GP4 HAWK STRATOS
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Due to start build in February 2008 is a LHD Hawk Stratos Replica for a customer in Italy. The car will be built to GP4 specification utilising an Alfa Romeo 3.0 V6 power plant and will be finished with a replica Marlboro colour scheme.
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You can follow the progress of this project here .....
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We're not expecting delivery of the body/chassis packs from Hawk until the end of January so much of this month will be utilised assembling the various donor components that are required. The donor parts come from a variety of cars so sourcing good quality components can be quite time consuming. Luckiliy in this case the customer is supplying a complete Alfa Romeo 164 direct from Italy which the engine, gearbox, driveshafts and engine electrics will all be taken from and that car has already arrived at our workshop. The rest is up to us!
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Engine Removal
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Engine Removed
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Our first job was to pull the engine and gearbox, and its associated electrics out of the 164. This was made considerably easier by the fact that the car itself was being scrapped afterwards, so we cut out the front crossmember and slam panel and just pulled the whole thing out the front. We also removed the front and rear brakes as these will be reconditioned and used on the Stratos.
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With the kit delivered to our workshop in late February we could now start work in earnest. The first job, as with every build we do, was to go through the delivered parts and make a list of everything that was missing. It is essential in every build to keep track of parts required as one missing component can hold up the whole build. Luckily in this case Hawk have once again done a fantastic job and the list is miniscule.
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Suspension Components Laid Out
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Front Suspension Fitted (RHS)
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Front Suspension Fitted (LHS)
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Front Suspension Completed
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Physically the first job on the car was to assemble and fit the suspension. We always do this where possible simply because the car is then moveable if necessary. This is a relatively simple task although it needs doing with care and patience. This particular car is being fitted with anti-rollbars front and rear and an Alfa 164 brake conversion kit. Initially the suspension will be 'loose' fitted to check eveything works ok. It will be fully tightened and adjusted once the car is at normal ride height.
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The rear suspension is a little more complicated than the front as the custom hubs required the bearings to be pushed in with a hydraulic press, and the ARB can't be finally fitted until the engine is in. Never the less it all went together perfectly and with no modifications required. Our bottom wishbones are Hawks rose-jointed versions so we made a jig off of the original to give us an equal length each side.
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Rear Suspension Fitted (LHS)
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Rear Suspension Fitted (RHS)
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With the car on wheels we started fitting out the chassis ready to accept the engine/gearbox unit as its easier to do at this stage without the engine in the way. This car is being fitted with the Alfa Romeo 164 gearbox and the kit came with a bespoke Hawk gearchange mechanism, however this mechanism uses the original 164 lever which has to be modified to suit. Once modified the gearchange is a simple job to fit to the chassis.
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Modified 164 Gear Lever
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Brake Servo and Master Cylinder
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Next we fitted the brake servo and master cylinder to give us a location for the vacuum pipe, which we've made out of a single length of copper pipe. We've run this pipe through the tunnel with the cooling pipes. These are the only pipes that run through the tunnel itself, with all other services running along the top of it.
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Modified Fuseboard Fitted
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Modified Fuseboard Fitted
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We also opted to fit the electrics at this stage. This is a left hand drive car and the kit comes with a bespoke wiring harness and fuseboard, however this is for a right hand drive car. At first sight its a simple matter of turning the harness upside down, but this leaves the relays and fuses un-accessible so they all need to be relocated to the otherside of the board, and individually turned over. This requires a huge amount of lengthening of wires but its well worth doing as the whole electrical installation becomes easier from there. Whilst working on the fuseboard we added some relays to drive the Gp4 quad spotlights.
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Dashboard Wiring
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Wiper Motor Fitted
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Radiator and Fans Fitted
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Headlight Motors Fitted
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The kit uses Fiat X1/9 headlight motors coupled to bespoke Hawk framework. These can be quite tricky to setup and align but its vital to get them accurate at this stage to ensure reliable operation in the future. Its impossible to find new motors these days so we're going to recondition as second hand pair and fit new diodes.
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Trial Fitting Headlights
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Trial Fitting Headlights
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Once all the bodywork had been fitted and the door handles, headlights, brightwork etc had all been dry fitted, we stripped the car back and sent it off to the paint shop. Once again, as with all our cars, the painting was entrusted to R.E.O. Motors in Leicester. We decided with them that all the decals would be applied after the base coats had been applied but before the car was lacquered, so the stickers were effectively lacquered in. This is bit more time consuming, and costly, but the end result is well worth it.
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Preparation in the Paint Shop
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Preparation in the Paint Shop
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Base Colours Applied
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Base Colours Applied
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We'd managed to locate most of the logos and decals we needed, but try as we might we couldn't find the main HF logos so we had our own made from numerous images we found in books and publications. While we were at it we made 10 sets so we have them for next time.
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Our own HF Logo
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Decals and Lacquer Applied
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Back from the Paint Shop
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Back from the Paint Shop
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It looks better with the right wheels!
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Starting to look like a Stratos
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Once we'd got the car back from the paint shop we turned our attention to the interior. We encountered several problems that we hadn't anticipated, one of which was where to mount the heater blower unit. There was no way we could get an 'off the shelf' unit in the limited space so we ended up making our own, which again has been drawn so we can make more in the future. We also discovered that none of us could operate the throttle pedal with any degree of comfort because it was so close to the tunnel. Our solution was to cut and reshape the tunnel cover, make a new mould, and then make a new tunnel cover with a relief in it to make room for your right foot.
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Our Heater Blower Unit
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Our Tunnel Cover
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Seats and Dashboard Fitted
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The Business End !
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With the seats and dashboard fitted the interior is now starting to look like a car as well. The dashboard had to go in and out numerous times during the build, which, if we're honest, is a pain in the proverbial as everything plugs into the Hawk loom on individual spade connectors and it takes forever to re-connect it every time. We got fed up with this and modified the dash loom so that it now all connects on three multi-plugs and takes 2 minutes to remove and re-fit.
The astute amongst you will have noticed that the engine and gearbox have now been fitted (in fact they were fitted prior to paint) but for some reason we can't find any photographs of it going in. Suffice to say that it was actually a very simple process, with everything fitting perfectly first time and was actually one of the most simple parts of the whole build.
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Glass Fitted
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How many headlights does one car need!
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We usually leave fitting the glass to any car we build to the last minute, basically because one of us has an uncanny knack of breaking the windscreen for no apparent reason, and at over £600 a pop, this car was no exception, but with SVA looming we had no choice so in went the glass. It looks awesome! We also fitted and wired the rally quad pod headlights and the non-detatchable driving lights, although they were subsequently removed for SVA.
SVA itself was a relatively simple process, although we did need a retest due to the (lack of) visibility from the mirrors, which had to be considerably extended, and the speedo needed re-calibrating. Once that was done the car sailed through with no problems whatsoever, so with that out of the way we could now turn our attention to the interior trim and finishing off.
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Carpet being Fitted
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Interior Nearly Complete
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The car we were asked to replicate
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The car we built
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After consultation with the customer we opted for red carpets and grey alcantara for the dashboard and doorcards. We sent the dash and doorcards away to be trimmed, but the carpets we cut and fitted ourselves. The finished article looks really smart.
So, another car comes to completion and is now with its owner in Italy, and if we're honest, we're really pleased with it. Looking back at the original pictures we were asked to replicate, and comparing those to the car we've built, we reckon we've got it pretty close.
Heres to the next one!
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