Bonnet Arrives at last!!

Monday 21st January 2008

Much to my surprise I came home from work to find a big parcel sitting on my front door step! This is the replacement from Tiger. When I collected my kit from Tiger Racing in September the bonnet was cracked and broken on two of the edges so I refused to take it. Tiger were polite and said they would ask the manufacturers to replace it. Four and a bit months later a bonnet arrived!!!!!!!

Replacement Brackets Arrive

Tuesday 15th January 2008

Paul from Tiger Racing kindly posted out a pair of replacement ally brakets for the new rear brake hoses. These are alot bigger than the previous ones but will be fine. Thanks Tiger.

Day 29 - Getting Back On With Progress

Sunday 6th January 2008

After swapping round the front uprights and torquing it all up again I can get back on with building the kit car. As Tiger only had it for a few days I haven't lost much time - thanks Tiger, that helps loads.

I have to put the propshaft back in ready for the box and engine. I'll need to bolt on the engine mounts, drop the engine into position and then mark the positions of the engine mounts. These need drilling out/painting before the engine is bolted in.

This week I need to get the brake pedals sorted, the brake lines back in, the fuel lines/system back in, the wiring back in and rig up the handbrake assembly.

BUSY BUSY!!

05.01.08 Delivery of the Kit Car

Saturday 5th January 2008

The kit car was brought back with all of the modifications done FOC. The steering rack was "replaced with a new one" according to the M.D., but was cut/rewelded/painted over with gold paint. This is fine though. The brake cylinder plate was "a design over-view" according to the M.D., and was bent at one end to suit the Avon and bolted into position. This looks strong, so that's good. The rear flexi brake pipes were changed over to the suitable 'metal tubed end' type and were changed FOC too so that is great. Shame they drilled the brackets for them in the wrong place though - I can't use them as the nuts don't do up (see picture)! The radiator brackets have changed shape slightly but the rad is still in the same position. What is needed here are new brackets to match the shape of the aluminium rad (2" wide rad). I put the ally rad into position and the brackets only just hold the rad. I hope it doesn't pop out with the vibrations (piccy to be added soon). I drilled two holes in the wrong place at the back of the car so Tiger welded two small plates over them for me. Thanks Tiger.

Tiger have looked at the rear suspension and have confirmed that the setup on my Avon is 'as designed' and there is no problem. I explained that the rear shocks should not be bent over slightly to fit in to the brackets, but they assured me that was the design. I will leave it there then!

31.12.07 Collection of the Kit Car

Monday 31st December 2007

The kitcar was collected by Tiger Racing and sent back to the workshop. The steering rack was being replaced, the brake cylinder plate was being modified, the rear brake hoses are being changed, the radiator brackets are being modified, the rear suspension is being looked at and I have asked Tiger to weld a couple of small plates onto the chassis so I can change the positioning of the fuel tank.

Oh great!

Day 28 - Stripping Down & Sending Back to Tiger!!

Saturday 22nd December 2007

I can't believe what I am doing BUT I am taking the car to pieces! I spoke to the manufacturer (Tiger Racing) about the quality issues with the rear suspension / rear brakes / steering rack and they said they want to collect the kit car to have a look at it.

Great - just what I wanted. I have a new gearbox and engine waiting to go in and it will have to sit there collecting dust. On a more positive note, at least the problems will be resolved, just hope the panels and components don't get scratched.

Letter of complaint #3 21.12.07

Friday 21st December 2007

As a follow-on from the letter of complaint on 6th Dec 2007 I wrote to Jim Dudley (M.D.) of Tiger Racing to ask for assistance in rectifying the problems I have with the kit car. the rear suspension still doesn't line up and the shock absorbers are around 7mm at centres. The steering rack bracket is 12mm out and the rear caliper brake lines are fouling on the uprights!!

Jim replied immediately the next day and then received a call from his driver to arrange collection. The driver is dropping off a car to someone nearby so wanted to collect on 31st December. As I am away until 2nd Jan I arranged for my Uncle to sort it out for me as I want the car to go back to the manufacturer ASAP.

I am not happy that my progress is being held and I am having to deal with quality issues after paying £7k for a 3/4 kit - but things need to be right.

Letter of Complaint #2 06.12.07

Thursday 6th December 2007

I have sent an email to the M.D. of Tiger Racing asking for clarification on the assembly of the rear suspension. The rear suspension only really fits one way round but still the assembly isn't looking right and the rear shocks are way out of alignment.

I heard nothing for a day and a half so I called Tiger Racing and was put on to one of the lads in the workshop. All he could offer in support was to relay the information in the build manual stating how you put the suspension together. He checked the assembly with another Avon that same evening with a friends Avon, just to clarify the positioning of the rear uprights.

All-in-all I HAD assembled the rear suspension correctly so there is definately a problem with the geometry. The help from Tiger fizzled out to nothing as he said there can't be a problem as they have made loads of Avons from the very same jigs.

WELL I WILL MEASURE THE CHASSIS AND SUSPENSION MOUNTING POINTS TO CONCLUDE AND WRITE A FOLLOW-UP EMAIL SOON. Not good.

Day 24 - Installing the Wiring Loom Conduit

Sunday 2nd December 2007

Day 23 - Radiator Bracket & Gearbox Mount Fitting

Saturday 1st December 2007 - p.m.

The gearbox and propshaft were bolted in to the rear diff and offered up inside the tunnel. The gearbox mount was fitted to the box and holes were marked on the chassis. The box was then pulled back out, the holes were drilled and there we have it - the gearbox mount in situ!! All that work for one mount!!

I glued rubber matting to the rad mounts to protect from abrasion with all that vibration. I don't wanna scratch me shiny new ally rad now, do I?

Day 23 - Modification to Rear Calipers & Completion of Brake Lines

Saturday 1st December 2007 - a.m.

Arrival of new Raceline Gearbox and Engine Bits!

Thursday 29th November 2007

YIPPEEEEE! I have an 'as new' type 9 gearbox for the Avon! The box has heavy duty box has lubrication mods, large roller race laygear and heavy duty bearings. It is suitable for power and torque input to 260BHP and 220 lb/ft respectively. All-in I managed to pay around £735 for it.

I have ordered the lightweight aluminium bellhousing too! All I need now is the shifter extension from Rally Design.

I have received the following parts too:

Heavy Duty Con Rod Bolt Set

Clutch Release Bearing to suit Focus Clutch

Focus Clutch *

Standard Flywheel *

Raceline Starter Motor to meet std flywheel

Dipstick tube

Dipstick

Sump Gasket

Raceline Aluminium Shortened Wet Sump Pan Kit

Raceline New Generation Baffle Tray Kit

Spigot Bearing

Idler Pulley

Idler Pulley Kit

Raceline Aluminium Water Rail

Raceline Water Rail Fitting Kit

Thermostat Housing Kit

Water Rail 'Focus' Mounting Strap

2 x Threaded Heater Branch Pipes

Block to Bellhousing Dowels

Raceline Aluminium Inlet Manifold

Inlet Manifold Gasket

Inlet Manifold Fitting Kit

* flywheel is being lightened by around 3kg and balanced with clutch plate assy

The Ford Zetec 2L service engine (complete) is ready for collection too!!!!! Yippeeee!

Day 22 - Front Brake Lines

Sunday 25th November 2007

Day 21 - Painting the Fuel Tank & Setting up the Radiator

Saturday 24th November 2007

The fuel tank had some minor surface rust so this was treated with Jenolite then primed with Zinc-182. The rusted areas were where the welds are, so thats the only places I applied the zinc-182. The rest of the tank was keyed with wire wool before primed with red oxide primer. I found an old can of silver wheel paint so I sprayed the whole tank in silver to build up the coats. I was going to spray the tank black but I am running short of black and I'll need them for other bits that need painting. The bottom 1" of the tank had stone chip sprayed on then a final coat of silver paint to finish off. That will be fine - no one sees it anyway!!

Day 20 - Fitting Front Wheel Bearings & Hubs

Sunday 18th November 2007

I give up with the ally hubs, so I refurbished the old cast iron Cortina hubs. I scrubbed the muck off in a bowl of petrol using a wire brush. I burned the residue off with a blow torch,cleaned with alcohol, painted them completely with zinc-182 before finishing in satin black and three layers of laquer. They neded a couple of weeks to set. I couldn't wait for the second hub to dry in time so it went in the oven on the lowest setting, followed by a final coat of laquer as it went opaque!

The bearings were replaced and tapped in with a large punch. This was a bit time consuming but fairly easy. Reconditioned as good as new!

Upgraded the Gearbox Options!!

Wed 14th November 2007

I spoke to Chris frm Raceline about a new engine, lightened flywheel and bellhousing again today. He then offered to do a deal on an upgraded type 9 gearbox. A friend of his has a 2.8 type 9 box with a long first but with the heavy duty bearings and modified oil channels. The alternative box is a reconditioned unit with good ratios for road use. The 1st gear is a standard unshaved helical cut gear (not OE) - these gears are slightly noisier than original equipment gears. Because of this I can have the heavy duty box with a long first gear for same price of a normal duty recon unit with a long first.

After a bit of thought I decided to go for it. The issue of a slightly noiser first gear won't matter much in a kitcar. Kit cars are noisy anyway as they are all open and there is no sound deadening to cover up road noise etc. It would be pointless really, so the slightly noisier first gear won't change anything. Besides, the heavy duty setup will be better for me as I will start off at around 175bhp then I uprate the engine and management to around 205bhp at a later date.

Gearbox Ordered!!

Monday 12th November 2007

YIPPPEEEE!! I have ordered the gearbox. Chris at Raceline has sorted out a reconditioned Ford type 9 gearbox with a longer 1st gear for £525+VAT. All the internals will be checked and overhauled, using a complete set of syncro's, bearings, seals and gaskets. The unit will be remanufactured 'as new' for DVLA purposes as I am wanting a brand new reg number (57 or 08) eventually. As I didn't have an old unit to exchange I have to pay a surcharge of £50+VAT but that saves me the bother of finding one etc.

Chris has LOADS of goodies that I am interested in - especially the brand new Zetec 2L engine direct from Fords. They had bought a few of these so you can have one off the shelf for £600 (brand new Ford engine, not reconditioned). I am also going to buy an aluminium bellhousing, clutch and lightened flywheel from them (as well as other stuff). Check out their website - http://www.raceline.co.uk/ as it happens they are only a few minutes down the road from me so that will cut the delivery costs, and I can pop down there to have a chat about their products face to face.

Day 19 - Fitting Driveshafts & Rear Calipers

Sunday 11th November 2007

What a momentous day, fitting the rear disc conversion and driveshafts. The driveshafts are classed 'as new' for DVLA, being refurbished 1983 standard Sierra driveshafts (push-in type, not Cosworth). Stainless steel braided hoses are standard with all Tiger kit cars but the disc conversion is an option. The kit, if bought from Tiger Racing, costs £350. I bought the calipers complete with sliders, with new(ish) discs and pads from a guy on ebay for £90. He was breaking his 2WD Sierra Cosworth so I had the rear discs and calipers off him and reconditioned them for another £110 with postage and VAT. The mounting brackets are usually £15-20 but I got them thrown in with the kitcar at the time of purchase. Cool - £200 is better than £350. I can spend an extra £100 on the gearbox and get a longer first gear. Excellent.

Day 18 - Fitting the new Wishbones

Saturday 10th November 2007

At last - I have a full set of decent wishbones now!! All excited, I went hammer n tong to assemble the last two front and rear wishbones. The wishbones lined up properlu this time and all is fine - AT LAST!!

Just got to get the hubs on the front and the driveshafts on the back and I can get rolling!

The New Wishbones Arrive!!

Friday 9th November 2007

The faulty wishbones arrived back today all straightened and ready to fit. I moaned about not having a build manual ("How To Build Your Own Tiger Avon" book by Jim Dudley) so Tiger Racing sent me one of their last books, written by the M.D. This book is interesting, descriptive, useful and has all the technical drawings for the chassis and wishbones. It is a great reference. For some reason they sent me another throttle pedal! I only asked a question about the pedal being close to the chassis. I was told to bend the pedal to the left to keep it away from the chassis so they sent me another pedal!! Strange! The picture above shows the front lower wishbone and the smaller rear top wishbone. The wishbones have the yellow polybushes fitted, except on the outer rear tubes where the top and bottom rear wishbones use steel/rubber press-fit bushes. Tiger Racing also sent me some more of these bushes as I didn't have enough. Funny lot! ;)

Refurbished Rear Calipers Arrive!!

Thursday 8th November 2007

YIPPEEE!! I have finally had my rear calipers delivered and they look super-cool! I am happy that I spent a few more quid and got them silver plated. Not actually silver plated but electroplated in bright nickel after beed-blasting, etching and cleaning. A new set of seals and pistons are used and all of the bolts and handbrake mechanism have been cad plated in gold too. Also had the carriers plated too to match, but had to return one of them as the plating was a bit ropey around the slider pin locating hole (even though the other one was perfect). Apart from that minor hiccup I am very happy with Bigg Red so check out their website - http://www.biggred.co.uk/

Check out the blog for Day 20 - Fitting Driveshafts & Rear Calipers

Day 17 - Painting Day #3

Sunday 4th November 2007

Day 16 - Fitting Rear Brake Lines

Saturday 3rd November 2007

Day 15 - Painting Day #2

Sunday 28th October 2007

Day 14 - Painting Day #1

Saturday 27th October 2007

Day 13 - Returned Defective Components

Day 12 - More Suspension Issues

Sunday 21st October 2007

Day 11 - Suspension Issues

Saturday 20th October 2007

Day 10 - Suspension & Bracket Painting

Day 9 - Continuing with the Suspension

Saturday 13th October 2007

Didn't do much today, just a couple of hours work. I fitted the four rear wishbones to the chassis, and played around with the rear uprights. You will see the four capped bolts, one of which is shorter than the other three. This short bolt goes in the blind hole (the threaded hole pictured next to the short bolt).

Aso the driveshaft only goes one way round into the upright.

Day 8 - Still fitting the Suspension

Sunday 30th September 2007

This flippin' car is stressing me out today. I have modified the poly bushes and they fit perfectly. The supplied bolts need replacing as they are too short for safety reasons.
I have found that the tolerances on one of the front lower wishbones is just beyond a joke. The wishbone if 4mm out on one of the tubes so it won't fit on the mounting bracket. I measured the brackets on both sides and they are nominally the same. The other front lower wishbones fits fine and measures 4mm wider at the centres than the other one!! This is going back to Tiger Racing.
I have now found another problem with one of the rear top wishbones. FOR GAWD'S SAKE, the outer polybush tubes is wonky! One of the tubes is fine, being parallel to the rear mounts, but the other tube is out by 15-20 degrees. I have the hump now as you don't expect these kind of problems after paying £7k for a kit. This is just 3/4 of a car, not a full kit!!
This is upsetting me and wasting my time.

Day 7 - Fitting the modified wishbones

Wednesday 26th September

After having so much grief with the poly bushes, I have modified them to suit. The bushes are assembled in two halves and a steel tube fits through them for the bolt to go through. The inner faces had 3mm cut off them and now they fit perfectly.
Great! At last they fit the mounting brackets with a tight sliding fit.
The bolts supplied are 4mm too short so these are being replaced. The SVA requirement means at least a couple of threads must be showing after it passes through the Nylock. What is the point of being supplied bolts that only just reach the nylon in the Nylock? Blooming stupid, if you ask me! Just another set back.

Day 6 - Starting the Suspension

Saturday 22nd September 2007


The practise is simple...
1) Insert two poly bush halves into the tube
2) Slide a metal tube through the centre of the poly bushes
3) Repeat steps 1&2 on the second bush joint
4) Place wishbone in mounts
5) Fasten with 2 x bolts, 4 x washers & 2 nylocks and torque to setting

In reality this just did not happen, and what a frustrating day! To generalise, the poly bushes were slightly oversize and once assembled the bushes did not fit correctly. The bushes were far too wide for the mounting brackets.

I did not want to modify the poly bushes as these are supposed to be "as designed" for fitment to the Tiger Avon so I persevered and fitted one wishbone to the chassis. Damn, what a hassle!!! I took 1 hour and 20 mins!!! This is no good, there is something wrong here. The wishbones were pigs to install because the bushes were too big. I struggled to get them in position to get the bolts through, and when torqued up the poly bushes 'swelled up'. (SEE PICTURES)

The advice given on the Tiger Owners website was to remember that the SVA test will check to see at least two full threads after the Nylock nut. This wasn't the case with the oversize poly bushes. I have now cut down the insides of the poly bushes by 2mm and they fit snug (thanks to my mechanic mate Simon for the help here).

ONE DOWN, SEVEN TO GO!

Day 5 of the build - finishing the rear panel

Friday 21st September 2007

The rear panel took almost all day. There was alot of cutting and drilling to do before the panel could be fitted. Unfortunately Tiger Racing cut the width undersize so I have used angle brackets to get round this (damn nuisance). The rear panel needed bonding around the edges at the rear as well. With all of the box sections and bracing this took ages!

Day 4 of the build - yet MORE panel fitting

Thursday 20th September 2007

The battery tray was fitted, along with the driver's side tunnel panels. The panel at the end of the tunnel (by the pedals) was cut and ready but I am unsure on the positioning of the floor mounted pedals and associated brackets. I will work out the pedal positioning and drill / tap / assembly these first before bonding and riviting the end panel.

Day 3 of the build - yet more panel fitting

Tuesday 18th September 2007

The two triangular side panels were fitted, as well as the passenger footwell panel and the driver's side tunnel panels. Damn this is hard work! My arms are aching with all this drilling, and my fingers are showing hard skin with all the work with the tin snips and mastic gun!!

Day 2 of the build - more panel fitting

Monday 17th September 2007

Fitting the tunnel panels was simple enough. The more tricky part was marking up the trapeziod panel that follows under the dash / bulkhead.

Day 1 of the build - Panel Fitting

Sunday 16th September 2007

Here we go.... All the hours I have spent planning and dreaming about building a kitcar with my own hands has now become a reality!

I made space in my garage to walk round the chassis and started on the first panel. I thought the panels were cut to size, but they were oversize so alot of trimming was required. Shame really and I only possess hand tools like shears and a guillotine cuts perfectly. Oh well back to my bench fitting skills!

I drilled the zillion holes with a pilot drill (1.5mm) then with the 3.5mm drill bit. I filed the panel and de-burred the holes, applied black polyurethane sealant and pop riveted the panel on. It was perfect, but damn that took some effort! Good feeling though.

The poly sealant oozed through the rivet holes which is good. I need to buy some more clamps though - I need at least 6 more!

Collecting the kit from Tiger Racing

Saturday 15th April 2007

I hired a van from Farnborough Van Hire (http://www.truckandvanhire.co.uk/) that was big enough to collect the 11ft long chassis, 6ft wide body and the kit of parts. I only needed a long wheel base van but they only had a Luton-style VW van with a tail lift. Oh well at least I'll get it all in! Shame I will use more fuel though :(

I am getting a little bit excited now as I am really looking forward to the build (and getting out of the house). haha

Drafting the order

12th-22nd August 2007

After spending 100's of hours trawling through websites, talking to Petolheads and talking to Sue at Tiger Racing I was getting close to what I wanted. The next job was to create the bill of parts.

I drafted the breakdown of parts, some of which were higher spec options, and Sue priced it up for me. It was a staggering £10k for 3/4 of a kit!!! I had a chat with her and was advised that was the most expensive way of building a kitcar. I was advised to buy either a 'Major Kit' or a 'Full Kit' to get better value for money, but I didn't want a load of standard parts I didn't want. Likewise I didn't want to buy all the parts from Tiger Racing when I could source alot of parts elsewhere for less money.

With a couple of iterations and a few 'upgrades' I agreed on a 'Major Kit' with and all-aluminium radiator, powder coated suspension and chassis, poly bushes, Zetec option, Short Sump, Remanufactured Diff & Halfshafts, Electronic Speedo and a heated screen. This came in at a staggering £7k and I still need a few extra parts, engine, gearbox and fuelling & management!

1st Tiger Visit

Saturday 11th August 2007

I have been up to Tiger's workshop today and I was a bit disappointed as Jim (the MD) was quite 'off-ish'. Also the parts place closed at 1pm and my mate Ian (Tiger Supercat owner) came with me just to purchase a £350 roll bar that was waiting for him. I had pre-arranged the trip over two weeks prior to the "1pm meeting" and Jim was always pre-occupied with other customers so I wasn't that impressed. I asked him to quickly go through some cost options so I could get a kit on order but he said "..to speak to Sue on Monday". Again, not impressed as I had £8k in my pocket ready to give to him!!

I had it all planned that I was going to build a V6 Tiger Super 6. My original budget was around £4k for a rolling chassis and £4k for engine/engine mods/transmission and a further £1k for the two exhaust systems, estimating build duration of 14-16 months. I have planned the build for four months to the last nut and bolt and now that I am ready I was upset to find out Tiger don't make a Super 6 anymore. Damn, back to the drawing board.

I kept asking Jim questions and wanted to see some examples (hoping to see demo cars) but he didn't really help. If it wasn't for the fact that there was quite a few Tiger owners there with their own kitcars I wouldn't of seen many cars at all. As with the Westfield visit a month before, I expected to see a mini-showroom and then have the sales pitch. OH NO I DIDN'T, Jim just wanted to pass it over to Sue in the parts department. They have a lot to learn there I think. I also think Tiger should keep up to date with their website AND prices.

Anyway after seeing Jim's point about the implications of using a V6 in a Tiger (of which I already knew and had made provision for) his comments were worthy as he HAS made over 2500 of the cars! After a few conversations with Jim and some punters I have narrowed the options to an Avon Zetec, totally damn different to the V6 Super Six, but it does have a wider cockpit.

Looking at building a kitcar

Wednesday 3rd July 2006 - Friday 10th August 2007

After taking my friend's Tiger Cat E1 out for the day I have decided I would like to build my own kitcar. As a trained mechanical engineer this is no challenge, rather a an exciting project. I have always dreamed of building my own car to my own spec, totally designed by myself BUT in reality unless you have a well established workshop and tooling, realistically you can only build a pre-designed kitcar with hand tools. I really want to build a muscle car like a Cobra but I don't have £30k available, so I will be looking at Caterham 7's and other copies.

Deciding What 'Seven' to buy...

With so many choices of kitcar manufacturers my head was spinning trying to decide what kit to buy. Ultimately the decision will be based on overall cost, but cockpit width and the aesthetics plays an important part too. I had spent 100's of hours searching the web looking at people's builds/blogs which helped alot in the decision making process. Infact this was the most important part of the decision making process. Perhaps kitcar manufacturers should appreciate this and offer more support and/or sponsorship for such enthusiasts. Back in early 2006 I started looking into which kits were around £5k to buy. It didn't take long to work out that a £5k kit ends up being £8-9k in total! After the dreaded 'reality check' I set myself a £9k budget for pre-SVA costs to put me in good stead for the final decision making process.

I was looking at various manufacturers from Caterham to Robin Hood, all of which struggled to list ALL components and options for me to accurately calculate costs for the complete build the following list is the manufacturers I was looking at for a sub-£10k project:

* Westfield
* Tiger
* Dax
* MK Racing
* Stryker
* Robin Hood

I visited Westfield's workshop and was rather impressed. The guide was informative, the showroom was useful, the workshop tour was brilliant and the cars looked like a decent quality. Shame their prices are so high.

Westfield and Dax were the most expensive out of the list, and to build a sub-£10k 'Seven' would mean I would be aiming for a 'cheap' build so I opted out on looking further with these two manufacturers.

Tiger, MK, Stryker and Robin Hood were in the right 'ball park'. Robin Hood was the cheapest setup but I didn't want a 'basic' kit, so that manufacturer was dropped. Tiger was the most established manufacturer out of the remaining three so I felt happier spending my money with a firm who had been around for such a long time. Further conversations with Tiger owners and Tiger Racing themselves gave me the guarantee I needed so I have booked a time slot to visit the workshop and have a chat with Jim Dudley (the Managing Director).