Nlc - Lister Bell Stratos Build Thread

[jonnyfox]

Wow! Not sure where you find the time buddy. Great work. 

[DeanB]

Great work indeed.  Rather unbelievably i saw two stratos's yesterday, independent of each other - one was the guy from LB in his red one, the other was a green and white striped rally car on a trailer in Southwell.  Both looked immense - they are SUCH a good looking car aren't they?

 

[The Cakes]

All coming together nicely is probably an understatement! Looks great.

Soemtimes see a genuine red one in Chesterfield, owned by the guy who owns VK. Incredible cars

[Dr H]

1 hour ago, jonnyfox said:

Wow! Not sure where you find the time buddy. Great work. 

Neither do I, why do you think it's taking so long

[Dr H]

1 hour ago, DeanB said:

Great work indeed.  Rather unbelievably i saw two stratos's yesterday, independent of each other - one was the guy from LB in his red one, the other was a green and white striped rally car on a trailer in Southwell.  Both looked immense - they are SUCH a good looking car aren't they?

 

Red one must be Rob? Not sure whose the green and white striped car is.

I have to agree with you on looks, but would you expect me to say anything else!

[Dr H]

47 minutes ago, The Cakes said:

All coming together nicely is probably an understatement! Looks great.

Soemtimes see a genuine red one in Chesterfield, owned by the guy who owns VK. Incredible cars

Shows how much money you can make selling awful tasting booze

[The Cakes]

21 hours ago, Dr H said:

Shows how much money you can make selling awful tasting booze

Plus awful energy drinks! Fair play to him though built a lovely hotel in Chesterfield where their offices are based ‘Casa’.

[Dr H]

Bit of an update. Wiring at HPE has been put back as Dan's busy. Should be going over in couple of weeks.

In the meantime I've been doing bits and bobs and trying to work out the wiring - which really does my head in!

Finally fitted all the oil hoses. Not 100% happy so might redo them but they are fine for getting the car started and mapped etc. I also realised that there was a risk of them getting hit if the aux belt ever failed. So I designed a bracket (more cardboard aided design) and had it made by my local friendly laser cutting place.



Attaches to the engine mount and the AC compressor



Been checking the wiring over a few days on and off and starting to get a bit of a feel for it. The good news is that Mark (the guy who was wiring it before he was taken ill) seems to have done most of what we'd discussed so having messed about with it and done some testing I've found that:

The horn works - I had to modify the stalks and the wheel to get it to work as I wanted - as they usually have it on a dash switch, I wanted it on the wheel horn push.
The wipers work
The washer works
The dash powers up and seems to function (limited as not much connected)
The heated seats work
The keyless start system sort of works, the key fob operates the central locking actuators, the horn sounds when you lock / unlock, the dash powers up and it appears to send 12v to wire that will output to the starter motor relay. However it seems to keep making random horn beeps of different numbers / repetitions. No idea what's going on. Might need to get it all fully wired up with starter motor etc and see what happens then.

As we discussed he wired it up to allow you to easily remove a plug from the keyless start box, make another simple connection of 1 plug into the ignition barrel and it completely bypasses it. I've tested this and it works fine.

He has also wired up for the reversing senors and included the wiring from the accelerator pedal potentiometer to the engine bay. There also seem to be a couple of things that I'm still to work out!

But overall the wiring is looking a lot more complete that I thought it was. Which can only be a good thing

So hopefully a few more bits and bobs and hopefully it will be getting started soon!

Body now due early June.

[Dr H]

Not too much to update.

Got the heat shield sorted near the oil lines and changes the firesleeve to black - looks much better:






IAT sender fitted:




A lot of tidying of wires at the front end. I now have it all fully working (as far as I can tell). However I have an issue with my brand new (old stock) Fiat X1/9 stalks. There is a dodgy connection on the dipped / main stalk. It's the 3rd set I've had now (2 being second hand items) and all of them have had some form of issue. Just picked up another new old stock set so hopefully these will be OK . They don't look to easy to dismantle but might have to try if this set are dodgy too. Good old 1970's Italian electrical parts!




Drive shafts unbolted, gaskets made and fitted so this should stop any grease seeping out of the join between the shaft end and the flange for the gearbox / half shaft. Can't believe I didn't think of it when I was bolting it all together the first time Mind you it's amazing how quickly you can take stuff to bits and rebuild it once you've done it a couple of times.




Harnesses arrived yesterday. Special order from Sabelt with lightweight adjusters on all four straps and 3 inch webbing on the lap as well as the shoulders.








Went over to LB yesterday to collect a couple of bits including the top engine steady. Adjustable. I had to measure up for it for them and luckily I got it right! Just been to find a M10 fine thread bolt the correct length to get it fitted properly. Clears the air filter too, which is good as I'd not even considered it when I made it






Going over to LB is good, it gives you a bit of inspiration




 

[jonnyfox]

 stop posting. 

[Dr H]

A quick update - not that there is much to update on tbh.

Final bit of dash wiring sorted (MIL wire).

After sitting in the seats with the harnesses done up I decided that the waste straps coming over the side of the seats was not good for 2 reasons. Firstly it could move quite a bit and it would probably also wear / mark the side of the seat. So I decided to fit some grommets.

Very nervous about cutting up m brand new seats. Needed to mark them, cut the fabric, remove foam and then cut the fibreglass shell. First grommets I tried were Corbeau ones (D on here https://www.corbeau-seats.com/product/seat-grommets/) but distance between the 2 'faces' was too big. I tried cutting them down and then gluing them in but didn't really work. One worked OK, the next just looked crap.

So I ordered a set of Bride seat grommets. A et of 4 with postage from Japan was cheaper than a set of 4 Corbeau grommets! Ordered Thursday last week, arrived on Tuesday!https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302737892868

Much better for seats with a thin shell. They click together really well too. Finished them off today:







Worked quite well I think.

I have, however, managed to scratch the painted shells of the seats quite badly on one side and put a coupe of chips in the back of the other . Saving grace is that it will be impossible to see either when they are fitted, but I know they are there.....

Finally got the oil cooler lines sorted. I had bought some Earl's Ultra Pro stuff that is super flexible but didn't look at the temp rating - which turned out to be only 125 degrees C! Had to but the bits from the USA, cheaper to buy from a retailer there than from Earls in the UK even with postage and custom charges added in!

Anyway that was a waste of a couple of hundred quid....so I called Goodridge Direct. I got them to make be up the hoses I needed in 811 Stainless Teflon hose (which has a very small bend radius ) and put crimped on ends. Ended up cheaper than the stuff I bought form the US . So that was the oil circuit finally completed. More than enough slack to allow for engine movement!





So I finally added some oil! - Millers Competition Running in Oil. Filler cap is a bit awkward to get to
so have to use a funnel.





About 6 litres so far. 5 directly into the filler and that showed up mid way on the dipstick. Then I disconnected the oil feed and return lines from the oil filter housing and put at least another litre in the lines. Filled into the lower line and the pressurised it a bit to get rid of some air before adding more. Pretty sure the lines and cooler are now full.

Loom has been measured up and now being made. Plan is to get it fitted on the week of the 9th July, so might even see a first start that week if I'm lucky! But not sure whether the ECU map will be done by then. Need a map to get it started and then it will go for RR run in and mapping proper.

Body fit August ish........

 

[Phil S1]

The grommets look to have worked out really well Leigh, top work as ever 

I bet you're eager to hear it fire up for the first time, albeit with much apprehension I guess?

[Dr H]

Good job they worked well - cutting up my brand new seats was very nerve wracking! Should have had then cut in before they were upholstered but of course I ddn't even consider it until i tried the harnesses.

First start will be very very apprehensive! I think I;m going to invest in a new fire extinguisher just in case....

I'll video it so when it does happen you can all watch the results, good or bad!

[jonnyfox]

Can't wait to hear it start 

[Dr H]

Neither can I! Long overdue......