my mates car build

[Tom_vRS]

Awesome project - please do keep the updates coming!

[gadgetman]

When I was at college they simply dropped a calibra turbo lump into Nova's. RWD seems a little extreme!

[Tech1e]

Great thread, excellent

[Burnsey]

Looks good, the sort of thing I'd like to do some day on something else

I may have missed something, but is he going to do anything to strengthen the chassis to take the strain of the rear wheel drive. I might have concern that it'll rip itself apart...

[Babs]

That is epic!

[Wardy]

That took a while to read through - keep it coming Bengie

That is some project, all credit to him, and I don't even particularly like Vauxhalls

Steve

[nilobilo]

I've never really liked Novas, but the beige one looks nice! Love those steelies

Good thread!

[bengie]

not sure what exactly is planned, as i said these are his updates on another forum i use and i get info from chatting to him but the rear end is all custom as his mate thats helping him used to build proper drag cars apparently and the rear wishbones etc are going to be custom tubular items so something must be going in to add the strength. i'll ask him though

and he already did the LET(calibra turo engine) into a nova years ago

[bengie]

some more

*Thread edited by my request* Guys I thought I were friends with turn out to be slating my work' date=' thought they were jesting, turns out they weren't after I learn they were dragging my name through the mud at the last meet. What a wonderful society we live in.

Enough of the trolls, how about an update:

I started work on the rear axle drive setup this weekend, got plenty of work done which I was very pleased about.

This is what the saloon boot looks like from the factory:

Seems a shame to cut it up really:

Oh well!

Back plate also removed:

I fabricated up the first strut turret/tower:

These are quite tall, this is because of the length of the coilover bodies I am using. They are not ideal by any means but I cannot afford to fork out £250/corner for custom uber short units.

Welded in place:

Coilover body mock placed in turret, fits very well:

I added the rear support brace and chassis rail supports, the support brace will incorporate the rear diff mount and the chassis rail supports are needed as most of the original chassis rail directly below them is being removed the drive shaft clearance:

Rear diff mount welded in place:

Hub mounted up to check clearance again - LIKE A GLOVE!

Notice the arched section where the original chassis rail was

The rear coilover top mounts are actually front top mount plates off a cavalier/calibra/Astramk3 and fit perfectly:

Next week I will finish off on the other side and weld the new boot floor in, after that I have hardly any welding left to do which I am very pleased about

[bengie]

more

Big Red there are many types of SVA' date=' mine doesn't come under the type that requires the entire car to be poked so its irrelevant. As I said before STOP MESSING UP MY THREAD!

Update:

Loads done this weekend as Jamie was able to help on the Saturday, we made a lot of progress on the back end. So much so it will be done very soon

First off I fitted the other suspension turret and support bar, this enabled us to drop the car on it's new hubs/wheels for the first time:

The rear springs we were using are mock ones anyways and are rated at 350lbs, this is way too much for the back of such a light car. This meant the springs didn't compress one little bit, but the back is still sitting the equivalent of a easy 40mm drop

Next I wanted to fit the supports for the rear end, these support basically connect and stiffen all the diff mounting points and the two turret towers (due to their height really):

Also the main bar that runs side to side is ideal for mounting 3/4-point racing harnesses

The rear beam was next, it needed it's last modifications done. Because the rear hubs are designed to run on the front of a car they are not fixed (i.e can move in an arc) to allow the wheel to turn (steering), I took the original nova's steering rack and lopped off the steering arms, made a little bracket that attaches them to the beam thus:

looking like this on the car:

They will allow for tweaking of the toe on the rear too

The front of the diff fouled the beam slightly so it needing modding also, I cut out the minimum I needed to and reinforced that area:

The Nova's like many other cars use a semi-trailing arm, its designed to flex in the middle as one side of the car raises up on heavy cornering (keeping the wheels on the floor). If I had filled the hole I cut out it would have impeded this process which will be no good for handling (would have been good for drifting tho).

The beam got put back on for a test, the beam was raised up to the point where the car will sit when it's all done:

Tight!

A slight shaving of a few fins on the diff will ensure nothing catches

Just before I removed the hubs for modding I refitted one of the wheels for a look at the ride height:

:D:D

I whipped the hubs off, reason being there is a slight issue with the steering arms. The original track rod ends run above the hubs (not below like I am doing) and the insert that goes into the hub is tapered (the top of the hole is larger than the bottom of the hole), this means the uniball track rod ends can move about at the top end of the hole - not exactly safe. I could have tightened them up and hoped for the best but if your going to do something... might as well weld the tits off it!!

Standard hole:

Turn welder up silly-high and fill hole with pure steel:

Flatten and drill pilot hole:

The final sized hole needs to be done at a machine shop as our pillar drill is too small to fit the large drill bit and the hub in place! Was cool welding the hole up though, the whole arm was glowing red hot!

[bengie]

more

The weekend update:

To be honest I didn't get a huge amount done this weekend' date=' we had a supply issue with cutting discs so I couldn't do any fabrication.

So I decided to install the engine and gearbox (not the mock ones, the proper ones)

I removed the engine and box from it's old car (Carlton), it needed a fair bit of prep before it was ready for it's new home.

Exhaust cam change from LET exhaust to late-spec XE with sensor drive

Late spec XE cam end cap with sensor

Replace the modified breather pipe with a standard unit

Fabricate shortened oil pickup pipe to suit bigwing sump

Swop the old sump for the custom bigwing (reuse 2.0 8v one piece gasket)

Fit engine mount brackets and rubbers

Grind down the top gearbox support fins (the 2.0 8v gearbox I used to build the tunnel round doesn't have these fins on the top and therefore they would rub)

This engine was rebuild by me severel years ago, hence it still being sparkly clean internally:

Engine in

The rad needs moving forward to clear the supercharger I think

Exhaust manifold on

Right now lets see if it will fit!

That will be a yes then

[bengie]

more

Little update:

Well I spent Saturday with a friend looking at a corsa combo van to run about in (uber cheap to run too)' date=' found one that apart from a blown gearbox and a shonky respray is in good condition. So a box change and a nato green respray with a roller is on the cards!

As for the Nova, I popped over today and did a little work, trouble is some big *** event was on at silverstone AGAIN so drive time is doubled :(

I fitted the new front coilovers, these are made by LEDA who are kick *** for quality:

After tweeking the setup both the front coilovers where in place, the spring poundage on the supplied springs was perfect for this application but they are too long which means even fully wound down it still sits a little too high - but this is something I will sort out when the car is on the road.

I then decided to bolt up on the rear hubs so I can align and weld the new rear driveshafts.

Original thoughts for the rear driveshafts were looking expensive, thoughts of one-off driveshafts were a little worrying. However after poking around the garage I came up with a cheap and simply solution that gives you a very strong driveshaft.

Take one lotus driveshaft (the shiny part), cut one end off and mill shaft down till its a tight fit inside the calibra hollow driveshaft (black painted one)

Then slot into each other thus:

I fitted the CV joints and bolted the CV joints onto the diff and hub, I then moved he wheel up and down in the arch to make sure that the driveshaft was the correct length.

Once happy I spot welded the two together, removed the shaft and it's CV's and seam welded the lot up, this included pool-welding 4 holes drilled into the hollow shaft.

I just need to grind down the welded holes and paint the driveshaft and that one is done!

Whilst I was working a local Nova owner visited me to drop off some rear lights I bought

These are smoked rear lights for my nova, they are very hard to get hold of now (most of them are clear versions which are a little ghey)

[oilburninnut]

awesome......someone needs to do this with a granny spec fabia saloon it would be epic!!!!!!!

[bengie]

it would certainly be a giggle.