Project Graham: The official motorforum track slag. RIP.

Blarno · Project Graham: The official motorforum track slag. RIP.

Check these babies out. Cobra Clubman seats, fixed backs on Nova subframes: £72. They are really light, too. Couple of fag burns but otherwise mint:

Also got a brand new pair of Sparco 3 point harnesses for £75 delivered. Considering they're over £40 each at Demon Tweeks, I've got a bargain there! Here they are, almost fully fitted into the car. Just wants a few bits of plating and welding to allow them to be bolted in:

.

So far, this project has cost no more than the £300 I originally shelled out for the car. All these bits have been bought on the back of bits I've sold. This stripping out and modding lark is highly addictive, I only need a new steering wheel and the major modification work is done!

.

Bumper and headlights gone aswell?

Blarno

No, I took them off to remove the aircon radiator. I haven't put them back in because I've still got to remove the aircon pump, which is right at the front of the engine and requires removal of the main radiator.

I'd make a fair bit of money for the bumper, though. It's a genuine Irmscher GSi jobby. About £400 new.

.

Oooh. I quite like the Irmscher stuff. Not bad for a Vauxhall realy!

How much does all the air con gubbins actually weight then?

Are you weighing any of this stuff that comes out of Graham?

PR

Are you keeping him road legal, or will he have to be trailered to and from tracks?

Blarno

The main weight in the aircon is the pump and the radiator, both of which are aluminium. The rad was only a couple of kilos. I won't save a huge amount by binning it, but I don't need it on a track car.

I haven't actually weighed all the bits, but I can safely say it's close to 200 kilos. The back seat alone was 50kg, easily. There's loads of shit you don't see, such as soundproofing foam, and that adds a fair chunk of lard.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get it on the weighbridge in the paddock at Oulton and I'll know how much it's lost. It did weigh 1430kg as standard.

ALF

Bookatrack's 205 GTi hire cars got down to a ridiculous weight simply through stripping out the interiors and other non-essential kit. Well worth it for track use...

Blarno

Stuntman

Keeping him road legal will mean that you get much more use out of him, too.

Excellent to see how it's all coming together. You'll have to let us know when Graham's track debut will be (assuming it'll be Oulton) so that we can come along and watch. I'll see if I can book my car on the same trackday and find out whether the Blarno/Graham combo can spank its Germanic behind. I'm hoping it's a dry day!

Blarno

I would guess that whatever the weather, the Porsche would tear me a new arsehole!

If I can, I'll try and sort one before Christmas.

gonnabuildabuggy

Looks good - we'll need a forum meet to see his first outing.

do you think Mrs. Alf might like to try the seats?

Blarno

Mrs ALF? I can't answer that one!

Jo (Mrs Blarno) might like them, however!

Blarno

The new, smaller, steering wheel is now fitted. The cost? A princely £24 off fleabay, plus £40 for the boss adapter. It no longer has the horn in the centre push, and I will have to cancel the indicators myself, but that's no big deal. Looks quite good if I do say so myself:

Turbonutter

Are you doing much work to the suspension/brakes? Looks like it will be a fun car - presume you are keeping the V6 relatively stock?

Blarno

Suspension and brakes are as they were when I bought the car. Brakes are standard, suspension is lowered and stiffened. I may fit some strut braces, but I'm doing it on the cheap. So far, my only outlay over the original purchase price has been £40 for the wheel boss and £10 for a new aux belt. Everything else has been bought with money made from selling bits of the interior, and there's still loads to sell.

Engine is standard apart from the cheapo cone filter that I had left over from the Escort and the full stainless, sounds awesome.

GonnaBreakABuggy

There's a lot more to come out of their yet!

Couple of kilos of wiring too.

Homo erectus

I think Audi will probably miss the option to review Blarno's track-day slag as the direction of interior design in the upcoming A4.

Very impressive - I wonder what a stripped-out A2 would weigh in at...

Blarno

GonnaBreakABuggy

Start the engine and cut wires until it goes off, then fix that one and keep going ;)

"him"

Blarno

It may happen that way yet, Autodata is proving to be somewhat hard to get hold of. (At least an un-corrupt copy is).

I don't need that much wiring there: Only the fuel pump and lights at the back, fusebox, ECU and lights at the front. Trouble is, there's loads of wires, all intertwined and a fair chunk of them are the same colour!

Li'ldude

GonnaBreakABuggy

Ah, I intend to do it to an old bus, you can pick up up for a few hundred these days.

Li'ldude

Yeah. I'm gonna have the ultimate van...

"Wonder if I can get a bed in a Transit Connect..."

Blarno should've put this in Graham:

Shame it's a diesel.

.

GonnaBreakABuggy

Li'ldude

...

Should I be worried?

I very nice bloke called 'Serge' (Same name as one of the Le Mans engineers) did our car when it was on the wrong end of 2 tonnes of American steel. Didn't find anything wrong...

...Or was that anything?

Blarno

Li'ldude

Well, a low-revving V6 kinda suits the cars character.

I asume in the front? What happened to the 'rear-engined Vectra' idea?

Blarno

Rear engine would be a nightmare. Not that trying to shoehorn a V8 in won't be without it's troubles.

I'm talking at least 5 years until any conversion takes place, when the little un is bigger and some pressure is taken off my bank account.

That's assuming I don't destroy it in the meantime.

It's not that low revving, by the way. 24 valve jobby, loves revs.

Li'ldude

Oh...

Sounds like a decent engine.

Sorry about the questions, my last one, but what was the donor car?

GonnaBreakABuggy

Well, if you want any headwork doing on it, you've only to drop it off...

Blarno

GonnaBreakABuggy

Blarno

Charming!

Li'ldude

Oh buggery, sorry, I forgot your Vectra already had the V6...

Blarno

Finally finished removing the aircon today, replaced the auxillary belt and fitted the bonnet pins. This was not without it's problems: The bonnet decided to drop whilst I was drilling, luckily my head stopped it.

EDIT: Note the abscence of the most useless artifact on any car - the front fogs. Genuine GSi foggies go for £50 each new.......

LittleSwill

A man after my own heart, no windsrceen wipers. ;-)

Blarno

Only for the moment, I'm searching for a Citroen ZX to pilfer the wiper motor off: Cheap and effective single wiper conversion, slightly lighter too...

D.

Maybe a CX or even Merc as an option.

Blarno

Don't Mercs have a ridiculously complicated cam to increase the sweep? I think the chances of finding a CX are pretty slim, too.

D.

You're right about the Merc, how about XM then? A few specialists around. Come to think, ZX is sounding like the best option, but just in case.

"him"

Blarno

I would have thought so, I used an AX motor and arm on my 205 and it was only just big enough for that.

Then again, I'm going to be using a Pug 405 wiper arm, as they have the screen washer built onto the arm.

"him"

D.

Fiat Panda was another, though I am just listing cars with single wiper blades, we should start this in another thead really! My wine really is very good!

"him"

LittleSwill

Set up like this little feller -

It looks fast even if it going to make feck all difference.

"him"

Isn't it illegal for a wiper to park like that on a road car?

Blarno

As far as I'm aware, it must clear the entire screen, so it's gonna be a ZX wiper motor with a 405 wiper arm.

I thought it was illegal to have it parked central, too..

M.

Jag XJ6 had a single arm as did the Fiat Uno.

Blarno

Hmmm, my stepdad has an XJ6....

GonnaBreakABuggy

We've got a ZX in the yard but i can't remember if the wiper's still there....

Blarno

Have a look and let me know a price for the motor and arm. Have you got any 405s knocking about?

GonnaBreakABuggy

Yep, but they're Mi16x4's so your not having 'em :D

Be the weekend before I get up to the workshop.

Blarno

No rush, cheers.

Blarno

Eventually got the heater blower and matrix out, after a lot of elbow grease and swearing. Loadsa space under the dash now:

Peekaboo!

Gotta start on this lot next.

LittleSwill

That's an incredible amount of wire. Maybe Phillips idea wasn't so bad after all.

What have you done with your side windows, are they just unopenable now?

Blarno

Currently unopenable at the front, need to drill out the motor mounts and bodge in some manual winders. Rears are manual anyway.

It took me 2 hours today just to remove the airbag wiring and now the bloody thing won't start!

GonnaBreakABuggy

Ah see, my idea was better...

Li'ldude

It was...

Careful Blarno, don't look into its eyes!

Blarno

Any news on that ZX wiper motor, Phillip?

M.

Have you got it running yet? I think I remember the Elise team using a Citroen wiper assembly - I think it was from the BX.

GonnaBreakABuggy

Blarno

Blarno

Took the brakes off today, gonna clean them up, paint the calipers gold and rejuice the system.

GonnaBreakABuggy

Snap - new master cylinder for mine today, so was in the same place, bleeding the system.

Must be national brakes day

Of course, I took the chance to trial fit something else up while I was there....

Now I've got a good few days to reset the geometery

Blarno

Luckily, mine can sit on the axle stands for a couple of weeks. The calipers and hub carriers are being dipped into caustic soda to clean them up before painting. Discs are having the rusty edges machined off. Should work a treat when it's done.

GonnaBreakABuggy

You just like shiny stuff don't you? :D

Looking yours, do the strut bottoms bolt on? Camber bolts?

Blarno

As far as I can tell it's just 2 bolts. I'm assuming it's the same as my Astra was.

I may want strut braces at some point...and droplinks....

GonnaBreakABuggy

Should be able to use some offset bolts to get some more negative camber on the front then.......

Blarno

Hmm, you learn something new every day...

Soulless

Or could spend £50 (£56 and get rear toe adjuster) and get Eibach front and rear camber adjuster bolts.

GonnaBreakABuggy

The changed length will certainly change the distribution of torque.

Blarno

I've stripped off the brakes, dipped them in Gammabutyrolactone and Acetone, wire brushed them and primed them. Caliper carriers are matt black, calipers are going to be gold Hammerite.

I still need to drill the bolts off the front discs so I can remove them and machine the edges of. Disc bells will be matt black, too.

GonnaBreakABuggy

Graphite + matt black paint = better heat transfer....

Racing

1000bhp..........

Blarno

The gold paint is purely aesthetic, as the bonnet pins are gold too. Everyone paints their calipers red, blue (me) or yellow. Never seen gold yet....

GonnaBreakABuggy

They come gold from the factory - zinc coated ;)

Blarno

I'm going for Nissan 350Z-esque gold!

GonnaBreakABuggy

But without the brembo calipers?

You want some of those I've just got in the other thread, come pre-shined

Blarno

Can't afford new stuff! Strict Graham budget apllies!

GonnaBreakABuggy

I'll let you onto a secret.

Mine were 20 quid

Blarno

Ooooh, get me some!

GonnaBreakABuggy

Not much good without matching discs

Blarno

Good point!

Blarno

Official mock-up of what the side exit will probably look like:

Apologies for the crap pic quality, my camera phone has no flash and I have an unsteady hand.

I found 2 off cuts of 2 1/2" stainless pipe, gaffer taped them together and offered them up to the skirt with the trolley jack. There will be a stainless heatshield wrapped around the skirt when it's done.

Blarno: King Of Bodgers!

"him"

Looks good, and should keep the rear tyres warm nice and warm too...

I question how long gaffer tape will last on a wet track day mind...

Blarno

My Belmont was held together in places by gaffer tape! Have you ever tried removing it when it's wet?

I'm purchasing a standard centre section on monday, which I can bodge to allow the side exit. Then I sell the current Janspeed system and make some more money to spend!

Blarno

The single wiper is (almost) on!

It only sweeps as far as the line of blue tape, I'm just hoping that it will satisfy the MOT tester like that.

That and the fact that it'll work at all, I haven't wired it up yet!

Guitar Zero

Erm, it's probably too late to raise this point, but…….

Shouldn't you have kept the heater ?. What if you do a track day/drive it on the road when it's cold or wet, how will you keep the interior from misting up ? Or keep yourself warm ?.

Blarno

There is hole in the firewall and a chuffing great V6 whacking out loads of heat to keep me warm!

That's the theory anyway. Gonna put anti-fog spray on the inside of the windscreen so it doesn't mist up.

GonnaBreakABuggy

If you do a trackday and it's damp in the morning you'll still fog up without something blowing on the window - we've had the same problem all year with the 206 rally car.

Blarno

Ah well. I'll just see how it goes. Or wire in a small fan under the windscreen.

GonnaBreakABuggy

See how it goes, you've a fair bit more air flowing through a much bigger cabin than ours - the firewall is right behind our seats:

So once your both in there's not much space for airflow!

Blarno

The side exit:

D.

Very cool.

Guest

bang on e !!!

looking good !!!!!

TimR

Won't the side exit melt the plastic sill?

On the gold calipers front I've read & seen photos that the Brembos on Fiat Coupes go gold at trackdays if you get enough heat into them.

Sadly they go all silver again after a few hours.

Blarno