This is a work in progress but as the blog is being written at the same time as I am working (for a change), I thought I might as well publish it to make it a live update of sorts. So do pop back in the future to see when I finally give up and set the lot on fire.
I was surprised, on taking the car out for the first time, the engine, clutch and gearbox were all surprisingly nice. The engine makes a huge racket with pops and bangs on the over-run then gurgles back to life as the throttle pedal is mashed. Great fun!
That does not mean there were no improvements to be made and here is where I plan to capture the chronology of it all. Any big tasks will get shown off on their own posts of course so you don't have to dig through all of my droning on.
What the RW Karma GT Arrived With
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| fig1.1 |
The engine installed in my car was a Ford four crossflow. A hugely popular kit car motor in the 80's and early 90's. Feeding that is a pair of twin Dellortos and a custom stainless exhaust has been welded onto a fairly standard looking BMS manifold.
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| fig1.2 |
The car did come with a few extras and hints to some tinkering during its long past. I suppose I will edit this when I figure out what all of those are.
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| fig1.3 |
I did get told that the car had suffered some cooling issues in its life and some hastily fabricated ducting as you can see at fig1.3 had apparently helped. Further modifications such as the large exhaust heat shield and rerouted cooling pipes as can be seen at fig 1.1 also helped reduce hot engine problems.
Modifications
Heat shielding
The plan
As the paint was one of the nice bits of the car, it of course was mentioned that the engine door had bubbled due to heat from the exhaust.
The previous owner had added a large heat shield (seen in fig1.1) to combat this and heat transfer to coolant pipes but I could see another way to further protect the door from engine heat damage.
I had fit heat shielding to the bonnet of my Corrado before which not only helps protect the paint, it can also look pretty neat. I knew clearance was an issue so I didn't order the thicker sound-deadening foil heat shied but instead went for the thinner self-adhesive foil sheet. The job
First I removed the engine cover door and gave it a good degreasing then let it dry.
I should have degreased it a lot more. Fibreglass does not like giving up oils.
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| fig2.1.1 |
Aluminium "speed" tape was used to cover all the major curved areas.
*Spoiler*In hindsight I'd simplify this heatshield to the centre only as the gold foil does not conform well to curves. I will update how well this holds out*Spoiler*
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| fig2.1.2 |
I carefully cut the paper backing of the gold foil down the centre line so I could work from the centre out. This reduces the likelihood of distortion and air bubbles. Of course, this was the least of my concerns but at least I was starting right.
Starting from the centre I worked the foil into the door to the top and bottom then would peal back an inch of paper and work to one side. The adhesives weren't very strong and the door was not completely clean so I was never going to get a perfect fit.
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| fig2.1.3 |
Once I learned that the foil doesn't conform to curves as well as speed tape I had to double back a bit and start cutting slits at any pronounced curves to allow the tape to spread or cross over itself. Used like this, the foil tape performed well. It is fibreglass reinforced so should be reasonably durable assuming it doesn't just come unstuck.
The end result wasn't as tidy as I had hoped but a bit more speed tape and offcuts later and it had a very Apollo Eagle Craft look about it.
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| fig2.1.4 |
As mentioned before, I will update how well the foil holds up. A bit of paint on the door hinges makes it all look a bit tidier too. I might invest in some proper door stays one day or at least varnish the sticks...
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