The everlasting ph1 ITB Build **GREEN-BUILD STARTS AT PAGE 100**

[Nafoff]

Have you got a hair colour shot of pre build, current state and expected colour post build?

that would be unfair as since then I have had a new mrs/now wife too....

 

[JamesBryan]

Those welds on the hinges were just tack welds ?

 

[NorthloopCup]

Those welds on the hinges were just tack welds ?

You spelt s**t wrong mate.

 

[JamesBryan]

You spelt s**t wrong mate.

?

Do you know what happened to JC Weldfab Neil?

Reading the Facebook post it sounds like he has been forced to close and not by choice.

 

[Nafoff]

You spelt s**t wrong mate.

Yeah a bit cheesed I handed over the money as I say...

? Do you know what happened to JC Weldfab Neil?
Reading the Facebook post it sounds like he has been forced to close and not by choice.

So I think the JCWeldfab name went with Jon (who was 1 director), and has left. I believe JCWeldfab as a building/location is still present now as Alpha Performance Fabrications being run by Michael (who was the other director). Not sure why any of it happened though

 

[JamesBryan]

So I think the JCWeldfab name went with Jon (who was 1 director), and has left. I believe JCWeldfab as a building/location is still present now as Alpha Performance Fabrications being run by Michael (who was the other director). Not sure why any of it happened though

Ahh right.

Where is the car going now for the work?

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

Great work you doing there mate. It’s a pleasure to read every time
Regarding hinges, I think the way you wanted them to attach to doors was always a slightly wrong way of doing it. They are light but not that light. No amount of weld around studs will hold them in place. I mounted mine (same as you last idea) spreader plates on the inside with nuts welded on. Drilled holes on the hinges and m10 8.8 counter sunk bolts.

Also, about how you mounted your dash.
Did you mount/check visibility while seated in the seat and steering attached?
Reason why I am asking is i almost made a mistake of making nearly identical plate to mount mine. But at the last minute when sat in the seat realised that top of the steering wheel was blocking it. And there was no space up or down to shift it. So ended up mounting to column instead.

this was solution instead. And brought closer to the driver for better visibility

I am sure you have seen the final result

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[RuskiWeldFab]

Ps. Shame about jcweldfab. They were good! Did my exhaust on my RS4 and basic cage on the Clio.


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[Nafoff]

Great work you doing there mate. It’s a pleasure to read every time
Regarding hinges, I think the way you wanted them to attach to doors was always a slightly wrong way of doing it. They are light but not that light. No amount of weld around studs will hold them in place. I mounted mine (same as you last idea) spreader plates on the inside with nuts welded on. Drilled holes on the hinges and m10 8.8 counter sunk bolts.

Thank you for the kind words mate, good of you to say. Yeah I think I was probably wrong from the outset on the hinges but hadn't really become apparent until now when I am needing to hang them. Oh well, taking it as a learning... Glad I am on the right approach now.

Also, about how you mounted your dash.
Did you mount/check visibility while seated in the seat and steering attached? Reason why I am asking is i almost made a mistake of making nearly identical plate to mount mine. But at the last minute when sat in the seat realised that top of the steering wheel was blocking it. And there was no space up or down to shift it. So ended up mounting to column instead. View attachment 1403335this was solution instead. And brought closer to the driver for better visibility. I am sure you have seen the final result View attachment 1403338

Glad we had the same idea on the dash, ha. I was constantly in and out of the car checking it yes mate, wasn't going to get stung with that one. Since spacing the column down slightly it does start to encroach a tiny bit (literally the smallest amount) on the dash but I am also not sure I am totally happy with how low I have put the wheel now, I may end up spacing it back up a bit. I bet you are a fair bit taller than me too? I am 5'11"

I like your second design, how is the bracket attached to the column, welded on?

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

I am 6”4’ so yeah a little taller [emoji1787]
It’s attached to column with a roll bar bracket from eBay. And a second support to prevent flex.

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[Nafoff]

I am 6”4’ so yeah a little taller [emoji1787]
It’s attached to column with a roll bar bracket from eBay. And a second support to prevent flex.

Nice design, really neat.
Mine has a bit of flex currently so it may be something I address in phase 2, but I really need to get the car built and usable first.

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
This week should visually see some big steps. At the end of the week the window fitter is coming so there is a push to get things ready for that. I am going to hang the doors tomorrow probably but last night I fitted the superseal connectors to my new Ricky Evans heated windscreen, that is now ready to go in the car.

I also sorted some of the little wiring jobs that needed doing in the engine bay. I needed to extend the loom for the Air temp sensor as my airbox has it in the end side panel (the opposite side to the original connector). It now has its own mini loom. It was at this point that I also noticed that my throttle position sensors wires were showing through the casing. Not keen on this I ordered another today.

Speaking of hanging the doors, it was 100% the best plan to remove the hinges and let Beaniesport work their magic on them. Studs removed, hinges drilled and then laced with countersunk bolts - these were then welded to make them captive.... they look great and should hopefully prove a lot more reliable.

The main plan today was to get the car back to where it was around a week ago - so with the subframe back on... This was a bit of a faff by myself (any tips kindly taken) but I got there in the end. All bolted back up and each corner all bolted back up, also a bit of a faff this time around was the steering column joint - but again after a bit of patience this went in.

With the corners all bolted back up the NEW brake pads could go in... these look a bit better than the last ones.

A couple of weeks back when I picked up the wheels @Coops Mk1 also gave me this mini oil catch tray, this also covers the linkage so should help protect it a little.

Once these items were sorted I wanted to get a good start on re-adding items back in the engine bay, the main part of it was the water system (rad and hoses).
First up I mounted the radiator...

Then worked out the hose routings. When I removed all the samco's I still had a heater so was unsure how they routed without. I had already sorted the 180deg bend I needed and the hose coupler so set about it....

Very please with how its all gone. Nice and neat, turns out I just lose a whole section of hose... I guess thats right?

I am happy with all but one hose routing, the piece that goes to the water pump - on mine it is pushing hard against the bolt on the bottom mount of my airbox, I am pretty sure it needs to pass through the mount - hard to describe but will get pics tomorrow (although you can kind of see it in the second picture below).

The reason I need to redo this is I did the hoses first whilst I had space, then I added the lower part of the airbox. Prior to adding the airbox I oiled the ITG filter before setting it into the airbox casing and bolting up the bottom section.

Jobs a good'un....

Also ordered today as well as the new TPS sensor was 5ltrs of new renault coolant and some new spark plugs (just before I found my others ones... doh, oh well good to have spares). These will hopefully come later in the week. More tomorrow...

 

[Chambers_RS]

Looks awesome ??

What make fan is that? I’ve got that on my list to buy

 

[Nafoff]

Looks awesome ??

What make fan is that? I’ve got that on my list to buy

Kenlow ?

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
Had a good day on the car yesterday. When I was falling to sleep the night before I remembered that I hadn't painted the trim on the front windows, these needed to be done before friday so this was yesterdays first job. The amount of trim was measured, transfered to the windows and masked up. then painted and left to dry for 24hrs.

With those drying I had some lunch and then went out to the car. First up was to sort the coolant hose I talked about last time. Below you can see where it was running above the lower airbox mount and pushing up against a bolt...

really not happy with this I looked at passing it through the mount... ah, that was why they put that there...

Much happier with that.
I then moved to hanging the doors. @Beaniemoo at Beaniesport sorted out the hinges by grinding off the old studs, drilling the hinges and then countersinking bolts through them, this looked and should work loads better. I am way more confident in these. I had to do a tiny bit of fettling with the brace plates that sat the opposite side of the hinges but all was good and I managed to get both doors hung nicely.

All ready for the windows to be fitted now.
With the doors done and the majority of the engine bay done I decided to add some more of the front end panels - I really feel that its all coming together now.

A load of the bits I ordered turned up today so I need to add all those bits, new TPS etc etc. But I also now need to buy and Oil catch tank...
I am not sure how it was run before but I don't have one. I am looking at a 2ltr Mocal unless anyone else has any recommendations?
Until next time...

 

[Djw Dave]

Fantastic effort. Followed this from the very beginning and delighted to see you adding the final touches.

 

[scotiamr2t]

Engine bay looks soooooo much better with ABS, power steering, battery, fuse box etc removed.

 

[Nafoff]

Fantastic effort. Followed this from the very beginning and delighted to see you adding the final touches.

Thank you mate. Its nice to be at this point, still a way to go yet though.

Engine bay looks soooooo much better with ABS, power steering, battery, fuse box etc removed.

yep, nice to have all that room to work with.... although need to pop a oil catch tank in there....

 

[robzracing]

I fitted a 2ltrMocal (in black) to the inside of the suspension turret on my other Clio before we sold it. Fitted nicely there and of course decent quality.

All looking good Neil.

 

[Nafoff]

I fitted a 2ltr Mocal (in black) to the inside of the suspension turret on my other Clio before we sold it. Fitted nicely there and of course decent quality. All looking good Neil.

That was basically what I was thinking but was just looking at other brands too - not sure it is really worth looking at others. The ralloy ones look quite good
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252957086755?ul_noapp=true

Did you cushion the fitting at all or just hard-fit it to the turret?

 

[robzracing]

No cushioning although I mounted it at a slight angle with the rear bracket bent and twsited to fix on the bulkhead but that was just because of other obstructions in that engine bay. I prefered that catch tank to the polished alloy one in my current engine bay.

 

[Chambers_RS]

Giving me inspiration for mine ?

I fitted the Mocal catch tank to the bulk head on my cup and probably will with the Storm grey shell.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

I think the question I would ask is, is there any reason you would go for the Mocal? I think I must just be a bit cheap but, given what some of the unbranded stuff can be had for, and that it's only a catch tank, I don't think I could be bothered with the expense of a fancy one.

 

[NorthloopCup]

Gearbox mount needs a cover over it to tidy it up @Nafoff

 

[Chambers_RS]

Or some PMS race mounts @Nafoff ?

 

[Nafoff]

I think the question I would ask is, is there any reason you would go for the Mocal? I think I must just be a bit cheap but, given what some of the unbranded stuff can be had for, and that it's only a catch tank, I don't think I could be bothered with the expense of a fancy one.

I do agree. They are pretty much double the price of the Ralloy ones and they look nice too. I am not even desperate for one as it will only be initially needed for mapping - i may not worry at the moment and then put it onmy “snag list”

Gearbox mount needs a cover over it to tidy it up @Nafoff

Or some PMS race mounts @Nafoff ?

its not that ugly.... its bauhaus... Form follows function, ha

 

[NorthloopCup]

I do agree. They are pretty much double the price of the Ralloy ones and they look nice too. I am not even desperate for one as it will only be initially needed for mapping - i may not worry at the moment and then put it onmy “snag list”





its not that ugly.... its bauhaus... Form follows function, ha

I’ll just leave this here...............

 

[Nafoff]

I’ll just leave this here...............View attachment 1404356

Don't leave that there.... I don't agree, I think that is just as ugly.... and adds weight too

 

[NorthloopCup]

Don't leave that there.... I don't agree, I think that is just as ugly.... and adds weight too

Yeah I know what you’re saying mate. It’s w**k that it doubled up as an ecu mounting place too. ?

 

[Nafoff]

Yeah I know what you’re saying mate. It’s w**k that it doubled up as an ecu mounting place too. ?

I get it if it had a second purpose for sure...
Just a thought and putting a finger in the air. You are pretty clued up on timing aren't you? I may pm you dependent on your answer... lol

 

[NorthloopCup]

I get it if it had a second purpose for sure...
Just a thought and putting a finger in the air. You are pretty clued up on timing aren't you? I may pm you dependent on your answer... lol

Fire away mate.

 

[Nafoff]

Fire away mate.

Sorry mate, I totally forgot to reply. It is probably and hopefully sorted now. See one of my next updates.

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
So a fair bit has happened since the last update, touchwood it has been going relatively smoothly.
With the window fitter turning up last week there was a real push to get anything I could out of the way, this was mainly body panels, I could of moved them into the house which would of made other (later) jobs easier, but I didn't... I just put them straight on the car...

Side skirts first (black rivets keeping it clean and on-scheme)

Followed by the front bumper, after I re-riveted the splitter with new peel rivets sent over from @JamesBryan (thank you mate, much appreciated)

This provided a nice workable area around the car.
The following day (despite the snow) Russ from Ultimate Windscreens turned up.

After checking over the car, prepping the window areas he set about prepping the windows. Heated windscreen first then working counter clockwise around the car. The windscreen, rear screen and 2 rear side windows were applied with some damming tape too, this helps keep the sealant tidy but also works well as a spacer/cushioning for the screen.

Once each window was in place they were taped down to hold the shape whilst the sealant dried.

The tape and protective film would be alright to come off the following day.
I can't recommend Russ of Ultimate Windscreens enough. A really nice bloke, great chat and done a really nice job whilst making sure he took care of the car.

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
The following day as mentioned I did remove the tape and protective film... the protective film was a bit of a pain as I had to undo all the slider bolts on the front windows, but all is well. The dash wires were all re-tidied and plugged into the windscreen and the dashboard put back in. Just need to sort the dash earths now.

Not necessarily in chronological order but something else I did 'amend' in the past week was all the labelling.
I needed to produce some more labels for the steering wheel buttons. The printer I had borrowed had run out of label tape so I had to buy some more, of course being a designer I wasn't going to stay with the white I previously had.....

Not sure what channels are pre-set on the radio..... How very on-scheme though.

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
So there is a real push to get the car running by the end of this week. With the exhaust and mapping booked for 2 weeks time I have set myself the goal of having it running 2 weeks before hand. If it isn't then I will probably be cancelling the mapping. This has brought up some hurdles which I will note, but hopefully we are on-track.

I thought I needed new spark plugs as I couldn't find my others. New items were ordered from RPD along with another 5ltrs of coolant. Sure enough I found my other spark plugs a day after ordering the others. No worries I have a set of OK spares now.

The coolant turned up a couple of days later and was poured into the car - so far the car has held it all. It has caught me out a couple of times where there is drips after I didn't get to the drain plug quick enough, but all seems well. As well as filling up with coolant the car was also topped up with brake fluid and each corner was bled whilst James Ashton was helping out again. There has been a couple leaks in the system (I have been keeping an eye on it the past few days) but each one was just a bolt that needed nipping up. Again, hopefully thats all good. hhmmmmmm Motul goodness....

I had previously mentioned that there were some more loom items to sort out. The new TPS connection needed wiring to the loom but more pressing was the headlights which needed to be attached to the race loom (originally made for phase 2 headlights). Using a power probe we figured out which bulbs we wanted doing what and then wired them back into the loom (removing the previous connector). Didn't manage to get a picture once done, but they are nice and tidy.

This pretty much rounded out the weekend and brings me into this week. The only key things to complete now were the fuel line from scuttle to engine and the throttle linkage. I started off by bolting up the Jenvey fuel rail that allowed be to plug in the injector loom keeping it out of fafs way.

I then set about bolting up the throttle linkage on the throttle bodies using very old pictures of the assembly previously. I was doing alright and all bolted up well, but something was missing.....

The ball joint from the throttle linkage to the butterfly connectors.... dam it.... (I haven't lost much in 10 years...)
I got on the phone to Jenvey and they stock all of their items individually so you don't have to buy a full kit, happy days - this was ordered today and should be with me tomorrow.

With that in mind I moved on to sorting the throttle cable as the Renault original item needed modifying to fit. Luckily I still had the old sheath/outer so I would re-used this.... quite a difference in comparison.

The new outer was routed and the inner cut at the peddle end. I then used a solder-less nipple at the peddle therefore removing the Renault plastic clip.
With no tension on the throttle end it was hard to get the peddle right, but its set somewhere nearby for now.... I obviously had to drill out the old throttle cable as I had P-clipped it down, but I routed the new one the same way, nice and neat.

I couldn't do anymore on the throttle linkage so I moved onto the fuel line. I needed to make up a piece of line from the fuel rail to the scuttle area. This was measured up several times and then cut. The speedflow attachments added and them bolted to the car. I P-clipped it to keep if from rubbing on the turrets, inner wing or engine mounts.

Last up were a couple of wiring jobs that seemed simple but just seemed to take a while. The first was changing a connector on the original rear light loom so for now it can plug into the race loom rain light. This is routed really nicely out of a tiny spot weld hole in the rear with a bung. The other item was the Armtech scuttle kill button. This again only needed a new connector wiring on but it needed to be right before drilling the scuttle.

A bit off colour-scheme but it stands out which is perfect as thats what it is there for. I do have a kill switch for an extinguisher in future but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

This brings me right up-to-date with the work, but there is still more to do tomorrow. The scuttle panel will be all plugged in and the single-wiper added, I need to sort the dash earths previously mentioned. I will also hopefully be able to sort the throttle linkage when it arrives tomorrow.

The more pressing thing however is the timing of the engine. The race loom does not have any wiring to the VVT solenoid. Because of this the car wouldn't run VVT. Rather than running a lead to the solenoid (as the loom is already lovely) and after speaking to several people for advice I am going to advance the timing to 16 degree's on the cam. This basically gives me permanent VVT. It may be s**t idling but I will cope with that and hopefully it can be mapped out a little. I have also gone for 2 degree's r****d on the exhaust cam to help with the above.

To get all this spot on I have ordered a machined to spec timing tool with the exact specs mentioned above. Tomorrow evening @Beaniemoo of Beaniesport is coming to update the timing using that tool. It should hopefully be then very close to starting...

There is one concern regarding the starting and that is that I don't have the specialist components ECU USB-CAN PC cable, I also do not have a PC (I am Apple through and through). We will obviously not be able to configure anything but we are not sure that if without that if it will actually let us start the car, we will see I guess... otherwise I am unsure what I am going to do.....

 

[JamesBryan]

Looking good Neil.

Glad to see the rivets worked for you.

 

[Nafoff]

UPDATE:
At the tail end of last week I had a few jobs to do before the attempted start-up on the weekend (previously mentioned in my last post). Some quite simple jobs like the dash earths....

And some a that needed a little more consideration and calculation. Like the fuel line from the scuttle to the fuel rail (with added p-clip to keep the fuel line off the paintwork), and the fitting/wiring of the cut-off switch and rear numberplate light.

They both seemed to go pretty well. I did run into a bit of an issue with the scuttle panel fittings as out of all the trim clips I seemed to have they all seemed to be to big. That was when I decided to put some riv-nuts in, trim clips always seem to break anyways. I was going to fit the rubber that runs along between the scuttle and the engine bay but have been advised to leave it off as this massively helps temps and airflow.

After the cut-off button was sorted and the scuttle was fitted the single wiper was installed. I am happy with how it looks but I am sure the blade is far to long and is going to run over on the drivers side. I will check this once I have power.

The mirror casings and covers were also fitted just to get them out of the way. No glass in them yet though.

As I had sorted the fuel line earlier the next main job was the throttle linkage. I started bolting this up at the inlet end using an image from the Fastcar shoot for reference... All good until I realised a pretty important part was missing. The connector rod that links the linkage kit and the throttle body itself was not present, I quickly referenced the Jenvey website and all I could see was the full kit at +£100..... A phone call later however and all was well, Jenvey can supply basically any part individually and by the very next day - awesome.

Such a good service. The following day I got assembling. What was missing however was a link bar. I am unsure if they normally supply this. Also not useful was I am sure these parts had been assembled before as some felt cross-threaded. A tap later and then some dremel work with a bolt and I had a link bar and a linkage assembly...

With the linkage sorted I could then cut the existing Renault throttle cable, thread it through my current (MTB style) outer and then trim/tension it to suit. PERFECT.
That leaves me with the most pressing job before trying to start the car, THE TIMING.

Earlier last week I ordered a timing tool (as I previously mentioned). This was to my spec and was cnc'd and then posted out arriving on thursday morning in time for Chris from Beaniesport to come over and do the timing later that day.

We disassembled what we needed to and jacked the drivers side of the engine up and then put the relevant lock tools in. As we were turning it over the engine had good compression so things moving forward for the engine look hopeful. Then we went to put the custom locking tool in and come across a problem.

I don't think it is that widely known but the ends of Catcams are different to the ends of standard cams, they are slightly thicker. If you look back at the tool you will see on the far end (inlet cam) there is some nodules. These would normally fit inside the collars on the ends of the standard cams, however as the Catcams are thicker they just were not going to go.... We ended up getting a bit brutal and 15mins later after some fun with the grinder and a cutting disk the nodules were gone. We did have to mark up which side was the bigger and smaller nodules as these are relative to getting the cam the right way up but things were all good and the tool slotted straight in.

When I mentioned to the machinist about the Catcam issue he said he wasn't aware and because of that he would sort me a new tool which is proper sound of him. With the timing set we turned the engine over by hand 4 times to make sure there was no contact and all was good internally.... All was spot on. Happy days...
Start up next then....

 

[Chambers_RS]

Good progress.

I had issues getting the Renault locking tool in the cat cams too. The slot for the tool wasn’t wide enough and I had to file back the Renault tool and was still really tight to get in and out the cams.

 

[Nafoff]

Good progress.
I had issues getting the Renault locking tool in the cat cams too. The slot for the tool wasn’t wide enough and I had to file back the Renault tool and was still really tight to get in and out the cams.

I am glad I had Chris from Beaniesport there as he knew straight away.

 

[Chambers_RS]

Chris is a top lad. Shame I moved from MK Gsf to daventry as I enjoyed working with him and his werid and wonderful projects.