1975 LA Lancer Buildup - First Build - Page 2
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7th March 2005 - Delays...
After picking up the pace with the rebuild, the last few days has had some delays which is frustrating. Firstly, upon looking at the "bolt-in" roll cage instructions, we need to cut and weld the two rear bars. As I do not have a welder nor know how to weld, this is going to cause a delay and extra expense to get someone to weld the two bars in to place.
Secondly, after speaking to Mark from Full Throttle, he is unable to get the planned strut tops to allow for adjustment of camber and castor. This is not there fault, but is the fault of there supplier who promised that they could deliver the goods, but failed when the order was placed. Hopefully I will have the struts back tomorrow with the adjustable Koni shocks and coil over hardware installed with the standard strut tops. Later on I will chase down some details on the strut tops and possibly get them custom made.
The third delay was encountered when dummy fitting the rollcage. In order to get the exact location of the main hoop, the drivers seat needs to be fitted in to the car and the hoop placed at a distance from the rear of the seat. Whilst the seat bolted in without any issues, when I went to adjust it to the correct location for me, it was clear that the seat was too wide at the shoulders and also too high up. The shoulder pads rub against the B pillar when the seat is all the way back (as needed for me) and my head is only a couple of centimetres from the roof of the car which does not allow for any room for a helmet or bumps. So the Marsh Motorsports seats will be placed up for sale and some new seats sourced. As I have restrictive requirements for the seat size, it has been decided that the original intention of having separate seats for the road and the track will be scrapped and new seats that can fulfil both requirements will be purchased.
On a positive note, the wiring is continuing slowly but surely and the stereo has been ordered. As I do not want to cut in to the dash to fit the stereo, one will be fitted in the glove box, which obviously will not be easy to control from the drivers seat. To get around this, a Sony CD/MP3 player has been ordered along with a Wired rotary commander. The rotary commander can control almost all of the functions of the stereo and can be mounted anywhere within the car, the exact mounting point is yet to be decided, but will most likely be on the steering column, the second spot in mind is on the dash below the instrument cluster.
.14th March 2005 - More Delays...
Things have not gone entirely smoothly this week. The only good thing to happen was selling the Marsh Motorsport seats for the same price that I paid for them.
After looking at a lot of new seats, we finally came across a Sparco Junior seat, that fitted myself and going by measurements, would fit the Lancer. After asking for two of the seats, I was told that they only had one in stock and that they may not be able to order in another one as they think it has been discontinued. Hopefully I will know this week if we can get the seats, otherwise the search for new seats will start again...
The front struts were picked up on Tuesday night and fitted to the car along with the new brakes on the weekend. All new hardware was used including wheel studs, bolts and bearings. After fitting both sides and then taking the car of the axle stands, I was very disappointed to see the car sitting much higher then I had anticipated. Upon taking some measurements, it is sitting 5mm higher then standard, as it was supposed to be 50mm lower then standard, some not very pleasant words were said. I will be in contact with the supplier today to get the correct springs. The most frustrating part is that I need to dismantle the struts so that the springs can be changed over, which means more delays...
Being that I will be away for two out of the next three weekends and Easter is in the middle, progress on the car will be very limited for the next four weeks or so.
22nd March 2005 - Seats Purchased
After being informed that the Sparco Junior seats have been discontinued, I started searching for some second hand or old stock seats. This proved to be a very frustrating process as since Sparco stopped making the Junior seats, they used the Junior name for the base section of a line of seats, namely the Sprint and Ultra, which a lot of people had for sale and got my hopes up, but further investigations showed that they were the incorrect seats.
I also searched overseas to see if there were any suppliers, what I did find was that there is a Sparco Junior Plus seat, which is the same size as the Junior but has a different materials. The only company I could find with the seats that would send them to Australia were going to charge almost $1,300 delivered, which was a long way off the $800 that the seats retailed for in Australia, so the search for seats changed again.
I decided to change the method I was using for measuring the seats, the measurements for the base was easy, everything is close by and all of the seats need to sit at the same height, however the measurement for the top of the seats was not as straight forward. Due to the different heights of the seats and the angle of the pillar, working out exactly how much room I had for the seats was not easy, so I was looking for seats that did not have any shoulder wings, working on the assumption that if the base would fit in the car, then the top would too, it was easier then using mathematics to work out the measurements. After more fruitless searching, I decided to use a different measurement, one that I could easily take with me, the width of my shoulders! I know that I can sit in the car, so therefore if the seats were skinnier or the same width as my shoulders, then they would fit in the Lancer.
I was fortunate enough that my wife allowed us to stop whilst we were on holidays to look at some seats. After trying out several seats, the Sparco Sprints were found to be just right, being that they use the same base as the old Junior's, fitting in them was fine, the shoulder wings were also small enough so that they should fit in the Lancer. It was immediately noticeable that they were not as wide as the Marsh Motorsport seats once we put them in the car, the marsh seats would not fit in the boot on there sides as they were too wide, the Sparco Sprint seats fitted in easily.
We did over 1000km's of driving with the new seats sitting in the back of the car! It is great to have such a supporting partner who doesn't mind me buying seats and then taking them on holidays with us, without her, the car would not have anywhere near as much work done to it as it does now.
Now if I can get some time over the easter weekend, the seats should be fitted to the car and the roll cage fitting started.
11th April 2005 - Struts Installed, dash removed
Although I have not completed much work at all in the last few weeks due to other commitments, some progress has been made. The correct springs for the new struts have been installed along with most of the new brake components for the front. The car is now sitting at a much better (lower) height then standard and there is room for adjusting the height due to the coil over hardware being installed. As the new springs are much shorter then the original springs a set of tender springs had to be installed as well, this is so that the springs stay captive at full drop. This is not the case with a lot of lowered springs, especially on virtually standard cars with very low suspension. The issue with not having the springs captive is that when the wheel is at its lowest point, ie when going over a pot hole or jacking the car up by the body, the spring is free to move around on its own, and the wheel is not under any sort of control in its relationship with the vehicle. So when the wheel starts to go back up to it s original position, you cannot be guaranteed that the spring will go back to it's correct position, which can cause suspension damage and also a very unstable vehicle.
In order to get the dash assemble ready for final installation, it has been removed from the car. Whilst it is out it is being cleaned up and all markings restored so that they can be seen again. It will also give us a chance to tidy up some of the underdash wiring without the dash being in the way. Once the dash is back in, then the seats will be fitted so that the rollcage can finally be installed.
Whilst the seats have not yet been fitted, some preparation work has been completed. The Mounting points for the Sparco seats are not as wide as the original seats, meaning that they cannot be simply bolted on to the standard rails like the Marsh Motorsport seats. The original plan was to move the Lancer rails inwards to match the Sparco seats, however this is not as easy as first thought as the rear mounting points for the rails are at different heights and the floor in between is not smooth nor strong enough to support the seats. I will be investigating several different options for mounting the seats over the next couple of weeks prior to them being installed.
Hopefully I will also get the chance to take some updated photos and post them up in the next week or so.
4th May 2005 - Wiring continuing, pics of installed struts
Another update where not much progress has been made... the work on the wiring has been continuing, it is very slow work due to the amount if wires and the potential for mistakes, everything needs to be triple checked as the last thing I want to do is cut a wire too short and have to work around it.
Here are some new pics the first is the ride height with the new struts installed, and the second is the view of the front brakes through the wheel. The ride height is close to what it will eventually be, the final adjustments can't be done until the car is finished as the car will be getting heavier as more parts are bolted in. You can see by the pics of the brakes that there is no way we could fit anything bigger in under these wheels! They should pull the car up nicely, I was going to get pictures of the struts without the wheels on so you could see them and the brakes properly, but I was eager to see how the car sat with the new springs and forgot! I'm not too keen to pull the car apart just for pictures, so they will have to wait until the front wheels are next off.
The third picture shows some of the wiring being completed. As can be seen the car has not got much in it at the moment, which makes it easier to get to the wiring, but harder to work out where everything needs to be plugged in, Once the major connections to the steering column are made, the dash will be cleaned, reassembled and placed back in the car.