Centaur

Got the Centaur back today, it was away getting a new mohair softop fitted,
Almost 2 years to do this one , total strip down and all rot cut out and new steel/panels installed
Few wee jobs to do but its basically done and dusted now.
Its had a few retro changes, body, interior etc Done all the work myself apart from the softop which I couldn't do :(
Only 118 of these were built for Opel made in 1979

parts

No physical progress on the car today and the next couple of days will be the same infact the next week is going to be busy.
Spare time today was spent sorting out parts, Onto good old eBay for stainless nuts bolts and washers of various sizes, and some electrical connectors.
Sent another few emails of about parts and spent a while on the phone with Andy ordering the heater hoses I need along with some stainless bits and chassis foam. I also ordered the footwell extension and the flush locks for the bonnet. Not needed yet but i took a notion and ordered the harnesses so that bill jumped a tad.
It's funny how you think you have most of the things you need until you take into a few jobs and then you find out you need quite a bit lol.
Also asked Andy to price up the carpets, interior trim and wheels, Got a feeling I'll need a stiff drink as the GD stuff is top of the line :) all I can say is I'm glad the target is to get the car on the road next year.

Cooling system

Made a start on this today, I had already made the modified fan brackets for the radiator so I put the Radiator in place. next to be fixed was the GD modified thermostat housing, the original came out at an angle.



Mounted the expansion tank to the crossbar, I drilled under the bar and put in some rivnuts, soaked inside the crossbar with dinitrol once i had the holes drilled. I made some measurements and also mounted the stainless heater pipes that GD made up for me.




The heater pipes run up the side and then across under the expansion tank, Not a great pic sorry :(


While I was at it I sorted the hose for the AFM and connected it up properly.I still need some more hosing to connect up the outlet to the Carbon Air pipe the goes down to the filter.




Started to get the cooling hoses on and in place, only have normal clips for these so need to order some stainless ones.



I still need the heater hoses, thought they were here so will have to chase them up. I also noticed I don't have some bits for the steering so another few bits to the list for Andy tmw.

Clips

Started clipping the engine loom cables this morning, early start to a long day :)
I noticed that where some of the cables were running the block had threaded holes for different things I,m not using, but all the holes were 8mm or 10mm way to big for the 5mm bolt needed for the stainless P clips.
Had a wee idea I took a M10 bolt and screwed it in near as far as it goes, then cut it so i had basically a piece of threaded bar.



I then drilled a hole down the center of the bolt to allow it to be tapped for a M5 bolt.



Once tapped and the M5 in place, I put some retainer on it and screwed it into the block, Just needs the P clip in place now, seems a tidy job. Can do the same with some of the other clips others I need to make some brackets, That's on the cards when i get time outside again.

Engine covers

Made a early start this weekend and got stuck into the engine bay wiring and run the extra wires needed in the loom, for the oil and water temp, reverse feed and switch wire. Dumped some wires that were not need and spent ages getting the loom in shape for the cobra engine bay and getting it all nicely put together again.
Still got to make a few brackets to mount the clamps to.

After several hours of wiring I took into the engine bay covers and brackets, fancied a handy job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Started of with the passenger side and bolted the bracket on, well almost the center mounting hole in the row of 3 holes that go on the coil packs was a couple of mm out and so was the other bracket. Sorted the holes out and popped the brackets on.



The crbon covers had GD pre marked the holes to be drilled. I opted for the pillar drill as a couple of the holes are on the radius and the drill bit could slip real easy. Anyways 6.5mm holes drilled for the M6 bolts and relief no slips. Passenger side tested out and its fine.



Problem,,,,,,,,, When I set the cover over the drivers side the holes were out miles, On the left hand side they were out 6mm on the horizontal plane and 5mm vertical. On the right hand side they were out 6mm horizontal and 7mm vertical. Took a while to get my head around where the error was in any case I could not re drill the covers.
I made several measurements and made sure the cover was sitting exactly where it was supposed to, cant really go wrong as the oil filler is on this side and its an accurate fit. Also on both sides you have the fuel rail crossing over.
I decided to cut the bracket to fix the problem on one side as the hole would be of the bracket.
Bracket cut and it took a couple of goes tacking it go get the exact position. 6mm across all over, 5mm down one side and 7 the other.




Job done at last end result looking good, just took a weeeeeeeeeee while longer than expected :)

Battery Cables

I got around today to getting some more cable for the battery and ground leads, I remembered when I was in the motor factors picking up my new Buff, they gave me a new one as the part hadn't come in to repair the other one under warranty.

Got home and out come the Hydraulic crimps :)




The finished product



Cable lengths and terminals

Red Feeds
1 x 1360mm terminals 25/10 one end 25/8 the other
1 x 390mm terminals 25/10 one end and a battery clamp the other.

Black Grounds
2 x 450mm terminals 25/10 one end and a 25/8 the other
1 x 490mm terminal 25/10 one end and a battery clamp the other.

I had to call into parcel force this afternoon to pay duty on the LS6 exhaust gaskets I got from summit racing eeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk overall they weren't cheap :(
They started cheap $25.00 a set so i bought 2 just to have a spare set $50 in total, then $25 to fill in customs form, $40 for postage then £17.95 to parcel force for vat and handling. About £100 all in for something that costs about £35 in the states. Glad I wasn't buying a engine lol.

Bonnet locks

Firstly with the bonnet catches you need to be sure what locks you are using before you drill the final holes, flush type or T handle as the holes are different.
The T handle has a round hole with 2 side locator's.
The flush type has a round hole with squared of corners.



The first measurement is taken 3" down from the center of the bonnet. I knew exactly where mine was as I placed my first dome screw for the bonnet scoop dead center (see older post on mounting the bonnet scoop )
This line extends 14" out from the center of top lip of the scoop.







In the above pics I took 2 measurements one in a straight line from the center of the scoop and one at an angle to meet the second measurement 1.5 " in from the edge of the bonnet at that point.
There was only a couple of mm of difference so not that important what way you do it.
Once I got the cross where the 2 measurements met I then transferred the measurement underneath just to check.

To make sure these measurements are correct next you need to measure the bulkhead lip (20mm on mine) plus the escushion 1mm, then subtract the bonnet gap when closed (7mm on mine) This gives a measurement of 14mm so allow 15 :)
In the above pic you can see a thick red line that has been drawn 15mm in from the edge of the bonnet, this is the bulkhead line plus the escushion plate measurement.
You can see that the widest part of the locking mechanism is at this point and the barrel part is well clear of the bulkhead and wont foul.



The pilot hole is then drilled,



The same is done with the other side.
I cannot go any further with mine at the moment as I have T handles and want to install flush locks. Next job to do is drill out with a hole saw the hole for the barrel, drilling through one skin from the top and one from the bottom.
Once the lock is fitted. the bonnet will then be packed level with some card then the locator's slots can be cut out in the bulkhead. Don't forget to order the escutcheons for the locator's slot like me :)

Dash Finished

Big grin this evening, the dash is now finished, I can put it away for a while now until the car nears its completion. Well I just may take it out for the odd peak now and again :)

I used the GD dash loom and it was all pretty easy done, would of been easier if I had of had the main loom in the car and done the dash later but when the notion strikes you go with the flow.
The only aquard wires were on the Hella hazard switch which were
Green/white = R
Green/pink = 49A
Brown/green = 49
Brown/green = 15
Green/Red = L
Red/white = 58
Black = 31




The final product







Tmw I was going back to the wiring but the Bonnet locks are now in line to get tackled by popular demand :)

Radiator Fans

As with most builds you get evenings where you go out to do one job and you get side tracked.I went to do a wee bit more to the wiring and wanted a rough idea where and how much cable to add into the engine loom for the fans.
I got the Radiator out and the fans and decided to mount the fans on the Rad.



First I set the fans on the Radiator and then measured what length I needed the stainless bar to be.



With the bars cut I marked them top and bottom to be drilled,Two 5mm holes top and bottom, these get pop riveted to the rad. Once the bars where drilled they were set back on the Radiator and then the Radiator marked to be drilled with 5mm holes.
Once they were done the bar were put back on and a couple of the pop rivets pushed in just to hold them in place, Fans then set back on and the holes marked for the rivnuts. The Rivnuts are pressed in facing outwards away from the Radiator.



Next step is to drill out the fan mount holes from 6mm to 7mm, this lets the rivnuts fit inside the fan mounts, giving a great location guide before the M5 x 15mm bolts and washers are installed, It's also a good idea to put thread lock on as well.





Hopefully with some time tmw,the radiator and bars can be painted as its very easy marked when working at it.
Takes a while to do the Radiator Fan mounts like this but its a much much better job the the normal pins that push through as they can damage the cores. GD advised to mount the fans with the 4 x 20mm bar.
You end up drilling about 48 holes with this wee job and thats without pilot holes.

Engine bay Electrics

Some decent progress made today with the wiring, well from an identification point of view spent a couple of hours trying to ID things and going through wires with Alan
Anyways the oil pressure sender on the LS unit is an electrical type so this needs removed.



I removed the switch and installed a bolt, which was drilled right through after it was shortened, then it was widened out part of the way down and tapped for the Smiths Gauge fitting. Once this was done it was installed into its location.



Next the oil temperature probe was installed just above the oil Filter



Water temperature probe fitted



Now starting to take the loom apart as I need to add some more wires and also move the location of some branches. I want the loom to go comfortably in the center of the engine bay and back inside the dash, at the moment its to far to the Drivers side.

Engine loom

Spent a while on the engine bay loom. It is the LS6 loom which has been modified as far as I know, There are ID tags on a right few of the plugs but some have none so I will need to suss out what is what and if any are surplus.
After that some figuring out will be needed to get it linked into the GD loom, For now its trying to route it the best way I can around the engine to keep as much out of sight as possible.

Prop shaft

Spent ages earlier looking for the correct nuts and bolts for the GD prop shaft, as usual didn't find them until I started something else IE the wiring. So whilst I had them to hand I measured the correct length required and shortened the bolts and fitted the prop. A wee bit fiddly but job done :)

Shell to chassis mounts

Read somewhere but cant remember where that a couple of the rubber mounts need cut along the tunnel section of the car to stop the shell fowling on them. Grinder outside and cut and sprayed. The other 10 mounts I took of and greased them to stop any rust forming behind them.



brake lines and fuel line all run up and clipped to the front of the car. Figured out the speedo, reverse lock and reverse switches on the gearbox.



The GD stainless exhausts are temp mounted on the car, I,m waiting on a couple of LS6 exhaust manifold gaskets coming from summit Racing before I seal it up. Tried the UK but no one had them in stock.
Going to take A look at the engine wiring loom now to get an idea what way to run it and identify some of the engine plugs.

Rear axle

I gave Alan a call last night, nice to chat about the builds with somone else whos doing the job or done it, his project isnt far of being sorted, Lucky chap :)
Sometimes guidance or re assurance works wonders.
Taking today away from the shell to go back to the chassis and go over whats been done and what needs to be sorted ie Engine wiring.
Decided to start at the rear axle and move forward, Checked all the bolts and nuts etc, Diff carrier bolts are wired as are the brake calipers. Checked the diff oil and greased the drive shaft joints just to top up.



Checked all the brake lines as well a couple needed a wee nip up and the drive shaft castle nuts needed the split pins put in



The handbrake mech needs a couple of return springs installed not sure if I have them or not and will need to see where the chassis needs drilled to mount them. I turned the shocks fully anticlockwise and turned them clockwise 5 clicks springs are set showing 10 threads below them. Will have to get more info on the settings later.
Off to get find some bolts for the drive shaft now, update later.

Heater Box

Another day and 2 steps forward and one back again, The heater box was on the job sheet for today, Firstly it was dismantled taking the sides of , removing the matrix and then the blower fan.



The side mounting flanges need cut of and some M6 rivnuts installed on the outlet side. This is to allow mounting to the car using M6 x 25mm bolts. Some very good information on this heater installation on Simon's Blog.
Now modifying the box was the easy bit for me. Once the mods were done the holes for the duct needed drilled in the bulkhead, my project had no pre drilled holes and most things not marked so its been a learning curve working out some holes.
With the duct holes drilled, I made a template like Simon and marked the mounting bolt holes.



So far so good then my brain overloaded may have been due to the wine last night :) I had to try and figure out with nearly no space where on earth the holes went into the engine bay, for the heater pipes, the more i thought the more i panicked as i knew they had to be 100% accurate. After a couple of hours flaffing about measuring remeasuring and reading online I took the plunge and drilled them.
Now for the step back again, heater box has to come out and be put away as the engine bay still needs sanded and buffed more and this can be done with the heater pipes sticking out. A well I will see progress soon I hope.

Inner wing compartment access covers

Whist doing the pedal box I decided to sand and level of the entrance to the compartment and add the fixings to allow the cover to be bolted into place. All went easy with the drivers side so having the tools out i decided to do the passenger side.
Problem the cover would not fit right there was a 7mm gap at the top and it rocked as well, I knew that a rubber seal wouldn't solve the problem.



I got the fibre paste out and levelled the areas and once it cured hit it with the DA sander and a 80 pad. Out come the stone chip again and covered the repair areas. Covers got stone chipped as well


Just need to pop the covers on once they dry tmw.