Off the road for some TLC

Hi all. Sorry that I have not updated my blog in some time, its all been a bit on the busy side over the last few months what with work and family life.
I have done a few shows and meetings since the last update and will do a year in pictures towards the end of the year.

I have now taken the S7 off the road to do a few jobs as the road tax has now run out,
will post on them as and when I sort them.

TVH Homecall to Terry

Yesterday was the second TVH Homecall to Terry, who has been building a Robin hood 2B Since 2002
A big thank you to Terry and his family for their hospitality
and feeding us all with the BBQ and loads of tea.

Terry's drive way full of hoods.



Terry's on going project- Robin Hood 2B
This car is one of the best builds I have seen in along time.

The TVH gang get things set up to start Terry's Hood for the first time.

BBQ time.

The result at the end of the day.

Thames Valley Area May Meeting

A good turn out at the Thames Valley Area monthly meeting at the Dewdrop inn

TVH Homecall

This weekend the TVH crew had a homecall to Alan & Tim.
Alan had rescued a Dutch fellow (Martyn) who had bought a Robin Hood in Holland around Xmas and had ventured onto the RHOCaR site, due to his limited writing skills in English he got a rather negative response from the forum.
After a few emails with Alan, Martyn had arranged to come over to the UK for the Stoneleigh kit car show and the following week Alan would swap out Martyns 1600cc Pinto engine for a 2000cc EFI Pinto.



When we all turned up at Alan's home on Saturday morning the engine was already in the car but there was a few problems to sort out one of which was the sticking flap in the airflow meter.
After a couple of hours trying to get it to work we found that the airflow meter in Alan's Golf GTI was the same as that on a Sierra and as the car is off the road it was removed and fitted in to the Hood all was working fine till a few more problems poped up like-

Fuel starvation through kinked pipe and the Throttle cable needed a mod to get it working.

Read the full story on the TVH website at

http://www.freewebs.com/oxonrobinhoods/eventreports08.htm#197795346

Stoneleigh 08

Last weekend over the bank holiday Myself, Becky & Tash camped over at Stoneleigh kit car show. This is the biggest show of the year with loads to see and do.
The best part of this show for us is meeting up with friends and other members of RHOCaR.





A big turn out of Robin Hoods for this show.

The GBSC stand showing off there latest models of Robin Hoods namely the new zero 7

Plus they had a new model on show which will be launched at the Newark kit car show.

It is to be called the bullet and will be first released as a 50cc the picture above is the prototype/test bed it will need a Msva which apparrently is not as bad as the sva the 50cc version will be single seater with a two seater coming later with the big engines the body work.

The 50cc engine will allow a 16 year olds to drive it on the road.

It will look a little like a f1 front end with a wing and the trike will have a sliding canopy a bit like a fighter jet!!! steering will be direct (no steering rack) with gear change being either paddlles or buttons on the steering wheel and front of body will be made of vacumm formed plastic.

Brake Problems!!!

On the way to the TVH April meeting the S7 developed a bad shake on the steering under braking and then pulling hard to the left.
When we made it to the pub where the meeting was taking place I found the N/S front wheel was very hot and the brake Caliper had seized on.
I left the wheel and hub to cool down and after the meeting was over it had seemed to have freed off to drive home.
So today I removed the caliper and stripped it down cleaned up the pistons and fitted a new set of seals and rubbers.
I also fitted a new set of brake pads as the old pad had been well and truly cooked.

Wheels Day 08

Great looking MK1 Escort

Robin Hood Super Spec

The brave soul from the TVH Area

Now will this fit????????????

Nash

Nice paint job

Who ya gonna call???????????

Four of us Thames Valley area members braved the weather to go to the Good Friday Wheels Day show at Rushmoor Arena near Aldershot. Later in the day we were joined by Becky & Tasha.

This was my first big event as the new area sec for the TVH area having taken over the role from John.

The weather forecast had said we were in for some rain showers and the prospect of a snow shower to add to the days fun (great!!!). In the end it turned out to be not a bad day at all, just a bit cold and windy.

As last year the turn out of cars for this show was huge, there seems to be more & more every year, the only down side this year was there was not the same amount of trade stand as in the last few years.

This show has every type you could wish to see, ranging from Street Rods, Custom Cars, Yanks, Kit cars, Bikes, Vans, British Classics, Historic Vehicles and Dragsters. the live bands were also very good. Something for everyone.

Cycle Computer

This is the last of the winter projects on the list to be fitted.
Some people have installed their bike computers in cars so as to take readings from the propshaft. I decided to do it the easy way, in as similar a manner as possible to its normal application, and stick the magnet on the wheel, mount the sensor nearby, and have the bracket somewhere in the cockpit.
The first job was to make up a bracket to mount the sensor near the wheel, once this was in place the next job was to extend the wire joining the sensor to the bracket as it is far too short for use in a Seven type car, for this I used Speaker wire as it is more or less the same size as the wire on the computer.
The magnet was stuck on to the wheel rim using epoxy resin.
After a test I used more epoxy resin to make sure that the magnet wouldn't fly off the wheel rim at speed.
As it was dark by the time I had finished fitting the computer in place I have not given it a proper test run plus I want to give the epoxy resin time to fully set.

Dip Stick Handle

Sometime back I some how managed to snap the handle off the dip stick, I have tried to weld it back together a few times but as it is so thin trying to get a good weld on it is almost impossible as I think the metal is impregnated with oil.

You can get a replacement billet stainless steel handle from some of the performance parts and accessories catalogues you can pick up but at what I think is a rip off price of £30 plus the VAT and then the package and postage on top of that too!

So when I was down at the local DIY store today I found a drawer handle which just happens to look about the same as the £30 job and at a fraction of the price at £2.99 lol.

All I had to do to get the handle to fit was drill a 4.5 mm hole in the side and then tap it out with an M5 tap fit a grub screw and fit it on.

AS you can see from the photos it looks just fine.

The £30 replacement dip stick handle.

My £2.99 dip stick handle

Autosport International 2008

Over the weekend I went up to the Autosport show held at the NEC Birmingham.
Loads to see, plenty of trade stands selling motorsport equipment and a live action show.
Here are just a few of the photos I took-

Lotus Seven Mk 1


Lotus Seven Mk2

F1 Pit Lane

A couple non standard optional extras !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonnet Pin Kit

I have fitted a pin kit to the bonnet after I noticed on a run out last year that at speed the rear of the bonnet was trying to lift up and as I don't fancy the prospect of the thing flying off and hitting the vehicle following, this is something that had to be sorted.

The kit itself I got at the Exeter show from a company called Car Builder Solutions

www.carbuildersolutions.co.uk

Its simple to fit but involved some more drilling of the stainless steel bonnet ( not again!!!!!! lol)

The first thing you have to do is select an accessible area to mount the pins.
Next drill a hole for the threaded post to pass through, then attach the post with a nut each side of the support hole.

Adjust the height of the post so that the top is just in contact with the bonnet, put a small dab of grease on the tip so that it makes a mark on the underside of the bonnet.

Drill a hole through the bonnet so that the post protrudes and then test fit the bonnet in place.

Drop the contact plates over the posts on to the bonnet and adjust the height so it all fits nice,

using the plate as a marker drill and pop rivet in place.

Refit bonnet in the normal way and slide locking pins into place and its job done.

Bonnet Side Vent

Today I did one of the winter projects I had planed, fitting the side vent into the bonnet.
As this is a bit of a nail biting job I had to get it right first time no room what so ever for mistakes on this job!


The area where the vent is going to go is masked with masking tape and the vent marked out

With the bonnet removed from the car two pilot holes are drilled at each end of the marked area.

Then using a hole saw I cut the two end radius's-

before cutting the rest of the vent hole out with a pair of tin snips and then grinding the edges to shape, this was finished of with a hand file.

The vent trim and grill bolted in place.

The finished job. Should help get rid of some of the heat from the engine, specially in the summer time.

Thames Valley Mince Pie Run Out

Today we had the TVH mince pie run out which is becoming an annual event on the calendar for this area of the club.

Once again Alan had been busy sorting out a route for us and getting us into the country houses and the Police training college at Bramshill.

We all met up at a local car park in Hook before setting off. In all there were seven Robin Hoods and along for the run was Becky & Tasha, they came on the event as chief photographer and support car in the tin top.

Also along for the run making it a family day out for us was my sister, nephew & sister's partner in their Jago Jeep on its first run out since they had picked it up a month or so ago.

Our first stop off point was at Tynley Hall just outside of Hook where we all lined up for a photo shoot, then it was on to Warbrook House for more photos followed by a drive around the lanes to the Police training college.

After a look around the grounds it was was time for a spot of lunch at the Bluebeckers / The Leather Bottle at Mattingley.

All in all a fun day out. Many thanks to all involved in sorting it all out for us.