[Race_Prep] Batfinks Garage - The Projects

[Batfink 201]

Work has changed for 2013 with me taking on a WTCC/BTCC engineer and us setting up a workshop. This has given me a great area to be able to work on my car and I now have someone extremely skilled to put my ideas into reality. Most of my time is still with the retail side, and Chris has to work on customer cars, but we will be getting a couple of cars up and running for 2014 where we will be displaying at a show or two - namely Pugfest and FCS.

 

Over Christmas I did a bit thinking and I took the decision to sell all my PSA engine parts, and my Hewland HP2000 sequential gearbox. I needed a project that was not simply throwing money at one part. I've toyed with a few engine and gearbox combinations. One was a Honda S2000 engine mounted transversely. The Civic Type R gearbox can be bolted on with an adaptor plate, but I had a panic that I might be able to fit the Hewland. I'm therefore going for something a little different. Selling the Hewland will pay for a number of items including a spray booth.

 

There are also a few other vehicles that will be worked on so I'm going to use this thread for all of them as well as me getting my learning hat on as I venture into how to tig weld, spray vehicles and making carbon fibre parts.

 

Today we only had a customers Lupo TDI getting a brake upgrade. The ramps were free so I dug out my 205 from the back where it was collecting dust and got to work.

 

First was to get the old engine out. The 306 lump and the dummy Hewland casing were removed. Colin Satchell had made previously a cradle for a dry sump tank to sit in front of the gearbox and a rather robust gearbox mount so the afternoon was spent carefully cutting this all out with an anglegrinder

 

and eventually this!There's still a lot of re-enforcement in place but I dont want to remove too much without working out where the new mounts will be. I got the air tools out and ground the remnants along the front bar. Its not perfect as I'm contemplating whether we can chop most of the front panel off the car.

 

I moved on to cleaning up more of the front of the car. The standard tow points are being removed. It looks a simple task but of course all bolts are rusted and round off. I'm now in the process of removing the underseal in the passenger arch so I can grind out the welds which fix the strengthening plate to the inner wing. I forgot to photograph this today so will grab a picture next weekend as I continue to remove all the un-necessary parts. I'm also going to need to build a dolly for moving the car about as we need to remove the suspension. Its too heavy!

Edited February 16, 2013 by Batfink

[DamirGTI 323]

I want your garage !!

 

D

[Batfink 201]

Thought today i'd have a look at how much we would need to extend the arches by to cope with the front tyres. We've only got 17" touring car rubber to hand but it'll do to gauge the width

Lets just say i'm going to have fun making some arches!

 

 

[kyepan 291]

wide!

 

are those the wheel widths it was designed to go with?

[d7ve_b 44 1 Cars]

Phat.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

I spy quattro

[welshpug 1,622]

Some raised inner arches are called for I think!

 

 

Maxi -

 

 

 

 

Standard -

 

[Batfink 201]

I'll be running 15 x 9 split rims. Hopefully wont need to do anything to the inner arches. I'll get poking and measuring at the weekend. I haven't had my tig welding lessons yet though so i'm not ready!.

[welshpug 1,622]

tig? you mean mig right?

 

don't know anyone that tig's old car metal, only the bits that get bolted to them!

[Batfink 201]

My welding guy is a perfectionist. He wants to grind down and neaten up all the welding in the engine bay to look nicer. I'm not sure he's planning on letting me do anything but tig but I'll confirm as we go along

Edited February 18, 2013 by Batfink

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

looks an interesting build

[JakeMathias 6]

learning to weld will always come in handy one day, i'll be learning in the near future hopefully ! Have you finalised your decisions on what engine you'll be putting in it then ?

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Who's doing that Kev? As wp says I wouldn't be tig'ing cars together!

[Batfink 201]

Jamie. Probably me getting crossed wires and he will help mig the engine bay all nice and neat.

 

Jake engine has been chosen. I'm going Honda integra engine and gearbox.

 

Anyway. A package turned up today in the workshop.

Three boxes of throttle bodies from china. Colin Satchell is going to make up a flange for these and I can then design a few inlet manifolds.

[JakeMathias 6]

Sounds brilliant ! Look foward to seeing some pictures when it's done

[stu8v 68 1 Cars]

Nothing wrong with Tig for welding cars, Its just that most most muppets prefer the point and squirt nature of a cheapo Mig set.

 

That said, you need perfect tolerances for joins and for them to be perfectly clean, which most cars are unfortunately are not......

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

id love to use a tig welder if i could afford one

[leemundo 3]

With all the work going into re welding and tidying up the bay is the loom getting tucked?

[Batfink 201]

Is that where you cannot see it? Its something thats crossed my mind but theres a long journey before I get there. At the moment its a whole lot of basic shell prep.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Batfink

[calvinhorse 870]

With all the work going into re welding and tidying up the bay is the loom getting tucked?

That's a Volkswagen thing, I believe you also have to wear a T-shirt with a scarf and lower your car an unusable amount

[leemundo 3]

It is a Volkswagen thing but just thought with the effort going into making the bay tidy a wiring tuck might just finish it off. Would be nice to see a really tidy engine bay tuck in a pug

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

With this being a fairly focused circuit/Tarmac car why the hell would you want to hide the loom?

 

What are the bodies then Monsieur batfink?

Edited March 1, 2013 by allanallen

[calvinhorse 870]

It is a Volkswagen thing but just thought with the effort going into making the bay tidy a wiring tuck might just finish it off. Would be nice to see a really tidy engine bay tuck in a pug

It's a trackcar not a mincer show car. Nice is more a word associated with picnics on a summers eve.. Imagine needing to take the engine out in a hurry and having to unroute all the excess wire, ballache

[leemundo 3]

Fair point made. Didnt really think about the fact its track focused.

[JakeMathias 6]

Nothing wrong with wanting the engine bay to look tidy whether its a track car or not.