My Birkin

[11Budlite]

Well, I'm finally to the point where I feel I can put some pics of my Birkin in the "Members Rides" section. It's a 2001 model, BIY1899, Ford Zetec ZX1, BGH close ratio T9, Emerald ECU, Jenvey ITB's, Fuel Safe fuel cell, and many other details too numerous to list.

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/892349560_20080410_0016R.jpg

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/176344239_20080410_0019R.jpg

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1728219701_20080410_0020R.jpg

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1687217307_20080410_0027R.jpg

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/607072096_20080410_0011R.jpg

Bruce :7drive:

[WestTexasS2K]

Sweet! very clean nice job.

[scannon]

Sweet indeed. It looks brand new.

Skip

[11Budlite]

Thanks guys! Lot's of little things to do, but at least she runs and drives!

Bruce :7fume:

[southwind25]

wow,,,nice... So this is what mine would look like with the zetec,,,sweeeeet.
very nice car,
What kind of battery are you using? is it mounted on it's side? or are that where the posts are?

[Boxologist]

awesome and congrats bruce. especially with the enws from the other thread. hopefully our 7s will cross paths this year.

[11Budlite]

"What kind of battery are you using? is it mounted on it's side? or are that where the posts are" - It's a Odyssey PC680 which can be mounted in any position. I do have it mounted on it's side with the special housing you can get from Odyssey. I just hooked it up with ring terminals, but you can get the standard post-type terminals that screw into the battery.

"hopefully our 7s will cross paths this year" - I'm counting on it Box!!

Bruce :7drive:

[jbanker]

Hey Bruce,

Very nice Birkin. Glad you got it going after all you have been through. We are just now getting into the good driving season. Get out and enjoy!!!

Jack

[Dave W]

That is very nice. What you you use to clean / polish the aluminum with?

Dave W

[solder_guy]

looks great!

Rob

[Birkin42]

Great to see you have it together and looking awesome.
It looks like you replaced the stock Birkin fuel cap for a much better looking one.
What make/model is it?
What was required to install it?
Where did you buy it?

Jack

[11Budlite]

Thanks guys! :)

"Get out and enjoy!!!" - I did Jack. Drove it to work on a beautiful foggy morning, answered questions all morning to friends at work, gave rides at lunch time, had a great ride home from work with kids waving when I drove by their houses, and took Nancy out for a ride to calibrate the speedo (easy job!) and for a picnic dinner at a state park. She was the one that got out early from work so she could go for a good ride! I think I put on over 50 miles today!! :)


"What do you use to clean / polish the aluminum with?" - I use a rolite polishing kit with a Porter Cable orbital polisher. Saves a lot of time! :) http://www.topoftheline.com/rolmetpolkit.html
It looks like I'll be spending some more time polishing because the family cats used to sleep under the car cover in the winter and wiped their feet off on the side of the body before they hopped in!! :banghead:

"It looks like you replaced the stock Birkin fuel cap for a much better looking one.
What make/model is it?" - It's a Mocal (actually made by Newton I believe) Aero 300 p/n CAP2LF with a horseshoe shaped mounting ring p/n RIN2 that I got at British American Transfer. I also bought a p/n NH451 fuel hose but I can't remember if that was to mount to the fuel cell properly or for the fuel filler. Here's the link: http://64.202.180.37/files/cap.pdf
Wow, I just checked the prices, and they've gone up quite a bit! :ack:

"What was required to install it?" - This is from memory but I think it was really pretty simple. The stock Birkin cap was rivited on with a 4-hole bolt pattern so I drilled the rivets and it popped right off. The new cap comes with a 6-hole pattern, but I believe the opening is the same diameter. I just lined up the existing holes the best I could (I think two lined up) and then drilled the extra holes in the body. There are going to be extra holes, but they are covered up by the filler and the mounting ring.

Bruce :7drive: :)

[Dave W]

Bruce

Thanks for the polish info, that is what I was afraid of, LOTS OF WORK, I was looking for a one shot easy miracle polish.
Dave W

[11Budlite]

Dave,

"I was looking for a one shot easy miracle polish." - If you ever find it let me know!! :)

Bruce :7drive:

[Jim F.]

Bruce,Dave, and any others interested in what I've discovered as the closest to a "one shot easy miracle polish." I've used this product and use no other any longer. I could very easily go into a lengthy dialogue about it, but a simple phone call or email to them will say all that needs to be said. The product is called Metal Armor. Web site: www.metalarmor.net........email: metalarmor @ worldnet.att.net.......Phone #: (931)233-1542 in Crossville, TN. You'll probably be speaking with John Carter, the formulator/distributor of this excellent product. I have no financial interest or ties with John or his company, other than an avid user of his products. If you'd care to, mention Jim Fraser in Grants Pass, Oregon with the yellow/al. Caterham. He personally demonstrated the polish on the left rear bodywork, and after about 15 minutes of application/removing film/polishing I immediately bought the kit and still swear by it. It may appear to be a little spendy, but perhaps sharing at a gathering/workshop will give everyone a chance to evaluate the results. A little goes a long way! By coincidence, John relocated to Crossville after leaving Grants Pass and seems to be in the heart of eastern 7 country. PM me for my phone # if you'd like to talk any further. I don't think you'd be disappointed in the results of Metal Armor. BTW, the contact info I've provided was all valid about 4/5 months ago but have no reason to believe that anything's changed since.
With best regards,
Jim F.

[Birkin42]

Thanks Bruce,

I had seen those caps at BAT as well. Nice caps but not cheap! I wasn't sure if there were any other good quality aero caps on the market. I have seen a few but the ones from Mocal look like what I'm looking for.
Knowing what size fits right in is helpful.
I want to order a Laminova oil cooler from them as well so I was hoping to combine the order.

Jack

[11Budlite]

Thanks for the info Jim, I'll check it out.

Bruce :7drive:

[11Budlite]

Jack P.,

"Knowing what size fits right in is helpful." - I did a little more checking on this, and my original Birkin housing had a 2" od and the replacement Mocal housing has a 2-1/4" od where it attaches to the body, so I did have to enlarge the opening in the body with a die grinder. I think I also offset the filler towards the passenger side to line up perfectly with the fuel cell I installed. Only one of the six attachment holes lines up with an original hole. It's been so long since I installed it that I must have forgot.... :o

Bruce :7drive:

[Birkin42]

Thanks Bruce for the update.
Cutting the hole oversized is not a big deal. In fact I have to replace the rear aluminum panel on my car size it was damaged by the shipping company so I thought now would be a good time to make the change to a nicer cap while I'm at it.

Jack

[Martin]

Beautiful car!

So when it comes to the exposed metal, do you wash that along with the rest of the car and then use metal polish afterwards or is there a cleaner that just takes out smudges that you all use?

[southwind25]

At the moment, it all depends on what's in store for the next few days....I have found by trial error the last couple months "mothers" products seems to make some of the better polish-waxes. We had tried an aircraft polish but it wasnt giving that optical mirror quality.

Yes we wash the exposed aluminum like everything else, but thats because it has about 3 coats of mothers wax on it. Before a show or such, after washing and drying,we do a quick repolish with the mothers metal polish and a very soft rag. then do a coat of wax on top. Yes the webers spit all down the side and rear wings-fenders so that seems to need the most attention. We can use the polish on the exhaust as well, and wax the suspension-wheels-lights-radiator etc..

we are sure most people use an easier method, but i need the excersize and time spent polishing-waxing has a theraputic value to me. and it's more fun that watching TV.

[Martin]

Agreed entirely on enjoying cleaning the car. unfortunately I've had to be careful on cleaning it lately as we are still in a severe drought condition from our lake hitting a record low last year.
But I still do keep it clean!

[11Budlite]

Thought I'd give a little update on the changes I made to my car over the winter/spring.

The biggest improvement was the new Raceco silencer I bought from England. http://www.raceco.com/ (http://www.raceco.com/) I was originally going to get a Burns Stainless silencer but I liked the fact that you can get the Raceco standard with an offset/angled inlet and a side outlet with a real sturdy mount that fit perfectly on my car. The only changes I had to make were a slight bend in the rear silencer mount, and I had to make a new bracket that bolts to the frame to move the rear rubber mount/bobbin back about an inch to get it to line up. I ended up cutting off the last 4 inches of the collector and it slipped right on and bolted down with the supplied stainless clamp. The sound is much deeper and quieter, there are no more fumes like I had with the rear exhaust, and I haven't felt the need to wear ear plugs unless I'm driving on the highway or really having some fun! Yes, it was expensive and the shipping wasn't cheap either, but to me it looks better than the stock exhaust, it's lighter, it's repackable, the quality is top notch, it installs with minimal hassle, and should last a lifetime as long as I don't rip it off. It should also flow better than the stock exhaust that went from 2.5" collector down to a 2" silencer.

The second and probably the smartest mod I made was installing driveshaft safety hoops. I ended up bending some 1.5" wide steel around an old Lucas generator I had sitting around, cut off the legs to fit closely against the fiberglass trans tunnel and welded it to the frame. I'm surprised that Birkin didn't come from the factory with them, but I'm sure I've seen some of the later models that have them standard.

I've been very pleased with the Enkei wheels I picked up last year so I decided to sell the stock wheels to a guy who's going to use them on his BMW. I like having a spare tire for certain drives so I ended up picking up a 5th wheel/tire to mount as a spare. Well, since I'm running 205/50-15's instead of the stock 195/50-15's the spare wouldn't fit in the spare tire carrier. So I cut off the center mount and replaced it with a small piece of 1.5" round stock, drilled/tapped/welded/painted, and everything was good to go.

I also sent my Emerald ECU back to the factory for the latest K3 upgrade. http://www.emeraldm3d.com/em_k3.html (http://www.emeraldm3d.com/em_k3.html) It has 3 switchable maps, adaptive mapping, and some other new features. I had to do a bit of rewiring and I had to mount a 3-way switch in the dash, but this should be a worthwhile upgrade to play with until I can get my car on a dyno.

I still want to do something with the seats and harnesses and I still have to fix the trans leak and replace the clutch, but that'll have to wait until funds and time allows. Here's a photo of the new silencer:

[JohnCh]

Bruce,

I think you’ll love the Emerald K3. In addition to the new features you mentioned, you can also move the load and speed sites to increase the granularity at low load, low rpm situations. This makes a big difference for dialing in drivability at city speeds that require minimal throttle openings.

Although I haven’t enabled the switchable map option yet on my K3, an interesting thing you can do is create an antitheft mode. Set up one of the maps so the car will start and idle, but will die if someone touches the accelerator. You can also just zero out everything so the car won't even start, but with the other approach, they won't begin looking for a hidden ignition kill switch. Instead, they'll just assume it really is an old Lotus and curse the Lucas electrics ;)


-John

[11Budlite]

I think you’ll love the Emerald K3. In addition to the new features you mentioned, you can also move the load and speed sites to increase the granularity at low load, low rpm situations. This makes a big difference for dialing in drivability at city speeds that require minimal throttle openings.

I agree with you John. That was one of the features that I thought would be useful after trying to adjust the sites just off idle last year.

Instead, they'll just assume it really is an old Lotus and curse the Lucas electrics ;) :D

[KiwiBirkin]

Hi Bruce I really like you Birkin its quite diffrent with the red dash, also you wheels are really nice do you know what offset they are I know the stock Birkin wheels are about ET30 I have been looking for some other mags for Grace but getting a matching offset is really hard.

[11Budlite]

Hi Bruce I really like you Birkin its quite diffrent with the red dash, also you wheels are really nice do you know what offset they are I know the stock Birkin wheels are about ET30 I have been looking for some other mags for Grace but getting a matching offset is really hard.

Hi KB. I wasn't planning on changing the dash covering, but the previous owner melted part of the original vinyl when he was soldering a wire to the wiper switch! :banghead: I had some spare vinyl from the interior kit for my '64 MGB so I decided to use that. It's not the same color red as the original Sevens used, but it looks ok to me and the price was right! I also didn't like the thick foam used behind the vinyl so I replaced it with some dense 1/16" foam.

The Enkei wheels have an ET35 offset which is the same as the TSW wheels that originally came with my car. In order to get the offset correct, I had some simple 5mm spacers made up. I ended up replacing the rear studs with some ARP studs and used 15mm spacers in the back. Here's a thread with a little more info on the wheels: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2557&page=3 (http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2557&page=3)

I know there's a few ET30 4 x 100 wheels out there. Team Dynamics, Rota RB, and I'm sure Panasport as well.

[R1 Seven]

Hey Bruce,

The car is looking great! I really like the new wheels.

[KiwiBirkin]

How easy was it to redo your dash, its about the only part on my Birkin I haven't pulled apart yet to have a look at, it seems pretty easy to remove the scuttle only a few bots I think hold it on.

[11Budlite]

"The car is looking great! I really like the new wheels." - Thanks Jeff. I lost 8-9 lbs per corner in switching to the new wheel/tire combination! :)

"How easy was it to redo your dash, its about the only part on my Birkin I haven't pulled apart yet to have a look at, it seems pretty easy to remove the scuttle only a few bots I think hold it on." Kiwi - It wasn't too bad to remove the scuttle. From memory, there's the (4) windshield bolts, (4) nuts on the sides of the scuttle, and 8 nuts/screws along the front base of the scuttle (I had to remove the battery to get access to some of the screws). You also have to disconnect the wipers/arms, the master cylinder reservoirs, and any other wiring/hoses that pass through the scuttle. Then you have to disconnect the wiring from the back of the gauges/switches so they can be removed. The worst part of the whole job was seeing how bad the original wiring was on my 2001 car and the time it took to completely re-wire the whole mess. :banghead: I'll see if I can find some pictures of the before and after wiring when I get home later.

[KiwiBirkin]

Sounds like I shouldnt look :)

[Caterman7]

Bruce:

Did you have any problems with the CT DMV registering your 7?

[11Budlite]

If everything's working fine you might not want to! :)

This is not a photo from my car but one I borrowed from Gert (aka Slomove). It's typical of what you'll find when you remove the scuttle. My car was actually a bit worse than this, with soldered wires covered with tape, wires soldered to the switches, and wires that didn't attach to anything. The second photo is after the re-wire.

Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo...

[11Budlite]

Bruce:

Did you have any problems with the CT DMV registering your 7?

Sean - Check out your tire size thread...

[KiwiBirkin]

If everything's working fine you might not want to! :)

This is not a photo from my car but one I borrowed from Gert (aka Slomove). It's typical of what you'll find when you remove the scuttle. My car was actually a bit worse than this, with soldered wires covered with tape, wires soldered to the switches, and wires that didn't attach to anything. The second photo is after the re-wire.

Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo...

I see what you mean by it being a mess under the scuttle, I had to remove mine in the end as I had a broken horn button and I also wanted to fit a power point so I could run a radar detector and charge my cell phone. I ended up moving the washer button to replace the horn button as I couldn't get one the same size from any auto electricians and it was the same size, then using the washer button hole for the power socket and drilling a new hole next to it for a new washer button, Birkins wiring was a real mess though but i'm not even going to attempt to tidy it up i'm just hopeing i haven't disturbed anything :smash:

[7evin]

Be-Ut-if-al... Rockin good job

Cheers
7evin

[slomove]

Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo...

Nice, very clean!

Although....have another look 5 years from now. According to laws of thermodynamics something that orderly can not be sustained. Believe me, I know. ;-)