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What is the 2B
[Or, dietary tips for Sierras]

The Build Diary
['99 - Aug. '00]
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[January '01]
[February '01]
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[April '01]
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[July '01]

The SVA
[Did my 2B pass?]

On The Road
[Whats it like then?]
[And now it's been improved!]

New for 2003
[Suspension Mods]

New for 2002
[Engine Mods]
[Fuel Filler]
[Custom Instuments]
[Rear Shocks]

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February 2001

Seats - The recaro GM seats provided by RHE are no doubt good value and comfy but sadly they do not fit into my 2B without removal of lots of bits. This does however reduce their weight to around that of a small elephant. Basically the drivers seat has runners and height adjustment both of which I initally removed to get it in, but I then found I could retain the height adjuster by making an extended handle for it. Once the sides are on the car it is going to be ni-on impossilbe to adjust the back so I will have to try and get this right before.

The passenger seat I was expecting to be simpler as it does not have height adjustment, but when I offered it in the car I found it was getting very friendly with the handbrake. Said handbrake will be getting shoved forward about 4" then hopefully the seat will fit.

As both me and Rosie have short legs I suspect that most people will find that a) The drivers seat height adjuster won't still fit, and b) The handbrake is ok on the passenger side.

The inner seatbelt mounts will have to use the anchorage points on the seats, which means that the seats themselves must be well mounted for the SVA. As they only bolt to the stainless floor, I have put various stiffening bars underneath to improve the security. Alternatively they may mount on the handbrake angle bracket.

The steering components have now been welded up and it was time to offer it all back in position. Unfortunately (a common word in this text, I think!) I had had to move the steering column up a long way to get my knees under the Sierra wheel. Well, about an inch but this had changed the angle that the shaft went so now it fouled the chassis again. Decided to compromise the knee clearance, after all, when the little wheel goes in it won't be a problem. As long as I can drive it safely to the SVA and have the correct bit of my foot on the pedals during the test, afterwards I can put it together as it should be. The shaft is pretty tight on the chassis/exhaust, but there is a clearance and the chassis to shaft distance isn't going to change so it should be ok. The 4-1 exhaust has been gently modified to give a bit more space on the no. 1 pipe! (See photo)

Various tubular stays are required to stiffen up the upper column mounting, these run to the chassis on the o/s and the pedal box stay on the other. The whole lot gets wonderfully stiff if you give it a good bracing….!

I ordered a petrol tank from RHE, one of the 30 litre ones, and was dead chuffed as it turned up the next day. Have a gold star RHE. This is a nice job in stainless and I think it is a great improvement on the Sierra one as it gets the weight down lower and lets you have a reasonable boot space. The mounting for the sender unit is a bit Heath Robinson, but seems to work ok. The filler hole is alright too, but you need to put a gasket in to space it right with the sierra grommet, the seal from the sender unit is a perfect fit and costs a whopping 35p from Ford.

The tank itself sits on the spare wheel carrier rails in front of the rear panel, and I put 2 rails across the car under here to strap the tank to. The lot is rubber mounted and held in by 15mm steel straps with leather under them to stop chaffing. It looks a treat, shame no one will see it when the car's finished.

I am seriously thinking about 15" wheels off a Mondeo. I have 14" ones on my other Sierra that will do for the SVA, then it's up to me. These 15"ers will give more clearance on the lower end of the chrome front suspension shaft and lower profile tyres for the same overall diameter. Other 2b owners have done this and I think I will too. Watch this space if you want a set of five 14" x 6" alloys, boxed and un-used etc. It depends how much I have to pay for the 15's, and what I can get for the 14's. See later comments

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