P is for Progress

Tonight we spent about four or five solid hours on the E21 and got some very good progress completed.

I was at Shaun's house helping him with his EB engine transplant/manual converstion etcetera and spotted this bracket lying on a bench. I discovered its provenance to be an intake pipe mount from a Mk 4 Supra and was told I could have it if I liked. It turns out it's a perfect fit for the Bosch 044 with a small piece of rubber wrapped around it.

The night before last, I tidied up the garage a little bit and then drilled & bolted the front support to the car. All I've added since then has been a nut for the brake booster (pictured above) and bolted it on. The big test was to see if brake pedal pressure still moved the front radiator support region - a test it now passes with flying colours!

Lighting is still dismal on account of not having yet made replacement end caps for the fluro light battens I picked up second hand, so to work in the boot we cable tied this light to the boot lid. It's acceptably bright to work by as long as there are places like this to mount it. 

Removed the falcon fuel tank.

Began fitting a bracket I made yesterday from 25mm galvanised RHS. 

Upon checking for level we discovered the boot floor tilts toward the front of the vehicle and consequently had to space the front of the frame up by approx 2".

Level/leaning slightly toward the rear of the car- this is good as once there is fuel in the vehicle and then passenger/driver weight is added it should sit almost completely flat.

Fuel pump installed in bracket. It's wrapped in electrical tape purely to hold the rubber (cut up radiator hose) in place.

Fuel pump mounted. It's hard to see from the picture but it's sitting half way between the tank frame and the boot floor angled down slightly toward the outlet. Here it's also been connected to power and earth.

Shaun discovers the joy of connecting brand new hose onto the new 5/16" fittings. I'm planning on fitting one of these (http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/sum-220171b/overview) 90 degree -8AN male to -8AN female in-line fuel filters between the tank and fuel pump but decided not to wait to do so as the other pump had started playing up (needing a hit on top to work from time to time) and I still need to be able to move the car around.

Shaun is doing up one of the rear bolts that hold the fuel cell in place.

Fully installed with the filler cap removed. 

Filling with the help of an improvised "funnel" 

Backed out of the shed under its own power. One of the wheel bearings or a brake is definitely stuck on. I'd mentioned this in the past but just driving the car seemed to fix it. I think it's worth looking into further now, once I can jack the car up and get the wheels off to work out exactly which is causing the issue.

It may be the front left wheel, as it seemed happy to push the ramp when trying to get the car up them unless Shaun was holding it steady. 

Cutting up some donor (second hand) metal. This was removed from a brand new ute to install a tow-bar. The welded nuts are a perfect fit for falcon engine mount bolts and will fit in nicely as centre bearing mounts for our purpose. 

Here's one in-progress. Some nice heat discolouration on the metal.

 

Shaun offered (read: was coerced) into welding under the car, since I know how much of a pain in the arse it is.

Welding away, he mentioned it would be easier with the back of the car elevated to allow room to turn your head while welding. 

At one point, the light stopped working. Looks like it was victim of some molten metal. Replaced with a 24w compact fluorescent for extra brightness. 

It might not be pretty, but it should work. Here's one side of the centre bearing mount.

 

Here's the other side of the centre bearing mount.

More updates hopefully in the days to come! I think next are revised seat mounting points, clutch pedal stop and gearbox shifter surround/cover sheet metal.