it looks... And it looks great!!!

Engine placement.

2007-12-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

All these posts have the same date on them because I am only just getting round to updating this blog - but what I write about here is basically what I've been up to in the last week or two so doesn;t necessarily match up with the stated date! Anyway... I bolted the gearbox to the back of the engine and lowered it onto the chassis to have a look at how far back I can get it. With the 1800 sump on it which has the cutout towards the gearbox, the front of the engine can't be lowered very far because of the crossmember on the chassis. I replaced the sump with the original 2.0L one which has the cutout the other way round and the engine now sits about 2 inches lower. Since then I have decided to buy a modified sump and oil pickup from Dunnell which flattens off the bottom to allow for lower engine placement and has modified baffles and oil pickup to cope with the engin ebeing the other way round from its original placement and being vertical (in the original car the engine is tipped sideways slightly). With the engine as far back as this the thermostat housing will be fouling the bulkhead so another extravagant purchase from Dunnell is a modified water rail which allows the thermostat to be moved aroun dthe side of the engine with a much thinner housing on the back of the engine. Anyway, here is the engine sitting more or less in its final position.

Good as new!

2007-12-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have finally got all of my front end suspension bits back from the shot blaster - all powder coated and looking fantastic. The reason they took so long was down to the fact that he was fitting my stuff in his spare time between his commercial work. I've now said that I am willing to pay whatever it takes to get the work turned around much quicker. I'd rather pay a few more quid and get my stuff back in three days than wait two weeks just to save a tenner! Anyway, the stuff looks great - you can even make out the Stanpart logo on the wishbones... Can't wait to start bolting it all on!

More new toys!

2007-12-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest delivery: AVO shocks, 380lb springs, vented discs, GT6 brake calipers and caliper mounts, track rod ends. As soon as I get the wishbones and turrets back from the shot blaster (should have contected me last week!) I think I have enough to build a rolling front end... I really must start bolting some of this together!!!

First arts Delivery!

2007-12-04T17:40:00.001-08:00

I have been ordering parts like a mad man and I have started to receive them! Shiny bits!!

All laid out on the dining room table.

New chassis mounts for the rotoflex suspension.

Loads of nuts and bolts.

My favourite bit so far - Susuki GSXR 750 K4 motorbike throttle bodies!

New rear drive shafts to replace the rubber doughnut rotoflex ones.

GT6 front uprights.

Alloy front hubs.

The Amber Nectar

2007-11-26T10:41:00.003-08:00

Waiting...

2007-11-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

I've got hold of a flywheel and sump from an 1800 Zetec now having spent a couple of cold hours in a scrap yard on Saturday. I've also burnt up my credit card on a whole list of bits from eBay, Canley Classics, and Jigsaw Racing - now all I have to do its wait for it all to arrive before I can go any further.

Here's what I've bought:

Type 9 Gearbox
GSXR 750 Throttle Bodies
Race Inlet Manifold specifically for Zetec with GSXR TB's
Front Shocks and Springs
GT6 front uprights - all new bits including Trunnions etc.
Vented Discs and new Brake Callipers
Various bushes and brackets for my Rotoflex rear end
Canley's Rotoflex CV conversion kit

All in all a fun afternoon on Friday spent shopping!

I've also dismantled the front end wishbones and turrets ready for shot blasting and powder coating - here are the "before" pictures:

More Engine Work

2007-11-21T13:11:00.000-08:00

I have taken the gearbox and the old throttle bodies off now and put the engine up on the stand.

Donor Car

2007-11-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Here's the donor Mondeo 2.0 16v Zetec:

Day One!

2007-11-10T08:37:00.001-08:00

I went up to Dad's house today to have a look at the car. Here's a few pictures of how I found it and us clearing it out:

The car being used as a storage container...

Dad uncovering the car for the first time in a few years!

First job we did is remove the body.

The bodywork is in fantastic condition.

And here's the chassis waiting to be rebuilt!

So as you can see the body and chassis are in excellent condition with hardly any work needed other than preparation for painting.

I've just bought a 2.0L Mondeo for not very much money as a donor car. It has a Zetec Silver Top engine in it and should mate nicely with a Type 9 or MT75 gearbox.

The chassis is now in my garage sitting on axle stands waiting for the next job.

The current plan is to build the car with the body as it is so I know what modifications I will need to make prior to sending it all off for spraying.

More to come soon!

Where do I start?

2007-11-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

I've completed the V5 registration document to transfer the car from Dad to me, the next job is to get the chassis to my house and into its new home (the garage) for the foreseeable future. This will probably happen within the next couple of weeks but before then I have some decisions to make.

Firstly where do I start once I get the car here? It's mainly in pieces at the moment so I'm going to take the body off and leave it in Dad's garage for now and just bring the chassis - the engine has already been removed as it's being rebuilt for my Dad's Spit which brings me to my next question - what engine shall I eventually fit into Lonny Lonsdale's Junk (LLJ)?

I want to do this car with a modern twist - I want it to be quick and to handle as well as it can. I'm not after 148mph and 0-60 in 4.1 seconds (I want a Lotus Exige for that) but I would like it to surprise the odd chav in his Mum's Saxo as he sits revving up at the traffic lights next to me!

My initial thought was to put a 2.0/2.5L Vitesse or GT6 engine in it but after a bit of research that wont really give me any increase in power as it is a much heavier lump. I've seen a word or two about using a K Series engine the likes of which can be found in Rovers, MG Metros etc. But to be honest - at the moment I'm just reading bits and pieces, asking questions on forums, and generally soaking up information in the hope that the way forward will become clear...

Welcome

2007-11-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Lonny Lonsdale's Junk!

I've just been given a Triumph Spitfire 1500 by my Dad (Dave Lonsdale) who bought it 10 years ago from a bloke who had started to restore it. It's been sitting in Dad's garage for the past 10 years occasionally being raided for spares for his other 1500 Spitfire which is (nearly always) on the road.

I'm going to attempt to finally get this car up and running, over 15 years since the original restoration was started.

The number plate "LLJ 888P" lead to the car being called "Lonny Lonsdale's Junk - Worth 888 Pence!" by my Mum and so that is why I've decided to use it as the title of this Blog.

I'm hopefully going to use this Blog to record some of my activities during this restoration over the following weeks, months, and maybe even years!

Have fun reading... Paul.