KatoKid

The next bit comes under the "sorry to bore you to death" heading but its more for myself and the memories that go into the build that I will no doubt forget about if it wasn't for this thread. Before the car was blasted I drilled out the spot welds and removed the radiator support bracket on the RHF chassis rail. The bracket was knackered but the radiator support was fine. Strangely the same LHF bracket was perfect? After the car was blasted and primed you wouldn't realise the bracket was missing unless you saw the one on the other side. I was tempted to leave it as it was and not replace it, no one else would know.....but I would. I bit the bullet and spent probably 3 hours bashing a small unsuspecting piece on sheet metal with a hammer. Photos don't do justice to the complexity of the bracket...... have a look on your own car when you get a chance. After a bizilion trial fits it was ready to get welded in, I cleaned up and sprayed both the bracket and the support panel with weld through primer and hit it with the spot welder and MiG to replicate the factory welds. In the end it was actually a rewarding and enjoyable experience for such a little and unseen bracket. Photos of old bracket as well as good LHS bracket included for comparison.

Wanted to give the new blaster another run so dug out one of my ugliest pieces of rusted components, the battery tray, and gave it to it. Came up pretty well considering how bad it was. I already knew it had some holes that needed fixing so I cut out the sections that needed replacing and formed some new bits using my skills learnt from watching the Peach and Tomassini bits on Gasolene!

Geeze, you dont muck around. Looks like a great car, well done.

Saw this on PF. Very nice Tom and Pete

Bugger, missed it!

Nice crutch! John, have a look at your rack and see if its easy to shorten up, just be conscious of steering lock though. I took 13 mm off each end of my WRX rack to ensure it matched the Z rack and it was very easy to do.

Saturday is cleared away and no problem with the family. I will bring a cut off saw and MIG and a few other bits and pieces.

Hi John. I'm still coming but can only do the Saturday, Ive got to be in Singapore Monday morning which means flying out Sunday. What do you need in the way of tools and equipment? MIG, cut off saw, jacks, engine hoist, probably need to post a list so we can bring extras or anything you don't have. Assume you've got steel lined up?

Very nice nat0. Im keen to grab a set....... depending on cost. David

John, what about the width of the rack itself? This needs to be somewhere close to the distance between the LCA mount pints to avoid bump steer issues, around 610mm from memory.

Love it! Finished all 31 pages and would rate this as one of the best build threads ever. Thanks for posting Mossy.....can see why you like it so much....that orange is killer!

Yep, did come from your half!

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Its cleared up a few things but also proved that there are a few options which doesn't seem to follow any logic. So I need same as pic 2 which is for a pre 73 but is also the same as a JDM late 2+2 and assume will be the same for late 2 seaters.

Photo please G man!

Nice Jamo....you should get a job with an OEM!

OK, so first shot is the lower LHF grill mount. I'm confident that the grill is the original as it has been repaired on the RH side where the accident damage is. Second shot is the lower RH grill mount with the bracket off the latter 240 turned upside down....works fine and lines up with the grill hole correctly. Third shot is the same side but with the bracket pointing up as it came off the latter 240 donnor car....again this would work if there was a hole drilled higher up on the grill. Can someone take a photo of how their grill mounts/where the holes are on a car that has the lower brackets pointing up....pretty please! I'm keen to get to the bottom of this as I need another grill, mine is damaged and if I can find a grill I want it to be the right one. Thanks all.

Thanks for looking. Thanks Mark, what year is Dalee's old Orange? Sounds like there must be different grills, but they can be made to fit. Looks like early 240 had the brackets pointing down then they reversed for later 240's and then 260's went back to pointing down? Will grab a photo of my grill and where the lower holes are.

Bit stumped on this one...... My car was pretty well completely disassembled when I got it so makes it hard to work out whats right and wrong. At some time in its previous life the car has had a minor shunt in the RHF, rails and everything else is straight but the apron where the headlight buckets and the bonnet hinges bolt had been a bit bent up and the panel shop did a great job fixing it. Thankfully this is the only sign of accident damage on the whole car. So now to the problem........the lower RH bracket which supports the grill was mashed in the accident and broken so I took one off a later 240 (no date on the compliance plate but guess a 73 from the VIN) but this bracket is upside down compared to the bracket on the LHF of my car? First photo is the original and undamaged LHF lower grill bracket. Second photo is as the RHF bracket as it was orientated on the later donnor car. When I place my grill on the car its clear that the lower RHF bracket needs to be in the same orientation as the LHF ie both pointing down so this means that there must be a difference in grills on early vs later 240's? Can anyone confirm there is a difference in grills? Thanks.

That's porn Pete!

Good overview of how the Yamaha system works... http://www.yamaha-motor.eu/designcafe/en/about-design/technology/index.aspx?segment=About%20Design%20-%20Technology&view=article&id=442638 I reckon it could be done, you would need to adapt something like the Yamaha stacks and just use a simple RPM triggered stepper motor on the bellcranks. May not be very sophisticated but would be a great exercise. Put your plumbing skills to use if nothing else!

Theres a whole science in inlet optimisation in cars through variable length manifolds and through the motorcycle industry with variable length trumpets . Modern day Moto GP and Superbikes have infinitely variable length trumpets driven by stepper motors from the fly by wire ECU. This has now crept into some production bikes but tends to be either on or off at a set RPM where the top of the trumpets are lifted off the base to give a shorter inlet tract. As you've pointed out many production bikes have different length fixed trumpets to spread the torque curve and make a softer transition when the inlet pressure waves ideally match the cam and exhaust. I reckon you're the man to adapt motorcycle variable length stacks to your FCR's Gareth. Go on, you know you want to.

I saw that post and straight away thought it was suss. Thanks for the heads up Gav.

More....

Next step is to get the drive train back in the car and have the engineers to look at it for the first time but before I do, I need to attend to some rust repairs that became evident after the body was blasted. These are repairs that I wasn't going to pay the panel shop to do when I could do it myself. The LHF apron where the bonnet hinges bolt on has the normal rust issues. Couldn't see it before it was blasted but very evident after. Rather than patch the outer piece I managed to get a good condition donor section which I blasted before priming and welding back on using plug welds where I drilled the original spot welds. I used weld through primer for the first time and was surprised by how well it works, generally any paint will result in average welds with the MIG but it was like welding virgin metal. Very cool but not cheap either. Painted the finished product with a 1K pressure pack etch primer on the advice of the panel shop.