Another month's worth.

Yep, OK, I'm rubbish at keeping this up to date. However I have done quite a lot, although now I come to write it all down it doesn't seem like it. I finally started on the actual car itself and have got the first few panels riveted and Wurthed, including the floor panels, inside footwell panels, footwell end panels and one of the top footwell panels. These all needed trimming to fit, holes drilled and then wurthed and riveted into place.
This was taken before the drilling had started, unfortunatly I forgot to take a picture of the floor panels before turning the car over. They are ally panels, the white plastic is just to protect the metal surface. The next panels to go in were the inside footwell panels (the blue ones).Then the footwell end panels.The latest thing I have done to the car is get one of the footwell top panels in place. As well as the usual trimming I had to bend down the outside edge to go inside the chassis rail rather than sit on top.Along side that work I have got hold of a set on bike carburettors from a Kawisaki ZX9R. These are currently being refurbished by Boggs Brothers up in Yorkshire and they are also manufacturing a bespoke inlet manifold so I can mount the carbs onto the head of my engine.

One last picture showing just how these panels get put into place.

A month's worth

Well, after a month with no posts a fair bit has been done. First off everything is off the Sierra that I need to refurbish. These bits are in varying states, some are ready to be reassembled and others still need to be disassembled cleaned and painted.
After removing the engine it has been stripped down and cleaned with Gunk and other degreasers leaving bits of engine all over the garage floor.
The block has been painted and that has all taken up to now to get done around work. The head and cam cover are also ready for paint then I can start reassembling the engine and replace all the bearings, piston rings and gaskets.
Today was the pick up day from Dax for all the shiney new bits. We hired an extra long wheelbase transit (ended up being a Merc) so we would definitely have enough room.Once we got there it was very easy to load up as the heaviest piece (the chassis) could easily be lifted by 2 people. There was plently of room in the back of the van for the chassis and everything else was put around it. However if we had to get anything else in there we would have had to stack them which might not be so easy.
Once we got home it was just a case of unloading into the garage which didn't take too long.
So now i have lots of little pieces of a car which some how all go together. The next stage is to finish off the engine and refurbish the other parts off the Sierra and then I can get cracking on the actual build. The first part of the build requires a lot of holes in the chassis so all of a sudden I'm not too eager to start.

The Engine

So after a few days of work leaving not a lot of time to get much done I found myself with 2 days off. Time to get the engine out. The first day was spent entirley disconnecting pipes and leads from the engine. This included inlet and exhaust manifolds as well as all the electrics, cooling and fuel pipes. This left the engine in a state ready to be removed from the car.We had to remove the engine and the transmission from the car at the same time which as you can see in the last picture is fairly long, much more than the space at the front of the car. Luckily there was an engine crane at hand, however the last time this was brought out the engine being lifted was dropped damaging an L200 and a few paving stones on the drive, the engine got away with a dent and some leaked oil. this time we went slowly and once the engine was out we dropped the crane down so if the engine did get out of control the drop wouldn't do much damage.

After getting the engine out the car it had to be put somewhere it can be cleaned... where better than a bath tub?

The next bit to do is to clean the engine and check that the parts are still in working order. I also have to remove the propshaft, differential unit, driveshafts, brake hubs and a few suspension bits from the Sierra that I need for the rush. After which the rest will be sold, as either spare parts of scrap.

It begins

We picked up the Sierra on Thursday night. Wasn't too sure what to expect but found a car that is in very good nick. Almost a shame to take it apart. The first pictures were taken friday morning as it was a bit late by the time we made it back after crawling up the A21 with a Lorry stuck behind us.
All the fluids had to be drained so while that was being done I started removing the interior. After a day the car looked a bit short on luxuries.
Unfortunatly work gets in the way every few days and this is as far as I have made it. Next up should be the dirty bits and hopefully we can get the engine out.