Long overdue update on this, after eventually getting the wiring sorted enough to have it roughly running there was a whole lot of ancilliary work to sort out fabricating exhausts, cooling system, power steering and aux belt as well as getting a suitable length drive shaft sorted. Once that was done it was a case of bolting the interior back together and getting the thing buttoned up.
One of the things that stopped me for ages was trying to find the right lenth gear selection rod where I was using a G240 gearbox, ended up fabricating a new one which has so far worked well.
Once that was done it was a case of getting the gear linkage hooked up, and manage to find this nice period gearknob, I think out of a 6 series?
I don't have too many photos of the rest of it, but managed to fabricate up an exhaust using one very large rear silencer and straight through pipes from the headers back, which actually isn't too loud and does sound good so far. The diff I had in place was far too short, and was a small case open LSD so that was swapped for a Torsen Z3 medium case unit which locks somewhat but is way too far the other way long, and does something like 65mph in 2nd gear now which doesn't really suit the character of the car.
Once that and a few challenges with the cooling system and cooling fan were sorted it was a case of getting it through the MOT.
The tester wanted to pass it first time, but failures were headlight aim with the adjusters unfortunately seized, and then he was unable to jack up the car from underneath on the ramp because two of the exhaust clamps were in the way. Spent an afternoon rebuilding and greasing the headlight adjusters and changing the exhaust clamps for some lower profile items and it flew through the next test.
Then otherwise it's been a case of driving the thing, the paintwork is still a mess, fine from afar, but far from fine so that needs to be addressed in due course but otherwise it runs well. Aside from the comedy long gearing it's plenty rapid as well and more than enough to keep me entertained for now.
Aside from the bodywork the only thing that's really letting it down is the HSD coilovers. I like the way it sits, below, but it's too low and the exhaust catches on any type of meaningful ramp/speedbump. That aside the ride is catastrophically bad at low/medium speed. At high speed it just about has some damping to mean it somewhat copes with bumps but it's just bad all round and kind of ruins the experience so looking for another solution at the moment which is looking like Bilstein B4/B6 dampers, and then will be a case of addressing the bodywork once all of that is sorted!
