Current Build Status

OK. All moved into the new garage and now ready to do some work.

First things first, so I'll give a quick update on what I have managed to get done since stripping the Tiger down last year.

Chassis

The chassis has all been hand stripped down of the various layers of paint and powdercoat to the bare metal. This was mainly done with lots of paint stripper, wire brushes, etc.
If you are planning to rebuild a chassis I would strongly recommend you get the chassis dipped, blasted or use another method to strip the paint off. Doing it by hand is completely soul destroying and life is just too bloody short!

A quick coat of POR 15's Metal Ready from Frosts meant that the chassis was protected from rust, but could still be welded without any issues.
The task of welding up every single rivet, rivnut and bolt hole on the chassis now began. I had decided from the beginning that I was going to do this rebuild properly so I knuckled down and slowly I have reached the stage where I 'think' I have welded every hole on the chassis that wasn't specifically needed.

While doing this I also extended the passengers side engine mount to fit the new mounting position of the Zetec along with adding a piece of chassis in the passengers footwell which had mysteriously been cut out by the Cats previous owner!

There's a bit of grinding to be done, but eventually the chassis has got to the stage where it can be repainted (using POR 15 Rust Preventative Paint).



Engine

The preperation of the engine has progressed better than the chassis in many ways although less time has certainly been spent on it.

The list of jobs done so far are as follows:
- Block stripped of paint and repainted Matt Black with High Temperature Paint from Halfords.
- Oil pump stripped, inspected, new Front Crankshaft Oil seal fitted
- Rear Crankshaft Oil Seal fitted
- 1.8 Zetec Water pump (to get around the problems of running the 2.0 pump the wrong way with the new Auxiliary belt setup)
- 1.8 Zetec Flywheel bought but not yet fitted. (8.2Kg as opposed to 9.9kg for the 2.0 version)
- Shortened Scholar Sump bought from a friend in EATOC (Thanks Nial!) who had uprgaded to a Raceline unit.
- ST170 Inlet Manifold with GSXR750 Throttle Bodies fitted. Bodies have been respaced, and the linkages have been extended to match the different port spacing of the Zetec. I will go into this in more detail on a seperate post. The Sparks and Fuelling will be controlled with Megasquirt which I used on my previous throttle body install on the Pinto. Although I could use the GSXR750 fuel rail (after a bit of lengthening), I have decided to use the ST170 Fuel Rail. The holes for the GSXR injectors will be bunged for the moment but these can be added at a later date if need.
Fuel delivery duties will be handled by a Golf GTI fuel pump. This is a handy unit combining pump and swirl pot that I also used on the Pinto install.

Steering

Having driven a friends Avon, I was determined that I would fit a quick rack when I put the Cat back together. After missing a few on Ebay I eventually managed to get hold of a Cortina Quick Rack (2.5 Turns) off Ebay for a bargain price of 21 quid!
I had a 200 mile round trip to collect the rack but I think it is going to be well worth it when fitted.