Pilbeam certainly do themselves no favours at all, I’ve talked before about my experiences of dealing with them. The scary part is if something brakes mid season and you need a replacement part quickly.
The pedal box is back and is right this time!! 
Only thing i have managed to do this week is a couple of little bits to the front end as I have finally got the spacers machined up for the end plates.
The radiator has had some tabs welded on each side so I can bolt it to the front crash structure end plates -
Machined spacers to fit over the riv-nuts to clear the radiator end caps -
All bolted up in to place -
Hope you used locktite on all those bolts Gav. You don’t wont those suckers working loose.
Gav that looks really nice mate, good job 
Oh and btw, the Eagle has landed 
It has all got to come back off again yet, I will put some daub on the side fixings when it goes back together for the final time. The rest of the fixings are all nylocks which are just the right length to bite into the plastic nicely but have no exposed thread showing.
[quote=jonnyfox]Gav that looks really nice mate, good job
Oh and btw, the Eagle has landed [/quote]
Cheers John,
Message received and understood
What a week!! (and it’s only Monday)
Not an awful lot to update at the minute really, it feels like for every 1 step forward it has been 2 steps back on the car with just about everything it would seem…
I think I’m just at that stage where it all starts to become a bit frustrating more than anything. You can see the end in sight but there is also the realization of what is ‘actually’ left to do to make it all work right and you seriously have to ask yourself - “Have I bitten off more than I can chew?”.
It is getting there slowly but surely and the few problems I’ve been having of recent are sorting themselves out slowly but surely. It doesn’t help as I’m the sort of person where once I start something I have to finish it, and have to finish it forthwith…
So a few updates, the wheels have come back from the blasters with fresh paint and are ready for some rubber. I have the front tyres going on and I’m just waiting on the rears to arrive with me -
First couple of bits going back in to the cabin. I really have got to get on and finish the job of cleaning all the gook off the floor pans before i go too much further with it- bummer of a job 
Steering column and stack assembly going in, for this moment I’m leaving all but the bare essentials out of the cabin, I will look at the dash etc once everything else is up and running ok.
Its getting there Gav! But as you say the car can look like a car and you realise you still have 80% of the job to do.
Its like that Audi S1 that was for sale at �25 odd grand. Yes it had an engine in and wheels on, but I dont think the seller realised that there was still months of work to do to actually ‘finish’ the car off.
Or perhaps he did and that is why he was selling.
Its all the little things that take ages, but it is also these little things, if done well, that make the difference between a nice car and a great one!!
Stick with it dude!!!
Looking real good Gav …
I guess your sig is giving it away about building from the ground up
It will be sooo great when that last bit is finished though !
Thanks Guys,
Your right of course Sean, I’ll stick with it…
I’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with the brake set up this last couple of weeks, if I never see another set of bells, discs, calipers, uprights and pedal box again I dont think it would bother me in the slightest!!
I’m not going to go into the fine detail as I’d only loose you (and myself probably) half way through conveying it across to you. Put very simply, trying to get EP uprights with Seriously Lotus floating bells and a 315mm disc to sit nicely under a set of Lotus/AP calipers is turning out to be a right pain in the arse to say the very least!!
Getting the disc in perfect alignment with the caliper has been the problem. I’ve got the rears to within 0.6mm of where they should be, the fronts on the other hand are 3.0mm out of place at this moment… I’m just waiting for an ‘off the shelf’ solution for the fronts to arrive with me next week which if my calcs are correct should put them the same 0.6mm out of place in the caliper as the rears are. Unfortunately in both cases the misalignment is not something I can machine material off anywhere as material needs to be added on, not taken off…
All being well with the fronts next week the final solution will be to have four 0.6mm steel shims made up to bolt in between the upright and hub pack to space them back out into the correct position…
I’ve also changed the plan for the rear brakes slightly as i have gone along, instead of using the std 2 pots with a 295 disc, Im now going to be using the 4 pot caliper that is used in the Lotus ‘big brake kit’ with a 315mm disc the same as the front. A little quirk with the EP rear uprights allows you to bolt them on directly with a 315mm disc and no spacers required. -
Rears Lotus 4 pots -
Front AP 5000’s -
The bodywork has been started on at Heaton Park Coach Works, I will be dropping the car off with them tomorrow for its final fitting and roof scoop mod.
Rear clam being prep’d, I’ve gone for the full rear cut out as it would have been done on the GT3 cars -
Quarter panels attached with the original style fixings used by the factory -
Back section of the radiator cowling attached to the inside of the front clam. It is also acting as a nice support brace for the clam across that section which is quite flexible without it -
One thing I have been able to get on with is the front end which is not too far off from being finished now i dont think.
A little job that was bothering me was the hoses for connecting up the front rad. The way the hard pipes are all facing each other meant a rare old set of bends, connectors and numerous clips to make it work. I know you dont see any of it when the clam is on but it would have looked a right old mess and I was not happy about doing it that way although it seemed like it was going to be the only option…
Call it pikey, but upon looking closely at all the oem water pipes I have on the shelf here, it became apparent with a bit of cunning I could get the exact angles I needed and only require 3 pieces of pipe and a single connector piece to fully join the rad to the sill pipes -
For the n/s pipe I have used one of the main engine bay water pipes, it’s the one which has the T piece in for the header tank which when cut down in size fits almost perfectly as one piece -
For the o/s, I have used what is the n/s front rad pipe. I had to take 80mm out of the length of it to get it to fit nicely and use a connector pipe to rejoin the two halves back up -
very nice and neat
Super duper. Very neat.
A couple more updates -
The car has gone to Heaton Park this morning, I’m hoping to have it back in the next couple of weeks. It will be coming back to me with the body fitted and all rubbed down, but it will only be painted in primer at this stage. I still have holes to cut out here and there but I cant do them until the bodywork has been fitted properly (catch 22) so we will leave the final top coat until i’ve finished all I need to do on the clams first.
I’m adding a secondary splitter to the front clam, partly for cosmetic reasons, part functional reasons. It’s one of Essex Motor Sports own splitters that they have been using on the race cars they run in LOTRDC (they also do a road version one with a number plate plinth).
I got talking to Wayne last month and really liked the look of the one he had fitted to Glen Sherwoods car. They look very similar to the lastest CUP260 front splitter (not quite so squared off on the ends mind - which look better imho) and they simply replace the std splitter on the S2 Exige.
The front clam Im using is slightly different to a std S2 exige so I only need the shape shall we say to sit on top of what I already have. Luckily Wayne had a s/h one with a bit of damage that I could have on cheap to play around with. and it goes a little something like this -
I was going to leave the dashboard until after I got the main part of the car up and running. However, I got a little carried away with an idea on Saturday which is how I think I’m now going to be making it all up.
I’m after keeping the the interior as simple and clutter free as I possibly can, I really didn’t want to use the oem dash as it has been done to death but custom making one is going to be time consuming and costly…
So the idea I’ve had is to use a 2-11 front bulkhead panel instead (which I need to mod a little) and will then cut down the oem dash to sit it back in line with it as it sits further back. I will then have a new panel made to fill the small void that is left (bit o carbon tat should do it ).
Basically it will be something along these lines -
The tyres have turned up for the 9" rear wheels (245/40/17). Mounted on the rims they are (to the eye anyway) the same diameter so wont upset ride heights too much.
Back to back with the std rears -
Looking mega Gav, hats off to you, it really is gonna be quite a machine.
As I’m sure you’re aware, as we passed the Vernal Equinox on March 20th it is now officially the 'Spring Project" 
That splitter looks almost identical to my Reverie Carbon one, looks awesome
[quote=Benja]Looking mega Gav, hats off to you, it really is gonna be quite a machine.
As I’m sure you’re aware, as we passed the Vernal Equinox on March 20th it is now officially the 'Spring Project" [/quote]
Thanks Ben, I have changed the title accordingly
Overall I’m very pleased with it so far (in the sense of making best with what I have available). There are still a few tasty bits on the build to come that are sitting on the shelf here, a bit like baking the cake I will leave the cherry til very last…