More Bodywork

Moving on to the front of the car, I need to do some fitment work on the nose. The big issue or problem is that the "anteater" nose that I have does not fit well to the lower cover over the crush structure. To rememdy the situation two adjustments are needed. First I need to more closely align the seams on the lower nose and the crushbox cover vertically. I did this by adding a little fiberglass reinforced filler to the seam area between the lower cover and the upper nose (area seen in gray above). This worked well, but clearly exposes the other problem. The lower nose and crushbox cover have a 3/4" gap between them when the two halves of the nose are properly aligned...

So as my last project for tonight I carefully laminated an extension onto the lower nose piece to close that gap.

Tomorrow when it has dried I can work on fitting it all together.

Sean

Body Work

New fill panel (left) unwrapped. Looks like this will work.

Right side fill panel turned out well also. Wish I had the rest of the parts on hand to continue the process...

Boredom is beginning to set in as I have very little left that I can do until I get the chassis back from Eric. So earlier this week I bought some aluminum polishing supplies. Looking at the dull front crush structure sitting around the garage inspired me to give it a try. The "before" picture is above.

Looking much nicer (far fron perfect, but nicer none-the-less). The fact is that it is hidden by the bodywork anyway so this was more or less just an exercise to fuel my own anal-retentiveness.

Yesterday I printed out the Homologation paperwork for getting the FF endoresement. Looks pretty simple, so that should go out to Topeka tomorrow.

I also have decided on my data acquisition options, so I will have to give Ellen Ferguson at Veracity Racing Data a call tomorrow afternoon to get that on the way. I ultimately settled on the EVO4 system from AIM and the steering wheel mounted display. With the dash so deep in the Citation cockpit, I felt it would be much easier to see that way. I am also adding an external wheelspeed sensor to the mix. I might ultimately add two to compare slip rates of front vs. rear tires with the GPS speed native in the unit.

At right around $1400 the AIM EVO4 system represents a lot of value for the money. Seems like only a few years ago that such systems were $4-5000 and much more complex to install.

Sean

Body Work

I decided that I could at least make use of my free time over the next week or so by getting as much of the bodywork done as I can without having the chassis back in the garage. Yesterday I shared the new rear floor that my dad is working on. Today I decided to begin work on the lower gearbox area panels.

The FC configuration had a rear diffuser that had about 6-7" of rise from the front of the rear tires to the end of the floor behind the gear box. That meant that the lower panels below the lower rear suspension sloped in the same way.

FF rules (as of last year) do not allow much (1" total) deviation in the flatness of the rear floor. The slope of a FF floor can really only begin in earnest BEHIND the rear tires.

That means that with the new rear floor in place, there will be a growing gap (front to rear) at the bottom of the engine/gearbox covers. Conveniently the existing panels in this area are small slivers of fiberglass and can easily be extended to cover the gap.

One other convenience was that the car came with molds for the diffuser strakes that fairly accurately depicted the slope of the diffuser and the missing verticle gap area.

So I took the two lower side panels (pictured below) out of the trailer this afternoon and begin to mock up a template to fill in the missing area. Satisfied with these templates, I decided to make up two rough-fit panels in their shape. Pictured here are the two panels in process on the work table.

No fancy vacuum bagging equipment on had, I had to resort to old school techniques - wax paper, clamps and weights.

Tomorrow morning they should be dry enough to peel off the wax paper and see how they turned out.

I deliberately made the filler panels a little taller then needed (about 1/4") with the thought that I would trim them to fit later on once the chassis is back in the shop and the floor is mounted up.

My thought right now is to bond these to the existing smaller panels once they are trimmed to fit.

Here are the existing lower side panels. In this picture you can see how they slope upward starting near the curved front of the lower piece. Here's hoping that the new pieces turn out well in the morning.

Sean

Body work...

Speaking of works in progress. Ace composites guy (and my Dad) Bill Maisey has been hard at work on a new flat floor for the car. One of the 'spares' that came with the car was a well-used original Citation diffuser. After some careful measuring any analysis we decided that it would make a suitable basis for a FF spec floor with some modifications. Show here is the (semi) finished product. Looks pretty good, but until we get the chassis back, we really can only guess at what is going to be required to fit it to the car.

So, more to come here...

Sean

Fuel Cell (Completed)

View of the completed cell from the rear. I used a small amount of Permatex on the cork/rubber gasket and fastner threads to help seal everything. With it all buttoned up it came time for the moment of truth.

I put a quart of so of gas into the cell and turned it upside down. And miracle of all miracles - no leaks... No even a little seepage. I held it that way for a few minutes just to be sure and then checked it over with a new paper towel. Looks like all systems go...

Front view of the completed fuel cell. Ready to go back into the chassis now.

After reading all of the discussion on the Honda FF Conversion Forums regarding initial installation problems in this area, I think the prudent thing to do now is to rig up a gauge and some temporary wiring to test it out. While I endevoured to make it fairly easy to remove the pump/regulator assembly it would be much easier to discover any problem now while it is all sitting on the work table.

So another milestone complete.

Tomorrow's agenda:
1) Order the AIM system
2) Call the SCCA to see what I need to do to get the Homologation Certificate updated to make the car SCCA FF legal.
3) Agonize over my wheel options some more...

Eric Langbein informs me that he is already at work on the engine cradle work. Hopefully he will share some pics soon and I will pass them on...

Thats all for tonight...
Sean

Fuel Cell (Completed)

Top plate completed and drilled for the fuel outlet and the wiring bulkhead connector. (My vent is in the filler neck on the right side so these are the only two holes on the left side of the cell unline the Swift setups covered in the HPD manual).

Fuel regulator assembled. It was REALLY tough to set the regulator into the housing. I checked it a couple of times and the O-rings looked OK, so hopefully I will see the correct Fuel Pressure when it all goes together.

After several careful measurements, the connector hose between the regulator housing and the fuel pump was sized. Shown here is the first trial assembly of the entire unit. The HPD manual says that the pump should hang about 1/8th of an inch above the cell floor. This looked just about right. So on to final assembly...

Final assembly ready to drop into the tank. I left as much of the foam in place as possible so that the pump assembly is firmly held in place. Remember to press on the "pillow" retaining ring on the bottom post of the pump. It would probably be bad if the intake pillow came off and the pump was free to suck up and small debris in the bottom of the tank.

Fuel Cell (Continued...)

Finally I test fit the top plate. I haven't drilled the holes for the outlet or the wiring bulkhead adapters yet. I wanted to be sure it fit and that the fastners would go in with minimal hassles first. Tomorrow night I should be able to do the final assembly on the pump/regulator assembly and drop it in.

Two more packages arrived this afternoon. Since I am converting the car from FC to FF use, I needed to rebuild my inventory of springs. Thanks again to the ApexSpeed community for making this fairly easy to accomplish. A quick scan of the classified sections found lots of options. A few mailed checks and PayPal transactions later and I now have a variety of choices from 450-800# to work with - including the baseline setup that Steve Lathrop shared with me last week.

So that does it for tonight. Tomorrow night should finish the fuel cell modification and setup portion of the project.

Coming up I have a few longer lead time items to get to work on:
- Ordering the data acquistion/dash system for the car. I am planning to use the AIM EVO system since it works well with the HPD ECU's CAN connection and will minimize the installation and wiring requirements.
- Ordering wheels (I am still torn between the options here - Panasport Ultralites, Megalites, OZ and Jongbloeds are all options).
- Applying for a homologation change for the car with the SCCA (I almost forgot this one until tonight).

Sean

Fuel System (Continued...)

New fuel cell top plate fabricated and testing out the fit. Looks good - the original five holes all line up correctly. Now it is time to take the plunge, and make the mod that can't be reversed.

Access hole expanded and the bottom plate installed. Time to test fit it all together.

But first I test fit the new custom-made cork/rubber gasket in place. Seems to fit fine with no wrinkles or gaps.

I bench assembled the pump regulator assembly to make sure I could snake it down past the foam to the bottom of the cell. I will probably need to do a little more trimming of the foam to get the elusive tight, but easily removable fit I am looking for. My worst fear was accidentily detaching the input 'pillow' in the process. So far - so good.

Fuel System (Continued...)

Well last night was both productive and frustrating:
- I cut out the inside the tank plate for the fuel cell modifications.
- I cleaned up the edges with a file to make them all rounded and avoid gouging the inside of the cell bladder.
- I drilled and tapped the 8 holes and even polished the entire part to minimize any corrosion issues.
- I drilled the top plate for the 8 fasteners.
- I counter sunk the holes for the recessed stainless buttonheads that I plan to use
- I test fit everything together.
- I made a gasket for the top plate.
- I got about half way through the cut out of the top plate, and bang - lost another band saw blade...

So today at lunch I searched the Williamsburg metro area for a replacement blade.  No Luck...  We only have three places for such things, Lowes, Home Depot, and Ace hardware, and I had already exhausted the entire supply (1) that Lowes stocks last night. 

As it turns out neither Home Depot nor Ace keep much at all in the way of metal cutting blades.  So back at the office I did a little web searching, and found http://www.orderbandsawblades.com .  Four blades for about $40 with shipping.  Not bad, but I will have to wait a few days...

While inspired to spend money online, I went ahead and ordered a few parts from Pegasus :

Part Number Description                                                                
3216             Fuel Vent Check Valve, In-Line for 3/8 inch Hose 
4375-001     Master Switch Mounting Tab 
4430             Master Battery Cutoff Switch with Alternator Protection
MS21042-3  10-32 Jetnut, All Metal Locknuts (25)
MS21042-4  1/4-28 Jetnut, All Metal Locknuts (20 @ $0.47)
MS21042-5  5/16-24 Jetnut, All Metal Locknut (20 @ $0.71)
MS21042-6  3/8-24 Jetnut, All Metal Locknut (20 @ $0.90)

Lee Williams (of Williams Racing Developments fame) contacted me this afternoon.  He had run down a solution for my throwout bearing issues.  Apparently Tilton makes a replacement piston that will fit the Saab slave cylinder that allows either a 38 or 44mm bearing to be fit. 

Lee was kind enough to contact HPD and confirm that the 44mm bearing was the ticket.  So that should solve that mystery and the parts are on their way to Eric's shop as I write this.

More later...

Sean

Fuel System (continued...)

Tonight I started in on making the new top plate and backing plate for the fuel cell. By moving to a slightly larger oval shaped opening I can easily drop the fuel pump, regulator and wiring into the tank. This will make removal and service much easier.

The plan is to drill and tap holes in the bottom plate and then use stainless steel socket head bolts in place of the current steel ones this should minimize the opportunity to introduce any corrosion into the cell over time.

Work on the plates started out well. I cut two holes in the bottom plate with a hole saw. A little file work flattened out the lines connecting the holes. Then on to the band saw to cut out the oval outside shape. Unfortunately I got a little over aggressive with the radius and snapped the blade about half way through. Live and learn....

Without a replacement blade on hand - that was pretty much the end of the project work for the night.

So I got out the HPD chassis wiring kit and began the mental planning process for installing that in the car. One thing I immediately noticed as an issue is that the HPD harness assumes that the battery cut off switch will be located near the engine compartment ala Swift cars. Unfortunately the Citation has a rather unique arrangement where the cutoff switch is dash mounted with a remote cable attached to the roll hoop for emergency cutoff from outside the car. Hmmm.

I am thinking that the easiest thing to do is to not fight it and relocate the cutoff switch to a more conventional location, but with the chassis in Maryland right now, this will have to wait.

The good news is that the rest of the harness is very comprehensive and looks like it will be very simple to install.

Tomorrow night I will pick up a couple of new band saw blades and hopefully finish up the new plates.

Sean

Fuel System Mods (Part 1)

With most of my Citation off at Eric Langbein Racing for fabrication work, I am left with precious little to work on now in the Maisey Racing garage. So, tonight I took out the HPD fuel system parts and started seriously looking at the modifications needed to fit the new in-tank fuel pump and regulator.

My original plan (at least in concept was to fit the entire pump, regulator, wiring assembly in through the existing opening in the cell for the fuel pickup line. Trail fitting the pump showed that it is sufficiently small in diameter to slide in easily. The fuel regulator block however is another story. it is about 1/4" too large to slide past the nut plate inside the cell opening.

That got me thinking. While I can probably install the regulator by sliding the plate aside and stretching the opening, maybe it would be better - and make future service much easier - to enlarge the opening. Shown here in masking tape is a quick drawing of how I would do this.

Basically my idea is to make the opening oval and create new aluminum backing and top plates (and rubber gasket). This will provide plenty of room to remove and service the parts later on if needed. It will also provide a less cluttered space to mount the wiring connector and outlet elbow fitting. (My tank currently has the vent line installed in the filler neck, and at this point I am inclined to leave it there).

This is a picture of the existing, unmodified opening. It has a 3" OD round nut plate inside the cell and a 3" round cover with a rubber gasket outside. (The original AN6 bulkhead fitting is centered in the outer plate).

Test fitting the HPD supplied pump shows that it will fit fine through the existing opening. But if I need to muscle the fuel regulator block into the same opening, I will have to install the lines above it after I squeeze it through the hole ("ship in a bottle" style). I am thinking that this will not bode well for future service and maintenance.

So at this point my plan is to make two new sandwich plates. I would cut the center out of the inside the tank plate and thread the holes. The top plate would be solid and have two holes for the fuel outlet and the wire bulkhead fitting. I would make a corresponding rubber gasket to go between the top plate and the cell membrane. This would essentially replicate the existing setup but would provide sufficient room to slide the entire assembly in and out of the tank while still attached to the top plate. Making future service (like cleaning the "sock" as easy as removing the eight socket head fastners.

Shown here are a couple of quickly improvised templates drawn on masking tape attached to some surplus aluminum plate I had laying around the shop.

BUT - cutting into the expense fuel cell to enlarge the opening is not for the faint of heart. So before I proceed, I plan to post this part of the Blog on ApexSpeed.com (http://www.apexspeed.com ) the Honda FF Conversion forum (http://hondaff.yuku.com ) asking for input.

So if you have advice or comment please post it on one of these boards or here in the blog. I am looking for input.

Tomorrow night I plan to crank up the bandsaw and make the two plates to at see how they look and fit.

Sean

Trek to Eric Langbein Racing's Shop

So with the gearbox done, and all of the necessary parts in hand, the time had come to cart the chassis up to Eric's shop in Annapolis. Of course 8:00 this morning greated me with the coldest morning of the year. The old Dodge diesel truck was not happy about the cold either it moaned and groaned a bit (like the owner) as I warmed it up...

Thankfully with the crush structure removed, the chassis fit (tightly) in the rear bed. Once foam rubber mat at back and one at front wedged it in nicely. The motor, strapped down to the original HPD shipping pallet fit exactly into the right hand side of the chassis, and the gearbox took up most of the rest of the space. A few of the Techno wheels and tires were added in to take up the extra space.

All packed up and it was off to eastern Maryland.

Many thanks again to my buddy Jeff for helping pack up in the extreme cold and riding shotgun for the delivery.

Eric's new shop was easy to find, and shortly after noon we were all unloaded. That's me sitting in the chassis on Eric's surface plate. (we were checking out foot clearance for the possibility to adding a couple of reinforcement tubes above the footbox).

I was back at home in time for dinner. The garage is looking a little lonely tonight... But this will be a good opportunity to straighten up a bit while Eric does his magic.

The rest of the evening was spent getting everything ready to go to Eric's shop. A quick check with a tape measure indicated that the front crush box would need to come off if I was to have any chance of fitting the chassis into the bed of my truck and still closing the gate.

All of the parts are packed up and tomorrow's task is to travel up to Annapolis to drop it all off with Eric.

Sean

New input shaft back in place and the bell housing spigot installed. Now to install the bell housing. Luckily my buddy Jeff stopped by about this time, and helped me muscle them back together.

Side cover back in place.

Bearing carrier goes back in place. How do you torque the pinion and layshaft bolts with the transmission sitting on a cart. Once again it was fortunate to have a friend stop by the garage... Even then it was a bit of a wrestling match. But we got it done.

Transaxle reassembled and ready for fitment.

Gearbox reassembly begins

So with the panic of the day resolved. I ended tonights work with the new input shaft successfully installed in the box. It tapped in fairly easily and the circlip snapped right into the groove giving me a very satisfied end to the day/night's work. Tomorrow on to the rest of the reassembly process...

(I think this is one of the few projects where reassembly will be easier than the disassembly process).

** Note: Make sure to slide the NEW circlip on to the shaft BEFORE you tap it into place.

Sean

Continuing the strip down

Next on the agenda was splitting the gearbox from the bellhousing. Lots of jet nuts to remove...

Removing the oil tank through tube in necessary to remove the shaft, and also exposes the gearbox front oil seal for replacement.

Old input shaft and oil seal are now removed. Now ready to install the new shaft. BUT... wait a minute - I think I forgot something...

My car came with the Ralt spec one sided Staffs box. This box included an integral oil pump to spray oil on the Ring and Pinion. After a few frantic calls to Lee at Williams Race Development and some posts to the FF comuninty on ApexSpeed, I learned that noone uses this pump in their FF applications. Good thing because the HPD supplied input shaft did not have the necessary splined section for the pump drive gear. So at Lee's recommendation the pump was removed altogether. I will put the mounting fastners back in with jetnuts and a little RTV to seal the holes. This was my firat major panic in the build. Early in the day I was thinking that I was screwed - My car was unique and noone would be able to supply a proper input shaft in time for the VIR race....So this news was a HUGE relief. Many thanks to Lee and the many posters on Apex for setting my mind at ease on this issue.