11 January
Although entries will still have dates, the build diary is finished and further updates will cover the fun and frustrations of driving Kitkat. So entries will be less frequent and possibly of less interest to kit builders. I'm filling in the diary now more for my own benefit, but I hope you will still find it fun and interesting to call in.
In the last couple of weeks I've been washing the car every time it goes out! My other cars never get washed, but Kitkat is so small and it takes about fifteen minutes to restore it to show off condition, I can't bear to have it sat in the garage looking a mess.
We took advantage of the January sales to buy a bigger tent. We already had a two man job, but that was only a cheap one from Argos and when I lay down in it my head touched one side and my feet the other. Sam and I camped in it one weekend at Silverstone last year during the touring car championship, but it wasn't comfortable. Only one of us could sit up at a time because it is so low. But the new tent is much bigger and should allow us to sleep over at the kit car shows without getting either wet or folded in half. Sam and I planned to use it first at Stoneleigh, but Pat has decided that she might fancy a go at Stafford.
Of course whichever of these we choose, it won't really be the 'first go' because Sam and I slept in it on the back garden over the weekend - well you have to test it, don't you?
A chap called Chris had written to me from the website saying he was building a Locost from scratch and as he only lived twenty minutes away, asking if I fancied dropping round to see his progress. Sam and I popped over last weekend and took a few snaps.
Here's a photo from the front and one from the back. It's a smashing little thing and Chris hopes to have it ready for the Newark show.
Pat and I had a spin out to Clumber Park and took a load of photos of Kitkat in the wild. It was a bit of a grey day, but here's one of the finished article. I also took a series of snaps moving round the car as I went. These then got spliced together into an animation which you can download here (170k) or, if you feel brave, download the hi res version here (3.5mb).
On the maintenance front we put the car onto the axle stands to find out why when going in revese with driver and passeneger and turning left, the nearside wheelarch rubbed on the tyre. It seems there's a bit of play in the big suspension bushes (a couple of millimetres) and this was enough to put the tyre and wheel arch in contact. The powerfile shaved a bit off the inside of the arch and that's fixed that.
While it was off the floor we also tightened up all the bolts we could get to. None were working loose, although we managed to get another couple of turns on some that we hadn't done up as tight as we might first time around.
I phoned Sue at Tiger today and she confirmed they had my replacement bonnet and the pedal box covers in stock, so Pat and I will have a run down there on Saturday - not in Kitkat of course, as we'll have to leave the old bonnet with Sue so she can get a credit from the suppliers. Once we get it home, it will give me and Sam something to do in these boring winter evenings.
Finally for this posting I should mention Sue and Ed's SVA. Unfortunately, instead of being at the test centre by half past nine, Ed was on the phone to me at 10:15 - stuck in a lay-by five miles from Derby. The engine had taken to dumping all its oil through the exhaust pipes and had finally ground to a halt. I went on the internet and found a few local garages for him to phone - one of which came straight out and rescued them. It seems that the cylinder head had cooked, warped, cracked and that was the end of the game. The garage are sorting it out and Ed hopes to have news by the end of this week. I suspect the bill might be a bit of a shock.
28 January
Not a a lot has happened since the past update. Pat and I went to Tiger and picked up the pedal box cover and the new bonnet. However when we got home and put the new bonnet on Kitkat, it was a completely different colour. I phoned Sue and she said she'd look into what they could do, but after a few days trying to think of something, she said I should fit the new one and they'd see what they could suggest next time I was at Tiger.
We haven't tried to fit the pedal cover yet 'cos it looks too tricky. Well, not exactly tricky, but it involves disconnecting all the throttle, brake and clutch cables/pipes which means bleeding the brakes when we've done. And I've asked Ed if he'll turn me a new push rod for the brake master cylinder because the adjuster thread on mine was too short. He reckons his was as well, so if he gets round to doing one for himself, I'm hoping he'll knock up an extra for me at the same time (and maybe several more to sell to other Cat builders - unless we were just unlucky). Then I can fit that at the same time as I fit the pedal assembly cover. Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
In the garage the bonnet is definately a different colour - not just a shade different, but very different. In the daylight it's not so noticeable, but the original bonnet was better, despite the pink patch. Having drilled out the pop rivets on the old catches and popped in eight more on the new bonnet, the pop rivet counter has notched up a few more.
Sam and I went to Bradford to the computer market and on the way back down the M1 to Sheffield the car was missing quite badly, but it was a fuel type missing, not an electrical one. I've booked the car in for a rolling road session on Tuesday (30/1) at a Weber specialists to have the carbs tuned and tweaked, so they should be able to sort it out. In the meantime Sam and I took the plugs out and they were black. There was so much carbon deposited it looked like they were all growing full beards and moustaches. I think we are running a bit rich, which might account for the terrible mpg figures.
A couple of weeks ago the garage in Derby rebuilt Sue and Ed's car and it passed SVA without any major problems. They were going to bring it round to show me last weekend, but it was a filthy day and their speedo had broken, so they didn't bother. However, today they did come round - crash helmets and all. I had a bit of a drive round and then Ed took Sam for a blast - very nice. Different to Kitkat in subtle ways (apart from the obvious build differences - no windscreen, down-draught carb etc). The pick up was much smoother (a feature of using the complete Sierra donor engine/carb arrangement, I guess). Perhaps Tuesday will bring Kitkat in line. As we'd always celebrated Kitkat's milestones with Kitkats, Ed and Sue brough#t a fistfull of Aeros to celebrate their Aero-screened cat's arrival. Very clever (and tasty).
Sadly the trip across the Pennines had coated the car with road salt, so it didn't look it's best, but it still looked good.
On Thursday I had a phone conversation with Nik Aveyard who was listed as the contact for the Yorkshire Tiger owners club. I'd asked if the club got up to much, but it turns out that there wasn't much interest when he asked about starting a club, so it's not got round to doing anything yet - Nik being the only member. Perhaps now there are a few more of us with cars either complete or getting there, it might be time to try again.
I've taken the Kitkat designs in to the local sign makers so they can produce some stickers for the car and also some proper sweatshirts. They haven't got back to me with a price yet, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can trim the car up.
I've also submitted an article for Tiger Tales telling of my first road legal week's disasters to compare it with the seemingly trouble free first few days recounted by Dave Jenkins in the last edition.
I asked on the newsgroup whether anyone maintained a database of Tiger owners and their registrations. It seemd to spark a bit of interest and so the data is being collected by several people and should end up on at least one website eventually. I'll put a link in when I find it. Talking of links, Sam has had a go at setting up his own website (minimal Tiger content) and he's linked to this site, so I'll return the compliment on the links page. Whilst on my Links page I also shamelessly stole the links from Mark Gill's website (it saved hours searching them out, Mark - sorry, but thanks).
Finally I printed out thirty or so six by four photos from the build diary and put them in a small album so I can take it to shows and leave it around for people to browse.
Time for a cup of tea. Bye.
3 February
Checked Kitkat in on Tuesday at JP Autotechnics in Sheffield to have her tuned on a rolling road. The car hadn't previously been properly tuned - when I built it I simply bolted the Webers on straight out of the box and put the rest of the engine together as per the Haynes manual. Before SVA I'd had a mobile tuning chap check the timing and emissions - that's all.
The car felt Ok except that cruising at 70 or so on the motorway and trying to hold the speed steady with the throttle made the car 'lumpy' - like fuel related misfires. Checking the plugs showed them to be covered in carbon, and mpg figures were horrendous, so I knew something needed tweaking.
For a comparison figure, when he started, John at JP measured the power at the wheels in third gear at 6000rpm to be 87bhp (81bhp in fourth). Rotten! After a couple of hours twiddling that had gone up to 114bhp (110bph in fourth) which if I remember correctly was 132bhp at the flywheel.
The main problem was that I'd fitted the vacuum advance and retard pipe which was not only not necessary, but positively detrimental. Removing that, re-timing the ignition and balancing the carbs using something more exact than my ear holes made all the difference.
The car feels much smoother now. Acceleration is more lively and constant and I don't leave smoke trails out of the exhaust! As for the mpg figures - we'll see.
Checking the speedo showed that using a standard 2ltr pinto, standard 5 speed gearbox and diff, a set of Tiger's 205/50R15 alloys and tyres, and the new Tiger badged speedo, reads about 6% over ie 100mph on the speedo is really 94mph on the road. Accurate enough to keep me the right side of the Gatso cameras.
John's comment after testing the car - "Bloody hell, I'm getting too old for this!" I don't know whther that was comment on the speed or the weather (I suspect the weather).
Today Sam and I went to meet Nik Aveyard in Morley, Leeds. Nik is the organiser of the Yorkshire Tiger owner's club - membership - one. And that member hasn't got a road legal Tiger! He's been building his Cat for about fifteen months now and it is due for SVA in March. But what a car!The difference between a five month Kitkat and a fifteen month version is clear.
Nik is going to use the car in hill-climb events, so it has been beefed up in several areas. Apart from a very smart Zetec engine, Nik's added front and rear anti-roll bars, a racing roll bar, fire extinguisher, and a very fancy re-packable exhaust. There isn't a cable tie to be seen (ok, there was one, but Nik is taking this off and replacing it with a proper P clip before anyone else spots it).
Nik had Tiger build some extra thick seat pads (I didn't realize you could ask for this), so his are three inches deep instead of the one inch ones in Kitkat. They are perhaps a bit too thick for me 'cos they pushed me too far forward and the steering wheel was a bit close to my knees, but two inch thick ones would probably have suited me better. Hindsight!
He has also powder coated the windscreen frame and supports - they look really nice. All in all I think Ian Cassapi now has some serious competition for the smartest Cat.
Nik did point out that I may have fastened my carbs to the manifold too tightly. He explained that this could cause 'foaming' which could well account for why the car seems to get a bit starved of fuel when tootling down the motorway at seventy. I'll slacken the nuts off half a turn and see if it makes any difference.
As for 'tootling', Kitkat is vastly improved since the rolling road session. Motorways are now relaxed trips. Before it felt as if the car was running out of grunt at seventy five. Now it wants to go on accelerating, feeling much more willing. If I cure the 'foaming' (if that's what it is) I'll be well chuffed.
I also met one of Nik's friends today (can't remember whether it was Rob or Bob - sorry), but as he reckons I write too much, he probably didn't get this far in the ramblings anyway.
I think Nik is going to try again at organising a Yorkshire owners club - he could well have another member now and we'll possibly have a Roses meeting where we get together with the Lancashire lot at a mutually convenient pub somewhere on top of the Pennines. Nik also has vague plans for an Isle of Man run - take on the TT course. Could be fun.
18 February
Hmmm! Owning a Cat generates far fewer diary entries than building one. What's happened since the last one? Not a lot.
About the only thing worth mentioning is the experience I've had with getting some vinyl signs done for the car. I wanted some lettering, smaller Tiger shields and Kitkat logos doing so I could trim up the GRP a bit. I had originally gone to a firm called Sign-o-rama and explained what I wanted and to cut a very long story short, they spent three weeks achieving sweet Felicity Awkwight. The Kitkat logo has a graduated colour fill which Sign-o-rama said they couldn't do on-site, but would have to send away. When it came back, it was pants! It looked as if it had been done in sixteen colours, big pixels, brown spotty background, ill formed letters - urgh! So I said I'd re-think the logo if that was going to give them such a problem.
At home I thought 'Why should I re-design the logo just because they couldn't reproduce it?' so I contacted another firm (the one who does the stickers for my local garage) and they said it didn't sound a problem. So I went over to Sticky Signs of Maltby, gave them exactly what I gave Sign-o-rama, and three days later I had a full set (including a few extras) of letters, shields and perfect Kitkat logos.
So. if you're after some vinyl signage for your car, I would glady recommend them. They have a web site - www.sticky-signs.co.uk. I've not stuck all the signs on the car yet for two reasons: 1) I can't decide where they look the best, so I'm fiddling about on the computer, trying different ideas; and 2) I'm still waiting to show Tiger the 'new' bonnet to see if they can find one that is the same colour as the rest of the GRP.
On the web-site front, I've added a Guest book section. Please go and sign it. Let me know what you think about the site and make some suggestions for improving it. I've joind the web ring that Richard Robinson has set up - the link is on the calendar page, so if you fancy seeing a few other Tiger kit sites, have a click. I've also stolen the carbon fibre background from William Turner's Dax Rush build site (with permission) to put in the left hand panel and I've redone the links to keep them more compact.
11 March
Today was the second day of the Stafford kit car show. During the last week I've been polishing Kitkat until my fingers bled. And what do I wake up to yesterday morning? Rain. Buckets of it.
Luckily it stops before Sam and I set off for Stafford. It's a seventy mile run and we chose to avoid the M1. It was great! The rain stayed off for most of the way, just dampening us a bit around Alfreton, but not enough to make us stop and put the roof on.
Sam wasn't supposed to be coming with me to Stafford - he drew the Stoneleigh trip, but as dripping water wears away stone, constant hints and big cow eyes finally tormented Pat into giving him first go. As he'd broken his collarbone a couple of weeks ago, we wondered whether the racing harnesses would prove a bit uncomfortable, but he didn't complain. Too big a grin on his face for it to be convincing.
When we get to Stafford, there are three other Tigers in the owners' area - Ian and Lynette Cassapi's Cat, Ed and Sue Needham's AeroCat and Lee's Raw built, blue Cat we all drooled over at Stoneleigh last year.
We wondered why no-one else had brought their cars as during the two weeks before the show, the newsgroup had been full of messages from people organising convoys and arranging to meet. We found out later what happened to two of them. Ben Marriott and Pete Banks were in a two car convoy which managed to run into each other, doing serious damage to the cars, but thankfully no harm to the occupants.
We met Phil at the show. He had brought a few parts along to hand over to Phantom for them to customise for him to add to the small pile of parts that pretends to be his Phantom GTR. We have a 'dinner for four' bet riding on whether he will have it SVA'd by the end of the year. I say he won't - he says he will. Safest meal out I've ever arranged!
We also met Neil Wain and Little Neil from the newsgroup as well as Adam Wilkins, ex-owners' club organiser, now working for Which Kit magazine.
We spoke to several other people who had kits in various stages ranging from 'left at home because it was raining' to 'I'm thinking of building one'. Sorry if I can't remember everyone's names, but I didn't realise how many people I would get to talk to when it was my car on the grass being looked over.
I bought a small dashboard clock to fit as I'm forever looking for it when I'm driving. Until I started driving Kitkat, I didn't appreciate how often I stole a glance at the time. I also picked up another alternator from Tiger as the one from the donor is a bit flakey (not surprising given the number of times we have bashed it with the suspension).
On Saturday night Ed Needham phoned to say 'add one to the number of written off Tigers today'. They'd had to try to avoid a lunatic Daewoo driver who decided to straight line a roundabout. The Cat had got away from them on some slippery stuff and they piled it into a crash barrier. Again, serious harm to the car, but luckily, no injuries.
Today Pat accompanied me to the show and we met a downcast Sue and Ed, Alan Jones with his Six, Ben Morley with his Cat, John Varley with a beautiful blue six (which has a dashboard they couldn't possibly have passed SVA with) and Bob Harwood who is beavering away on his Cat, getting it ready for SVA.
Again, we spoke to loads of people, encouraging potential buyers to sign on the dotted line, handing out advice on how to pass SVA (I remember being paranoid about that as well, but once you've passed, you're an expert!) and simply explaining how this bit was made or that part was assembled etc. It's a great way to meet people and everyone is so complimentary.
Over the next week or so, I'll fit the clock and the new alternator ready for Stoneleigh. Tiger have arranged an open day at Thorney Toll on the 13 May, so we'll be there as well. While we are there Sue can have a look at the colour difference of the bonnet GRP against the nose and scuttle. You can see it yourself on the photo of John's six - Kitkat is posing in the background. Sue's is really keen to sort it out, and I've absolutely no doubt she will. She just can't understand how the gellcoat can be so different when it all comes out of the same pot. I'll email her a copy of this photo so she can have a think before the open day.
1 April
I spent some time on the computer making a clock face that would match my other Tiger dials and in the end, I was quite pleased with the result. However, when I had a proper look at the clock it wasn't possible to get to the face without destroying the bezel - it had been crimped over the case. So I decided to locate the clock as far away from the other dials as possible which put it in front of the passenger.
However, slap bang in the middle didn't look right - it felt as if that was the passsenger's dial and they felt obliged to look at it. In the end we stuck it at the left of the dashboard and I'm happy with it there.
I also made a little flashing LED gizmo to show when the imobiliser is on, but I haven't installed it yet.
Next I turned my attention to building some wind deflectors. I'd seen some at Stafford which were £40 a pair and I thought I could build some for less than that. I had some clear plastic sheet which I cut into various shapes to find the optimal one. I also cut an eight inch piece of square section steel bar which I drilled to take the same hinges as the side screens use (£1.65 a pair from Great Mills). The plastic sheet was pop rivetted to the bar and hung on the screen supports.
The first attempt was too small. The second was better, but there was too big a gap between it and the screen. Putting the driver's side one on the passenger side and vice versa cut the gap down, but it still didn't deflect enough air to make it worth having. So I turned them upside down and they were immediately much better. I now felt I knew what size and shape they needed to be so I bought a new sheet of 4mm plastic and using good old cardboard engineering, cut two nice big panels. These have a piece at the top that is folded inwards to fill the gap caused by the curve at the top of the screen. This acts as a support to stop the panel flexing inwards when I get up some speed.
I decided to try them out on a trip to Rotherham down a long sweeping open road. They survived and worked quite well, however on the return trip, doing a speed that may have been judged illegal, the driver's side one blew off completely and disappeared. The pop rivets had failed under the pressure of the wind (pop rivet counter updated).
So, another panel was cut and the pop-rivets replaced with self tappers. These have survived a sometimes fast and always breezy trip to Matlock today, and still feel to be solidly attached. I'll keep the deflectors on a bit longer. They do look like elephants' ears though!
Other completed jobs since the last diary entry include an oil change and loosening the carb to manifold nuts. This last job was an attempt to reduce the foaming that might be causing the car to judder when holding a steady speed on the motorway. I won't know whether we have fixed it until I get another long fast run somewhere, but it feels a bit better. However, it does now bang on overrun which it didn't used to, so perhaps I've cured one problem and given myself another. We'll see.
Nik Aveyard phoned the other day to check if I was going to the Harrogate show as he wants to get as many Yorkshire based Tiger owners together as he can to see if he can organise a few club meetings. He's aware of half a dozen of us, but if there are any other Yorkshire based owners about, get in touch - a club would be fun.
