Part 3 - Fuel tank and Brake lines
Since the last site update we've done quite a bit of work on the car. Though
not as much as we would have liked to.
Here we can see the servo and braking system finished. The servo has been
painted, and now all of the brake pipes are fitted. As you will remember,
this is a servo from a K-series Rover Metro, the small cylindrical units
below the servo are pressure limiting valves. They take one of the two outputs
from the servo and split it into two outputs. One of these outputs is directed
to one rear drum, and the other is directed to the opposite side of the
car and the front disk brake. The rear outputs from these units are at a
slightly lower pressure than the front outputs, so, therefore the problem
of rear brake lockup is reduced.
All the brake pipes are now properly held in place by clips mounted to
the chassis itself. Using the K-series braking system has forced us to use
extra sets of brake pipes, but we think its worth it.
To finish off the braking system, we needed some flexible hoses to connect
the rear drums, and also to connect the calipers on the front of the car.
Well, no expense it too great for us (t'yeah, right!) so we ordered, and
had fitted a set of steel braided Goodridge hoses.
If anyone has the money to get these, and they ARE quite a bit of money
(£75 for our set of 4), but they are worthwhile, if only for their cool
looks :-.
The various parts of the car are starting to come together well now!
Next on the to-do list was a petrol tank. We had been quoted anywhere upto
£120 for an alloy tank, and prices for steel tanks range from £60 upwards!
Needless to say, we were contemplating making our own.... I was looking
around the garage one day and walking past the oil trolley (which was about
15 years old) I just glanced at it and realised that the oil containers
on it were almost exactly the right size for the tank! Sorry trolley!
We took one of the containers out and stood it inside the rear chassis section,
it was a fraction too high, but almost perfect!
After having the top section cut off, a baffle made and a top plate constructed
we tried filling it with water to check that it was still sealed, and also
to check its capacity: just over 7 gallons; excellent!
We needed a fuel pump and tank unit to fit before we could finish the tank.
Just a week or so after constructing the tank, we came across someone throwing
out a lot of old parts, these included a set of Austin Princess 4-pot calipers
and a Rover V8 tank unit and pump.
We took a look at the tank unit, and it was the perfect size! Some slight
bending of the fuel sender, and it sat in the top of tank great. We could
now finish the top plate.
The completed panelling of the tunnel We had also completed the most part
of the interior panelling. Also, we had fitted strengthening plates to the
seat belt mounting points inside the tunnel section. The drivers footwell
was proving tricky, however, as with fitting the larger 2L Pinto and 5speed
Type-9 'box left us with a smaller footwell area on either side. We didnt
care about the passenger side; if they dont like it, they can get out and
walk! But we needed extra room on the drivers side.
We came up with the idea of fixing the panelling on the opposite (internal
to the tunnel) side of the drivers footwell, this gives us at least the
width of a chassis tube in extra foot space.
This page updated: 25/Mar/2007