[David]

I wasn’t sure if there would be interest in this here so originally did not post a build thread but after the reaction to a few pictures I have shown I’ll post the project thread up.

The aim for the car is to be a light weight powerful top level drift car that is easy to drive with completely linear responce

To give you a taster

From this to :-

To this

As if we haven’t got enough to do in between our day jobs and running PPS, we decided to go ahead and build a drift car…:wave:

Car / Shell / Chassis - We have discussed the idea many times before even starting the breaker business. We wanted both the shell and engine to be different so we decided on an s15 shell with an s13 front end. Looks wise, inspiration came from the S15.3 MASA car.

We hadn’t seen many around at that time (still haven’t seen another one ?) and we both think it looks ace, ours will look somewhat different though as we are using a combination of parts and panels to get ‘our’ look.

Engine - Power plant wise, again, we wanted to be like everyone else and do something different, so a supercharged RB30.

So, on with the search for a 15. A bit of effort later I found one in Japan through Power Vehciles with light front end damage and a few goodies already bolted on.

SARD blade roll-bars

Zeal coilovers and cusco adjustable arms

Several weeks passed and finally it arrived at Liverpool docks so we took a day off work and nipped up to fetch it.

All sorts of other cool stuff in the car park...oh and there were some Impreza's aswell...

Back James's place we got to work stripping the interior. EVERYTHING went and the shell was totally stripped bare. Sound deadening was removed quite painlessly by getting up early on a cold morning and air chiselling it off. Then the remains were disssolved with white spirit. It was all off in a day

Note that the sill cavities seem to be filled with stiffening foam, an indication that the car has had competitive past perhaps ???

 

[David]

Leftovers

Front end before spanner twirling...

and front end now...errr...modified.

Thats the donor engine you can see in one of the pics, we will only use the block and crank, and also a brief appearance by Scott :smash:

 

[David]

Basic details of engine are RB26 head mated to the RB30 block, RB30 crank with custom pistons and rods.

RB26 donor

RB30 donor, in need of some TLC

Note height difference between blocks, 26 on left and 30 on right.

 

[David]

We dropped the car with Endaf at Owens for the cage and front tubs as. He had not quite got everything done unfortunately before collecting the car due to all the cars he'd been doing for Autosport show, but we were desperate to get stuck in so we took it as it was.

The main cage was in, as were the front tubs cage is fairly standard, door bars and cross behind main hoop linking to tops of rear turrets. We have also tied the front turrets in with some diagonals that extend upwards and through the front bulkhead. Webbing was added
for additional support and bling

Before and After

We both took a few days off work and got stuck in with some very looong days and nights at the unit. Both seats now have mount positions, here is drivers seat in position after lots effort and trial fits with Scott (with helmet on) sitting in it, also the steering column now has supports welded to the cross bar and the boss has arrived although we need to get a round wheel for Scotts preference. Driver seat is adjustable as is the angle of the steering wheel we can also drive it.

I tubbed the the rear arches (no pics!) and trial fitting and trimming the overfenders and a wheel.

Rear

Front

The engine and gearbox have been in and out a few times now, here it is a little dressed up for the pic.

And thats all for now, needless to say we have been working our asses off on it, every night till 11pm and all weekends, which means a lot of
grief off the gf's, but it will all be worth it Scott comes down as much as possible when he isnt not away with work on some driving jolly
in Spain or Germany !

LOADS more stuff has been done but I'll do a more detailed
write-up after its painted and it looks a bit better

 

[David]

This pic does not do justice to the work involved to fit this, the corner is ground down to exactly match the profile of the turret. Then Fully TIG welded in. The main bar that ties into the scuttle also has part of the back removed so it can lay flat with the majority of bulkhead that doesn't stick out.

The seam in at the back of the engine also had to be cut off and seam welded. The engine is that tight against the rear bulkhead

 

[David]

Boot floor, we wanted to loose some of the weight from the standard boot floor, and make it easier to mount a fuel cell.

We have chosen to fabricate it out of 0.8mm steel as we can then swage and weld it in to lose weight over the original but retain more strength than aluminium or fibre panelling

Jeffers cut the floor out to start

Then welded in a ½ inch support bar front and rear

He then spent several hours making a cardboard template of the new floor. Basically its lots of fitting and trimming until he had a good fit.

Then you transfer the shape to a suitable sheet of steel and cut it out. The shape of the floor was decided ( to suit the fuel cell) then he cut and bent the centre of the new sheet, heres a pic of the shaping in progress (still not welded in).

Front back and side cardboard templates

Simply cut out

Then swage using our new toy

Add tack in ready fro final welding

We also fitted a new rear bulkhead

 

[David]

While Jeffers was doing that I made the side exhaust. We wanted a side exit to reduce the weight of the system (less total length) and stop it from grounding out where it passes over the rear subframe.

With the tank removed the exhaust can pass through the rear seat base


So I cut an Apexi GT spec to make it out of

Cut all the brackets off

Next I needed a light approx 30 degree curve on the pipe up to the silencer, so I cut and bent it

and a bit more

Then welded up again

Then cut the rear quarter to allow it to pass through

Cut and flare the end of the silence so it accepts the 3.5inch 90 degree bend with a squeeze fitting so it can come apart. The cut the floor and angle the silencer so that the 90 degree bend joins with the rest of the original exhaust.

Add a top mount to the silencer welded to the cage

Fabricate a second mount that’s removable to allow the silcence to come out, but also act as a mount for the aluminium paneling we have to use to box the exhaust in in order to pass EDC scruteneering

Then we added tabs to mount the aluminium panels, all in line so as not to distort the panelling when done up tight

Finally Jeffers cut the tail tip 10mm proud of the over fender

 

[David]

Then we started on fitting the front end

We decided we needed a starting point to work from, so Jeffers modified some S13 bonnet hinges to fit the s15.

Next I fitted the wing to line up with the bonnet and a standard s13 front bumper we had lying around.

As you can see below they didn’t exactly fit.

Pic to be added

So next I cut the back of the wing to lign up with the door

It still stuck out too much as the bottom so I cut the bottom lip off and moved it over by 15mm.

The top edge then didn’t line up with the door, it was recessed, so I made up a support each side to push the wing out enough to match the profile of the door.

While we were messing with them we also filled the swage line that does go with the s15 lines.

Refitted its starting to look better

Next the body kit arrived, we lined the front edge of the bumper to the bonnet and drilled some holes to fit it. Jeffers is making some really nice fabricated brackets that support the bumper and intercooler, but they aren’t quite finished so we’ll save them for the next update.

The rear bumper is a standard s15 one and it was really nice to find that with a bit of hole filing it went on easy.

The bonnet them arrived, but due to the pulley cover it had to have a small hole cut:-

Before

After

Jeffers doesn’t like the engine sticking through the bonnet, but I think it suits the rest of the car. The alternative is to extend the 1st fin until it reaches the back of the second fin covering the cam cover. I don’t think it worth the effort and has the potential to look worse if we don’t get it right. Opinions welcome.

Finally we laid the skirts on which still need some work to get them to fit around the doors and need 10mm taken out of the front edge. But you can start to get an idea of what it going to look like.

The end of the fabrication/modifying is also in sight and I for one cant wait to get on with painting and putting it back together.

 

[David]

While the bodywork was being done we had the suspension components blasted and powder coated and changed all bushes.

Before

Box of goodies

After

http://lyndsay-jones.magix.net/mpfw01/10/D5/70/58/70/D48911DC826F6ACA521FD22D/D5705870D48911DCB25C1FC5521FD22D.jpg[/IMG]

We didn’t want a miss-match of colours so even the cusco arms we recoated

http://lyndsay-jones.magix.net/mpfw01/10/98/B0/C8/10/D48A11DCBCFFF1C4521FD22D/98B0C810D48A11DCAC1AD14E521FD22D.jpg[/IMG]


All other bits were left wrapped while we completed painting

 

[David]

Preparing the car for paint. Below are some pictures from before we started, you can see how rusty some of the base metal has gone. All the front faces of the cage also have surface rust from picking the car up in the wet after the roads had been gritted.

Before we started

Scott rubbed the rollcage down and primed it with a can to prevent it rusting while we got the rest of the interior ready

Then the boot floor

We (Scott) then swept up to remove as much dust as possible before the proper preparation.

I then started on the engine bay leaving Scott to do the difficult interior bit. After decreasing it twice I started rubbing it down. Below is a comparison to before prep on the right and after on the left

Quite a good after shot

Rollcage midway through being cleaned up

Boot ready for paint

 

[David]

1st Coat of Primer on (still a bit patchy)

After second coat on the under bonnet, interior and boot its starting to look nice

My favourite pic

 

[David]

Shell painted inside and out

We then under sealed the car to make it look neat and prevent the new floors ect going rusty.

Unfortunately I lost these pics as they were on my phone that went wrong

But I’ll add some later

Then onto getting it rolling again, unfortunately again lost quite a few pictures. But thanks to DW for the bushes and coilovers.

These were refitted into our blasted and powder coated sub frame and arms. Everything was reassembled with copper slip and bolted together. New ball joint all round I’ll add more pics later

We thought fitting the subframe was going to be a bitch but with 3 people and a jack after a bit of filing to remove paint on the mounts it went straight on.

Here it is on

Note currently no antiroll bar fitted as we need the diff in 1st.

 

[David]

We had a couple of body panels done by a local bodyshop as we needed the unit back to carry on normal business.

After pushing the car in and out the unit about a hundred times for access and working space we decided that we needed somewhere more permanent to build the car :smash: So about 6 weeks ago we gave it some thought :

Scott's place would have been OK but annoying the neighbours with lots of noise was an issue.

I dont care about neighbours :wack: but only have a small garage at the mo and am mid house-move so not really an option. Which left only the ranch !

We bolted the majority of the body work on for an unmissable photo opportunity and loaded the car up and took it back to my place. To make space Jeffers Dax went to Scott's house for the time being it's off the road now for winter anyway.

So here is the car as complete as its going to be until around March next year. Check out the ride height ! Engine will weigh it down a bit hopefully.

Note Skirts were not fitted but are ready

And where the car currently resides.

 

[David]

Pics of the boot and fuel cell :

 

[David]

The beginnings of fitting the Supercharger

The first thing we did was build another mock engine, as the actual engine has had plenty of work done but is still waiting a few small bits from Japan :smash: We will hopefully be starting to assemble it next week. I'll save that for another update


So we put the mock engine in the car and then tried the single most expensive component of the whole car for fit and sizing...

Shown with a piece of ~3" pipe we were using to check for space for the inlets and outlets and exhaust etc.

Its a twin screw Kenne Bell 2.8H ! Its a monster, as per our cardboard template shown earlier in the thread it fits ~OK. Its an amazing piece of kit, beautiful piece of kit, but with quite a bit of weight to it. It was a total ball ache to actually buy. After lots of attempts I happened to be nearby in LA on hot test with JLR so called into seem them. They were shocked when 10 blacked out black Jaguars turned up at the workshops. I then bought a new suitcase and brought it back as hand luggage

As you can see its shown resting on some bits of wood and various other oddments used to get it to the correct position whilst I sort out the supports and bracketry needed to hang it off, it is a heck of a weight so it all needs to be pretty substantial. Again I'll show them in a later update once finished

We have had to invert it to allow a us to route the oulet in a managable direction. It can only be in that plane aswell as the from housing is filled with oil to lube the bearings. It would have been much easier if we could have it on its side, oh well...

We got a couple of extras with the SC, like an inlet manifold to suit the Mustangs (so no good for us ) a outlet clamp plate thing (also no use to us!) some sealant, a relief valve but we also got a shorter drive nose adapter, being replaced/fitted here :

 

[David]

Jeffers started fitting the line-lock valve and started plumbing brake lines in.

Bulkhead fittings in

Valve fitted

Trusty Flare tool

One short run finished

 

[David]

The start of the exhaust manifold

Jeffers has been sketching and measuring and attempting to sort an exhaust manifold design out fairly recently. Workings in the piping industry means he has some fairly useful software. Having an ethusiastic, car fanatical, CAD driving, work colleague sat at the desk immediately behind him also helps he has a registered business and tinkers here and there in his spare time, hence the logo in some of the pics ! he's doing some bits for Fords mostly.

He's done all the CAD work with Jeffers poking his nose in now and again and asking him to redo bits...

Jeffers measured up for the mating flange first, I have no pics of the CAD model but here is the first 1:1 plot I got. We cut it all out and tried it against the head. A few tweaks here and there and smaller blends and now its bang on. This will be laser cut from 10 mm stainless steel.

Here are some of the early attempts at a manifold design :

After this and lots more measuring and double checking it probably wouldnt fit so I got enough info for Paul to be able to model a portion of the engine bay. The green bit is an approximate bonnet line, then there is the engine, the head, the supercharger, the strut brace, passenger turret and the front bulkhead :

Then Paul did a few more designs :

And the most recent and probably the one we are going to make

 

[David]

Originally we had planned from the 3D model to split the model and get each header formed using a CNC former to our model. In the end we could find very few people who could do this and those that could were very costly. We then found Lance at OJZ wo could build the manifold and down pipe for the cost of the CNC bent pipes and weld it all together a lot better than we would have been able to.

So before we assembled a mock engine and mounted any other parts that might influence the shape and design of the manifold and then on one of the least favourable days we loaded the S15 up for a journey to Retford and a small exhaust specialist called OJZ. You may have seen the name in PPC as the owner, Lance, or rather his work has been featured a couple of times.

We had shown Lance what we wanted using the CAD models and after speaking to him and on his advice we ended up going for 2" primaries ! the model created had been based on 1 5/8" so was only really usable as a general guide. At the flange face they are 1 3/4" diameter, then expanded to the full 2" over a ~5 mm length.
1, 2 and 3 collect and 4, 5 and 6 collect into 2 3/4" secondaries they slide fit into the downpipe sections, and then another slide fit into the collector and a final 3.5" section.
Lance's work is fantastic, he got the manifolds and nearly the full system completed in just over a week. I collected the car in slightly nicer conditions on the 23 rd. It is one of the tightest manifolds he has ever made, the supercharger and the 4" supercharger inlet and elbow (not easily visible, mocked up in HD foam) make space for the exhaust very limited :smash:
You can see an early version of our supercharger mounting bracket in some of the pics.
Pics are better than words so here it is...

I have a few more pics of the manifolds off the car but I have yet to upload them ![/QUOTE]

 

[David]

Jeffers began assembly of the engine. First up he cleaned the block. He got hold of some bicarb media (water soluble and totally environment friendly) and a cheap blast gun.

he blasted as much scale off as he could then rushed the block to Chesman for a quick wash in their hot washer.
He then took it home and whilst there was still some warmth in the block he gave it two coats of engine laquer. Then fitted a full set of new core plugs, which can be seen in the later pics. This also enabled a through blasting of the water jacket with a high pressure air line.

Yesterday and at an indicated outside temp of -2.2 degC ! He scrubbed the head face and bores with hot soapy water to remove all of the machining residue. It took three goes before it was totally clean, his hands were almost numb But it didnt half come up well. We got through about 5 scotchbrite pads and about 4 knuckles...:wack:

He then cleaned the crank and the girdle and assembled the bottom end with the new bearings and plastigauge.

As you can see the clearance is above factory but well within limits.
He began assembling the pistons/rods, plastigauged the bigends aswell but was halted when he found the ring gaps to be way below the recommended limit.

Bad pic, you can just about see the tiny gap, I can just about get a 0.45 mm feeler gauge in, this one should be nearer 0.6 mm.

 

[David]

Few more pics of the manifolds and full system assembled off the car.