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400r rally prepared by Tim Ashton


ANDY ABBOTT
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 The car has sat in the same garage since late 90s early 2000, exact date yet to be confirmed. Its never moved or been started up since the day it got put away. Today I put fresh oil and fuel in it, and a new battery and it started straight up like it was only put away yesterday. Incredibly everything still worked lights all gauges etc.. all I had to do was replace the clutch cylinders as they had both seized up. Once they was replaced  I was driving it round our yard. It amazes me that cars like this still exsist locked away slowly decaying in damp leaky garages, but will now live to drive another day. 

After looking through the history file that came with the car, it turns out it was rally prepared by Tim Ashton, back in the early 90s. The car is a complete 90s time warp. I'll be doing some more digging into its history, and hopefully I'll be able to get hold of Tim for a quick chat about the car. Anyway I'll be going through this top to bottom and putting it Right. I had to let go of a few of my other projects to free up space and funds for this one but I think it'll be worth it in the end. 

 

I'll continue to update the thread as I go through the process, but here's a few pics for now. 

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Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

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Great you saved that car. As mentioned in the other topic I loved the looks of it the first time I saw it. The history and technical documentation makes the picture complete.

Hope to see this car in reality.

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45 minutes ago, biffy1984 said:

Brilliant! 2 grand labour 482 hours....hourly rate will be crept up slightly since then😂

Great project tho, wonder what the story is with the Q plate then?

Think it's due to the am out of modifications, with the V8, crossmember, chassis and body alterations to rally prep it. 5 stud conversion etc.. But not entirely sure. 

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Interesting am sure back in the day I broke down in my first manta  in stalybridge and a fella came out of a house and pretty sure he said he did rally servicing for a Steve Rodgers 

he had two Manta’s his self and he also found my Brakedown cause a broken earth strap 🤣

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You did all that today Andy. That's good going I've had a floor pan and chassis rail sitting for 6 months.

How do you do the floor pan. Do you cut the old loot out then place the new one on top weld top side then under side?

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On 06/02/2020 at 19:10, Bonga said:

You did all that today Andy. That's good going I've had a floor pan and chassis rail sitting for 6 months.

How do you do the floor pan. Do you cut the old loot out then place the new one on top weld top side then under side?

That was over the course of 2 days. 12 hours in total to get to that stage, and the underside is not yet finished. It still needs the chassis rails welding up to the floor pans fully, as it's only tacked at the moment. Also the sill needs welding to the floor pan and I need to make and install the jacking point. 

 To do the floor pans basically I just lobbed through the lot using a 9 inch and 4.5 inch grinders with slim slit disks on. Once the old section was removed it was a case of cleaning everything up and treating inner sills etc with built hamber. Once it's was all cleaned and prepped I used what was left of the old floor pan as a rough template to get a rough size for the new floor pan "making sure it was slightly bigger" I then fitted the new chassis rails that I sourced from a local panel supplier "magnum panel's" which was just a universal 50x50mm channel. I tacked that in place, then welded in 2x lengths of 1inch box section the whole lengths of the rails to make it strong and then tied it all into the old inner where I had cut it at the swan neck. Once the chassis rail was in place it gave me a level to place the new floor pan over so it didn't sag. I tacked the new pan in place to the new chassis rail and a few around the edges to stop it moving around, then went down the pit and trimmed it to size all way round with a slit disk on the grinder to give me a nice even gap all the way around the pan and existing floor. I then fully welded it in place. 

The new floor pans are from a mini van and was ready available from the panel shop for £25 each. I'm not to fussed about this looking very neat and spot on as it's just going to be a rough and ready rally/track car l, but also be road legal. My main aim is to make it solid and safe. 

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

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Ends of chassis rails will be capped off as they are slightly deeper than the old ones as you can see where it meets the rear cross bearer section. I also need to figure out a new gear box mount as the old one was just bolted through the floor pan on passenger side, so wasn't exactly very strong 😆

Edited by ANDY ABBOTT
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WoW minivan looks a bloody good fit mate!
like the idea of the box, should help with rigidity. For gearbox, I guess moving back to a flat bracket will give you clearance for bobbing mount and a fabricated bracket off the floor pan.

overall great job, might look at those floor pans myself 👍 

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Looking good there Andy, like you have done far better to cut the lot out and start from a good clean solid section.

Parts not original but as you said doesn't matter as your not going for an original show car and like Jess mentioned that floor looks like a pretty good fit 👍

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Doors, chassis, jacking point and gearbox mount finished between yesterday and today. Also swapped passenger side door over, and 're fitted passenger wing. Now to fit the 3 piece spoiler, then I'll move on to the drivers side A post. Not mint but solid and done. 

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Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

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Edited by ANDY ABBOTT
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