In this episode the Retropower guys complete the metalwork, strip the car back down to a shell, zinc spray ahead of the paint prep. We get a good look at the escort on a rotisserie getting the seams sealed.
The inner wing has been modified to make space for a dry sump tank. Typically these go in the boot. Retropower have designed the cooler tank from scratch, we get to see the CAD drawings & some serious design skills.
The engine bay and bulkhead has been modified for custom loom with plug in connectors so the engine wiring loom can be unplugged from the bulkhead - no rubber grommets.
Here's Episode 9:
Transcript :
"the imminent excitement is the fact that
it's going to transform fairly rapidly
now from this state into a everybody's
been asking on the color and it is going
it's been a massive Lund mark week this
week because we have 100% completed
metalwork on the car which it's been a
long old process and towards the end
particularly it just seemed like oh
we've only got a few details left to
finish another solid we can work and
then it's only only a few more details
but we got there and then you know once
we completed the metalwork we were happy
with that move the shell into our
blasting room blasted the shell carried
out the metal spray Zink process that we
do on the underside epoxy primed the
outside of it and yeah it's in the body
prep area waiting for when in fact
already started work on prepping it for
paint so it's in mark and Gaza's hands
now they're starting with the seam
sealing work and they're gonna push it
through to paint which is probably one
of the single most exciting
transformations we'll see on the car one
of the first things we tackled since we
last did the video was the dry sump tank
and provision for that on the car which
tied in with with lots of other work we
were doing which is all related to
plumbing and wiring and preparing the
shell so that once it's painted and we
start assembling it we've got hopefully
none or very minimal drilling and
cutting to do on the shell so the dry
sump tank was a biggie we are going to
put that in this front corner here and
choose to the constraints of everything
else exhaust manifold sitting up here
radiator here
there's no room over the other side
because the airbox it's taking up this
whole space here in fact this gusset
that we've done in the corner here is
sculpted basically to sit and just
really tight on the carbon air box it
sits along here so the only space
available really is here because we
didn't want to run it in the boot
there's a certain capacity we want the
dry sump tank to be so making it the
right shape to fit in the space we've
got and have the capacity and have all
the other elements that you want from a
dry sump tank which enough we'll
probably be able to tell you a bit more
about men they've ended up designing a
complete tank from scratch to fit in
this area here we've sculpted out the
inner wing so that the tank
sort of partially recessed at the bottom
here just so we could get the volume on
the tank it doesn't go too far in
because you can't go too far before you
get close to the wheel when it's on full
lock here so what we did was we sort of
worked with the space we've got we did a
CAD model of the tank and how we're
going to make it because it's gonna have
a billet machined top and base and then
the sort of fabricated sides that all go
between and another factor was that we
wanted to hide the plumbing as much as
possible so we did a CAD model and then
we made a steel fabricated mock-up just
it looks like a finished in or something
but essentially this will be a billet
section at the top here and there's
going to be an inlet Inlet to it here
which then has an integral swirl
arrangement built into that bilious
section on the top and the outlet will
be near the base will also be a drain
and temperature probe holes in the base
and then there'll be a vent vent system
built into the billet top with an outlet
at the side here and the reason we've
done this extended section here is
basically so when that slotted into here
this sits under the slum panel we've
actually made a slightly fabricated
raised section here just so we could get
the height on the tank and still lay it
out the way we wanted but then that
means that the inlet the return oil to
the tank is actually under here and the
pipe literally comes straight out ninety
degrees down to the cooler other side of
the cooler we've already funded the pipe
work that we've already got holes in the
in the this bulkhead panel down there
for where that roots forward then the
outlet from the tank shoots straight
across behind the radiator here and the
vent pipe which is why we've done this
slightly raised section here goes out
through the inner wing here and then
we've got four studs on the underside of
this in a wing which will mount a
breather tank which will sit here in one
of the few remaining available spaces
above where the whale sits and behind
the headlight and that'll be the
breather vent tank from the dry sump
system
I've decided to design a dry sump tank
to suit the car mainly because of a lack
of space partly because of it looking
neat but mainly because there's no space
in the engine bay traditionally a dry
sump tank would on an escort we're going
to boot and but that's not really ideal
on a road car because it means the hot
oil lines are we going to go inside the
car or under the car under the car on a
just a daily use Road car that's
potentially a bit prone to damage and
through inside the car it's not gonna be
very pleasant from a heat inside the car
point-of-view inside that there's a
round section I'm not completely drawn
that bit yet if I turn off the various
other bits of the drawer and you'd be
able to see that the oil the oil will be
returned from the engine via the oil
cooler in the front panel then in
through a threaded fitting into there
and that goes inside there a little
squirt in there and then spin around
inside this tube which this toot the
tube will be welded on that'll be that
section there will be billet this this
piece here will be billet this piece
will be a piece of tube welded to that
Dale it probably just stick to a lid on
so the Orion will come in spin down that
drop out of the bottom of that you will
make its way down the walls of that shoe
it probably won't be a neat spin it'll
just sort of spin just sort of blur
around the outside of it and drop off
the bottom where it drops off the bottom
of that it'll drop into a compartment of
the tank which is TIG welded around
there on to that sit on to that piece of
billet so if I turn that on so that's
the tank body fabrication that that tube
will drop the oil on to the top of this
baffle bus will go all the way across
there'll be a big round hole in that
baffle in line with this main part of
the tank which again will be welded to
it within that there'll be a second
baffle with a big hole in the middle as
well so all the oil will run down there
into this section down through there and
then the oil live in there just below
the height of this top baffle there'll
be a second battle in there just to stop
it surging around too much not that it
will very much anyway and there'll be a
hole the holes in the baffles will line
up so that that you and they'll be
holding this top piece as well which
wasn't showing so you can actually see
all the way down inside the tank to
check the level and that's
the thing and then if I turn on the bass
then there's a billet bass in fact if I
turn the rest off you'll be able to see
so you can now see that's the bass
inside the bass there's two bosses
that's machined from billet again
there's two bosses there which are
threaded underneath and will have pins
threaded into them to mount the bottom
of the tank onto the anti-roll bar Mount
Shasta rail in front of the car and then
that's the main oil outlet which feeds
the dry sump book we have to remember on
the Cosworth engine the dry sump pump is
internal inside the engine so that will
basically feed a pipe which runs across
the bottom of the radiator around along
the chassis rail and then straight on to
the side of the sump to the oil Inlet
and from there the pump inside the
engine will be drawing that oil that's
coming from the tank company around the
engine and those three one one of those
there's an oil drain one of those the
other two air temperature sensor holes
or whatever we want to use them for but
the plan was for two temperature sensors
because there's potentially two reasons
we need them on for the gauge one for
the engine management and the third hole
just as a drain plug make it easier than
taking the pipe or taking a sensor out
it's just an additional oil drain point
so that's that if I turn the rest back
on again and I'll just turn it off and
that's the top that's the lid on the top
of the tank with that off you can then
clean out the top part of the tank and
also see all the way down to the bottom
of the tank so you can rinse it all out
and see right down if you get a load of
bits of engine inside it hopefully we
won't if you did it will be possible to
see down into the bottom of the tank
wash it out with solvent and confirm
that there's definitely no bits left in
the bottom so that's that if I if I turn
the rest of the tank back on again it
all sort of makes sense at that point
you can see how that's all linked
together and when it's fitted in the car
Kyle's probably already explained but
that that piece there then sticks
through the hole in the front panel gets
fed with the oil from the oil cooler
centrifuge drops in down there that
holds the oil fed off to the engine and
then breather in there and oil filler
cap again we've got to finalize the
filler cap design and a few little bits
and bobs and I've got some more holes to
add and
a few tweaks to do to the design before
it goes off for machining but that's
that's the basics of it sure there are
other ways to solve the problem but it
does look pretty trick he'll be quite a
neat solution and something a bit
different as well and then kind of
moving on from that it was making
provision for all of the other plumbing
and wiring and that was that was a kind
of biggie that we wanted to get through
now again so we're not having to chop
around the shell too much once it's
painted or hopefully not at all and so
all of the plumbing fuel plumbing brake
plumbing oil lines the coolant plumbing
including the heater circuit and all the
wiring routing has all been planned at
this stage so we can make relevant
changes so if you look in the engine bay
here you'll see various holes that we've
made the two down there are for the
heater plumbing is going to be our
minion bulkhead fittings through there
which then joined to the robot hose hose
work to go to the engine into the heater
over this side these are going to be the
energy management wiring we're gonna
build a loom ourselves for this which is
going to have bulkhead connectors so the
ECU and the inside of the car part of
the engine loom will be separate from
the engine room that's on the engine
itself and there'll be joist Autosport
connectors actually bolted to the
bulkhead here in here so you can
essentially unplug two plugs and that
separates the whole engine loom from the
car and we've done that on all of the
bulkhead connections both pipes and
wiring so there are no pipes or wiring
passing through rubber grommets in the
bulkhead it's all connectors onto the
bulkhead looking over at the other side
there is a hole under here which is
where the front part of the main chassis
loom comes through and that again thats
on the door which also sport connected
which is a bulkhead connector kind of
military-spec stuff and that means we've
got the sort of main car wiring loom
coming up the
to a socket here and then the front end
of the wiring loom will plug on here and
then we've got holes running here where
there'll be ribbon nuts fitted for clips
to hold that wiring the front here where
we couldn't put holes through because
they would have been we don't want to
see the back of the ribbon oh it's on
the inside of here we've welded little
studs onto the inner wing so that will
tip the wiring down to here and then
that routing continues all the way
there's all there's always stood or
rivet holes wherever we're going to
route the wiring across the front there
there also fuel system plumbing has been
completely done we're gonna have a
pressure regulator mounted down here
we've put holes in for threaded inserts
where that's get them out and then the
hose routing up to the fuel rail because
it's so tight here we're coming up to
here with bulkhead connectors through
these two holes here and we'll have 90
degree fittings on there which will just
sweep around behind the airbox to the
fuel rail when I'm sitting to the front
the other to the back and then we've
done threaded inserts or holes for them
all the way down the chassis legs for
the fuel rail fuel lines to run to the
boot where the rest of the fuel system
is and a little bit of provision here
for a couple of tanks that's our we're
going to have a fabricated reservoir for
the brake and clutch system two holes
down there where the unions are going to
pass through that feed the master
cylinders which are inside this side we
wanted to show and keep the symmetry so
we've come up with a funky idea for the
screen wash reservoir so we'll have a
small reservoir here which matches
exactly the braking clip reservoir
except it'll have a large union going
down through here with a hose feeding a
large tank in the passenger footwell
which will effectively be also the
passenger's footrest except that it'll
be deep and have a reservoir for the
screen wash which would be quite a large
reservoir then but then it keeps it all
looking completely symmetrical up here
and this will be wave fill the reservoir
but it then feeds down into a into the
passengers footrest and that's probably
about everything sort of at the front
the car
so moving on to the back various changes
since we last talked about it again you
generally are involving fuel system
wiring that sort of thing
we've done the mounts down here for
battery tray battery will sit here we've
also made provision for where the
battery cable is going to route where it
passes through and where it's clipped
along right to the front fuel tank the
plan has always has to be previously
discussed been to put the tank here
we've now put some mounting points in
there they're up there and over there
which is how the tank will be mounted
and then these holes here for all the
thrilling inserts that will hold the
clamps that hold the fuel pump and the
fuel filter and the idea is that the
tank actually overhangs to where these
mounts are here and we'll have a trim
panel coming down the back of the tank
which will then also hide the fuel pump
and filter away there and they feed off
to some bulkhead fittings here which is
where the fuel lines pass to underneath
and they're clipped along all the way to
the pressure regulator at the front I
also at the back I yeah because because
the fuel system or the fuel tank and the
pump and filter all in the boot we
wanted two totally separate the air in
the boot from the air in the car so
we've made some fabricated pieces as an
Arminian piece that bonds in underneath
here or will it have to be painted it
which which means that the ventilation
from the rear shelf passes through to
this area here and exhausts out the back
but it doesn't connect into the boot
which it does are standard and also
we've made some fabricated other minion
panels that sit down each side here
which again will be bonded enough to
paint and they completely separate then
the cockpit air from the boot air think
in terms of things in the boot there's
the fuel system which we've talked about
we talked before about the fact that the
sort of anti surge pot in the tank will
drop down here so all that plumbing has
been mocked up where it comes out of the
bottom of the pot around to the pump to
the filter them through those bulkhead
fittings there and then a return will
just come out there and stretch it
straight to the bottom of that tank
there so no that's that's about it
really
one of the other sort of final jobs was
just doing the lead filling on the pill
basically on all the original factory
joined so at the scuttle here both sides
top of the a-pillars the top of the sea
pillars and where the c-pillar meets the
rear scuttle area that was all red
filled and body foil back to the shape
we did a little bit of LED filling
elsewhere there was some slight shape of
the pillar here we weren't mad keen on
so we've just crisp that up a little bit
with a little LED there and also on the
scuttle here where we let it across here
there's a there's a seam join there
which is nice to leave because you it
kind of looks original rather than in
like it's been budgeted filler but it's
very easy for a join like that or
exterior even if you seem seal it for it
to either look messy or to crack and get
rust creeping out afterwards so we
actually leaded that join and then
carves to the seam back in through the
lead so it so there's not a gap down
there it's completely sealed no chance
of rust coming out but it still looks
crisp and original and that was kind of
the final thing on this side and if we
flip it over and have a look at the
underside we can have a look at some of
the details on the underside well you
want to just come and flip it back again
yeah should we play some Baywatch music
[Music]
so with the car this way and first thing
that strikes you really is the fact that
it's bright silver which is the zinc
spray process we've done on the
underside we've also started doing the
the initial seam sealing which is what
the sort of yellow a storage seam sealer
that we've started doing
but there's ink spray process is
something that we started doing a few
years back now to try and give
incredibly high standards of corrosion
resistance and it's literally it's
basically a gun that has an oxy propane
feed to it and a compressed air feed to
it and then literally a solid wire of
zinc feeding into the gun and it
literally liquefies and sprays molten
zinc it's a process
quite often used on sort of offshore
wind turbines oil rigs bridges that sort
of thing and because of the nature of
zinc it's kind of a sacrificial
detection so even if even if the zinc
get scratched all the way through to the
steel it still the still doesn't rust
there's a think that I think it still
protects it even though it's not in
direct contact with it so it's a pretty
good process and we will eventually go
over this with a urethane coating tinted
body-colored which will be the kind of
final finish on it which is also
incredibly stone chip resistant but yeah
zinc spray done which was immediately
after were fresh blast which we do all
over the shell just to clean it
completely clean it up to perfect bare
steel again then we do the zinc spray
but what we can also see with it this
way up is all the other provision we've
made for running fuel lines and that
kind of thing so on the inside edges of
the chassis legs there are holes for
rivets to be put into after it's painted
which is where we'll clip brake lines
fuel lines you can see sort of the
underside of the holes where we're going
to put inserts in for the fuel pump and
filter inside the boot we did a change
here the original spring shackles we
actually left the piece untouched and
that was one thing that was mentioned
when Gordon last came over was that he
looked a bit untidy with those kind of
redundant spring shackle mounts there so
we've kind of just capped off these end
parts here to make it look a little tidy
are there that's probably it really you
can see obviously the Masters have
changes we've made to the shell
particularly at the back there but yeah
I mean the big change you can see really
is the fact that it's now back to clean
metal and then been had the zinc spray
done and this is kind of leading onto it
being painted which is progressing
remarkably fast it's only a day ago that
we yesterday in fact we did the blast
and zinc spray we're already cracking on
with the with the seam sealing and
starting the prep work on the outside of
the shell seems to thing it's it's
because you'll get water ingress
creeping in and that's you know one
place all of the process processes we do
a relatively line-of-sight in terms of
spray or sprayed applications now the
final thing we'll do is wax inject all
the high sections and we make sure
that's thinned down to a point that when
it's hot it seeps into all of the all of
the sort of nooks and crannies but
certainly water ingress into into sort
of closed seems like that is a big
killer on come out on cars
they particularly restored ones that you
know it's something especially if a car
has been dipped which is one of the
reasons we're doing blasting and not
dipping because we have had cars
dipped in the past and one thing you do
tend to find is that that sort of close
close area where the two seams are
together is always an area that traps
traps rust and you get that creepin out
later on the other thing we forgot to
mention is the seam brazing that's been
done on the whole shell I mean
Gordon was mad keen on making sure the
shell was as stiff as possible so the
final thing we did before it was blasted
was go around every seam on the shell
and TIG braze those seams and that nuts
done that and he basically does this TIG
brazing process because a braze is a
little softer than just welding it and
so it was less likely to crack and
applying it with a TIG torch just
minimizes the amount of heat that has to
be put in less chance of distortion in
the surrounding area so every seam has
been stitched with TIG braze to stiffen
up the shell and that was the very last
step before blasting it and inking it
the imminent excitement is the fact that
it's going to transform fairly rapidly
now from this state into a and
everybody's been asking on the color and
it is going why do we do I think we did
say that earlier on I'm not sure I think
we said in one of the planning design
episodes it's going in white which is an
original Ford white Miss quite quite a
creamy white but yeah it's gonna look
right so that's exciting yeah yeah his
last visit you I think he was he was
obviously a very deep in thought last
time and it was very nerve-wracking
because he was leaving huge pauses but
he was taking everything in and he was
obviously happy at the end and I know we
had a bit a meeting after which was
probably on his mind a bit but yeah he
wrote us a letter and not too long after
that you know saying he really enjoyed
the visit and was impressed with the car
so that was really nice and he gave us a
little a little present for the for the
workshop so yeah it was a nice touch
really handwritten postcard from Gordon
Murray always good
you
so don't light and walk it I need to
moonwalk in if only I could
"
Source : https://youtu.be/bfyKi_4dc-4