My Harrison build

[stephen low]

A blooming Yami!! Looks like an R1 no?? 600 or 1000 still nice.

Project after my cobra will be an old school ZX7 P1 model in Kermit green and purple!!

Anyway concentrate on the cobra and have fun.

Cheers

Slo

[Rob. Smith]

Air pockets won't 'lift' out of the glass. You have to find them and open them up and fill them. Most likely in the gel coat. A good strong light underneath will make them shine like a little bulb in the glass. God luck.

[Ryder]

Haha yes it's an R1. 2011 model actually - believe it or not I bought it second hand in 2011, with 740km on the clock :O saved myself thousands on a new one. Apparently, the first owner's wife didn't find it comfortable to pillion on... lol...

If you look closely in the background you can see my racebike stored on the shelving unit behind the car too - it needs a new motor.

Always liked the old school ZX7's - such a pity Kawasaki moved away from the 750cc class

Air pockets won't 'lift' out of the glass. You have to find them and open them up and fill them. Most likely in the gel coat. A good strong light underneath will make them shine like a little bulb in the glass. God luck.

Thank you, any bodywork tips (any tips at all for that matter) are greatly appreciated! I am finding since getting it home, several 'bubbles' of gelcoat have appeared - i've been removing the affected bits as I see them. Thinking I should give the car a going over with wax and grease remover quite soon. Don't know if it could even happen but I'm paranoid about release wax somehow working it's way into the glass.

[Rob. Smith]

Release wax is a concern...On the factory five site they recommend grinding down all seams to make sure the release wax is gone.

[Rob. Smith]

Another thing..( I just looked in your pics ) don't leave the body off the chassis too long ( unless you have a nice supporting jig ) It will 'move' then make refitting it to the chassis a little "stressed". Like us....a relaxed body is a happy body ! :P

[Tenrocca]

Originally Posted by Rob. Smith

Release wax is a concern...On the factory five site they recommend grinding down all seams to make sure the release wax is gone.

im pretty sure that was just with the old ff bodies as they were moulded in sections and then glassed together, meaning there was excess gel coat and possibly wax in the seam. Shouldn't apply to a body moulded as one piece.

Cheers

[Merv and Sharon]

I must admit that after baking my Harrison in the sun for some days in black plastic and then in a hot garage for 18 months while being built, I just left all that stuff to the painter. Have had no worries at all.

[byroncobra]

[QUOTEAnother thing..( I just looked in your pics ) don't leave the body off the chassis too long ( unless you have a nice supporting jig ) It will 'move' then make refitting it to the chassis a little "stressed". Like us....a relaxed body is a happy body ! :P][/quote]

Small note........Harrison's are supplied with the body fixed to the chassis

[ICETOO]

Originally Posted by Ryder

So, finally got her home, and moved into the new house. Over the last few days have been upacking, enjoying the excesses of christmas and trying to unpack the shed!

I've got the car on chassis stands yesterday, where I reckon she'll stay for some time. Have been playing around with the front suspension, though still need to take a trip to the wreckers to get the last few parts.

The plan for the next few weeks is to:
a) relax and drink a lot
b) find, modify, reconditon and fit an R33 diff
c) finish the front suspension, fit dodgy old ford wheels
d) maybe do the door locks, or see what else I feel like doing...
e) talk to the engineer at some point soon.

For the meantime, heres a pic of my toys competing for garage space. Sorry for the bad pic.

Also looking at buying the donor car at auction soon, depending on what comes up!

Hey graham,

Big congrats, bet you are glad to be back and trust you had a good XMAS and new Years, just made both myself.

Project looks great and trust you are getting all the good oil from Warrick H.

I am very keen to follow your progress so keep the updates coming digger

[Ryder]

thanks

Yes, body is on the car from Warwick, no need to worry about warpage

Very small update I know, but today I bought an R33 diff for her. The pic shows it as being apart because thats how I got it - it seems that the wrecker had pulled it out of the car, split it up and put it in storage yesterday, which worked out very well for me because when I called this morning and went down there, he was able to find the bolts for it all in the top of his bolt bucket. lol.
It's kinda good actually, it need to be apart for paint ect anyway!



Cost me $600, which I thought was a pretty good price for everything

[sambo]

Ryder, factor in a set of adjustable upper and lower arms for the R33 rear end. I had an alignment done earlier in the week and the best they could do with camber was a bit over 2 degrees (negative). The insides of my tyres are wearing a lot faster than the outside as a result.

Your handbrake cables also need shortening - Warwick can organise that for you on a changeover basis or provide the specs.

[Merv and Sharon]

True Paul. This was one of the first things I did. It is critical on the Harrison for rear end alignment. WhiteLine have some good ones available.

Graham, there are some very good previous threads on the Harrison rear end (especially from Sambo) that you should check out. For example, you may want to replace the mounting bushes at this state with new ones or even solid mounts.

[Ryder]

no need to worry about that - i'm already planning on replacing the cradle mount bushes at a minimum! Well, I was going to anyway, then today when I pressure washed the dirt off I saw the rear bushes were cracked and broken anyway. So now my inner cheapskate doesn't feel bad...

Oh, also the thread on the last 2-3 mm of one of the halfshafts is stretched and damaged - looks like someone tried to tighten it up without the splines being correctly alligned (or something - hard to imagine how else they would have done it) and wasn't smart enough to realise something was wrong. Not a huge deal, i'll see if it can be cleaned up with a thread file and a die - when the nut is on properly it wont even seat on that part anyway.

I got a quote for whiteline bushes today too, and at the same time asked the guy about adjustable upper and lower arms. Unfortunately that particular bloke didn't know a damn thing about R33's, and didn't know about the arms either. In fact, first off he quoted me on the wrong bushes. Might just look for them online, at least there are pictures of them then.

Do the aftermarket adjustable arms pass engineering? Do they need a certificate?

Edit - found these on whitelines website. Assuming you used something similar Merv? They seem quite expensive for what they are...
http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_..._number=KTA128

[Merv and Sharon]

There is some info in this thread, if you move back and forward through it.

Harrison diff setup

There are lots of Nissan aftermarket spares places that have the upper arm replacements (some are 'U'shaped and others round for the coil over to pass through). They are less expensive. I am surprised that the guy you spoke to did not know about R33s.

I can't see how they would be an engineering or inspection problem, but check with the engineer that you have lodged your intention to build paperwork with (if that is the way its done in NSW?).

[Ryder]

thought it was about time for an update

Over the last week or so I've been working on the diff. What was supposed to be a pretty simple job has turned into an annoying saga of small, crappy little things that have just slowed me down for no good reason. Figured I share it

It started off by me thinking I'd make sure there were no issues with the diff I'd bought, before I spent money on it. So, I did the mod to it that's needed to fit it into the Harrison, and tried to bolt it in. It didn't fit. More specificaly, the cradle didn't fit on the car. The front two bolts went in fine, but the rear ones were about 20mm out. Here's a pic with the front bolted in properly and the rear cabled tied for dramatic effect.



After a quick call to Warwick to check if there was any reason it shouldn't fit (wrong type maybe, check on how it was jig welded ect) I came to the conclusion it was probably bent. The fact the upper control arm didn't fit nicely on the hub seemed to confirm this. So, I needed to take it back to the wrecker, except by the time I'd noticed it was pretty much weekend and it'd have to wait till next monday. So a weekend where I expected to get a lot done wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.

I finally got to take the cradle down to the wreckers and swapped it over for a GTR one, no dramas there. But having had a GTST cradle for the first one, I noticed there were a few small differences between the two diffs that may interest other Harrison builders. Firstly, the bushes are different - the GTR ones are about 10mm longer than the GTST ones. The housing is the same, but if you use GTST bushes it holds the cradle 10mm closer to the chassis, effectively lowering the car a little. Secondly, the GTR diff has a reinforcement plate welded in the area of the cradle where my GTST cradle was bent.

Having got my new diff, I wanted to get to work replacing the bushes. The whiteline ones I'd ordered had arrived, and I wanted to have them replaced. Unfortunately, no workshops around my local area wanted to touch the job - once they heard it was a R33 diff, they either said that they were too busy, or quoted so high that I almost laughed down the phone. One shop wanted $150 for the job!
So after call number 7, I decided **** it, how hard can it be? And decided to try it myself.

Turns out, it's pretty bloody hard...
I tried using a bit of pipe and a lump hammer to drift them out. Nothing. They weren't going anywhere. So I had to get a bit more drastic. First, I drilled out the rubber part of the bush with I think an 8mm drill bit.


Then, I used a pin punch and punched one area of the lip inwards, and punched the now loose bush center out.


After that I modified a large standard blade screwdriver, taking the sharp edges off ect with a bench grinder, and used it like a wedge, hammering it down between the bush wall and the cradle. This bent the soft bush metal inwards, and allowed the old bush to fall out with little effort. See how the old one was slightly rusted in - it wasn't going anywhere in a hurry!


Once they were out, it was a simple matter of figuring out how to install the new ones without a large hydraulic press...

Although none of the shops here were interested in work, one was kind enough to say "we are too busy, but the way we do it is..." Turns out, they installed the new ones by lubing them up and smashing them in with a spacer and a sledgehammer.
Now I wasn't keen to try oiling them, pretty sure it's not a good practice if you can avoid it. I asked the guy about it and he suggested using detergent as a lube, and washing it off with boiling water later. Thought that seemed like a good idea.
However I certainly didn't think much of the sledgehammer idea. Instead, I made up my own jig using an M20 x 160 bolt, some 69mm internal diameter pipe, some left over scrap steel from other projects and a welder.


It worked well, and I tried using the detergent idea. I quickly gave it away and used old engine oil to lubricate it. Even with that, it was BULL **** tight to get it home - I was using a 3ft bit of RHS as a breaker bar on my 1" 1/4 ring spanner and I was still struggling! There is no way at all those bushes are working thier way loose, oil or not...

Got it all done, for a total cost of $10 in scrap steel and $2.50 for an M20 bolt (That I destroyed - it was so tight it got stretched) and a fair bit of time. Happy with that - take that rip off merchant suspension shops!


So, tomorrow I paint it and install it, finally! I did get an adjustable upper arm for it too (thanks guys, good advice). Also, today I went to the wreckers and got the steering rack and column, the other front end bits I need and pedals. They will be modified, painted and installed to in the next few days. I'm hoping there will be a lot more updates coming before my holidays end at the end of jan

[Modena]

Well done. But I don't think $150 is a ripoff - that is less than 2 hours of workshop labour. What exactly do you think it should cost?

[Rob. Smith]

Good Job...shame that you didn't have a press. Detergent is a rust promoter. Oil won't hurt. On some of those drift sites they burn out the bushes...no thoughts about softening the metal... but their hobby is all throw away stuff anyway. Isn't a small success a great feeling !

[Ryder]

Originally Posted by Modena

Well done. But I don't think $150 is a ripoff - that is less than 2 hours of workshop labour. What exactly do you think it should cost?

Thanks

I couldn't see the job taking longer than 30 min max, with a press and the proper tools. Doesn't cost any materials, only time. I'd have thought $50 would be fair, they'd probably farm it out to the apprentice anyway...

Put it this way - the bushes cost $230, compared to that $150 seems a lot, I don't know it just seems a lot for what should be a quick simple job.

[Merv and Sharon]

Well done. I seem to recall Sambo or someone else using a 'torch to burn them out!

[Modena]

For lube I used some of the grease that came with the bushes, this was for bushes which pivot on the crush tube