Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

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Richardab1967
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Richardab1967 »

Rob,

Very exciting. For me it was a really great moment when the dash all lit up, felt like the car was now alive!

Cheers
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by AccidentalGenius »

Great to see it all 'come to life'. Must be a fantastic feeling.

Next stop is to start the engine i guess???

Thanks for the continued updates on your progress, it helps to see and understand the issues you have to overcome and also works as additional motivation - not that i am lacking much right now but that may change as it gets colder and colder in the barn!!!
Pre-a 356 Coupe (Speedster Clinic Replica)
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Glyn »

Great progress Rob!
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

A small update, made some progress on the dashboard recessed area where the modern electronics will go (DAB Radio and hands-free Phone controller Heater Controller, USB Ports, MAP Switch & remote connector for Emerald ECU to allow for easy mapping from inside the car. I still have a bit of filling and rubbing down to do to finish it but am now happy that I can hide the modern electronics behind something that is more in keeping with the overall look of the dashboard. I have not sorted the mounting of the front panel but will do this with black cap head bolts from the back and magnets super glued on the rear of the removable panel. I will also be adding a brushed aluminium Outlaw badge to the front of the removable panel like the one below, but waiting for the next manufacturing slot before I get this.

Image20191015_104749

Image20191015_104854

Imageoutlaw badge

I also had a bit of help from Richard one of the contributors on here who is also building a Pre A Speedster Clinic Coupe and he has managed to solve the problem of what to do about the ashtray in the dash. Secondhand originals are non existent and the reproductions start at about £550 plus shipping, so I was going to use a modified Beetle ashtray, but the size was wrong, and it did not have a lip and needed quite a lot of work to make it fit. Richard however has worked out through hours of Google research that a rear ashtray from BMW 2.5CS-3.0CSL E24 635CSi can have the plastic front removed and can be made to look just like an original. I have purchased one off of EBAY for the princely sum of £37 all the way from Australia and when it arrives I will post some details of how it fits. Many thanks Richard for sharing your research on this.

This is the raw BMW ashtray

ImageAshtray

This is the original Ashtray in a dashboard

ImageWP_20160607_10_24_07_Pro_zpsvzikxiiy

These pictures are Courtesy of Richard that show the ashtray in his dash which I think is very similar to the original

Imageimage2

Imageimage3
Robneal
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

Few More updates on things that I have completed:

1. Sorted the vacuum pump problem that I had at the front of the car with the pump running every few seconds by replacing the non return valve, it still kicks in a few times when it starts up, but it soon settles down...easy fix, all be it it is a bit of a pain to get to under the front of the car.

2. Replaced the Dash warning light bulbs as when the ignition was on and the lights were on for a while the the aluminium bezels round the lights became too hot to touch. The bulbs were supposed to be 2.2 W bulbs according to the description on the car builder solution website, but when I took the bulbs out they were actually 4W. Just got some replacement bulbs from my local auto store and now just get luke warm.

3. I have made the kick panel for the Passengers side foot well out of a 50cm square 3mm aluminium plate. THis needed a bit of fettling to fit, but was relatively easy, I have some 6.5 inch speakers that I will be mounting in these panels, but as the depth of the recess behind the panel is only 2 inches, I needed to order some spacers to pack out the speakers a little so they can be fitted, these arrived today so a job for when I next get some time on the car.

Image20191031_144246_001

Image20191031_144459

Image20191031_144503

4. I have also mounted an HERTZ amp in the front to drive the speakers on a alloy plate that handily is almost the same size as the plumbed in Fire Extinguisher bracket that is mounted under the hood above the amp. This is quite a neat install and will be hidden behind the lower gauge pod when that is installed so will be invisible from the inside, but still relatively easy to get to if I need to.

Image20191031_144508_001

Image20191031_144513

5. I was also not happy with the sweep of the Windscreen wipers as they didn't clear enough of the screen, so replaced the 95 degree wheel with a 110 degree wheel in the mini wipers and now when the windscreen is wet then the wipers clear as much as they possibly could, so should now be an IVA pass.

6. Also fitted the Windscreen washer jets, just black plastic IVA compliant ones.

Image20191031_144216_001

7. Lastly fitted the wing mirrors - after seeing Adams wing mirrors on his car at Speedster Clinic, I really liked them so have fitted Vitaloni California wing mirrors to both doors which I think when body colour will look great.

Image20191101_123141

Image20191101_123150_001

Image20191101_123208_001

Lastly just a few general pictures of where I am with the car, as you can see I have tried the Matt Silver wheel on the back of the car and a dramatic improvement on the red...

Image20191101_123134

Image20191101_123126

Image20191101_123726

Image20191101_123741

Back at work now so will not make so much progress over the next few weeks. IVA is looking like 2020 now and not 2019...
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Bootsy »

Looking good
1972 911T | 1994 993 Carrera | 1999 986 Boxster | 1990 T25 Camper

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Robneal
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

OK so have made some progress but not a lot over the winter months.... The car went to Harry Harpics down in Rayleigh for them to sort the engine issues with the leaking oil from the pushrod tubes and then too get it started, however with my lack of experience with Emerald ECU's we can get it to catch but not fire up....probably something fundamental but now think the best thing to do is ship it to Emerald and get them to set it up as they are the experts in their ECU and it has to get rolling roaded at some point so will let them set the engine up. The good thing about the Emerald ECU is that it can run multiple MAPs, so I will have one for performance and one for Normal driving.
Still a whole load of things to do when it finally gets home but hopefully the weather will improve soon and I will be driving it this summer :)
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Fuchs915
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Fuchs915 »

Great work Rob and glad you have re-found work. I do like what you have done with the lights on the rear of your car, amongst a number of other bits I like. Fingers crossed it'll spring to life soon. Are the vitalonis IVA compliant or do you have some test mirrors that you'll use? Keep up the good work.
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

Yeah pretty sure the mirrors will be IVA compliant as they pass all the radius requirements and they move vertically up and down so have a kind of breakaway motion but as everything the IVA rules are not completely clear so I'm going to try it and see how I get on...post some updates on yours too.

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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

I had another couple of goes at starting the car whilst it was at Harry Harpic's, but it was still not ready to start. One problem I did resolve was that I had fitted the wrong coil. I had fitted an MSD one from a late Mini and thought that a coil was a coil (as it was i the good old days), but the Mini one actually runs coil on plug so effectively half the coil function is in the coil and half is in the plug-lead cap. Swapped it out for a Ford ENDIS coil which is what Emerald recommend and tried to start it again. This time my laptop would not connect to the ECU and I couldn't communicate in any form, so gave up at that point and handed it over to the professionals. Once at Emerald they quickly found I had only got 2 things wrong: I had the timing set 40 degrees out (likely to have been me playing with it when I was trying to get it started) and I had the wrong spark plugs installed and they did not have the resistors on them as used in modern cars. Emerald got is started in no time at all and then put the car on the rolling road and gave her a good tune up. This is the Printout of the rolling road and I am very happy with the performance figures as I was hoping for 120BHP....

Image20200320_162552 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Back home again and we are now in COVID 19 Lock-down, so stuck at home, but I have plenty of work on so not got much time to work on the car, but did take it out for a cheeky spin round the block on some all but deserted roads to see how shee drove.....

First Video was filmed by my daughter in the passengers seat through a very dirty windscreen.

ImageVID-20200324-WA0062 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Second one was by my neighbor who filmed me coming up the road.....

Image1585083256383_VID-20200324-WA0065 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

I was really pleased with how the car drove, the fuel injection meant that it pulled really cleanly from relatively low revs and the engine has bags of Torque and drives much more like a modern car than an old car with carburetors. The 3.44 diff was also evident as with a relatively powerful engine and loads of torque the acceleration was rapid and although I only got into third gear I feel that it will sit well at motorway speeds without being at 5000 revs.
Suspension felt good too, steering not too bad although the turning circle is rubbish, but I can live with that as it only really effects maneuvering at low speeds.

So now on to the final list of things to do before it goes for IVA...but cant really spend much money on the car at the moment as my wife's business is on hold with the Covid 19 issues, but fortunately there is plenty I can do in the meantime to get lots of the little things sorted.

Things to do List
1. Refit accelerator pedal as it wouldn't allow full throttle due to the pedal hitting the bulkhead, think this should just be a case of pushing the pedal mount back a little....
2. Refit door frame on passengers side as it is not quite back far enough.
3. Refit door frames to doors using different mounting brackets.
4. Make and fit inner door strengthening panels.
5. Fit internal door handles
6. Fit door top capping's internal
7. Fit door capping's and window scrapers external
8. Fit spacer washers under seats to stop the seat-belts rubbing on seats
9. Measure wheel circumference and document evidence for getting speedometer calibrated
10. Resolve oil pressure gauge problem as it indicates oil pressure goes down when the engine revs.
11. Check operation of oil temperature gauge to ensure it works
12. Fit drivers side kick panel
13. Fit speakers into kick panels
14. Fit sound deadening throughout the car
15. Fit foam protection around roll-bar
16. Fit heater blower pipes
17. Fit door seals around doors
18. Fit under bonnet seals
19. Fit engine lid seals
20. Fix small oil leak on oil cooler fittings
21. Refit all engine tinware
22. Get speedometer calibrated
23. Fit speedometer cable
24. Make inner door panels
25. Make permanent fixings for the dashboard
26. Fit cover panel for center of dashboard
27. Find out why vacuum pump for servo is not working
28. Fit DAB Radio
29. Bleed brakes
30. Sort out gutters to see if I can make them round enough to pass IVA
31 Fit ashtray to dashboard
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Bootsy »

Great update
1972 911T | 1994 993 Carrera | 1999 986 Boxster | 1990 T25 Camper

Vintage Heuer, Omega, Zenith and other vintage watches - http://www.heuerheritage.co.uk
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by greg356a »

Coupe is looking really good, any update on progress?
1963 Karmann Ghia
1959 356A Coupe Outlaw
1957 3.2 Speedster replica
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

Not a lot of progress has been achieved as with COVID-19 Lockdown I have been working on a government project that has kept me fairly busy and then the Garden did its usual thing at this time of the year and went mad so spent a month taming that back under control and am only now starting to look at my long list of things to do

So I have ticked off a few of the job on my list.... I sorted the vacuum pump - fairly simple as someone had just disconnected the switch connector so this is now connected back up and all now works again.

The pedal box was a different story as the problem with that was the accelerator pedal was not able to achieve full throttle before the top of the accelerator hit the firewall and also there was a big difference between the alignment of the clutch and brake pedals and the accelerator pedal making pedal operation awkward. One thing that was missing on the Speedster Clinic chassis was some captive nuts welded into the flat plate floor-pans for where the accelerator pivot needs to bolt to the floor, so when the pedal was originally installed it was mounted too far back hence hitting the firewall. I took the pedals out completely and started again and by using the adjustment in the pedal holes on the pedal to tunnel mounting, by slightly reducing the length of the brake push rod and by moving the accelerator bottom pivot forward by about an inch then i got the pedals to a much better place and now operate smoothly. I also had to add an additional throttle return spring on the passenger side of the tunnel as the throttle return was a bit slow. Not really that much to see, but a few photos of the pedals as they are now and the new throttle return spring... Still need to make a cover for the additional throttle return spring so carpet does not effect its operation when installed


url=https://flic.kr/p/2j6JgQ6]Image[/url]20200529_094357_001 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Image20200529_094756 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Image20200529_094804_001 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

I have also mounted the speakers in the aluminium kick panels that I have made and they have turned out quite well.

Image20200529_094418 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Image20200529_094433 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Have also mounted the rear ashtray from the BMW E24 into the dash and added rivnuts to the dashboard and now it is easier to take in and out...

Image20200529_094452 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

Image20200529_094500 by Rob Neal, on Flickr

That's about it for progress for the moment... next jobs are to sort the door fitment out and to make a single bracket that holds the Amplifier, triple gauge pod and also acts as a brace for the bottom of the dash as a central fixing point. Will be sure to add some photos as I go on these two items...
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by Robneal »

Well its been a while and progress has been very slow but not stationary largely because my garage at home is about to fall down and it has taken me 2 years to get permission to build a new Double garage which will be built in April May 2022. In the mean time I shipped my car off to my parents house which is about 8 miles away and as there is limited facilities for making things there it is a back and forwards every time I want to make bits for the car. Realistically I will not be doing anything on the car till after it comes home in May, but then I intend to get on with finishing the work for IVA and get it road worthy this summer then over the winter I will look to get it painted and the interior fitted - both outsourced jobs...

The post below is a summary of what I have done on the car since my last post and was saved as a draft along time ago and I don't have that many photos but I will add some next time I go up to see the car...

Had a few days on the car last week an did quite a few little bits...

New Amplifier Bracket combined with bottom dash brace
The original bracket for the amplifier that mounted the Hertz HCP2 amplifier under the dash was good, but after permanently fixing the dash at the sides I really needed to provide a bottom fixing for the dash. The fiberglass although it is nice and thick is still a little flexible so wanted to add a brace at the middle at the bottom of the dash to stop it vibrating. As a bit of luck the amplifier bracket is in direct line with the bottom lip of the dash so rather than make a separate bracket I just made a new extended bracket that I also mounted the 3 gauge pod to as well. Quite please with this...


Oil Pressure Gauge
Temporarily wired up the Oil Pressure gauge so I can see what the actual oil pressure is. Not going to post a pic of the wiring as it is a bit untidy at the moment but can now see the oil pressure working properly on the Autometer gauge.


We have sounds
Wired in the speakers to the amp and tested the DAB radio and all works fine, but the system is a bit lacking in bass so need to work out how I can add a sub somewhere in the tiny car. Think it has to be i the rear behind the rear seats, so will look out on EBay for a suitable solution - Update have added a Kenwood under-seat Sub behind the rear seats and wired it in. Also ditched the Pure DAB radio as even when sat in the drive it had poor radio reception so moved to a bluetooth receiver that I have mounted hidden up behind the dash and will use my phone for both Radio and Playlist support. Have tested the whole set-up and it now gives a fairly reasonable sound quality and that's without all of the sound deadening and carpets in.

Screen Washers
Fixed the problems with the screen washers, two problems....Firstly the Alloy washer bottle outlet was a bit small and therefore the hose clamp did not do up tightly and it leaked. A bit of heat shrink round the outlet was enough to expand the diameter of the outlet so the hose clamp did up tightly and stopped the leak.
Second problem was a question of priming the pump, just disconnected the non-return valve and ran the water through so that it was squirting out of the pump and then reconnected the non return valves. Working a treat now.

Re-fitting of door
So I started looking at the door and started with the drivers door. The problems I had were:
1. Door was a little proud in one area so needed to pull it in to ensure when it was ready for paint the door did not have to move, also needed to fit the door in its final position first before I changed the final position of the door frame.
2. Door frame was too far forward so gap on B pillar was too big.

This is the phased approach I am undertaking with re-fitting all aspects of the door:
1. Fit door to final position in door aperture
2. Fit door frame to align with B pillar and front edge
3. Cut out fiberglass inner strengthening to give extra clearance for window / door mech
4. Remove protruding fiberglass parts on top of door
5. Cut the inner aluminium strengthening panel to rough shape
6. Trial fit inner and outer Door capping / window scraper holder
7. Fit inner door handle
8. connect inner door handle to door mech
9. Finalist trimming of inner strengthening panel
10. Bolt aluminium strengthening panel to door
11. Refit window and electric window mechanism
12. Make door card

Move to second door and repeat with lessons learned

Fitting the door frame

It was a real pain and was a 2 person job as to get the door fitted, it took some uneven packing behind the top hinge with large washers to get the desired fit, and although not perfect, the door is now in the best position in terms of fit in the hole and in the overall plain of the body. One thing to be aware of is to ensure the holes in the door are slightly larger than necessary so you have wiggle room to micro adjust the door.

Next was fitting the door frame, I have original Porsche door frames and these had been bolted to the inside of the door with adjustment nuts at the bottom and the original frames have short threaded holes on the back of the frames where they go through the top of the door to allow them to be fixed top and bottom. I re-made a bracket for the front lower mounting so that it could be attached to the bottom of the door and be fully adjustable up and down and left and right with a bolt going through the hole to secure it to the bottom of the frame. I then had to cut a square section out the back of the door for the rear frame mount to pass through the fiberglass as else I could not get the frame to move far enough back to align to the B pillar. Lastly I made a bracket for the front of the door frame to allow it to be bolted to the upper inner panel of the door. I was then able to finely adjust the door frame to get it to fit extremely well in the door aperture

Next I cut out a fair amount of the fiberglass inner door to remove the protruding bits in the inner door and made an aluminium panel to replace it out of 2 mm Aluminium sheet, I then temporarily bolted this to the inner door skin to allow me to fine fit the inner and outer door capping.

I then fitted inner door handles from a splitscreen van and screwed them to the inner aluminium skin

Next I added 2 x riv-nuts to the top of the aluminium inner frame facing outwards to allow the inner door capping to be screwed in to the right place.

I then added Silent coat sound deadening to the outer door skin and refitted the electric window mech and window.

With new window channel and the Electric window mechanism in place the window works a treat.

So I have finished the drivers door and ended up using classic mini internal door mechanisms for the internal operation method as the Split screen mech did not have a great positive feel and the mini is 10 times better. I ended up resin bonding some rivnuts to the door for the door mech to screw too, but not sure this is a great long term solution but will wait and see how resilient it is.

I have also mounted the rear seats in the car, manufacturing some brackets that allow them to be bolted in place - most of the bracketry will eventually be hidden under the carpet...

will add photos when I remember how to do it and can get them to auto upload from my phone...
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Re: Burnt Pig - 356 Pre a Build Thread

Post by greg356a »

That sounds like a lot of progress to me.

I guess its all part of the fun of home built even if its at two homes :)

Look forward to seeing pictures and maybe seeing it in the flesh one day soon
1963 Karmann Ghia
1959 356A Coupe Outlaw
1957 3.2 Speedster replica
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