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Ascona 400R Build


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Right, on to the link boxes!

Did a quick model in AutoCAD to check the geometry with different link lenghts.

From what I can see there seems to be a lot of variations on the rear suspension of 400's. Most have quite short upper links (as per the Commodore - 265mm iirc) but most of the rally cars I've seen have longer links, which is preferable. My mock-up showed a singificant tilt on the diff nose with that link length, so we upped it to 425mm - bearing in mind we are keeping a back seat (albeit hollowed out a bit!) this was the longest we could go whilst keeping a sensible link seperation (vertical distance between link mounting points).

We are using the original lower link mounts.

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LOL it'll be nice one day when "in the bodyshop" means in a different room or building! I (and Cal) look forward to the day we can afford a prep room/building. Would be lovely to have the paintbooth in a different building altogether as well, get through intake filters a lot less!!! ON that kind of subject, hopefully later this year, if we can rope in some slave labour, we'll be taking over another bit of the building for our office and a "clean" room for engine building etc, will hopefully then rejig the booth intake to draw from there too giving the filters cleaner air to work on!

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Right moving on, cleaned any remaining paint off, did a couple of repairs to the front wings and bare-metal'd these as well. Pulled a few distorted areas out of the rear quarters and hot-shrunk a couple of 'ping-pongs' out. Now she's ready to move on to 'kit fitting and bodywork :thumbup

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Initial filling and smoothing of the basic shell complete. Engine bay smoothed etc etc. Shell now back on the spit, in the booth, and will get an all-over coat of Max Meyer Ecophos anit-corrosion etch-primer, then it's seam sealing, and getting the rear arches fitted.

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Shell all in etch primer now and seams sealed :D:D:D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well had an awesome weekend at Billing . Here are a few pics of the ascona on the Retropower stand.

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Just want to say thanks for all the positive comments we recieved, certainly gave me a good buzz and I'm sure Cal and Nat can say the same. :thumbup

Edited by cact1972
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Great to see you at billing, the quality of the metal work on the ascona was astounding and the engineering on the other cars was awe-inspiring, certainly gave me a huge kick up the arse to get a car on the road or down to you lads to complete for me :D

Quality mate, highly recommended ( no i don't work for them, only met them at billing this year ;) ) Can't remember the conversation with Curt on friday night but i'm sure we will have the same next year!

Cheers

Kev

Edit, fell onto my face

Edited by Kevin Abbott
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I was having a good wee poke around the ascona at billing, wondering if anyone would have noticed if I slipped it under my shirt and legged it :lol:

Ha Ha! You wouldn't have got far my eyes were on it all the time apart from fri night when the beer googles were in place!!

:blink:

Can't remember the conversation with Curt on friday night but i'm sure we will have the same next year!

Cheers

Kev

Edit, fell onto my face

Really good to meet you Kev and thanks for good feedback.:thumbupYep your probably right, same conversation next year but the ascona will have wheels on!!

I fell into our tent , well not in more on it ! Much to the entertainment of all on the pitch! DOH!

No war wounds like you were wearing for the rest of the weekend tho! :D

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LOL Curt you were rolling around on yer back on top of what as your tent:lol::lol::lol::lol:

I REALLY enjoyed the show, and it would not have been half as much fun if we hadn't had yours and Jase's help setting up and taking down!!

PS 10/10 to VBOA as well, lots of hard work going on there with little thanks!

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  • 3 months later...

Right then I thought it would be a good idea to get you all up to date with Scona after being asked ,What was happening by a friend who was watching on here (hope you don't mind Cal and Nat I'm pinching all your pics etc :P and I know you guys a really busy)

This is gonna take a while believe me and please bear with me :thumbup

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Engine & 'box dummy fitted to check clearances, and also allow us to make up the stainless manifold with clearance for the Omega 'box. (engine & subframe are not the actual ones to be used, just ones that were close to hand!)

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Cut out the valance for the bumper intakes, and got the kit offered up, aligned and temporarily screwed into place. Manta skirts cut down and offered up.

I'm pretty happy, it needs a lot of work, but is a better fit than I expected. Most of the work is smoothing the actual kit, and sorting the arch-to-bumper joint, but the actual fit of the arch flanges to the car are good except for the very bottom of the offside rear arch, which will need tweaking, but it's a good start

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Still plenty more pics to come :thumbup

OK, on to fitting the arches properly. Thought I'd just run through how I do this. Of course, different people do things different ways, but it can't hurt to share a bit of advice.

I am going to bond the arches on, but we do want to keep the mounting lip for that hardcore 80's rally look. Because of this I want to get the fit to the body perfect before bonding them on. The same would apply to a Manta 400 kit.

Firstly, I've already offered the arches and got them positioned correctly as above. I've just used self-tappers to hold them in place.

Next, remove them again and sand of any rough areas or raised areas from the back of the lip. I there are any bits that are way-off, then obviously they need addressing at this stage.

Do one arch at a time. Cover the area of the car where the arch fits in cling film, and tape it in place. Try not to have too many wrinkles in it.

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Next, get your arch and put 2" masking tape around the lip on the outside, so it overlaps by a good amount. Mix up some fibreglass filler, and spread it around the inside edge of the lip, making sure there is a bit of thickness on the very edge, and a fair amount overlapping onto the tape.

Take your arch and screw it back to the car taking care to get it in the right place to start with, so you don't risk ripping the film. Squeeze around the tape so the filler is well into the corner between arch and car.

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Once it's set, remove the arch & clingfilm. Run a slitting disk in a grinder through the excess filler, as close as you dare edge of the original arch. Then use a DA with something like 80/120 grit disc to sand the edge back to it's original position.

Edited by cact1972
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There you have it, perfectly fitting arch ready to be bonded in place :thumbup

front wings primered, fitted and arches now bonded in place :D

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The next job was to make up a couple of stainless brackets to support the side sections of the bumper

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Then a laser-level was used to mark out vertical lines each side, at the point I'm going to split it

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And it was then cut at these points2010_09070009.jpg2010_09070010.jpg

The side sections were then given the same treatment as the arches (and the wing flange was extended at this stage) and bonded in place

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Edited by cact1972
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The bumper-to-arch join was then filled before removing the wings and reinforcing the whole lot from behind with Fibreglass

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Meanwhile, removed the old front bumper iron, cut it down, blasted and repainted, and bonded it to the bumper centre section

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Right time for primer

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Stonechipped and painted underside.... My god this a marathon posting session.......:unsure:

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Old doors were shot, so got good Manta doors and transferred the frames....

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I am so impressed with the work going on here.

I can see the hours of work and the quality of the work and I don't post much here now but I had to give praise where it is very obviously due.

I hope this car is at Billing when it is done.

Good work fellas.

Edited by paulmanta
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Stonechipped and Painted inside....

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Dropped the shell off the spit, so work could begin on the bumper. Widened the centre section to reduce the join 'gaps'. cut and adjusted the bottom to minimise the usual Ascona 'wave' along the bottom of the bumper. A lot of shaping and smoothing, and a good coat of primer. Fitted headlamps and grille to check alignment. Looking good :thumbup

Will be altering the scoop to get rid of the ugly 'cutout' in it.:rolleyes:

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Well there you go, I'm well impressed with the progress the Retro crew has done up to now :thumbup.

Not too far away now til we see it in paint...........Can't wait :rolleyes:

I am so impressed with the work going on here.

I can see the hours of work and the quality of the work and I don't post much here now but I had to give praise where it is very obviously due.

I hope this car is at Billing when it is done.

Good work fellas.

Yep Deffo will be seen at Billing :thumbup

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