Author Topic: Project Alison  (Read 8201 times)

Offline randombadger69

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Project Alison
« on: May 07, 2012, 04:26:33 pm »
Inspired by works going on at our joint work/storage space I decided it was about time I got cracking with the MK3 polo shell I picked up.

I bought this with plans to eventually re-home my G40 conversion into. Not convinced I was any better off with this despite its lack of sunroof I decided it would make the perfect shell for my 1043 boosted plans. Not sure why or how but she has become known as Alison.

Project brief.

Remove anything not essential and build a tin can slut for general everyday use. Spend as little as possible. 1043cc displacement for comedy value.

So all began with a little peek on ebay for a donor shell For my G40 conversion. Which had started with me deciding I needed to re-locate the battery! ::)

So £250 later, some shit fast food, a stop enroute to buy some coilovers off Andy and a blow-out on the trailer. I had myself a 1272cc Polo CL coupe K reg with a snatch over 100k miles on the clock. It's by no means perfect and on further investigation I discovered it has had a slight front end impact, although minor damage by the looks of things.

So friday night arrived at our unit about 18:00 to discover my mate Martin had actually done some welding work on the MK1 golf shell I sold him!

Jim was bang on his MK1 Rocco at long last and was getting stuck in with a get it done approach!

So overalls on and made a start on removing the knackered light panel. Things went quite well and eventually had success in removing it with a flap disc on a 4 1/2" grinder.







It was getting a bit late for general gnawsing duties, so next up was remove brakes, steering rack, pedals, front suspension etc. MIG plant came out to remove the annoying blank headed bolt VW fit on the steering column to chassis.











Once this was off it was a case of the shittest job ever.. underseal removal!

This took me to about 3:00am Saturday, at this point I was running low on fuel/enthusiasm so thought i'd call it a night.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 05:33:29 pm by randombadger69 »

Offline Yoof

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2012, 05:51:30 pm »
Once I crash the front of mine, I think I'll make the front panel removable, everything is so much easier once it's gone.

How much power you aiming for from the 1043 lump?

Offline djtez

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2012, 06:54:50 pm »
Once I crash the front of mine

Such confidence ;D

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2012, 07:24:10 pm »
Once I crash the front of mine, I think I'll make the front panel removable, everything is so much easier once it's gone.

How much power you aiming for from the 1043 lump?

Yeah, I reckon it'll be pretty easy to do as well. Done a load more to this over the week end, stitch welded the chassis legs, removed the scuttle panel, lots of underseal removal etc. Got in at 08:00 this morning.. feel ruined!

Having a nightmare getting my pics sized correctly for the forum, set up a photobucket and everything, still can't get them to display properly. Got two more days of graft to post. Thought walk away before something gets broken :D

Power wise, dont know really. It'd be nice to see double its factory 45 hp. Im basically gonna try and throw a G40 engine together with a HZ crank, but keep all the other parts as they were on a 1272cc. Probably on a standard pulley and see what happens. Not sure whether 3F injectors will be sufficient? As I dont have any other stock PY injectors
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 07:29:32 pm by randombadger69 »

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2012, 11:29:53 pm »
Saturday saw a hive of activity up at the unit.

Even Baker made an appearance!





Wee Jimmy Got on the hammerite!







Phil made him self useful on the teas and ciggies!



Si spent most of his time under a very rusty Merc 190



And i recruited the use of his brother Doms expertise in the underseal department!



Lookig really happy about it in this picture!













Which saw us about ready for some welding. (Plus I was bored and wanted another job). Marked out 25mm along the chassis leg seams and got the TIG plant out.













Got these welded by which time the camera was out of battery and the charger was at home. Eventually left the unit at about 03.30 leaving si and baker still working on the mk2 golf. I was fooked and needed a beer!

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2012, 11:30:50 pm »
Sunday saw a slightly more leasurely start. Went to the local Dubgen meet at the Ram for a gander at some motors and to say hello to a few peeps. jim was already on the Jager.. oh dear!

Got up the workshop by about 16:00.

Few lads popped up to say hello. Bagman volunteered himself for bitumen removal in the back, who was I to complain?! Unfortunately i made the mistake of stopping him on the home straight, which blew the fuse in the heat gun :roll:









Still saved me some graft.. good lad!

Meanwhile armed with a grinder a hammer and a chisel I set about removing the scuttle panel.

















Me in Hollywood welder shocker! :paranoid:  :lol:





















Not quite finished round the brake servo area, needs some trimming and welding still.





Before I knew it, it was light!















Started to feel it by this point, so chucked some primer in the direction of bare steel and wrapped the tools up. Left the workshop about 07.00am monday. Still feeling fucked.

Lots to do still! Need to finish the scuttle area and seam weld the turrets and gearbox mounting area. Thinking about re-enforcing the chassis legs a wee bit with some 32 or 38mm CDS (have some offcuts) ala Yoof style.

Offline djtez

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2012, 11:55:43 pm »
amazing work..

some crazy hours!

well worth it tho !!

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2012, 12:05:21 am »
Haha Cheers Tez, been on it this weekend for a change!

Was supposed to have been going to Eschdorf to watch the opening round of the berg cup this weekend, but as im skint atm, we had to put the trip on hold. Will do another round later in the year hopefully!

Offline dub-disaster

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2012, 12:14:18 am »
Absaloutly epic amount of working taking place in such a short amount of time very impressed makes me look like i work at snails pace !!! makes me wish i had my own unit :( whats the use of the car going to be for mainly road or going to end up as a track preped shell that will wait untill you have a particularly tasty motor to go in ??

Offline Yoof

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2012, 01:25:15 pm »
Nothing worse than removing underseal, good work going on here  :)

Along with the chassis leg gussett, I'd stick the gearbox mount too, and turret tops, infact, if I could TIG weld I'd stick everything possible just to show off...  :'(

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2012, 06:33:44 pm »
Absaloutly epic amount of working taking place in such a short amount of time very impressed makes me look like i work at snails pace !!! makes me wish i had my own unit :( whats the use of the car going to be for mainly road or going to end up as a track prepped shell that will wait untill you have a particularly tasty motor to go in ??


I usually work at snails pace, just this weekend I had the urge for it, so I got stuck in!

If i'd left the herbal refreshment alone a lot more could have got done! ;D

Im building this to be a road car hopefully. I'd like a daily that feels safer to drive than my GT (haha) and goes quicker than it but with a smaller displacement. It's shall we say a development guinea pig. All the coins already sunk in my 1306 build, this is gonna be a case of make it work, paint it black and fit it haha. I'd like to get this done for under a grand (not including safety devices rollcage!).

Nothing worse than removing underseal, good work going on here  :)

Along with the chassis leg gussett, I'd stick the gearbox mount too, and turret tops, infact, if I could TIG weld I'd stick everything possible just to show off...  :'(

Trust me you wouldn't!

Your right underseal is a chore!

I thought should be sweet, turn the amps right down and have a go... as soon as you strike an arc the sealant just pours out of the seam contaminating the tungsten almost immediately. I ground my way through at least half a tungsten on 20 stitches! Had to tack, then went to weld a stitch, contanination lots of fizzing, spitting etc. Stop, grind tungsten, wire brush the area and have another go. Had to get wire in there as quick as possible and keep laying it in just to stabilise the arc enough. Hence why its not pretty and at the start of every weld looks like dog shit.

First one I did was sweet though... because I picked the one with the tightest gap ::)

I was going to do the turrets at the bottom where they join the inner wing (full of sealant here) and round the seam at the top, along with the gearbox mount. I reckon next time im going to take a blow torch to the seams and try to carbonise that sealant shit before I try and weld it!

What do you reckon to a double re-enforcement around the chassis legs? IE a bit of mitred box or sheet cut out and welded in similar fashion to hayseys and then brace between that with tube or box. You reckon that could help?

Already put 500mm of weld metal in this!

Offline Andy

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2012, 08:55:24 pm »
Brilliant progress. Like the idea of a caged-up commuter slut wagon - as long as the commute's along sweet roads!

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2012, 01:55:19 pm »
Brilliant progress. Like the idea of a caged-up commuter slut wagon - as long as the commute's along sweet roads!

cheers, getting stuck in! I expect i'll drive it once and be horrified by the road noise! Will save me eeding a steroe though, earplugs may be the one!

The roads are shit round here, some epic twists around, just full of holes etc. im swaying more towards the rally prepared spec, so wont be making use of my nylon rear beam bushes!

I retract my previos comment Pete, started welding the gearbox mount.. things soon get out of hand. I can see myself sticking everything as you put it :D

I burnt the underseal out of the gearbox mount as best as I could with a blow torch and it welded a lot nicer. Still all down to amperage control, but I never went above 55 amps.

The turrets are an arse, got one side nearly ready for welding.. again lots of blowtorch and grinder with a knotwheel.  >:(

Made some progress on this. Martyn made an apperance yesterday and slapped some filler in the bay of his mk1.



Jim cracked on with the surgery on his Mk1 rocco..





Never happier than when using a chisel is our wee Jim














I got the gearbox mount mostly welded. Still a couple of sttitches to do round here (awkward ones!)















Inspected the rusty battery tray. Almost gone right to the steering column mount. May have to cut past this and re-weld it.









The graveyard



















Got the beam and fuel tank off. Found some lovely rust inside the arch here, where the stupid breather pipe travels has rotted out causing the inside of the wing to get wet and start rusting. Not looking great, but then it's still there.. for now!





Jims delights!






Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2012, 01:22:53 am »
Well, lost a bit of momentum this weekend. Still chipped away at it.

Friday night got stuck into the turrets. Had a bash at stitching the nearside turret. this didn't go so well. Loads of dirty underseal and huge gaps to fill left a rather unsightly mess.









Having made a bit of a mess of the turret to inner wing I decided i'd have a change of job to keep me motivated. So started removing the rear seatbelt mountings.





After doing the N/S i was bored of this too. Stopped for a brew. Simon then arrived and announced it was all round Jims for some brews. So needing no further persuasion I downed tools for the night.

The great plans made the night before with Simon to do a scrap run in the morning went out the window. It was light before any of us got any shut-eye, needless to say am had passed by the time heads awoke.

So bleary eyed, we made our way to the workshop. Things started slowly. with lots of this..



I got on the tidy-up and sorting through the scrap as things were getting a bit out of hand. Look at all that floor!





Eventually things were looking good and the head was feeling less abused. Not really in the mood for grinding and bodywork antics I thought i'd sort through the parts and see what i had and what I needed.

Chaz popped up and gave us a hand with cleaning a few things.



Good old boy!







Dug out an HZ bottom end for a butchers.



Feggin oil pump bolts laughed in my face, so I obliged by making them an 8mm spline. That'll learn the fuckers!



Soon had retrieved the crank and a piston and rod for inspection







Look at the wee crank! Good condition engine really, which is a suprise as Webbo had been the previous user and he abuses everything!

Made a start on cleaning up a rocker cover



By which time i'd had enough and was thinking of heading off. Baker was royally stuck in all day though!



Nat popped up (Mr vinyl/paper cutter himself), so I made use of his visit by handing him a water pipe gasket (obsolete at the stealers) to manufacture for me. Also a throttle body to inlet gasket and crank end-seal plate gaskets as i had some on the bench :-)

Jim had been under his mk1 rocco some more.



That pretty much concluded saturdays antics.

Offline randombadger69

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Re: Project Alison
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2012, 12:32:25 am »
Right so took me  a while to realise that all i managed on sunday was to get a spare PY lump out of my parents shed and onto an engine stand in the workshop. A BBQ was mentioned and that put a halt to everything!  :lol:





Jims pile of refurbed parts for his Mk1 Rocco were getting endangered  by my works! As if we have sofa's up our unit that get used for this! :roll:



The mood was definately not buzzing, Jim hobbited away at re-assembly of his beam.



Baker got pested up on the blower..



And these bag men pretty much halted all play. Tom looking especially batty in this photo!



Onto monday. Got the PY block i'd bought as spare stripped. Noticed the exhaust valves had all smashed the pistons. (Timing out?). Also looks like the crank is a bit gnawsed up where the pulley fits onto the notched out "keyway". To top it the big end shells were fucked and "baggy" and looks like cylinder one has got serious corrosion around the headgasket sealing ring landing in the water way. No-wonder the block was for sale!

Anyhow, while i had it in bits thought i'd try out some theory.

Fitted the 1043cc crank and a PY piston and rod. I'd measured the rods and they both measured circa 122mm c-c. However the pistons on the 1043cc were taller by a good 10mm from the centre of the gudgeon pin.

So as expected.. no compression here Dave..







So Decided to have a look at a standard 1272cc piston. Pulled one out of a 2G block i'd previously butchered thinking it was a 1043cc. Trialled this in the block.



Hmm.. still not ideal. Didn't have a dial guage, but tbh didn't really need one to measure this. So had a peek with the verniers. For example the PY piston and rod at TDC in a PY block sits somewhere near to 2mm from the Deck. The PY piston and rod on a 1043cc crank in a PY block sat around 9mm from the deck iirc and the 2G something like 7mm.

So me and baker sat there doing some loud thinking.

Conclusion was that in order to get anything to work we'd either have to cut around 5mm off the deck (and bolts) or double stack gaskets/head spacer with the 1043cc HZ piston on a PY rod on an HZ crank in a PY block... did you get that? :lol:

.. Or machine some HZ pistons down. None of which were a satisfactory solution. Especially as i didn't actually want to be spending money on it.

So I began muttering defeat in the form of 1272cc..

To which I was shot down in flames by Baker saying there's no point in putting a 1272cc lump in Alison with a G-lader. As that's what was (almost (1306cc)) in the shiny red one. To which I agreed he was right and it went against the whole principal of this build (vaguely sensible).

Soo..

What to do?

Baker finally said, well you can put a 1272cc in if you turbo it! Otherwise there's no point. To which I agreed. But where can we find a turbo?

So "the team" went out on a scout round the yard. And who should find a turbo? Baker of course..

A fucking great thing!

So a bit of pilfering later and we had ourselves a turbo..





My partner in crime.. Martyn helped with the removal. I have honestly never seen such a shite set-up in all my life. The inlet and exhaust on this fecker were just designed to stay on the engine. Makes a crossflow polo engine a delight to work on in comparison even when fitted with a G-Lader!





So all we have to do now is make this thing work on a peeny little engine! :lol:

Melted pistons anyone?
« Last Edit: May 16, 2012, 12:43:44 am by randombadger69 »