Reyland 6 litre Firenza project

Ish · 30 Jan 2011 at 22:14

This is as far as the car is at the moment. It needs a final decision on colour very soon!

Ish · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:46

doofer said:
My mate had a few Firenzas back in the day, I remember them having a funky horizontal speedo though which was about the only thing that I actually remember about them and the amazing angle the original engine was mounted at, it was half a V8 but looked really odd in the engine bay if you ever saw one.

Is he going to Droop Snoot it?

No Droop Snoot.

I think it will end up getting painted the original blue colour.

Ish · 3 Feb 2011 at 23:41

Martin-Hadland said:
Few more photos from Trevor today :grin: He had to jump onto a couple of other jobs but is back on the Firenza now. I'm going down on Saturday to check it out (and to tell him what colour to paint it )

Ish · 7 Feb 2011 at 14:33

Martin-Hadland said:
VW Violet is the colour I have chosen

Ish · 5 Mar 2011 at 14:37

Martin-Hadland said:
Little update (some of this has been posted on GD but I've added it here).

My Firenza runs 16" wheels front and rear and originally had 225/45 (608mm tall) on the front and 245/45 (625mm tall) on the rear, anyhow it soon became clear that the fronts were too tall as they foul the wings (at the ride height I want) when turning on bump and so I had to step down to 225/40 (586mm tall) tyres.

This had the knock on effect of making the rear tyres look like balloons compared to the new fronts, so I thought ok lets get new rear tyres too but I soon discovered that there is a very limited choice in 16" rubber and there isnt anything available that would work

Then I had a brainwave, bin off the rear wheels completely and buy a new pair of 17" TFNs from Compomotive and fit 245/35x17 (604mm tall) tyres. This would give a great look and also the overall height of the rear would come down, job jobbed!

Tractor rears...

Well, once I had convinced myself that spending 1k on rear wheels and tyres was a good idea I was straight on the phone to Compomotive to place my order.... Only to be told that they had no stock of TFN 17" centres and that they had no plans to remake them any time soon if at all

I really wanted them so I nagged and nagged but it fell of deaf ears, then brainwave no.2 came. Why not get someone to copy my original 16" rears and machine me a new pair from billet but in 17" , Boyd Coddington styleee

So a call was made to Mark at MK Motorsport and he gave the correct answer... Yes!

So I sent Mark my original 16" rear..

And a 17" CXN centre (for outer rim location measurements)

Mark has ordered the billet 6082 alloy blanks and has sent me this CAD drawing..

Lucky for me that yesterday I decided to buy the inner and outer rims, so I called Compomotive and they don't keep the sizes that I need! So I spoke with Image wheels who sold me a pair of inners and outers, I'm lucky because I found out before Mark had made the centres that Compomotive use 30 fixing bolts and Image use 35!

Here is the new rear 17" tyre...

I get the car back from the paintshop on Saturday and now need to think about having the whole interior done, I'm liking this look for the front and rear seats..

Just a teaser...

Ish · 5 Mar 2011 at 14:38

Martin-Hadland said:
They alloy blanks for the wheel centres have arrived...

Ish · 5 Mar 2011 at 17:07

With regards to the colour it's not the original blue and thankfully it's not that VW purple either!

All will be revealed soon but it is a colour from a very modern german car.

Ish · 6 Mar 2011 at 10:16

no, it's not a VW colour!

Ish · 7 Mar 2011 at 12:37

Knowing the extent of Dangerous's pc skills that is a definate no lol!

Ish · 15 Mar 2011 at 13:47

BMW Sepang Bronze

Martin-Hadland said:
This isn't going to be everyones cup of tea but don't judge it until you actually see it in the metal!

Will post some more pics later inc billet wheel progress :grin:

Martin-Hadland said:
Can't believe most folk like the colour!! :shocked: Its such a hard colour to take a pic of as it changes with different light, here's some indoor ones where it looks really brown....

Ish · 15 Mar 2011 at 13:48

Martin-Hadland said:
THis is the stage the rear wheels are at right now, more machining tomorrow :grin:

Mark has assured me that I'm not having 2x flywheels instead of wheel centres

Ish · 24 Mar 2011 at 20:36

Martin-Hadland said:
Mark just sent me this....

D:D:

Martin-Hadland said:
Here's a video of my wheel centre being machined D: (just click on the image)

Here's what it looks like now..

Martin-Hadland said:
More pics.... :clap:

Martin-Hadland said:
Engine nice and clean now..

Ish · 8 Jun 2011 at 07:33

Martin-Hadland said:
Not really! Getting the 500 done first but whilst that's been happening I have all the chromework in and being redone, all the front suspension and x member is now blasted and powder coated and Mark says the rear wheel centres are ready for me to collect so when I get on it (about 3 weeks) it should move on v fast. I've even gone to the extent of stipping off the plating on the front grille so I could fix and file the small dents and then had it re-plated

Dented centre...

Got the anodising stripped off so I could tap out and file the dents....

Good as new

Ish · 14 Jul 2011 at 21:31

Martin-Hadland said:
Update time D:

Click on the image below to see the CNC machine churning them out

More pics.... :clap:

Pre fettling and paint...

Had the rims back off Mark about a month ago, they were 98% there and just needed small bits of finishing which was fine as he gave me something nearly finished that I could sort myself :top: I did a bit of final machining and dropped the centres off at Compomotive so they could put them through the paint process and fit the steel inserts for the wheel nuts. I collected them today and have now bolted then together and to say I'm happy would be an understatement D:......

Compomotive were properly impressed with our efforts D: Tyres on tomorrow.

Ish · 14 Jul 2011 at 21:32

Martin-Hadland said:
Looks good, no? D:

Martin-Hadland said:
Adjusted the suspension real low to see how it looks....

Looks mean but too low really.

Ish · 14 Jul 2011 at 21:34

Martin-Hadland said:
I'm back on the Firenza now :grin:

Rear axle removed and all the underside is now stoneguarded with ruberised stuff..

Monster axle..

New headlamps have arrived ...

Ish · 16 Jul 2012 at 12:53

Martin-Hadland said:
Speedo time! The Tremec T56 doesn't have a mechanical speedo output so I decided the best way round it is to use the Tremecs speed sensor to trigger an aftermarket speedo, I want to keep the dash looking original so I ordered a Stack speedo and started on it...

The OE speedo..

This landed today :grin: Why soooo many numbers!!!!????

And within minutes looked like this..

I wonder if Stack will still honour the 12 months warranty

The plan is to insert the 80mm Stack behind a re scaled Firenza front (also 80mm) and then paint the needle orange to match, hope this works out!

Ish · 16 Jul 2012 at 12:54

Martin-Hadland said:
A lot has been done since I last updated but at the moment it's at the trimmers and he's just sent me a couple of pics, I'm well pleased so far!!

The seats I gave him..

How they are now D:

Centre console as was..

Nearly done..

Ish · 16 Jul 2012 at 12:55

Martin-Hadland said:
I did consider that but I went with the Stack logo, anyhow only me and the wife will be behind the wheel and both of us know who built it D:

The AP calipers are coming off the front though in exchange for these..

Ish · 16 Jul 2012 at 12:55

Martin-Hadland said:
Some more trimming progress pics..