MadaboutKitcars

Well after 10 hrs of driving, 2 bottles of Lucozade Sport, 2 Snickers, 1 bag of Haribo and a Sausage roll with Brown Sauce inside it! I'm home.

And so is the donor for my Miglia



It's a 1600 Vitesse.

I'll post more details tomorrow, as i've been out of the house for 12 hrs now and i'm thoroughlly knackered and SWMBO has just opened me a Cider!


Here we go again...

Good Choice Dave , you wont be disappointed

Nice donor too, how is the chassis Dave ??

Dave - I look forward to seeing your new build progress.

Good luck, Paul.

Welcome back Dave. I know you've been having a two year fling with your 'bit on the side' Lamboalike, but I knew in my heart that you'd return to your true love sooner or later.

With your previous Sammio build behind you it should be a quick build this time then...

hi dave another miglia I am all most there mot this thurs fingers crossed .will post pic at w/e you will notbe disappointed with the miglia kit dave 2 rattler

Cheers guys.

Now that I've had some sleep and not just sat in traffic jams all day, a bit more on my plans...

The donor is a 1600 Vitesse and the biggest difference I've already noticed to last time is that i have _all_ of the parts and they're all plugged together!!! Also the donor had a brand new chassis fitted towards the end of the 80's and then a new engine fitted by Canleys in 2003 and was used regularly until 2007 when it was parked up "for a while"

That currently looks like it may mean that the bits that i wanted to re-furb on my next build may actually already be done for me

Then there is my bug list of to-do's based on my Sammio building and driving experiences. Those currently are:

• Doors - so that i don't ruin the seats
• A Heater / Fan
• A Wireless!
• Twin Exhausts
• Alloy rad and electric cooling fans (luckily i have a wide selection of fans left over from the Countach cooling debacle!)
• In-hump storage
• Leather interior
• Paint the car myself and get a better finish, based on the experience i gained from last time
• Upgrade the brakes
• Trunionless front suspension!!
• CV jointed driveshafts
• Side windows
• Chrome... bits...
• NOT bullet wing mirrors
• Possibly Burr Walnut dash
• and more day dreams that I'm sure will change just as much as the above list as i progress and mean that Rimmer Bros and Canleys are kept in business for a long time to come

So not wishing to mess around, i've made a start.


Roof off, boot off, doors off, interior stripped:



Next will be bonnet off and dash strip. But first i want to figure out what half of the oddly marked buttons, knobs and random Lucas black toggle switches actually "do"

The first of the alcohol fueled e-bay purchases have arrived

Even though I'm planning on fitting a modern micro heat exchanger, I still wanted the controls to look right for the car and not just a std part from CBS.

So after a good evening on Google and Ebay looking for something unique and period i now have these, originally from an Austim A50 i'm led to believe!



The the other part that i always knew i wanted was chrome air vents and tbh i did have my heart set on Rolls Royce ones. But then i spotted this complete Bentley Continental dash which came with the organ-stop vent controls and some other bits-n-bobs that i may reuse, and i had to have it




yes... yes... i know i've yet to even order the kit from Mike, but that's not the point

Whoo Hoo It Starts!!!

One of the big boo-boo's i made with the Sammio donor was not getting it running _before_ i started mucking about with it and that directly led to engine issues later in the build and also body positioning issues.

So not wishing to make the same mistakes twice i tried to start the Vitesse the other day and everything was good but no spark
One quick clean of the points and re-gapping them and it started first time last night and ran _real_ sweet!


Also... it turns out that as well as having a new chassis at some point in the past and then a new Engine in 2003, it's also had new front calipers, new drums and a new fuel line and fuel pump fitted in 2003! and from a quick look underneath last night the Diff also looks brand new! So a lot of the parts that i was expecting to replace and had to replace on the Sammio have already been done

The only bad thing so far is a fubbared radiator which looks well gunked up and leaks a bit.
So after a lot of research of what other Vitesse and GT6 owners have done and based on my cooling experiences with the Countach I've opted for an Alloy rad and the one to go for seems to be an after-market Alloy Honda Civic Rad. So I've just ordered one of these from RaceSpec Performance:



With the 350x385x60mm core it will hold more volume of coolant than one of the Renault 5 GT Turbo rads on the Countach which should mean that the electric fan won't be cutting in as often and the switch from mechanical to electric should also address any over-cooling worries.

A quick dig around the garage last night turned up far more electric fans than i care to remember buying and trying on the Countach but should give me plenty of options!

Out of interest, what size electric cooling fan have others opted for?

Great news on the engine start.

I also love the Bentley dash & heater controls.

Good luck, Paul.

I have a feeling my fan was 14" but I'll measure it in the morning. I made a shroud for it out of sheet steel as that's what I had laying about in the garage -

Thanks Towed. I've got a feeling that the largest I have is a 10" (phanaar)
BTW, is that a Civic rad u also went for? I would check your build thread but I'm on the tablet ATM and its being tempremental!


Bit more progress last night, as its now in the garage, and I wasn't just imaging that the Countach was a monster in comparison as I now have _loads_ of room :-)



So in the words of Jonny 5 ..... "dissasamble"
(Kid's, ask your parents!)

The one pictured is a standard Honda Civic radiator as fitted to all petrol models from the 1.4 to the V-Tech. I punched a hole in it with the steel bar I was shaping into the nose hoop, so I replaced it with a double width aluminium version imported from China via ebay, which fitted the shroud I'd fabricated.

Despite this I've had a bit of an issue with cooling at high speed. That could be down to my scoops creating pressure behind the radiator and stopping the airflow through it, or it's been suggested that aluminium isn't as thermally efficient as copper. To improve high speed cooling I've fitted a rear mounted MR2 radiator in series with the Honda one and added a BMW auxiliary electric pump to help circulate the coolant. I'll finish plumbing all that in today if I get the motor fully rebuilt.

If I was building another I'd be using an uprated, copper cored Ford Escort RS2000 radiator as recommended by Phil J -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-RS2000-MK2-RADIATOR-UPRATED-CORE-42MM-/251442835157?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a8b292ed5

Not cheap but he swears by them and has no cooling issues at all. He's also kept the engine driven fan btw, which works fine but will obviously sap a bit of power at higher revs.

Good luck DC, I know the Lambo was your original dream car, but it's nice to see you back building something a bit more interesting and more likely to just work.

Many thanks for that.

If you've only got problems at speed, that sounds like airflow to me?

I did notice that your radiator shroud doesn't have any bypass flaps fitted?
So when running slowly you're pulling all the air through with the fan fine and you know that is working fine, but when running at speed it's the air/wind rather than the fan that is doing the cooling and in that case your cowl is actually blocking quite a bit of your rad.
I'd say one thing worth trying would be to add by-pass flaps such as these:


Just an idea


My monstrous 60mm deep Civic rad turned up yesterday, so atm I'm hopeful that it'll do the job when on the move.

And then based on knowledge gained from the Lambo experiences I just want to make sure that I've got a powerful enough fan to move the air at slower speeds.
I've got a 10" Kenlowe laying around that is rated at just shy of 800 CFM which 'may' do the job? Hence my question to see what others have used.
But jumping to 12" gives nearly 1300CFM, so a huge difference as i found on the Big Red Car!

Thanks for the tip on the shroud bypass flaps, I might take a look at drilling some vent holes in the shroud if my rear radiator doesn't address the issue.

I also measured my fan today - it's a 12" one.

Dave - Keep meaning to ask what happened to the Countach?

I watched your build thread get hijacked, but didn't spot an update.

Good luck with the strip down, try not to get lost in all that garage space.

The Big Red Car is off to it's new home on Friday (all things going well!)

In the meantime the strip-down contiues and the e-bay'ing has begun.

Despite saying "Collection only" and repeating that in the ad's it still amazes me how many people have contacted me asking how much to ship different bits!

Hopefully get the tub off tonight and then the fun really begins

Good News Dave

Your back to spending on lots of nice parts i see.

Shhh.... i'm still not totally sure that SWMBO isn't subscribed to this thread.

That aside, the stripping continues apace and all of the bodywork is now off (and sold!) apart from the main tub and the bulkhead and those should be off this week.
The weekend i managed to dismantle the Dashboard and extract all of the electrics off of the bulkhead, including heater, wipers etc.



I also spent..... " a couple of quid" at the Bristol Classic Car Show on Sunday on a few bits-n-bobs including:

• All the exterior lights
• Bonnet pins
• Tins of etch primer and Chassis Black.
• and a few other bits for the garage....

So as long as i get a few good nights this week i should be down to the chassis and starting to build a list of what needs to be done before the order goes in with Mike and i start putting it all back together

I don't know why, but so-far this seems to be going quicker than last time getting to this stage?

hi dave 2nd time around always is my car stuk in spray shop two day cutting back with 3000 w/d hope to post pic at w/e dave

Tub off!

And i find a new exhaust as well as the immaculate chassis that i was hoping for!!



Plus... What seems to be a new Diff!!

Dave , that is a great start, wont take so long as before with such a strong donor. I always say pay a little more for a good vehicle , as your time and interest can be used for the more interesting bits of the build.

And stop gloating with all your new shiny stuff :-)

Seriously though, looks like a good base car, so should be a sweet build.

Cheers both, it does feel like i'm (excuse the pun) motoring through this a lot faster than previously. At least so far.

A good bit of progress over the past few days.

Bulkhead off.



While the bulkhead on the Sammio was sound, i always regretted not taking it off, so i'm glad i _had_ to remove it for this build

Rear end stripped as far as i'm stripping it as everything else seems to be new or recently refurbished!



Before i bought this donor i was expecting to have to strip and weld the chassis on whatever i ended up with and i was preparing to buy a soda blaster (i don't have that toy yet ) But now that I've seen the state of the chassis, all it needs is a wash, going over with a wire brush and then painting !

Then lastly, those of you who may have followed my Sammio build will know that i can't praise "Spitfire Graveyard" enough! My last donor came without clocks, with the wrong carbs, no throttle pedal and a load of other bits missing. The team at the Graveyard always made sure that i bought the _right_ bits and they also made sure that i bought everything that was needed, rather than what i thought was needed.

So I've just used them to source the fuel tank, and while it will get a lick of paint tomorrow along with everything else, internally it's really good.
But they also left the fuel filler on for me! i'm well chuffed




So..... given the good condition of most of what i've got ( sorry Mark!) what i'm now thinking my plan of attack with this car is:

1. Get everything renovated that will be inaccessible when built.
2. Get the frame on
3. Get the body on.
4. Fit a basic interior with minimal clocks etc. & reuse the Spitfire fuel filler
5. Paint it
6. Get in on the road and start enjoying it!

Then over time:

• Enhance the interior (fit heater / glove-box / other shiny bits)
• Fit a posher fuel filler.
• Upgrade front brakes and replace front suspension with trunionless
• upgrade rear brakes and suspension
• etc.
• etc.

I'm now thinking that this may be a better approach for me as i did get bogged down with some unnecessary bits on the last build..
At least that's the plan for today!

that looks a great start for you there Dave chassis running gear etc look fantastic. good look with the build looks like you have bought wisely.

Cheers matey.


Despite saying that i was going to leave the rear of the chassis how it was, i decided to strip all of the rear end down anyway, as i'd only regret it if i didn't and i have a few weeks before the kit turns up.




So seeing as i'd been abandoned today (Cub fun day!) i had the garage to myself all day

So 4 hours with a filament wheel (my new toy for this build and very nice it was!) and the chassis was stripped and cleaned from the front outriggers backwards. and i looked like i'd just come up out of the mines!

Another regret on the last build was not using red oxide, so this time i invested in some etch red oxide!



That dried remarkably quickly in all of this heat! Which meant that i also then manged to get the chassis black on



And before the totally knackered Cubs returned i even had time to sort out the petrol tank.




So a bit of a mammoth session that's been put me well in advance of where i thought i'd be by now and ended with a bottle of "Daddys apple Juice", or Henry Westerns finest 8.4% if i'm being totally honest!