Q91CMV - Dutton Legerra ZS Series 2

[Adrian Southgate]

So, MOT sorted by the skin of its teeth, loads to do before tomorrow morning, panic has set it due to a little mishap with the pedal box...

How many of you fitted metal spreader plates between the pedal box and the bulkhead? Here is something for those of you with pinto engines to think about.

I didn't see this coming 8 years ago when I re built it... The holes are supposed to be there... the crack around the edge is not.

Seems the proximity to the manifold has weakened the fibreglass of the tub a little

Well a lot actually :)

A metal spreader plate on the inside would have eased the load on the area and this may not have been quite so severe. This is going to be a fun evening..

[James Doulton]

Epic!

[Adrian Southgate]

A tale of impatience follows...

All set (nearly) for our we excursion to Anglesey by Friday I decided to rectify the heater issue and refit the pipes that supplied the matrix with nice warm water. Stuck a pipe on one and blew it out with an airline from both directions. Happy there were no spiders and mice about to get drowned or boiled I took the pipe from the water pump and connected it to the matrix, all good. Then took the new short pipe up to the inlet manifold fitted it onto the union (larger right angled job than the crossflow) and tightened the jubilee clip... the union promptly collapsed leaving me with no way of connecting the water system back to that side of the engine. If it had been the matrix I would have functioned minus the heater however its not... searched the unit for spares and found one... for a cross flow which is unfortunately the next size down so no chance of that working, PTFE tape isn't going to fill that gap... I had to use an air saw to cut the remainder of the old one off so I could get a socket on the stump to extract it. (left one)  

Looked under the bonnet on the Sierra and hey, there's my spare...question is, will it come undone without shattering? (right one ^)

Yes was the answer, one white metal alloy pipe fitting swapped onto the leggie, hoses reconnected and hey presto I have a heater to keep Sue's feet warm. Last job then I can go home happy...

Turned my attention to the wheels. On long trips I do like to carry a spare so decided to revert back to 15's as I do have five of them all legal. It had started to drizzle a little by this time so out with the air tools in a rush to get home at a half sensible time (its 10pm now) 

This won't take long... Found the socket and whizz whizz of comes the back one, whizz whizz off comes the front. Knowing I have a clearance issue to solve I swapped the spacers back, front to rear, rear to front. Set the back one up and gunned it on no problem. Now the front spacers are bolt on 20mm ones so nut's on the thread and nipped them up with the air gun...top, left, right, bottom. Round again, tighter this time, top, right, whizzz... that aint right...left whizzz that also aint right.. bottom... put the air wrench down to find that the left and right nuts had hit the stud shoulder with 2mm of play still left in the wheel nut. I swore... a lot.

Socket back on and tried to undo them again and now they just spin, not doing up, not coming undone...I swore again and a lot louder this time, out with the mole grips - fail, rounded edges on the back of the studs...

After trying various hammers, spanners, mole grips, a small vice I come to the conclusion the only way is to weld the studs from the back but the welders are back home in the garage and it's coming up for midnight. Put the wheel on with two loose nuts and two tight ones holding the spacer, drove slowly and carefully into the unit, shut down, switch off and lock up. Walked the 750 yards home in the rain, not a happy bunny. 

And that gentlemen is a lesson in why not to rush things the night before a road trip and why we took the Mondeo this weekend.

[James Doulton]

With the wider hole, it looks like it is smiling :-)

[Adrian Southgate]

I prefer the dropped lower edge although on the white one it might cause speed hump issues as it is running 13's

[James Doulton]

As opposed to this...

I think that this one looks better but the other would be so much easier to do.

[James Doulton]

Like this, Daryl?

[Adrian Southgate]

@ James - If you just cut off the bottom lip then only the lower 3 inches would be affected. The two vertical bars can be black anyway as they are recessed so it would only affect the outer extremity of the bumper.

[Adrian Southgate]

The front bar is dead straight end to end and doesn't touch the plastic. That drop would just be the front edge and would then slope up so the inner part is still at the same height, by that time the air is 'in' the car and forced into the void in front of the radiator by ducting.

@ Daryl - I'll try that in photoshop later, got the sierra issue to sort out first.

[James Doulton]

Isn't there a beam running across the front at the top of the bumper? That would make it difficult to take a bit out of the bumper, so you'd probably have to go for the bottom of the bonnet instead.

I tried lowering the front on mine (in Paintshop Pro) and it does look good and would make a big increase to the air inlet but I can't actually do it because I'd never match the paint. All I could do is change the whole bumper to a different colour. I can only think of black but even that is pretty naff.

[Dave Adams]

lowering the front edge of the bumper is something I have thought about, I even thought about just the centre part like the Subaru's