Body Preparation - Part 2 - Pedal to the Metal

AK recommends fitting the pedal box to the body before installing the body on the chassis.  Most builder's blogs also suggest that installing the brake servo and master cylinder is a much easier job if done with the body off the car.  So that was my next job!

I obtained my brake servo unit, from a Rover 200, via that renowned internet auction site.  When I was looking for this, there seemed to be none available in the UK and I ended up having mine shipped from Lithuania!

My unit arrived looking in not too bad a condition.  Importantly it also came with the grommet and the spigot for attaching the engine vacuum line.  I gave it a quick scuff-up with a scotchbrite pad, masked up the bolt threads and bellows and applied a couple of coats of primer, followed by some matt black spray paint.

The servo unit was given some gentle abrasion...

...followed by a couple of coats of primer...

...and some black spray paint

Looking almost as good as new!

The master cylinder from a Rover 25 or Rover 200 is also needed.  However, as I had opted for the big brake upgrade kit I needed to also upgrade the master cylinder.  

This got a bit confusing for a while as I really struggled to find the right part.  AK suggested that the required bore of the master cylinder was 22.7mm as opposed to the standard Rover 25/200 component, which has a 22.2mm bore. This meant that I needed to search for a master cylinder from a Rover 220 Turbo model, which according to Jon at AK is easily identifiable as the brake pipe outlets on the master cylinder point to the outside of the car as opposed to pointing toward the engine bay.

I completely failed to find any Rover master cylinders with a bore of anything other than 22.2mm and the majority seemed to have the outlets facing the engine.  In the end, I bought a brand new unit from TRW, which had the outlets on the correct side, but still had a bore of 22.2mm; so fingers crossed it works!

New master cylinder unit - bore 22.2mm

The master cylinder was bolted to the servo unit using some M8 Nyloc bolts, remembering to install the rubber O-ring between the master cylinder and the servo.

Servo and master cylinder

In hindsight, it might have been easier to install the servo into the engine bay and then bolt the master cylinder on.  There is not a lot of space between the pedal box firewall and the inner wheel arch.  It required a lot of careful jiggling around, taking care not to scratch the stainless steel engine bay cladding before I managed to get the servo and master cylinder in place.

In place - and it's not coming out again!

I'm running a 'Drive by Wire' (DBW) throttle set-up so I needed to drop the GM DBW throttle pedal (which includes the position sensor and electrical connector) off with AK so they could modify their normal pedal box and install the new pedal.

Modified Pedal Box with DWB Throttle Pedal

I had hoped that I could use the studs from the brake servo to 'hang' the pedal box off while installing it to make life a bit easier.  Unfortunately, the weight of the box and its centre of gravity conspired against me.  So installation of the pedal box is definitely a two-person job.

The pedal box is secured to the firewall with M8 bolts.  I bought some stainless steel Allen-head bolts, which as they will be visible in the engine bay, I treated to a bit of an extra polish to match the shiny engine bay cladding.

Shiny!

With me standing in the engine bay, trying to hold the pedal box against the firewall with my fingers through the hole for the clutch master cylinder and holding an Allen key into each of the bolts, and with my son lying in the driver's footwell with a socket and extension bar, we did manage to get the pedal box installed into place and secure the brake servo in place.  It is impossible to get a socket onto the upper bolts, so we had to resort to a spanner for those.  

While my son was trapped in the footwell I also took the opportunity to install the clutch master cylinder.  I bought a Girling unit with a 0.75" bore from Car Builder Solutions.  Again this was installed using 2No. shiny 8mm Allen-head bolts. 

Another "easy" job completed...

...and as seen from the inside!

And with that done, I am one step closer to getting the body on! 

Body Preparation - Part 1

A few small jobs need to be tackled before the body can be fitted onto the chassis, so I decided to get on with those while finishing off the rolling chassis.

The first thing I dealt with was the gaps between the rear inner wheel arches and the body.  These are not fully bonded/sealed and as supplied provide a fantastic path for water thrown up from the rear wheels to find its way straight into the boot.

Gaps around the rear off-side wheel arch...

...and even bigger gaps on the near-side rear arch

At first, I thought that AK Sportscars had forgotten to fully fibreglass the arches in before sending my body to me and I intended to bond in a couple of layers of glass-fibre mat to cover the gaps.  However, I discovered after watching Russ Howell's video series on building an AK Cobra that this is not recommended by AK as this leads to a stress concentration and can cause the paint on top of the wheel arches to crack.  The recommended solution is using "Tiger Seal" (a polyurethane sealant) to fill these gaps.

The gap on the near-side arch was too big to try and fill so I used a cardboard template to cover the gap from the boot side of the arch and give some backing for the sealant to stick to.  I did two sealant applications; the second was to fill any bits that I had missed the first time and give a thicker bead just to be on the safe side.  I also ran a thin bead around the front wheel arches.  Although any water thrown up would only pass into the engine bay and not the passenger compartment, I still felt it was a prudent step to take.

No tigers were harmed in the making of this sealant...

Cardboard template on boot side of near-side arch

First pass sealant application

After the second pass of sealant

I then gave the wheel arches a couple of coats of fibreglass primer which I bought from Black Country Paints.  I applied this with a brush (several brushes actually).  I also gave the inside of the nose cone and the tops of the front wheel arches inside the engine bay a couple of coats of primer as well.

Front wheel arch after the first coat of primer...

...and after the second coat.

Inside nose cone after first coat of primer

Then armed with several aerosol cans (I think I went through about 12 cans in total) from Halfords, I gave all the primed areas 3-4 coats of gloss black paint.

...Inside nose cone...

...Inside Engine Bay...

...and Rear Wheel Arches.

It's quite surprising what a simple lick of paint can make to the difference of the look of the body.  Starting to look more like a real car now!!

Body / Chassis Delivery Day

Delivery day for the body / chassis kit has finally arrived!!  It was a cold and grey day but thankfully not raining.

I spent the morning doing some final tidying of the garage and getting the exchange donor parts out ready to return to AK.  Note that AK now no longer need the rear wishbones as exchange items so it was just the front lower wishbones, stub axles / uprights and driveshafts that needed to be returned.

Exchange donor parts ready to go back

Noel, the AK delivery driver, was right on time; having advised he would aim to arrive between 1.30 and 2.00pm, he pulled up bang on 1.45pm.

What a glorious sight!!

I'd booked the assistance of a couple of friends, Richard and Paul, to help unload.  First task was to roll the body / chassis off the back of the trailer and onto the drive way.  Next was to remove the variety of parts that come with the kit, plus the extra parts that I had ordered, from the body tub where AK had loaded them for transport.  We also discovered some parts loaded in the boot later on (after lifting the body off....).

Lots of parcels in the body tub!

The body was temporarily bolted to the chassis with 4 bolts.  Once these were removed, the four of us lifted the body off the chassis and onto the waiting body support frame.

Something was not right...Despite my matching the AK factory frame measurements, the body did not sit right on the frame and the front cross member of the frame was nowhere near the front footwells in the body that were supposed to be sat on it.  

After a bit of head scratching we all concluded I would need to buy some additional bearers to sit under the floorpan - a job for later.

Next task was to lift the chassis into the garage and sit it on four axle stands (with a strip of old carpet to protect the freshly powder coated chassis!).

Chassis in its new home!

Then a quick trip to Wickes was in order to get some extra lengths of 63mm by 38mm timber studding and sort out the body support problem.

On return I realised what the problem was.  We had put the body on the frame with the rear support under the channel for the rear axle (which is how Stuart Holden had supported his body)

Stuart Holden's body support frame - rear support sits in channel for rear axle

Although my frame was based on Stuart's design, the measurements I had taken at the AK factory were based on the rear support sitting under the boot floor.  

Richard and I managed to lift the body up and forward on my frame and hey presto! now the body sat flat and the front footwells were sat on the front cross member of the frame.  There was still quite a gap under the rest of the body, and so the extra timber I had bought didn't go to waste and we added an extra crossmember to sit under the rear of the passenger compartment.  A bit of fine tuning with some pieces of thick corrugated cardboard was required to get all contact points supported on the frame.

Body sitting correctly on frame - additional crossmember added to support rear of floorpan

With that sorted, final job for the day was to stow all the bits and pieces under the chassis and wheel the body into the garage over the chassis (and it all fitted - just!)

Hurrah - it fits!!  There is even a bit of working space as well!

With body safely stored it was time to retire for a well earned beer.  Thanks to Richard and Paul for your help

Think I could be standing here for some time......