1st Drive!

Went to the car in the morning, took the tintop to the street so that I could drive out the kit car. Connected up the battery, sat in and turned the key. Started quickly and now it idles without needing the foot on the throttle peddle. Kept it going for a bit while playing with the gear stick trying to understand where was 1st, 6th and neutral.

Tried to make it move on its own but stalled. Another try, this time very odd! I took the foot off the clutch and the Digidash would still say "clutch down" and the car would not move. Turned it off, slackened a bit the clutch cable and went for another try. The car seemed it was going to move but stalled twice. And suddenly it would not start again! Lost the remaining of the morning trying to get it to go (even put more fuel in) without success. In the end, the battery was too low on juice to keep trying. Packed up and took the battery to charge.

In the evening another attempt with full battery. Conscious that I made a stupid mistake when trying to go with the car... The hand brake was pulled... Oh, boy...
Battery in, car would not start. Starting to feel lost... Went for another round on the car and... The fuel pump cable was disconnected! I usually disconnect it as another safety measure. This morning I forgot to connect it and the fuel the car ran on was that stored in carburators or something, but not coming from the pump!

Pump connected, car starts after some hesitation! Handbrake down, softly taking the foot from the clutch... The car moves a bit! Went up to get the wife and kid.

With them, 1st movie is driving the car for some 50 meters.

2nd movie is using the MNR reverse box to reverse and then moving back to roughly where I started.

3rd movie is the car going up 2 floors on the garage, to a borrowed spot, so that my spot can me washed (it really needs a wash!).

Tires squeal like mad partially because they probably have some break fluid on them, partially because the suspension geometry was setup by Gaudí. Need to work on that later... Also on the breaks... They sssttttoooopppeeedddd the car. Calmly... Taking their time...

Debugging For 1st Drive II

With a full battery and 6l of fuel, went to the car.

First attempt: connected battery and tried. Failed.
Second attempt: added about 4l of fuel to the tank. Car starts, lots of noise, neighbour's van alarm goes off.

Grabbed the exhaust can and fitted it temporarily to the car, tied with a strap to the chassis. Took the airbox out and refitted the idle screw. Reconnected the Digidash. Started the car again, could see on the Digidash the RPM and other indicators moving. Between starts, tweaked the idle screw and I think that next time the car will idle without needing my foot on the throttle.

Did not attempt to drive it because the tintop was parked in front and I didn't have it's keys to move it. Besides, I'm a bit scared of what will happen. But on the weekend I'll drive it! And take pictures of the exhaust can.

Debugging For 1st Drive I

This will be the 1st of several instalments in trying to get the car to start for the 1st drive that I'll be doing after dinner. I have until the 1st August to get the car running and drive it 2 floors upwards inside the garage to get the spot professionally washed. If the car is there, the company skips the spot...

Connected the battery, checked with the multimeter the power on the battery (12,3v) and then on the fuel pump (0v). Disconnected, flipped the dashboard upside-down and fixed the wiring on the ignition key barrel. Connected the battery again, first position of the key and the starter engine did not spin right away. Also, the Digidash lit and there was a small clack from the fuel pump. Multimeter shows that the pump was getting 10,8v.

Couple more attempts to start, all failed. Seems there is no fuel getting at the carbs because the engine does not "cough", the starter just spins. The Digidash was showing the battery draining and then started to flicker. So I disconnected the Digidash. Not only saves the part as also rules out some possible wiring mistakes.

Some more attempts and the starter engine seemed to "sound slower". Multimeter on the battery and only 11,8v. Removed the battery from the car and packed for the night. The battery is now charging and tomorrow I'll go buy a jerry-can and some litres of fuel. The way it's behaving, there is no reason to fail with more fuel on the tank and a charged battery.

Driver's Seat and Failed 1st Drive Attempt

Started by bolting in the hooking points for the driver's seat belt (4-point harness). The lower ones go on nuts welded on the chassis. The one on the inside needed a washer to make space since when bolting in it would hit the diff cradle. The outside one does not hit anything and will be covered by body panels. Bolts need to be in a position such as the round part is "in line with the force direction".

The upper bolts were also easy to bolt in. When I started on the outside one was a bit worried I was going to have to take the rollbar out, but it was not needed.

Then I had to drill for the car seat. Driver's seat was a lot easier because of the adjusting rails. I pulled the seat to the back of the rails and placed it on the car, making it be as near the firewall as possible. Placed some tape on the front under the rails and used a pencil to mark where the holes were. Out comes the seat, 4,75mmØ followed by 8mmØ to enlarge and the seat is back but with bolts on the front. Slid the seat to the front as much as possible and this uncovered the rails' rear holes. More tape, pencil, seat out, driller and it was done. Some vacuum cleaning and the seat was in and fully bolted on the floor. I wish the passenger's seat had been as easy!

Sat on the seat and adjusted the seat belts and seat to my size. Then packed everything up and went home to get the car keys.

Back with the keys and the wife to film what could have been the first drive. The car wouldn't start, starter engine was spinning but I couldn't hear the fuel pump clacking and the engine didn't even cough as when it's burning fuel but not starting.
I believe I wired the ignition barrel incorrectly since the starter engine fired up on 1st key click (instead of 2nd). Additionally, the Digidash in the beginning lighted up and then stopped doing so. So I also may have a bad earth or I blew a fuse. It is also possible that I'm too low on fuel... In the middle of all this I managed to disconnect the idle screw from the carbs, which will be a pain to fit again without taking the carbs out...

Next "work session" will be spent trying to figure out what the electrics problem is because I really want to drive the car around a bit!

Passenger Seat

Expecting that I would attach both seats this morning and drive the car in the garage, started happily the work on the passenger seat. Last weekend the holes had been drilled but they didn't align exactly with the seat holes. During the week I bought some washers with a 8mmØ hole and as large as possible to put between the bolt and the floor pan.

So I spent time enlarging holes, fitting seat to test, enlarging, refitting, enlarging... All my morning to get the passenger seat held down by 3 holes. I did not have the nerve to take it out again for the failing hole and left that as is. When I take the seats out to fit the tunnel ally cover, I'll revisit the missing seat bolt hole.

So, based on experience, next two weekends will be to fit the drivers seat and then maybe I'll get some driving experience.

After putting it all in place and taking the pictures (but before cleaning and packing) I sat a bit on the seat and adjusted the seatbelts. I believe the position would be more comfortable with a foot rest but I better not put "foreign" elements on the car, might be compromising security.

New Tool, Firewall Done and Starting Seats

Took the broken rivet pliers to the shop. The shop does not give warranty on manual tools. The importer has gone bankrupt so they are trying to find if there is a new importer to find out if there is some factory warranty.
This was blocking my build. So, while I wait for a warranty or fix estimate, looked around for lazy tongue pliers (what I should have bought in the first place) and found a proper one for what I believe is a nice price.

This morning used the tool to pop all the firewall rivets. Drilled one extra hole to rivet above the tunnel. It was actually quite fast although it requires more strength than youtube videos had led me to believe. Also, when the rivet pops the tool sometimes escapes and I made 3 or 4 marks on the ally wall. Nice that my plan was to cover it later on... Anyway, not that it will be visible with the seats in place.


Next plan was to add the seats. Started with the "co-pilot" seat. Steve from Aries tough me a trick of the trade: put 4 bolts on the seat holes, put some copper grease on their heads and put the seat on the car. Drill where the copper grease marked the centres and then just bolt. Easier said than done... I moved the seat slightly after putting it on the car, smearing a bit the copper markings. Measured twice and drilled. But two holes ended up misaligned by a millimetre or two. I was already late for lunch so had to drop the task to be continued on another day.


After drilling on the floor but before trying to bolt the seat still had to vacuum clean the floor where the seat would lay and also bolt the hooking points for the harnesses. Also hooked the lower harness points to the bolts. Left all that on the car.


Unfortunately, my phone misbehaved and refused to take pictures. Next time I hope to have some with the seat fully mounted and the harness bolts for the driver's seat.


One thing I'm considering is to make a list of tasks and order them. During my vacations in May I made the list and it seemed to make me more productive. Also, by planning in advance for several sessions, I knew what materials I missed and was able to buy them (almost) all at once. I think I'm a bit obsessed with driving the car on the garage, but after that I really need to get more organized before taking the car on a track.