Windscreen mounts

We recently popped the scuttle on to drill the windscreen mount holes. For some reason this was a job we'd really been putting off. Something to do with a complete lack of hand eye co-ordination and the fact that now that parts are painted we live in fear of scratches and dings (despite the fact that when we first drive it its bound to get stone chips everywhere!)

However, by using very small pilot drills bits for accuracy and a pair of calipers to check the distance between the holes on the mounting bracket, it all went without much loss of life. Drilling into your pride and joy still feels very wrong though - similar to the dashboard experience - and we were glad when it was all over.

Gauges

As with all builds we've had a bit of a hiatus while we wait for bits and pieces to turn up. Since the gauges arrived we decided to slot them in along with a few dash board lights.

The gauges are Stack items, which are black faced and therefore fairly traditional, but they're also backlit, which looks pretty cool.

As suspected not all the sizes matched up. For the dash light this was easy to fix as it just involved a step drill, but the tacho was a different matter as the hole needed to be shifted right as well as being enlarged. An old school compass, a bit of card, some masking tape and a metal file later and all was serene. It's not very relaxing atttacking your carbon fibre-like dash board and I was glad when it was over!

Exhaust headers

Remember the hole we cut in the body work? Well, today we fitted the exhaust headers and we've been relieved to find that it is indeed in the right place to allow them to exit.

The cardboard template was spot on and we are very pleased with the result.

We also fitted the drive shaft which was a simple process and at last the sum of scattered parts is starting to resemble a real car.

Engine in!

Another big day yesterday. The front of the car was lifted and the engine/ and transmission was rolled underneath. It was surprisingly easy with just two people. The front of the car was lowered by increments and the engine nudged forward and back to clear each potential obstruction, and in the end the process passed relatively free of Anglo-Saxon language. Finally, the gear box needed to be lifted with a trolley jack to slide into the tunnel and that was it.

I wish I could say the same for actually attaching the engine to the chassis. The bolts were very difficult to align and changes in the attitude of the engine when hanging from the crane were difficult to achieve accurately. After almost crossing one set of threads we decided food and wine were more important and left it for the night to come back fresh the next day for a final assault.

Wheels!

A big day today. With the help of Brenton from Meridian, who very kindly lent a hand, we lifted the car off the build table and fitted the wheels. Once we got over the excitement of pushing the chassis up and down the garage we raised it onto axle stands so we can start fitting gauges and working on the ancillaries.

 The more observant will notice the tyres are not all fitted correctly - we only spotted this when we got them back from balancing. However the garage that did it are more than happy to rectify the situation and it won't be long before the treads all face the right way.

Steering and Transmission

After wrestling with the slave cylinder position we needed some fun so we've attached our steering wheel. It's a 300mm Sparco with suede covering. We've also gone with a detachable mounting which will make getting in and out easier and hopefully add a bit of security. The boss was welded on by Meridian and as ever they've done a fantastic job.

Fun over, we bolted on the clutch, which has a slightly uprated pressure plate and is pink. Why, I don't know, but it looks mean all the same. That done we finally bolted the gearbox to the engine and now we have a form of propulsion. Almost.....

Gearbox and Flywheel

We're using a Sierra Type 9 gearbox courtesy of Eurospeed Motorsport. It's a close ratio 'box with a low range first plus a few other upgrades. We also went for the short shift lever which has a great action and finally couldn't resist adding a billet gear knob.

They have also supplied us with a lightened flywheel which is dwarfed by the original dual mass item. As a result our clutch slave cylinder needed bringing forwards on spacers which precipitated repeated assemblies and dismantling, but eventually we got it right. We also needed to widen the aperture in the bell housing with the trusty Dremmel to allow for the repositioned clutch hose and bleed pipe.

Tyres and wheels

The tyres and wheels arrived the other day and they are frankly beautiful. The alloys were supplied by Performance Alloys in Northern Ireland and the guys there were very helpful indeed. Not just in their advice when sorting out the correct offset and PCD etc but also by sending us real pictures of the alloys to help in decision making. Manufacturer's images are so artistically lit that you can't tell at all what the wheel really looks like.

The alloys themselves are OZ Ultraleggera in Matt Graphite Silver and are now sitting in our spare room along with sundry bits of bodywork. The tyres are Toyo R888 GGs which should be a nice compromise between track and road use. Did we mention that they are beautiful? Can't hurt to say it again. They are beautiful.

Body loom and relay box

This caused more head scratching as there is no set way to install the loom. We fashioned a bracket for the relay and fuse box from sheet aluminium, padded the back with strip foam and bolted it into a likely looking hole. Once we had decided on a route for the wiring to take, we enlarged some of the internal holes and covered the edges with rubber stripping to prevent rubbing - the external holes into the engine bay already had grommets.

The wiring for the gauges and switches was cable tied behind the dash as suggested by previous Birkin builders and the front end wiring tied along internal chassis tubing to the left of the engine bay

Rear Uprights

The half shafts and rear uprights have been bolted on in the last few days, along with the rear brake lines. We decided to change the rubber hoses for braided metal ones - both for improved pedal feel and ..... they just look cool. The rear anti roll bar was installed at the same time and put up little fight.

We've also attached the front callipers to the uprights. There was a spacer included in the kit which we didn't realise was unnecessary until after we had thread locked the first one in. Mental note - don't get carried away with the torque wrench until after you've dry fitted everything.

Rear Suspension Arms

Fitting the arms caused a lot of head scratching as the spacer washers are a very tight fit. A compact mirror was useful to view the progress and it also helped to pass the bolts through first a few times to ease passage later.

Sandwiching them in place as you offered up the arm seemed to work well - with a few episodes of them pinging off across the garage at the last minute.....boundless joy with cold fingers!

We used Phillips screw drivers to roughly position and hold the brackets, arms and washers in place, but even so it was very hard to get alignment good enough as the washers are so tightly clamped. A pair of needle nosed pliers gently tapped with a mallet proved the solution to getting the spacers exactly aligned and at last the bolts were in position.

Rubber mallets - what can't they solve?

Differential

Having bolted in the handbrake D-plate the rear differential was mounted. This one is a Subaru limited slip 4.4 and it's a simple matter of bolting on the mounting brackets and sliding it into place.

We covered all the metal work with old towels as it weighs a fair bit and even with two people it is awkward to manipulate. Colourful language filled the air as it swung at the paintwork for the umpteenth time!

Front Suspension and New Sump

A new shallow wet sump was ordered from Raceline in the UK and that went on while we were waiting for the bodywork to return. It's a beautifully engineered bit of kit which will mean less trouble from speed humps than the original casting.

We also got a new horizontal oil filter mount from them for similar reasons along with an 84 C bypass thermostat to replace the higher temperature Ford item.

And finally we're bolting bits on the chassis itself.  The anti roll bar was a tight fit and required a few tries and many unboltings of previoulsy bolted bits but we now have somewhere to put wheels (at the front at least.)

Bodywork returns

The bodywork is now back from Rankin's Restorations in Bayswater and it looks incredible. The guys went to great trouble to ensure everything was masked exactly how we wanted it and the finish is like a mirror - we really can't thank them enough.


The base coat is a Jaguar Racing Green circa 1960 (Herbert/Standox 79564 BRC) and the nose and stripe an Alfa Romeo white. It took a while to decide on the colours and to track down the original codes but the effect is beautiful.

Pity there's no room in the lounge otherwise.....!

Cutting bodywork for exhaust

Many approaches to this according to forums and the web. Experience to date in each - zero. We went for a Dremel and used a coarse toothed cutting wheel for the rough cut inside the template. Once the hole was large enough we placed some clamps on the cut edges to damp vibrations, and then used a high speed cutter (no. 134 I think) to approach up to the final line. The edge was finished off with a metal file.

After practicing on a piece of aluminium sheeting we marked out the side using the Birkin template over some masking tape and cut away.

The end result looks fine and the process was repeated for the petrol filler cap, as we've gone for an after market one. Once we'd stripped the chassis of fuel tank and fittings, given it a quick clean up and taken a few pics, it was onto a trailer and off to the painters.

The Engine arrives

We decided on the 2.0L Ford duratec - there's a large pool of knowledge in the community on making these run outside of their donor cars now, so hopefully we'll be reaping the benefits of its all alloy block and not cursing its mental electrics.

Ours came from Allfords Auto Wreckers in Braeside, VIC and we can't speak highly enough of their services. They made sure we got everything we needed and were helpful and friendly throughout.

After arrival we got down to mounting it on its stand, stripping the ancillaries and cleaning it.

The Chassis arrives

Towards the end of January the chassis arrived, courtesy of Meridian Motorsport, along with lots of wrapped up bits of suspension arms, brakes and callipers. We're hugely grateful to Brenton for delivering it himself - all of the guys at Meridian have been extremely helpful and patient with the hundreds of questions we've had, so thank you one and all!

Even in this rudimentary state it looks great and

many hours have been spent just staring at it.

With a few MDF boards bolted to the delivery frame and the help of a mate the chassis was raised ready for us to begin.

The Garage

We started this build in January 2010 but as we have only just got the blog up and running there is a bit of catching up to do.

First off we painted the garage white - it's made a huge difference to the light levels and makes us feel just like F1 engineers. Bit surprised Ross Brawn hasn't called yet. He must be away.