Gareth's red beauty!

[spadge]

Thank goodness you’ve found my jacket, that and the gallon of petrol I put in the G26 yesterday have significantly increased its value. I also found a nicely threatening knife in its ashtray which is probably worth a lot oop north.



While you’ve got your G26 hat on, do you know what the offset of the correct wheels is? While I was filling one of your sheds with carbon monoxide and Pinto fumes I noticed that you’ve got almost every part Ginetta ever made. Have you got a wheel that looks like this? http://www.m-net.ne.jp/~backyard/ginett ... ry/g26.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/ ... cans/4.jpg (top picture, not the Ford pepperpots). It’s probably a 13 inch wheel and I think a 14 or 15” would fill the arches better but I’d like to keep the offset (and the width) correct. Apparently Peugeots, Porsche 924s, Ford Scorpios and Volvo 850s have the correct PCD so I should be able to find a suitable one.



Week after next is fine for delivery, I look forward to it!



Best Regards

Gareth

[spadge]

Here are those pictures:

g26wheels.jpg (9.35 KiB) Viewed 1016 times

bbaward winner.jpg (50.09 KiB) Viewed 1017 times

[pmouse]

Gareth - glad you got sorted. The steel wheels in the photos are Weller items, which Ginetta had made for the car. I recall that they were a 7x15 wheel, and also recall that Ginetta recommended stretching a 195/70 tyre on to that. The alternative wheel that Ginetta offered at the time was a 'basket weave' alloy wheel.

Probably the best source will be the Ginetta Owners Club, and their 'wanted' page. Alternatively, if Weller wheels still exist as a company then they may still have the spec on file.

[GarethJ]

Thanks for the help, my membership for the GOC has just come through so I've been reading up about wheels, offset and overheating....

The car is booked in for an MoT on Thursday, we're having a sweepstake at work to see how many things it fails on

[pmouse]

I have a theory about G26 overheating, which was born out when we built the G31. My G26 was fine, but the G31 did - or at least it appeared to. However, on a trip back from a show I noticed that the fuel gauge went up along with the temperature gauge - it was not overheating, but the voltage regulator on the back on the instrument panel was goosed....

A potential cause of real oveheating can be to do with the shape of the front of the car and the height of the springs - set the nose to high, and a bubble of high pressure builds up under the car at speed. This causes a 'floaty' sensation through the steering as the nose of the car goes 'light'. If that bubble of high pressure is higher than the one on the front of the car (and the wedge shape means that the car punches through the air pretty well), then at speed, air will not flow through the radiator as you might expect - in fact, the faster you go, the less air goes through the rad and the hotter everything gets....

Get the nose right (the car should have a slightly nose down look, withth wheels filling the arches), either by shortening the springs or fitting some that are the right length. Don't ask me what the right length is - I recall I shortened mine, but I was young and niaive at the time...

[GarethJ]

Thanks for the reply - dodgy electrics and overheating? I can't wait!

It's an interesting point about the aerodynamics, my car looks quite low at the front but as yet I don't know if the springs are cut, heat treated or just awfully tired. I'm hoping it's one of the last two.

I used to design automotive cooling systems so I'm fairly comfortable I can get the thing running cool, as the car is now it has quite a few things against it: lots of free space either side of the rad; no fan shroud; the fan is miles away from the radiator; the radiator looks like an aftermarket one with a single row core; the heater doesn't blow warm air so there's probably an airlock.

Having said that, it's nothing that can't be fixed. Roll on Thursday

Filling the rear arches looks like more of a challenge, I've got the hots for some 70s Lotus Elite wheels but it would mean getting the hubs redrilled. Not sure I want to get into taking things apart when I should be concentrating on putting them back together

[pmouse]

Weller Wheels still trade as a company - it might be worth dropping them an email to see if they still have the G26 spec on file and can manufacture to it?

[GarethJ]

Weller Wheels still trade as a company - it might be worth dropping them an email to see if they still have the G26 spec on file and can manufacture to it?

I e-mailed them last week but I've had no reply. The only phone number they have is a mobile

[spadge]

I have a customer with a G4 who has tried and failed to get anywhere with them recently.

[GarethJ]

It arrived! Thanks to Spadge for heroic work navigating Luton. Towed behind a Transit probably makes it the fastest G26 in the world


There was just time to fit some numberplates, glue on the interior mirror and drive it to the garage for its 3pm MoT. Unsurprisingly it failed, but on nothing too serious:
Emissions were high (misfire)
No side repeaters fitted
Exhaust leaking
Numberplate light out (I suggested he give it a thump but apparently that’s not in the MoT manual
NSR brake dragging
NSR brake low effort (these two sound a lot like a seized cylinder to me)
Petrol pipe not clipped at the back
Rear brake flexi pipe stretched

I’ve got the exhaust fixed, but it’s still banging a bit at the back, fixed the misfire by replacing the plugs so emissions should be better now, ordered some side repeaters and got a couple of brake cylinders to fit. If the weather’s fine I’ll have a bash at getting it all done this week.

Then all the rest of the work can start….

[spadge]

Good work and you sound so positive!

When I filled with fuel on the way there, I was offered another one Q 376 EGV. Doesn't run as well and he wanted more than I sold it to Gareth for! However, if there's enough interest I could be tempted.

[GarethJ]

It passed the MoT, woo-hoo!


The 185s on at the moment give a nice lack of grip on the roundabout outside the office. It’s nothing like as nimble as an old Escort but you can feel it’s light by the way it corners and the long wheelbase makes it quite stable once it starts to slide.

I’ve got some ‘80s Recaro seats to go in which I should be able to mount lower than the current Rover coupe seats, saving me vital headroom and the steering wheel rubbing across my legs. The thermostat is stuck so I’ve got a new one of those to fit and I’m chasing a bloke for some Cortina springs I can cut and fit to bring the back down a bit and the front up a bit. At the moment the front is so low I can’t get my trolley jack under it, and it’s not GR8 4 SPEEDBUMZ

It seems to drive pretty well, the exhaust is still clonking a bit but it’s benefiting from some regular use. I’ve been taking it to work for the last few days and I did the school run in it this morning. When it warms up (see stuck thermostat moan, above) it’s quite nice. It accelerates well around normal speeds and the 2 litre Pinto revs with enthusiasm, it’s a lot more lively than the Pinto powered Granada I used to have, but then it’s probably half the weight.

It’s far from quiet but then it’s missing most of its interior trim at the moment and I’m sure there are various things dragging and knocking that should be secured. The ride is quite comfortable, it’s no Citroen CX but it’s a smoother ride than my Polo, which is good enough.

To sum up: it’s quite good and I like it. Improvements over the next few weeks and months should make it a lot better too.

[Ken Edmonds]

You've probably already found the answers from the GOC website but just in case...

The Weller wheels were 19mm offset. Standard Cortina IIRC were 38mm. I think mine are 32mm, they look fine and the handling improved when I fitted them. That's not really surprising as it had Revolution RFX 5 spokes which really looked the business but they were zero offset.

To make the G26 look right, they really need 7" rims. The body is so much wider than the suspension anything narrower looks lost in the arches. I guess the easiest and cheapest to get hold of would be from a Mondeo although I've no idea which model would have that width as standard.

[Ken Edmonds]

I've been back and read through the thread again and I've got a few answers, in no particular order.

The height from the ground to the front wheel arch should be 26". Duncan's method was to cut one coil off a standard spring and then, using a torch, bend about 1/2 the next coil down to form a flat seat again. The front being too high does cause overheating, it never happened on factory built kits. I guess the front springs have sagged over the years, it does look too low, the back should be fine.

I fitted Mk2 Astra GTE bonnet vents on mine which helped a bit with temperature but more to the point, if it got hot in traffic it would cool down again quickly. I pinched the idea from a bloke in a G31 at Newark many years ago.

Single core radiator is probably for a Mk5 Cortina. I've had 2 and 4 core in mine and it didn't make any difference. There's a single core going in when I rebuild it. It will definitely have an airlock. Cortinas always did and the G26 is worse as the radiator is even lower than original. Start it up, take off the top heater hose and rev it gently. When water pours out stick the hose back on.

Ginetta recommended 185/70 x 14 or 195/70 x 14 tyres for their Weller wheels. According to the tyre manufacturers 7" is too wide for 185 section but fine for 195. My daily Astra diesel's got 195/55 on 6.5" rims and they look spot on so I can't see 1/2" making much difference and it's certainly better than the 5.5" it came with. However, Mike who used to make the electric headlight lifts said the 195/70 x 14 made it like an old man's car with too much give in the sidewalls and suggested 195/65 were much better. I tried them and they weren't bad but I've now gone to 205/55 x 15.

The exhaust's a pain in the butt. The best money I ever spent was getting a custom made stainless system. Is it a 5 speed box? Surprisingly, it's relevant.

This is mine, before I left it in the front garden to go green...

[Darkspeed]

Speaking with Duncan about the suspension on my G31 he also mentioned the use of 1600 springs.

The car is on 205/60/14's on the G31 at the moment and have used 205/40/17 for a short while but they were a bit too much for my liking.

I have a set of the original crosswire 7" alloys - the car is currently on 6.5" Compomotive cross wires - If the Originals or the 17" rims are of interest Gareth from me a mail. I was planning on giving the originals a good polish and fitting them to the car with the 205's but I have just bought a G15 so will be letting the G31 go very shortly.

I think the ET offset on the originals is zero as I have to fit 10mm spacers on the ET15 17 rims to get the same spacing.

Andrew