Reliant Scimitar SS1

[Pollymog]

Hello everyone,
I first introduced myself, & this project, here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13116
However the car isn't exactly a Vauxhall (though the front suspension is based on that from a Chevette!), & Vocky pointed out that there is a Projects section, so here it is:

I've had the SS1 for about 18 months now & in that time I've driven it about 250 miles - mainly to work & back last summer where it was fun & good handling (rear wheel drive) but kind of slow! If I'm being honest it's a bit of a shed & you either like or loathe the styling - I happen to like it but have to admit that it's not the prettiest car ever made! Really I bought it with my heart rather than my head & I paid too much for it but, having said that, it's not all bad & there is a desirable hard top with it that makes it bearable for winter use - the heater doesn't work very well though so while you'll stay dry (mostly) you'll also freeze! Also the headlights work, which is important as the mechanisms are s0ds to strip down & put back together apparently. Having got the thing home & having driven it a few times I read somewhere on the web that the Zetec 2 litre engine would bolt directly (using a different flywheel/clutch plate) to the gearbox, my friends' cousin just happened to have a 2 litre Mondeo sitting on his mums drive & so the seed was sown. Three weekends later the Zetec engine was sitting in my garage & the decision was made to take the Reliant off the road & get done any work that needed doing to it. The SS1 came in a variety of flavours, the most desirable being the ones with a galvanised chassis & Nissan 1800 turbo power ..... unfortunately my car isn't that desirable (yet) as it has neither of these. The lack of galvanising meant that the sills were shot as were the lower parts of the A & B posts. The rest of the chassis (from what I could see of it) appeared sound though so I bought a couple of sills & arranged for a couple of chaps (who'd previously made a very good job of restoring a Datsun 120Y coupe & an MGB GT for a couple of workmates) to fit them for me & also to repair as required the A & B posts. They wouldn't be able to take the car for some months due to other commitments so I started stripping the front suspension/brakes down in order to fit uprated polyurethane bushes & bigger vented disc brakes with calipers to suit. To cut a long story short I did all the suspension/brake work over last winter (& yes it was freezing in the garage & yes every last nut/bolt was seized solid) & the car has just come back from having all the chassis/welding work done. I had it MOT'd after the work had been done & unfortunately it failed on various things - most of which are electrical in nature. On a glassfibre/plastic bodied car electrical problems are often a result of having a poor earth but these problems seem to have stemmed from a combination of weird wiring (courtesy of Reliant) & corroded bulb holders/lamps. I've beefed up the earth points too just in case. So this is where I’m at now with the car in bits again & the free retest period has just been & gone …… so that’ll be another £40+ to pay when I’m ready to get the car MOT’d again. Still I wanted a project & boy oh boy do I have one! One day it will be ready ………… honest!

The car as bought.

The front suspension (drivers side) after being stripped & rebuilt - the shocks are inboard on these cars so not visible in this photo.

Passengers side front suspension before I started stripping it - lots of surface rust but no serious corrosion. Corrosion can affect these cars badly - anywhere can rust & there are well documented cases of wishbones cracking around the balljoint mounting with, obviously, disastrous consequences.

Strengthened wishbones - the diagonal bits on each wishbone are new.

A small amount of corrosion at the rear of the chassis - this was sorted when the new sills were fitted & it's all nice & solid again now.

The interior - quite a comfortable place to be if you can live the cacophony of rattles, creaks & squeaks!

New shocks fitted - we're looking down on the engine bay in this shot (engine to the right, radiator to the left, spare wheel (not there) goes in between), the shocks came off an SS1 racer/hillclimber are adjustable & will accept coilover springs if/when I get round to fitting some.

This is how I hope it'll end up looking one day - one of the alloys I got for Chrimbo last year is offered up for effect. The pcd is correct but the offset is all wrong & they foul the brake calipers on the front so I'll need some meaty spacers. They're not exactly high on the list of priorities & will have to wait until I can afford to buy some tyres for them.



 

[Drakey]

Cracking project....looks like you spent a lot of time, money & effort on the Car.
Keep us updated with more news on progress.

 

[vocky]

we need more pics

 

[dodger]

looking good so far, like Vocky said need more pics

 

[Pollymog]

Your wish is my command! I don't have as many photo's on my hard drive as I thought I did but I should have some soon of the sills being replaced. The chaps who fitted the sills are called Gary & Richard (a father & son team) & they took loads of pictures of the work they did, unfortunately I haven't got the cd back off them yet so I don't have any of those photo's.

I've found a few more on my hard drive though (just uploading them to Photobucket now):

This one shows the back end in bits - I did this because I wanted to check the rear of the chassis for rot - I'm glad I did because there was some, though it was nothing like as bad as some SS1's I've seen! Stripping the back end down like this also allowed me to sort the wiring to the rear lights out. In the garage (back right) you can just make out the Zetec engine waiting patiently for its moment of glory

Here we have the car being examined by my friendly neighbourhood garage (now sadly closed down) when I first got it back home after buying it. The chap on the right with the inspection light is the MOT tester who I'm quite friendly with. Oh how he laughed when he first saw the car car but apart from the sills (now replaced) he said it was reasonably solid & he'd seen far worse examples. The mechanics christened the car "The Reptile" - I call it the "(Un)Reliant" but their name works just as well.

A pic showing the general state of the chassis - over the years it's been well protected with waxoil (or some such gloopy, gungy, black stuff) but this is now starting to wear off a bit - hence you can see the beginnings of rust. It is mostly just surface rust though & should clean off reasonably easily with some strip & clean discs. In fact a lot of it is beginning to flake off on its own - it may well be horrible stuff but I hate to think what state the car would have been in had it not been applied. I stripped the front end down last winter so the back end will get the same treatment this winter - I'll have to take shares out in black hammerite I think!

Here's the rear diff (off a Sierra) it looks as if it's leaking but it isn't - this is just overspray from the aforementioned wax oiling/black gunging I think.

That's it for now - I'm off to bed! I'll post some more pics when I get the cd off Gary & Richard

 

[Matt]

Excellent thread, looking forward to more pics and updates.

 

[Pollymog]

More …….. lots more!

About a month ago I dropped the car off at the welders so that they could replace both sills & do any other repairs to the chassis as necessary.

Here’s the car pre-stripdown – doesn’t look too bad does it?

Here’s a shot of the passengers side sill after the door & both wings have been removed – doesn’t look too good does it?

Oh dear oh dear! Close up of the rear of the sill - showing rust in the sill section & also part way up the B post.

Sill partially stripped off the car – rusty along its entire length 

Shows the rust in the B post more clearly - reel for the seat belt mounts to this!!

Shot showing the front outrigger & jacking point on the passenger’s side - they've started cutting the rot out in this pic. The two bolts at the top of the pic mount the body tub to the chassis.

The front outrigger again but this time with new metal welded in & the old jacking point removed.

Here you can see the state the old jacking point was in - I jacked the car up on this many times without any problems. I never used the jack alone though & always added an axle stand under the front outrigger.

Shot showing the rear outrigger/jacking point – part has had to be cut away to remove rust.

Rear outrigger rebuilt with new metal - old jacking point still there at this point.

One shiny (well it’s not that shiny actually because it’s galvanised) sill section in place. The old rear jacking point can still be seen just behind it.

View from the front - showing the new sill & the new shiny jacking point 

Here’s the new sill sprayed up & painted – looking very good. Right all that’s left to do now is the driver’s side & the rear of the chassis! I’ll post some pictures of that little lot when I’ve managed to upload them to Photobucket.
Many thanks for looking 

 

[Wiswion]

good and nice work

 

[si.c1978]

christ thats some mission!

 

[rabidh]

That's awesome. It's brilliant seeing so much effort in to restore what I'd imagine is a very rare car now - and it'll be amazing with the Zetec.
Not quite the same, but my parents had a GTE followed by a GTC - so I have fond memories of Scimitars

 

[Drakey]

That's having some real love and attention, a superb job.

 

[sdbutler10]

some nice work there. it looked proper rot in places!

 

[Pollymog]

Time for an update!

As I'm planning to fit a larger engine into my SS1 it seems sensible to make as much space as possible in the engine bay. The driver’s side of said engine bay is very crowded as the battery, brake servo/master cylinder & carb/inlet manifold are all situated on this side. Of the three essential items mentioned above the battery is, by far, the easiest to move. The SS1 boot has a false floor hiding a deep well which presumably is used to carry all the spares/tools you'll need on any sort of journey - it's also known as the "drug compartment"! It's pretty useful really & is an ideal place to re-site the battery. So I spent all day Saturday moving the battery from under the bonnet to the boot. Not a particularly difficult job - more fiddly & time consuming than anything else.

On with the pics:
I used a junction box in the engine bay to connect the original battery positive cable to the new length of cable which will run to the back of the car.

I ran the new cable under the fuse box & through the big bulkhead grommet that the main loom passes through.

Here's the new cable passing through the bulkhead grommet (you'll have to turn the picture through 90 degrees), I've run it down the bulkhead to the right of the pedals & then along the base of the bulkhead under the pedals & then along the base of the transmission tunnel. I've secured it with plastic p-clips along its whole length.

I didn't order enough cable so I've had to join two lengths together - here's the brass connector prior to the next length of cable being fastened to it - the connector comes with a length of heat shrink which I haven't shown.

This shot hopefully shows the route of the cable through the car - it also shows the p-clips I used to fasten the cable down.

The rear bulkhead caused me a problem as it was too thick for any of the grommets I had, so I made a little metal plate (thin enough to take the grommet) to pass the cable through. I then ran the cable down the left hand tank strap, protected it with some heater hose & secured it to the strap with a couple of cable ties.

I secured it to the chassis to the rear of the diff with a p-clip & then passed it through a hole I drilled in the boot liner. Again I didn't have a suitable grommet so used a length of heater hose to protect the cable (I'm not sure how legal this is so I may have to change it later) I've fitted cable ties either side of the boot liner to stop the cable, & hose, pulling through the hole.

I also made a strengthening plate to fit under the boot liner & bolted it up to the car using the bolts I've used to secure the battery tray inside the boot (it's the original Reliant battery tray - as mounted in the engine bay - but with the legs cut off).

The earth cable was next on the agenda - pretty easy to do & wonder of wonders I found a grommet that I could use - I've bolted it to the drivers side rear chassis member after I'd cleaned all the underseal/rust/crap off.

Here it is all finished – I don’t have a picture of it but I’ve since made a false floor for the boot out of wood which hides the battery.

A couple of weeks ago I was hoping to get the Zetec installed - which would obviously have been a big step forward - unfortunatelt the friend who was due to help me had car problems & couldn't make it over to my house. I didn't fancy attempting the engine swap on my own so it was put on hold until he'd got hs car sorted out & I had more time. The tentative plan now is to attempt the swap on the 29th of this month. I'll be taking pics if it goes ahead so, hopefully, I'll have another update soon

 

[vocky]

for a simple job that looked like a lot of work :clap:

 

[Pollymog]

Time to resurrect this thread with another update – wooohoooo!!!

This weekend I made a concerted effort to get something done on the Reptile. The Zetec engine has been patiently waiting in the wings for a while now!
New timing belt & tensioners fitted? Check.
Water pump changed for one that rotates in the correct direction? Check.
New sump & gasket fitted? Check.
New flywheel & clutch fitted? Check.

So this weekend, with the help of a borrowed engine hoist & 3 willing/unwilling helpers, I removed the original smoky old donkey so that I could clean up the engine bay in readiness for the shiny, new (well still quite old actually) 2 litre Zetec lump

It all went pretty smoothly really. We did think we were going to have problems clearing the front cross-member but we then realised that it was removable (thank you Reliant!) which made the job much easier. Once the cross member was out of the way it was all plain sailing & engine was out in about 15 mins. Biggest job after that was getting rid of the old exhaust. I did want to trial fit the new engine but there really wasn’t any time (or light) left so we called it a day. The engine bay is filthy anyway (24 years worth of road grime, oil/grease etc) so I should really spend a bit of time cleaning & painting it before the new engine goes in. I’ve bought some engine degreaser (Gunk from Halfraud's) so I’ll have a go with that tomorrow evening - it was too cold last night!
More pics when I've started the tarting up!

Here we can see my friend Mohammed (he’s car mad!) bent double over the front of the car spannering away like a good ‘un!

Another shot of Mohammed still spannering away (still working on the same bolt no doubt)!

Here’s a shot of the CVH lump – rope for hoisting duties is attached but the hoist isn’t. No shots of the engine being actually hoisted I’m afraid as it took all 4 of us to guide it out of the engine bay! Mohammed at the front again – he get’s everywhere!

Engine removed & this is the hole left behind, just begging for to be filled with 2 litres of throbbing Zetec drool.gif

This rather boring shot shows the threaded hole left by the passengers side engine mount. This was easily removed with an oil filter chain wrench – unfortunately the driver’s side mount was seized so had to be cut away leaving the backing plate (which has the stud that screws into the threaded hole welded to it).

Here’s a shot of yours truly (well that’s my arm anyway!) applying a bit of brute force & ignorance courtesy of a cold chisel & lump hammer to the aforementioned engine mount backing plate. It gave up without too much of a fight so I’m now left with a totally engineless car which is, at least, easy to push in & out of the garage!

That’s all the pics for now – apologies for them not being very good but I had other things on my mind. I’ll post some more when I’ve cleaned the engine bay up – which will be a filthy horrible job!

I was beginning to lose my mojo for the project a bit but I’m glad that progress has been made & I’m still keen to get the car back up & running

 

[BURT150]

Thats one hell of a project. looks like great fun, Its allways good to get you hands dirty

What engine you using is it a cvh or zetec? or ZVH?

Should be a nice little car when done

 

[vocky]

a good update, keep the pics coming

 

[Pollymog]

Thats one hell of a project. looks like great fun, Its allways good to get you hands dirty

What engine you using is it a cvh or zetec? or ZVH?

Should be a nice little car when done

Standard 2 litre 16v Zetec from a 1997(ish) Mondeo ghia which should, I think, have 130 - 140ish bhp as standard. The Zetec has 110,000 miles on it though so I doubt it has this much oomph now. Even so it should go a lot better than it did with the similar mileage (& knackered) 1600 CVH that we've just removed. I'd rather keep it normally aspirated so I'm not too bothered about turboing it (but that would make for a seriously quick car), I'd rather just see what the car's like with the standard Zetec first. Having said that a cam changee might be on the cards later on as 160ish bhp sounds pretty good to me

 

[BURT150]

Ah i see now i got confused! zetecs are good and solid so that'l be good fun in a car that size and power to the rear wheels drool.gif sideways fun!!

 

[Pollymog]

Hi all - another little update on my project.

I spent New Years Eve working on the car with a couple of friends (thank you Matt & Allen ), the intention being to get the Zetec installed after I’d made an unsuccessful attempt with another friend (thanks Mike ) earlier in the week. I just thought that it’d be nice to finish the year off with a major part of the project accomplished. This time we were successful in getting the engine in but, needless to say, there are still a few problems to sort out. The main one being that due to the front crossmember, to which the steering rack is mounted, getting in the way there's no way we could get the engine in place with the sump fitted. Once we’d removed the sump it went in without too much drama but the problem then was that I couldn’t refit the sump to the engine because it catches on the (bloody) front crossmember again! If I had an extra inch or so of clearance it’d fit fine! So I’ll either have to modify the crossmember or the sump (or both) or buy another sump which does fit – the trouble being that I don’t know which sump to buy as I thought I already had the correct one!

The other problem is that the Ginetta fuel injection manifold (that I bought ages ago) won’t fit with the engine in place either – there’s just not enough room between the engine & inner wing. I'm not sure what I’m going to do now but I may try & use the CVH inlet manifold (which will fit with an adaptor plate available from Ferriday engineering) with a 2 litre carb or I could try & go down the bike carb route.

To be honest I was a bit down after we’d finished working on the car as I was hoping to get the complete engine in I.e. with sump attached! But I’m now feeling more positive about it as the engine is finally in & neither of the above two problems should be insurmountable. So I hope to make further progress on the thing in 2010.

Only a few pics as we were busy bleh..
Here’s the engine waiting to go in – not too much to say really other than it’s complete at this stage with sump attached:

Here’s the engine being lowered into position – sump off at this stage:

Here’s the best shot I have of the engine fitted – sorry it’s a bit naff but we were all completely frozen by this stage & more than ready to stop & thaw out indoors with a nice cuppa:

Hope everyone has a great 2010 & ta muchly for all the support