Project \'rotarvette\'

[travellinbob]

Nice work there on the engine crossmember. looks really neat! You are steaming ahead on the car these days. makes me think I should stop drinking and get back to work on the morris minor!

[Dominic]

Nice work there on the engine crossmember. looks really neat! You are steaming ahead on the car these days. makes me think I should stop drinking and get back to work on the morris minor!

Drinking gives courage and makes men opt for passion :chat :guinness

Great work Alex

[yoeddynz]

why not drink and build at the same time? and a little bit of herb. just not too much or youll end up with engine upside down and backwards.
And drinks at the end of a good days building to celebrate progress- good too.



hmmmmm- drinking and power tools...ahhhhhh

[ArmyOfOne]

I ended up putting my oil cooler in front of the radiator, right behind the grill. I can definitely see the size difference between a 12A and a 13B in these cars. I really like your engine mount, good that you decided to keep the rubber mounts otherwise it would vibrate your eyes out. I speak from experience on this one.

One more thing I discovered is that since the rear end is a torque arm type suspension the rear universal joint moves back and forth as you load the car so be sure to take that into account. The best way to take the measurement for the driveshaft is to load the rear end as heavy as you dare and then take the measurement. Hope this helps.

BTW it is looking really good!!!!!!

[yoeddynz]

thanks man,
yeah-axles... right now I\'m having problems getting parts for my HS(same as Kaddet GTE) axle. I need the front rubberbush thing that supports the front bearing and the bigger pressed steel mount it sit in- my HS axle was missing these bits when I bought it :-(    
Standard chevette bit are too small.
Army of one - do you have any spares kicking about? (I think your the best to ask on this forum....)

[yoeddynz]

well- latest stuff done is chop out all the excess metal that was holding the little rad in place and then with some angle iron in the vice i bent up some new bodywork to hold the rx7 rad. it had to go in at a slight angle but with it all sealed up in front the air has no where to go through it.
mount oil cooler in front- this is important as its responsible for 1/3 of the engines cooling.
Plenty of room behind rad for the electric fan.
Then hoses next. The bottom outlet i had to move so out with the gas and some solder. after lots of searching through hose stocks at motor local factor I actually discovered that the bottom hose from mates wrecked mk3 sh1t chopped in half was perfect for top hose.





Now the clutch.. a holesaw made quick work and after measuring how far the rx7s pedal moved the master cylinder shaft i drilled the chevette clutch pedal. some panel beating to make a flat area for the master to sit and it all now bolts up nice.
Just bought a nos clutch disc for a tenner inc postage off ebay!



Axle time- after taking the torque tube off and comparing it to the chevette HS 2300 theres quite a difference to the size of components! As i\'m missing the mounting bits for the front of the HS axle I\'m now on a hunt for either manta A, mk1 cav or HS bits to get it in place. So in the meantime I\'ve moved onto the exhaust manifold.
The Rx7 pipes come out too far so I chopped \'em off and bought some bends from an engineering firm. Hopefully this weekend i\'ll get enough of it welded together to get down to the back of tunnel then leave the rest to an exhaust place to build up something - thats if I can find a place in oxford that actually has a pipe bending machine! Apparently it seems that in this city of 120,000 no one actually has said machine!!!! I cannot believe this-coming from a town of 30,000 with two such machines and very competant fellas using them.
If anyone knows of a place that actually builds exhausts in oxford-not just fits them- please..i\'d love to know.

[travellinbob]

The whole exhaust thing annoys the hell out of me too. I did a recent trawl on the mainland of exhaust shops and it seems all they sell these days is pre-made stuff and do not manufacture anything themselves.
 cheers, michael.

[MikeLMR]

raid all the exhaust places (ask though :-) )for scrap exhausts of the right diameter and lop the bends out with an angle grinder. Some modern cars have some right good quality bends and pipe and they tend to rot out at the box so the pipework is up for grabs.

This exhaust is made 100% of scrap

[yoeddynz]

Yeah- just crawled under old 7 which hasnt gone to scrappy yet and removed curved section over axle- its fine so i\'ll use it. The rest of system on chevette is really straight and same side as manifold so with a little chopping work i\'ll build my own. Built my manifold last weekend -looks good! pics later...
wondering how far back on stock 12A,stock carb i should join primarys?

[strange_days_uk]

Great thread !!



:guinness

[kiwimazda]

Good stuff youre flying, or will be soon.
Ive got a copy of the Vauxhall Chevette works preparation book in NZ if thats any good for you to have a look at.It might help with some things. Should be here in the mail in the next 2 weeks.
I would love to give it to you but you never know what project is around the corner.

[yoeddynz]

Is it the DTV one? sportspart manual...I think you can buy them on disc via ebay. I\'ve got some pages- very good info.

Recovered trans tunnel yesterday and the pulled out engine/box. Have ground off the seam on top of bellhousing and will clean polish what can be seen. Engine up on bench to be cleaned/painted. Start painting bay soon once all messy bits of tatty seam sealer are smoothed down.

I like all this sort of work as I can freely take beer/other and not muck something important up....

I won\'t select the colour till well sober though!

[travellinbob]

Ha, ha, ha I know what you mean! Just finished trying to get all the black paint off my hands from painting the engine bay of the moggy and it is nice to be doing the type of work to the car that doesnt require measuring 3 times and cutting once etc.
 You should be on the road well and truly before summer by the rate of work you are going at.
 nice one.

[yoeddynz]

trouble is that we have a wood stove in the truck and when I get home after work its all too easy to end up chilling in front of that rather then out in the cold. will power..will power!
or another cup of tea..and read classiccar mags

[yoeddynz]

Using some 90 degree bends designed for railings and the old exhaust header pipes from RX7 I was able to finally get something sorted without the need for an expensive trip to Brackley(about the closest good exhaust place I know of to Oxford.
The bends were only £2.50 each and were exactly the right thickness and diameter to match up to the stumps I had left on the original flanges.
Cut a bit here, eye it up, jump on old postie bike and ride down to landlords garage to tack in place, back to car-trial fit and repeat. Many times..15 trips on bike- exhaust getting bigger each time.
The back pipe was a pig as it had to come out with as shallow a bend as possible then duck up, in and down to clear the servo and the steering column. I tried to match the lengths as well as possible and once all painted up and in place I\'m very happy with the result!
I\'ll need to make or buy a two into one collector- if any one can advise a place on the net I can browse as my fears were confirmed when I rang around all the local places and no one MAKES exhausts here in Oxford!





Then I covered up the hole in the tunnel. looks alot better and less drafty..
Pulled engine and box out. Engine is up on bench getting cleaned and a minor polish (harder then I thought with only autosol and elbow grease!)
engine bay getting messy seams tidied up and repainted.
Not sure on colours yet- not too zany -has to go well with old man brown.