The fatal flaw in my cunning plan ! ............

Hmmm spotted the fatal flaw in my plan with regards to being able to remove the cycle wings should I need to. The relative angles of the through bolts onto the cycle wing carrier arms would make it difficult if not impossible to remove the wings as intended so having thought about it I have modified the brass plates for one of them to carry two captive nuts rather than downward facing bolts. I then drilled the strip for the resin to grip.

Attachment bracket complete

Couldn't resist putting another shiny bit on ! (pathetic I know !! how old are we LOL). We made a mounting cylinder affair to hold the oil catch tank and fitted it into place, like Magpies we stood back and admired the shiny bit !

Oil catch can

Just need some hose and jubilee clips to finish the job. 3 hours today 176 total.

Front wings .............

Having looked at our lovely front wings there is not a chance in hell we are going to drill them to mount them. Every car we looked at when we visited the factory had crazing and chipping around the front wing mounting bolts which looked awful. Having given the matter some thought I decided upon this plan. I drilled the mounts and cut four lengths of 2.5mm x 30mm brass strip which were drilled to match. I then silver soldered stainless bolts down through the brass and then ground off most of the heads. I am left with a brass strip with captive stainless bolts to glass into our wings which are fibreglass and not abs. I intend to drill the brass strips with a number of holes for the resin to grip and then have enough bolt length for a piece of glass cloth over the lot. Fingers crossed the plan will work we shall see ! I also fitted the last fuel line so the engine bay is almost complete. 3 hours today 173 total.

Wing mount bolted to frame

Wing mount bolts ground off

Long day .........................

Sitting here having a glass of red after a long and successful day. Thanks mainly to Jon's blog we had rehearsed fitting the body so knew roughly what to expect. Both sides were fitted into place using wallpaper scrapers and foul and abusive language to lever them under the chassis sides, one was particularly tight so glad they don't have to come off again ! The scuttle and bonnet were fitted to make sure the panel gaps remained the same and then the rear was bolted on together with the rear wings which had previously been drilled and assembled. My friend Dave came to give a hand making sure all remained aligned whilst we tightened both sides evenly. We then spent some time pondering how accurate we could get the body alignment and after messing around adjusting first one bit and then the other decided that it was pointless trying to get it to within a micron as it would flex more than that anyway ! When we finally had a unanimous decision about where the rear end should sit we fitted the metal support strip underneath using rivnuts which was an absolute xxxxxxx as there was only just room to slide under the car and drill the holes etc ! After we had the body securely in place Joe tidied up the manifold exit hole and we fitted the manifold, our heat shield appears to sit ok and hopefully will do its job. For safety I put the car back on its wheels and we had a drool looking it over. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now or maybe its the front light of the train going to run us over !! 8 hours today really good progress !!! Cheers !! 170hrs in total. Many thanks Dave.

Body in place

Rear offside

The crew

Looking like a car

Heat shield

Exhaust exit

small jumps ..................

Had a busy week so not much building gone on ! Having fitted up our dashboard we decided the switches and labels which were supplied frankly detracted from the appearance, the labels particularly curled up and looked horrid even before it got near the car. Joe researched and bought some new switchgear which looks much smarter and in our opinion has transformed the dash and of course lights up wooooo ...............

Dash with new switches

Being particularly picky Joe has arranged for two brushed aluminium bezels to be machined to surround the indicator and hazards switch to match the rest. The rolling chassis is all but complete now I have to fit one more fuel line and until the upper steering column arrives that is it. This afternoon I fitted the battery tray supplied for my small battery and secured the battery.

Battery securely installed

Monday we hope to fit the lower body sides and rear. 3 hours today 162hrs total.

Done ...................

The suspension and steering set up was finished on Thursday but the gods are against us and it has not stopped raining long enough for the garage to bring it back to my garage on their transporter. We did not think it wise to risk getting all the exposed electrics wet !! It will return on monday if possible. Summer, what there has been of it, is slipping away fast and I am resigned to some cold days and nights getting it finished. Hopefully get the body on next week we shall see.

Dashing around ...................

Spent some time today populating the dash. We had chosen the contoured dash and waited almost six months from order before we got one !. However all has gone smoothly with a couple of exceptions, the intended slot I assume for the hazards switch seems more suited to my self cancelling indicator switch so I intend to source a smaller upright hazards switch to position above the dip and horn switches. The screen heater push to make button is too short to fit the nut on the rear with this dash so looking as if I will have to epoxy in place, I will however ask the question re a longer one. I also have one more hole to drill for the handbrake warning light probably above the indicator lights. As usual seem to have created more work having gone this route, hope it will look good when in place !
3 hrs today about 159hrs in total.

Dashboard

Self cancelling indicator

Push to make button too short !

Got rid of the thing ! .............

Don't panic only for a short while ! Tony from Falcon Autos http://www.falconautocentre.co.im (shameless plug) is an experienced track and rally car engineer and is doing the initial suspension set up for me, thankfully he can cope without a steering column !!. Will give me a couple of days to clean the garage and get the bodywork ready for fitting. As I now have a dashboard I can assemble that whilst I am waiting for the car to come back. Would have been a lot easier getting it on the lorry if it had a steering wheel !

Rolling Chassis

I took a side view of the heat shield in situ fixed with stainless cap heads to the lower rails.

Heat shielding.

Bye Bye !!!

Lots of dust ! ............

Good progress over the weekend, started by affixing the waste pipe as a steering column which gave us an accurate ( I hope !) location for the hole in the drivers footwell front panel and also located the scuttle.

Waste pipe steering column !

We took a number of careful measurements both interior and exterior of the location of the exhaust prior to fitting the body. Both sides and bonnet and scuttle were then positioned and the bodywork gaps we ensured were symmetrical prior to cutting the exhaust exit hole. I left the cutting to Joe working on the theory that if all went to hell I couldn't be blamed !

Joe cutting hole.

We were happy with the final result, we both found this the most stressful part of the build so far. There is no going back once the first cut has been made !

Result !!

Seeing the car looking like it should we got a bit excited and couldn't resist getting the full exhaust for a pic !

Soon !

A few more views of things to come :

An enjoyable weekend slow but sure progress and a few beers with the Olympics. Next week I am arranging for the rolling chassis to be collected by a local garage and the suspension and tracking set up will kill a little time whilst we wait for more parts from WF. We are not the fastest builders but doing ok with about 156hrs so far.

A way forward ............

I am guilty of letting the lack of a steering column bring progress to a halt, so have devised a plan to be able to continue. It seems the outer dimension of the steering column is 32mm, which also happens to be the inner dimension of solvent weld waste pipe. I will continue with the build using a length of waste pipe in place of the steering column and as I now have the dashboard can progress the bodywork build around the scuttle. Watch this space ........