Fiesta XR4 (aka Spac’s latest half baked race car idea).

Spac · 2019-05-12T09:17:17+00:00

I got it home at 1am this morning after a big day collecting and offloading stuff. And drinking caffeine for the first time in two years and then laying in b...

Philia_Bear

If your going to do 2 plates like that ontop of each other, you should do a slit or 2 through both of them and weld them together through the slit before installing them (if using mig)

If you have a TIG handy... you can just use it to spot weld the 2 plates together in a bunch of places by turning the amps up

Spac

Philia_Bear
If your going to do 2 plates like that ontop of each other, you should do a slit or 2 through both of them and weld them together through the slit before installing them (if using mig)
If you have a TIG handy... you can just use it to spot weld the 2 plates together in a bunch of places by turning the amps up

Bottom plate will be welded to the body with captive nuts underneath.

Top plate will bolt to it.

Can’t do the usual thing of a plate on top and another underneath, as the hoop is on top of a box section. Can’t put it down on the normal spot on the floor because the floor is too lumpy where it would need to be.

Philia_Bear

Spac
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/193684#Comment_193684
Bottom plate will be welded to the body with captive nuts underneath.
Top plate will bolt to it.
Can’t do the usual thing of a plate on top and another underneath, as the hoop is on top of a box section. Can’t put it down on the normal spot on the floor because the floor is too lumpy where it would need to be.

Makes sense now.... 2 plates to make it bolt in rather than 2 plates for strength....

Spac

Motor on its way out of the car.

Kind of a weird thing to work on - everything has lots of steps, but each step is pretty straightforward and logical.

Only thing I haven’t worked out is the power steering pump/high pressure hose. I think that you’re meant to drop the entire subframe including the steering rack, and then remove the steering parts from the engine. Maybe.

Also fiddled with the front suspension.

Turns out that the new front bushes that have are an incomplete set, so have to order the missing items.

The new front Eibachs are barely any lower or stiffer than the original springs, so have been advertised (and sold almost immediately). Instead, I am going to use some Evo10 rear springs - some experimentation will be required for ride height, but they will be stiff enough/a better match for the rears.

Despite earlier concerns, the Focus camber tops are going to go straight in. Different thread to the aftermarket strut inserts in the Fiesta, but not a big problem.

I am not spending money on decent front shocks until I know if the rules are going to change next year (to allow coilovers).

Spac

Focus struts have a M12x1.5 thread on the top. The Alko struts in my car have M12x1.25.

Helicoils seemed like a simple solution in the short term.

Also sikaflexed the torque mount. Didn’t manage to take the “after” photo.

Edit: after photo…

Philia_Bear

good result with the helicoil...

With the torque mount.... if you don't care about NVH... why not use some delrin machined to size with a collet for the center bolt?

Spac

Rollcage progress. After much overthinking to date. I am really enjoying the doing part.

Spac

Fish mouths were an experiment with using the hand-held drill with a hole saw.

Seems to have worked. Have about twenty to do in total, so this should be a useful trick.

The larger pieces of tube are the sleeves for the sleeve joins. Have since made three more and run out of material.

Will attempt to buy some more tube on the way home (I literally drive past Lochleigh on my way home).

timbo

If you got 20 to do it might be worth the drive to Luke's workshop!

Spac

timbo
If you got 20 to do it might be worth the drive to Luke's workshop!

I think he’s annoyed at me for my 940 rally project stalling… ?

Spac

No welding yet, but this was a big stress point … and it just worked.

Wasn’t sure if the feet would move with welding, but all of the bolts went straight in.

Tomorrow, the plan is to get the front legs, windscreen bar and hoop diagonal fully sorted. If time allows, I want to start on the door intrusion bars.

Still haven’t convinced myself what I am going to do with the roof diagonal or the Sainz bars.

Original plan was to put a single diagonal in the roof, but I like the “double v” idea, where there is a V in the roof and an upside down V in the rear legs.

Regarding the Sainz bars, I am just not sure how it will all go together with the dashboard.

Worst case is to fit the cage and dash and then weld the Sainz bars in afterwards. The trouble with this, is that the Sainz bars will intersect the door intrusion bars and all of that will be a nightmare to do in place… so I am trying to figure out an alternative.

Also keep thinking about being slack and just fitting a single diagonal to the hoop, but am pretty sure that I won’t be that lazy when the time comes.

Clearly I need to overthink it some more… ?

Spac

Have since finished the welding on the intrusion bars, and three-quarters finished the second diagonal in the hoop.

Still blathering on the roof diagonal.

Spac

Ignoring the roof diagonal for the moment, I still need to…

Drill all of the sleeve joins and the matching parts of the cage. I want to try to make some sort of jig for this.

Sort the rear legs, including welding the rear mounting feet to the wheel arches.

Harness bar in the hoop.

Sainz bars… These are basically ready to go in, but I have to work out how they will work with the dashboard.

Ex850R

Nice.

The holesaw is much easier in a drill press, lessens the chance of breaking teeth , you can keep it slow and steady with plenty of lube and not break your wrist....

Ex850R

Even easier......drop

saw.

Spac

I was surprised by how easy/effective hand holding the drill was. The Aldi holesaw has been holding up fine, although I did break the drill bit doing something stupid.

Finished the second hoop diagonal this afternoon. The first diagonal pulled the mounting feet in by about 10mm - this was OK, because you can flex it back out to meet the holes in the car floor … but with two diagonals, this would not be possible.

Hmmm.

What I did was tack the lower part of the second diagonal to the first diagonal (where they meet in the middle), then used a ratchet tiedown to pull the lower part of it up and out, pushing the bottom of the hoop outward. Took a guess and went 5mm too far and welded it.

Seems to have worked perfectly.

Spac

I have also discovered that my superpower is putting down the welding mask and making it disappear for five to ten minutes.

AshDVS

I know what a 'Petty bar' is and I know what a 'Larry bar' is, but I dont know what 'Sainz bars' are - pics to explain?

Spac

AshDVS
I know what a 'Petty bar' is and I know what a 'Larry bar' is, but I dont know what 'Sainz bars' are - pics to explain?

Aka “A-pillar support bar”.

AshDVS

Spac
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/194320#Comment_194320
Aka “A-pillar support bar”.

Aha! Got it!

Spac

Stuff…

Jig Mk1

Didn’t work because nothing is made to tolerances that are close enough, and I cannot operate it carefully enough.

Jig Mk2 has escaped the camera so far, but is a length of 50x50 RHS. Much easier to make and to use.

However, the crappy drill press a mate gave me is a problem - the whole top of the drill moves (pivots) as you load it up. Note the location of the tip of the drill relative to the centre of the hole.

It actually moves more than this in operation… I need to dig out the better drill press that another mate gave me…

Kind of tempted to just weld the cast iron head to the column on this one, but have to make sure that I weld it at the correct angle. Low priority job.

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