BootStrap Racing - Race Car Project. Williams Clio
Discussion
If you're interested in going racing at some point hopefully this thread may be of some use to you. I've started posting here recently as I am converting a Williams 2 to a race car to compete in the Trackday Trophy next year and Team Trophy in subsequent years with a couple of races at the end of this year to use as preparation. I would have prefered to use a more recent model but I also have a Williams road car which I've owned for donkeys years and figured I know the car and can swap parts and have spares etc. Plus it would mean I would have to buy yet another car!
I've got a website going at www.racecarbuild.co.uk with a blog and will post updates here, ClioSport and WilliamsClio.co.uk. In my first blog post on the site I give a list of all the things that someone needs to consider just to even start racing with a car you've built - this hobby is definitely only for the committed! I'm estimating costs for this year including the car, build, tools, garage, couple of track/test days, 2 races, parts and kit/equipment to be <£10k. If I can keep under that budget by Jan 1st 2014 I'll be happy - things just keep being added to the list! (I started off with a budget of £6k and its crept up to £9k/£10k so far.
I'm not a mechanic, I work in mental health - but have worked on my Williams 1 over the years and done plenty of reading/research, work on other cars etc. I attempted to build a Locost kit car a few years back from scratch but failed at the welding and didn't take a course. This time round I'm more committed and also have a double garage to use rather than an empty ground floor bedroom which I was using before , I kid you not. You can see a cool magic video of the garage here.
I'm not sure how the pics are going to turn out on here as I've been having trouble uploading some but they are all in the blog post on my site if they don't work here along with a video or two.
Having always wanted to go racing but never had the chance, now is the time for me and I'm going to seize it! Any lessons I learn along the way I'll do my best to pass on and if you're in the area and want to be involved then give me a shout.
As I write more posts I'm hoping they become clearer and more informative so please bear with me for now.
And now the post:
Posted on February 18, 2013
Space! If you’re going to be stripping a car with the intention of a bare shell rebuild for track purposes you definitely need lots of space. This weekend was the first of working on the actual car after emptying the garage, putting in a bench, shelves, extra lighting, cupboards, tools and all the parts I’ve collected so far. I’d say around a 3rd of the cost of this build will be on tools, garage rental, trailer transport and technical books!
Heres a 30sec short video showing what was accomplished on the car over about 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Stripping1
The engine bay and interior are going to be sprayed red & white respectively, plus the cage needs to be fitted so absolutely everything has to come out. Chassis parts can stay whilst it goes off to have the cage welded in but other than that everything is coming off and the rest once it comes back.
I had the choice of either buying a race car already prepped or doing it myself with a team to work with. The first option would have been cheaper and a lot quicker but that way I’d never get to learn how everything works and know the car in every detail. This way, whilst it may be frustrating at times you really do understand everything.
There were a couple of tricky parts. Door pins: Undoing the pins and holding the doors at the same time then trying to pull out was a bit awkward. One was jammed in but a bit of WD-40 sorted it – the drivers door had dropped also so a new set will be bought on refitting. Interior trim: Where trim is concerned its always the same – if you don’t already know exactly how it comes off without breaking then you’re going to have trouble, and likely break something or snap a lug somewhere. In this case this was only an issue with the rear side panel trims, as I already knew how everything else came off. I suspect even someone trying to describe to you over the internet how to do it without breakage would be tricky too – best way is to see it done perhaps via a video.
The last tricky part is the dash which as you can see by the video above I am still working on. Screws, nuts and bolts everywhere. Its going to get worse before it gets better.
At this stage I’m hoping most of the dash is going back on with the original loom after the cage is fitted and interior painted. I haven’t built a race car before and I’m trying to keep things as simple as they can be (whilst not being simple at all for a virgin), it keeps the costs down too for now.
Tomorrow I am picking up an engine hoist and also a parts washer both from ebay. Got a great deal on the hoist. £125 for this including balance bar and chains.
What did I learn? Well, a good way of keeping track of all the fasteners for when you come to reuse them is to have a bunch of clear plastic zip bags. Each time you dismantle a piece of the car, collect all the fasteners together for that piece, the offside door for example, then just put a label in the bag with them. you’ll still have to work out which fastener goes where but it’ll be a whole lot easier that a big messy box of screws, nuts, clips and brackets etc.
Another thing is that even in my large double garage, once all the panels and interior came off/out, space got tight really quick. So, along with all the panels and interior from my road car restoration, my front room now has the same from this race car build!
It helps if you have a spare frontroom for this, alternatively you could hire some space for a couple of months in one of those big yellow buildings until some of it goes back on and you sell the rest. Garden shed maybe?
Finally a quick run down of some parts I have that will go on the car when its all back together.
Lightweight fibreglass bonnet
Gaz coilovers
Samco coolant hoses
Magnecor leads
Supersprint exhaust 4-2-1 manifold
Magnex cat back exhaust
Scorpion cat back exhaust
Custom cat back exhaust
JR induction kit
Unknown ECU chip (yet to identify)
Momo Race steering wheel
4 new standard calipers
4 new standard discs
New standard rear pads
Yellow Stuff front pads
Polyurethane arb bushes
Polyurethane wishbone bushes
New alloy radiator
New front wheel bearings
New clutch cable
New handbrake cable
4 new ball joints
Short shifter
Twin headlamp conversion (for air ducts)
Various stickers
I’ll also be using the following:
Full set of polycarbonate lightweight windows
Piper 285 cams, with uprated springs and new followers
Couple of sets of wheels/tyres
Manual steering rack & column conversion (possible)
6-point cage
Plumbedin extinguisher
Cut-out switch
etc.
And I also bought myself a new trolley jack – lovely bit of kit, almost too shiny to use.
I've got a website going at www.racecarbuild.co.uk with a blog and will post updates here, ClioSport and WilliamsClio.co.uk. In my first blog post on the site I give a list of all the things that someone needs to consider just to even start racing with a car you've built - this hobby is definitely only for the committed! I'm estimating costs for this year including the car, build, tools, garage, couple of track/test days, 2 races, parts and kit/equipment to be <£10k. If I can keep under that budget by Jan 1st 2014 I'll be happy - things just keep being added to the list! (I started off with a budget of £6k and its crept up to £9k/£10k so far.
I'm not a mechanic, I work in mental health - but have worked on my Williams 1 over the years and done plenty of reading/research, work on other cars etc. I attempted to build a Locost kit car a few years back from scratch but failed at the welding and didn't take a course. This time round I'm more committed and also have a double garage to use rather than an empty ground floor bedroom which I was using before , I kid you not. You can see a cool magic video of the garage here.
I'm not sure how the pics are going to turn out on here as I've been having trouble uploading some but they are all in the blog post on my site if they don't work here along with a video or two.
Having always wanted to go racing but never had the chance, now is the time for me and I'm going to seize it! Any lessons I learn along the way I'll do my best to pass on and if you're in the area and want to be involved then give me a shout.
As I write more posts I'm hoping they become clearer and more informative so please bear with me for now.
And now the post:
Stripping The Car pt1
Posted on February 18, 2013
Space! If you’re going to be stripping a car with the intention of a bare shell rebuild for track purposes you definitely need lots of space. This weekend was the first of working on the actual car after emptying the garage, putting in a bench, shelves, extra lighting, cupboards, tools and all the parts I’ve collected so far. I’d say around a 3rd of the cost of this build will be on tools, garage rental, trailer transport and technical books!
Heres a 30sec short video showing what was accomplished on the car over about 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Stripping1
The engine bay and interior are going to be sprayed red & white respectively, plus the cage needs to be fitted so absolutely everything has to come out. Chassis parts can stay whilst it goes off to have the cage welded in but other than that everything is coming off and the rest once it comes back.
I had the choice of either buying a race car already prepped or doing it myself with a team to work with. The first option would have been cheaper and a lot quicker but that way I’d never get to learn how everything works and know the car in every detail. This way, whilst it may be frustrating at times you really do understand everything.
There were a couple of tricky parts. Door pins: Undoing the pins and holding the doors at the same time then trying to pull out was a bit awkward. One was jammed in but a bit of WD-40 sorted it – the drivers door had dropped also so a new set will be bought on refitting. Interior trim: Where trim is concerned its always the same – if you don’t already know exactly how it comes off without breaking then you’re going to have trouble, and likely break something or snap a lug somewhere. In this case this was only an issue with the rear side panel trims, as I already knew how everything else came off. I suspect even someone trying to describe to you over the internet how to do it without breakage would be tricky too – best way is to see it done perhaps via a video.
The last tricky part is the dash which as you can see by the video above I am still working on. Screws, nuts and bolts everywhere. Its going to get worse before it gets better.
At this stage I’m hoping most of the dash is going back on with the original loom after the cage is fitted and interior painted. I haven’t built a race car before and I’m trying to keep things as simple as they can be (whilst not being simple at all for a virgin), it keeps the costs down too for now.
Tomorrow I am picking up an engine hoist and also a parts washer both from ebay. Got a great deal on the hoist. £125 for this including balance bar and chains.
What did I learn? Well, a good way of keeping track of all the fasteners for when you come to reuse them is to have a bunch of clear plastic zip bags. Each time you dismantle a piece of the car, collect all the fasteners together for that piece, the offside door for example, then just put a label in the bag with them. you’ll still have to work out which fastener goes where but it’ll be a whole lot easier that a big messy box of screws, nuts, clips and brackets etc.
Another thing is that even in my large double garage, once all the panels and interior came off/out, space got tight really quick. So, along with all the panels and interior from my road car restoration, my front room now has the same from this race car build!
It helps if you have a spare frontroom for this, alternatively you could hire some space for a couple of months in one of those big yellow buildings until some of it goes back on and you sell the rest. Garden shed maybe?
Finally a quick run down of some parts I have that will go on the car when its all back together.
Lightweight fibreglass bonnet
Gaz coilovers
Samco coolant hoses
Magnecor leads
Supersprint exhaust 4-2-1 manifold
Magnex cat back exhaust
Scorpion cat back exhaust
Custom cat back exhaust
JR induction kit
Unknown ECU chip (yet to identify)
Momo Race steering wheel
4 new standard calipers
4 new standard discs
New standard rear pads
Yellow Stuff front pads
Polyurethane arb bushes
Polyurethane wishbone bushes
New alloy radiator
New front wheel bearings
New clutch cable
New handbrake cable
4 new ball joints
Short shifter
Twin headlamp conversion (for air ducts)
Various stickers
I’ll also be using the following:
Full set of polycarbonate lightweight windows
Piper 285 cams, with uprated springs and new followers
Couple of sets of wheels/tyres
Manual steering rack & column conversion (possible)
6-point cage
Plumbedin extinguisher
Cut-out switch
etc.
And I also bought myself a new trolley jack – lovely bit of kit, almost too shiny to use.
So I've worked out its actually quite tricky building a race car as a novice, building a website at the same time, also as a novice, keeping everything updated and still making progress. I've made progress, so here is an update.
More progress has been made, another video and another post. Some lessons learnt, money spent and more bits arriving. So whats first...?
Progress first. The car is virtually stripped now back to the shell - fuel tank, rear axle and brake lines are all thats left. Its due to go off the <a title="Andy Robinson Race Cars" href="http://www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk/" target="_blank">Andy Robinson Race Cars</a> in Basingstoke for a cage in about 3 weeks time so sub-frame will have to go back on at that point - if I can get the parts cleaned and painted between now and then I'll do it. The axle will stay on for now.
Check out the vid either via this link on youtube or on the blog page of my site.. Now it takes you virtually from start to finish - lots of bits you can't see tho. I need to do some work on the site too, its real basic atm.
http://www.racecarbuild.co.uk/blogs/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCGnOvJmK7U&lis...
This engine has a knock on the bottom and a rattle on the top so I'll need to use my engine from the other clio for now which I am hoping to get out of the car this week and bring to the garage. As the tappets need changing in that one too (!) I'm going to do some tuning whilst its apart - I'd better get on and order some parts for it.
A nice new seat arrived.. Can't believe I spent 500 smackers on this, the side mounts and delivery! Looks the business and weighs around 8.5kgs iirc, I'm sure the standard seats are around 20kgs from memory so nice weight saving there.
I wanted the side protection for my head so this was my choice. Now I'm having trouble with the sub frame mounts. I bought a MK1 Clio specific one from K-tec which arrived as basically 3 strips of painted steel with holes in - for £70. I could have got some scrap steel and drilled some holes myself for a fiver - I'm on the phone to them over the next couple of days to work out if I should send it back (and speaking to the local college about fabrication courses etc). The reason I paid for a tailored one in the first place was so I wouldn't have to mess around with drilling and fabricating myself but it looks like thats what I may need to do anyway!
The dash gave the biggest problem on removal being basically awkward and the engine loom was a little disconcerting due to worrying about getting it all back on properly. I'm hoping there aren't going to be any problems with the loom/ECU when I fit the engine from the other car and them not 'talking' to each other. Can anyone advise on this? Or does the ECU not even recognise that it is a different engine?
The garage had to be tidied a few times during the strip down - its easy being eager to take everything off but things would quickly get messy and if I was careless, bolts, clips, brackets would have all gotten muddled together etc. and as a novice at this at the moment I don't want to add confusion for myself when the rebuild time comes. For that reason I used lots of zip bags for everything even if there were only 2 nuts from removing say, the coil - I still labeled them in the bag so I don't need to think about where they came from later. Continual tidying and organisation is as important a job as dismantling, building, welding and painting.
What did I learn? Empty all fluids BEFORE you begin to strip the car. eg fuel, by following the procedure in the Haynes manual. Trying to remove the brake master cylinder with fluid coming out of each hole is annoying. In the end I reconnected each brake pipe and then undid the unions from the calipers and forced it out via the pedal and a few pumps. I also learnt that theres not a lot holding in the drive shafts to the diff/sunwheel etc. I'm surprised they don't jump out and run off with the amount of stick they get over the years - especially when driven in anger.
Looking for parts is a bit of a pain - I am slowly becoming aware of more suppliers but its slow progress. Does anyone know of a motorsport business directory, supplier list or something similar? (except magazine adverts) I've asked on a couple of forums about local garages focused on race car builds etc and always feel like a newbie underling! Having a directory with a bit of explanation would be ideal. If there isn't one then I may look into creating one myself - would do wonders for my and others knowledge of the industry, I often feel like everything is against you, hacking your way through the motorsport jungle to be faced with quicksand one way, predators another and a raging waterfall in the other direction. You could always turn back, that paths easy but obviously no fun.
So thats most of the strip down finished. Now the focus is going to be cleaning parts, painting, sourcing whats left to get and preparing for rebuilding things. I spoke to a sprayer friend of mine who is going to help me out with some supplies I will need and advice - I may even be able to wangle it so that he helps with the interior painting once the cage is in. Oh, and the windscreen needs to come out - I ordered some wire today to cut through the sealer.
More progress has been made, another video and another post. Some lessons learnt, money spent and more bits arriving. So whats first...?
Progress first. The car is virtually stripped now back to the shell - fuel tank, rear axle and brake lines are all thats left. Its due to go off the <a title="Andy Robinson Race Cars" href="http://www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk/" target="_blank">Andy Robinson Race Cars</a> in Basingstoke for a cage in about 3 weeks time so sub-frame will have to go back on at that point - if I can get the parts cleaned and painted between now and then I'll do it. The axle will stay on for now.
Check out the vid either via this link on youtube or on the blog page of my site.. Now it takes you virtually from start to finish - lots of bits you can't see tho. I need to do some work on the site too, its real basic atm.
http://www.racecarbuild.co.uk/blogs/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCGnOvJmK7U&lis...
This engine has a knock on the bottom and a rattle on the top so I'll need to use my engine from the other clio for now which I am hoping to get out of the car this week and bring to the garage. As the tappets need changing in that one too (!) I'm going to do some tuning whilst its apart - I'd better get on and order some parts for it.
A nice new seat arrived.. Can't believe I spent 500 smackers on this, the side mounts and delivery! Looks the business and weighs around 8.5kgs iirc, I'm sure the standard seats are around 20kgs from memory so nice weight saving there.
I wanted the side protection for my head so this was my choice. Now I'm having trouble with the sub frame mounts. I bought a MK1 Clio specific one from K-tec which arrived as basically 3 strips of painted steel with holes in - for £70. I could have got some scrap steel and drilled some holes myself for a fiver - I'm on the phone to them over the next couple of days to work out if I should send it back (and speaking to the local college about fabrication courses etc). The reason I paid for a tailored one in the first place was so I wouldn't have to mess around with drilling and fabricating myself but it looks like thats what I may need to do anyway!
The dash gave the biggest problem on removal being basically awkward and the engine loom was a little disconcerting due to worrying about getting it all back on properly. I'm hoping there aren't going to be any problems with the loom/ECU when I fit the engine from the other car and them not 'talking' to each other. Can anyone advise on this? Or does the ECU not even recognise that it is a different engine?
The garage had to be tidied a few times during the strip down - its easy being eager to take everything off but things would quickly get messy and if I was careless, bolts, clips, brackets would have all gotten muddled together etc. and as a novice at this at the moment I don't want to add confusion for myself when the rebuild time comes. For that reason I used lots of zip bags for everything even if there were only 2 nuts from removing say, the coil - I still labeled them in the bag so I don't need to think about where they came from later. Continual tidying and organisation is as important a job as dismantling, building, welding and painting.
What did I learn? Empty all fluids BEFORE you begin to strip the car. eg fuel, by following the procedure in the Haynes manual. Trying to remove the brake master cylinder with fluid coming out of each hole is annoying. In the end I reconnected each brake pipe and then undid the unions from the calipers and forced it out via the pedal and a few pumps. I also learnt that theres not a lot holding in the drive shafts to the diff/sunwheel etc. I'm surprised they don't jump out and run off with the amount of stick they get over the years - especially when driven in anger.
Looking for parts is a bit of a pain - I am slowly becoming aware of more suppliers but its slow progress. Does anyone know of a motorsport business directory, supplier list or something similar? (except magazine adverts) I've asked on a couple of forums about local garages focused on race car builds etc and always feel like a newbie underling! Having a directory with a bit of explanation would be ideal. If there isn't one then I may look into creating one myself - would do wonders for my and others knowledge of the industry, I often feel like everything is against you, hacking your way through the motorsport jungle to be faced with quicksand one way, predators another and a raging waterfall in the other direction. You could always turn back, that paths easy but obviously no fun.
So thats most of the strip down finished. Now the focus is going to be cleaning parts, painting, sourcing whats left to get and preparing for rebuilding things. I spoke to a sprayer friend of mine who is going to help me out with some supplies I will need and advice - I may even be able to wangle it so that he helps with the interior painting once the cage is in. Oh, and the windscreen needs to come out - I ordered some wire today to cut through the sealer.
Edited by BootStrap on Tuesday 5th March 00:06
BootStrap said:
The dash gave the biggest problem on removal being basically awkward and the engine loom was a little disconcerting due to worrying about getting it all back on properly. I'm hoping there aren't going to be any problems with the loom/ECU when I fit the engine from the other car and them not 'talking' to each other. Can anyone advise on this? Or does the ECU not even recognise that it is a different engine?
I strongly suspect that the ECU won't care as long as all the inputs from the sensors are the same.In your position though, I'd be tempted to go for a third party ECU so you can remap to suit as you change parts - more expensive in the short term (you'll need to make or have made a new loom or at least cut down the existing one) but longer term it gives you much more flexibility and you end up with a much simpler car to maintain if you only have the wires for the stuff the ECU needs.
Thanks Mark, at my current level of knowledge, i.e. not a lot where ECUs are concerned one is the same as any other to me. I do know that this car has been 'chipped', what that means I couldn't tell you though. On the back of the ECU is a sticker with 'Edge Performance' written on it. They're a few miles up the road from me so will check them out.
Any chance someone could give me a brief explanation of the difference between 'chipped' and say having a completely different ECU? Pros, cons, evaluation etc?
Any chance someone could give me a brief explanation of the difference between 'chipped' and say having a completely different ECU? Pros, cons, evaluation etc?
Chipped means different things to different tuners but usually 'chipped' means that someone's taken the standard map and tweaked it for more power (or torque, or economy or whatever) and provides it as a plug-in unit whose characteristics are fixed.
Essentially it's like the standard ECU - you have one map that's been developed on a certain set of components (often the tuner will recommend a certain type of exhaust etc. to make the most of the map) and which has to take into account emissions for MOT, how the car behaves when cold, low speed drivability etc.
I'd hazard a guess that you have one of these, and it's sitting on top of the standard ECU changing some of the settings.
Incidentally, a 'map' is just a set of figures which alter fuelling and timing to suit rpm, air flow, air and engine temperatures and a host of other inputs from sensors around the engine. By adjusting the fuelling and timing, you can make the engine behave a certain way and give more power, better emissions, more torque etc.
With a standalone ECU, you (or someone who knows how to map a car) can devise a map to suit your application and the parts you currently have fitted.
The advantage of this is that as a racer, you don't care about emissions, economy or drivability around town - so the map can be focused on getting the most power out of the engine and giving you the torque characteristics to suit how you drive. It's like buying a made-to-measure suit instead of an off the peg one, it matches the car and your needs more closely.
In addition, when you upgrade components it can be remapped to take full advantage (for instance, our G20 has just had a new Tony Law exhaust made so it's back to the rollers at RS Tuning in Leeds for a tweak to the map to make sure we get a few more bhp from the engine).
Essentially it's like the standard ECU - you have one map that's been developed on a certain set of components (often the tuner will recommend a certain type of exhaust etc. to make the most of the map) and which has to take into account emissions for MOT, how the car behaves when cold, low speed drivability etc.
I'd hazard a guess that you have one of these, and it's sitting on top of the standard ECU changing some of the settings.
Incidentally, a 'map' is just a set of figures which alter fuelling and timing to suit rpm, air flow, air and engine temperatures and a host of other inputs from sensors around the engine. By adjusting the fuelling and timing, you can make the engine behave a certain way and give more power, better emissions, more torque etc.
With a standalone ECU, you (or someone who knows how to map a car) can devise a map to suit your application and the parts you currently have fitted.
The advantage of this is that as a racer, you don't care about emissions, economy or drivability around town - so the map can be focused on getting the most power out of the engine and giving you the torque characteristics to suit how you drive. It's like buying a made-to-measure suit instead of an off the peg one, it matches the car and your needs more closely.
In addition, when you upgrade components it can be remapped to take full advantage (for instance, our G20 has just had a new Tony Law exhaust made so it's back to the rollers at RS Tuning in Leeds for a tweak to the map to make sure we get a few more bhp from the engine).
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