One step forward and two .......

Little progress today sidetracked with other matters my better half even wanted to go shopping, I managed to fein injury and escaped that one ! The roll bar is connected and finally makes some sense so I moved on to the steering rack. The aluminium upgrade mount would not sit in the rack as it should and it is necessary to radius the inner edges of the mount to let it sit squarely. This is taking some time as I do not want to go at it with anything over zealous. Going to watch the big Manchester derby tonight so will resume tomorrow ! Just found out how to caption photos ! Hey. 44hrs so far.

Roll Bar linked to Bellcrank

Easing inner radius of clamp

Thinking Time

More time spent head scratching today than doing anything however finally persuaded myself that the front anti roll bar and chassis brace and bell cranks were fitted correctly. The chassis brace was a very tight fit hole centre to hole centre but I guess if it was not it wouldn't be a brace ! yesterdays exertions mean today is mainly reading the manual and it is freezing in the garage ! 42hrs total

Long Day

Making the most of Joe being available we had a long day today. There are without doubt a large number of shortcomings in the printed manual and only constant reference to the excellent (serious) build blogs and photographs keeps the project on the move. We finally sorted the pipework into some neatness -

Having spent some time trying to get the complex bends needed to make the transition to the vertical surface I find my friends chassis which was done at the factory has them laid on the horizontal cross members and would have taken 5 minutes Grrrrr ! However the amusement factor when we destroyed a pipe was worth the extra effort !

Joe installed the pedals -

Whilst I installed the front primary brake line -

I fitted the clips for the wheel brake lines but have not made or fitted those until we sort out the fitting and operation of the anti roll bars as the brake lines will need careful routing to avoid everything.

Together we assembled the front wishbones and parts of the anti roll bar -

Do not be surprised if the Westfield technical helpline is permanently engaged on monday, I have a zillion questions about the front anti roll bar which need answers, not a straightforward piece of kit by any means !         Time for a large glass of Red !!   Build time 41 hours.

New Fuel Line Arrives

Well the courier brought my new fuel line this morning, replacing the one my friend , acquaintance managed to shall we say render unusable !
He was keen to make amends by helping me form the new one into the shape it should be. However before he did so I thought it pertinent to point out how important it was that we got this one correct :

I think he got the message !
(This is my friend Miles, a great guy !)
Anyway after my coaching this one went without a hitch and tomorrow I hope to secure all the underneath lines and then turn the car over to start fitting some interesting bits ! 31hrs now. I have also decided I dislike the steel brake lines and am going to replace them all with copper/nickel.

Whilst Waiting for Fedex

Whilst waiting for Fedex to bring me a new fuel line so that I can finish underneath for now and turn it over, this is the reason I thought we might like to build a kit car.

I bought a ropey old 1979 Mg Midget and over a period of twelve months totally rebuilt the mechanics and renewed just about every part it was possible to renew. Of course I am now stuck with a car which is worth very little in real terms but stands me at a fortune !

The Westfield appealed to us as it was a chance to play with mechanics again but without getting filthy all the time. The Midget was hours spent degreasing, cleaning and painting and my better half was getting fed up with the constant film of oil over the drive and me !

I fitted modern Spax suspension to the rear and it drives very well and for my son and his friends is something of a head turner as although very familiar to us of advancing years his generation had never really seen one in use ! I figured if we could do this then the Westfield should be within our grasp !

Minor Progress

Some minor progress today, the AP master cylinder was fitted after shortening the shaft by 10mm as instructed. The supplied steel brake pipe link seemed very short to me certainly with this master cylinder (although my lack of pipe bending skills may have something to do with it !) and I decided to replace it with copper/nickel which made it easy to bend and a positive fit square into the bore, fingers crossed it looks fine. Spent an awful long time looking for parts I really wish I had room to spread everything out I am sure it would cut down the amount of time not actually working. 28 hours total time building thus far, there may be a danger fossil fuels will run out before we are ready to run !

What Can Possibly Go Wrong !

This afternoon I enlisted the help of my friend who is an expert plumber and pipe bender to help me make things as neat as possible. Having enlisted the help of an expert I looked on in awe as he selected the pipe benders and proceeded to bend crush my fuel line into a flat ! Seems even experts have to select the correct size mandrel for the job and after making sure the pipe was an utter write off he finally stood back, admired his handiwork and pronounced I would have to get a new one !

Thats his thumb in the photo, shortly before he became dizzy after accidentally  hitting his head on a large lump of wood I was carrying ! The old saying seems to be true, you need an expert to really foul things up ! new fuel line on way, time for a coffee !

Panels

Having seen some of the other great build blogs on the net I am not going to try to repeat what others have done. I will merely list milestones or where we have struggled with something illustrate that. so today I have finished drilling holes and all the major panels are on, my son was happy to leave this to me ! citing work as an excuse !!

A total of 24 hours work but fairly straightforward, I cut the protective film with a soldering iron and left some in place in order to protect the panels, I know they are covered up but Joe would know if I scratched them ! Now for lunch and pluck up courage to attack the fuel lines.

Saturday 21st April 2012

First job after a few hours sleep was to go back to my friends house and remove all the glue from our bodywork that the parcel tape used to secure it in transit had left behind. As the body is unlikely to be needed for some time chances are it would be stained by the residue. We used a gentle citrus solvent to dissolve the glue and it took a couple of hours to make sure all was clean and OK to store.

Having done that we rushed home to make a start for real !

About Us

We are father and son Paul and Joe Bromley. We live in the Isle of Man and together for many years have built all manner of "Toys" including model aircraft, helicopters and a speedboat http://www.glen-l.com/picboards/picboard17/pic1022a.html. Building a car has been on the radar for some time but always other more pressing financial matters have needed attention so the idea has lain dormant ........ until now !
Having spent some time being especially nice to my other half, who knew what was coming! we finally took the plunge and ordered our Westfield FW kit and a number of upgrades which we could not resist from the tempting list.
My enthusiasm rubbed off on a friend of ours and he took the plunge too and ordered a Duratec kit and so we were to collect two cars from the factory on Friday 20th April 2012.
We had to use three LWB transits to meet the ferry requirements and did a passable impression of "convoy" driving down the M6 from Liverpool to the factory !

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The two cars, the white one is ours !

Bit of a squeeze into the three vans despite being missing quite a few items, most notably the engines,which had not arrived in time for collection. Westfield are shipping those missing bits to us when they have arrived as it would not be financially viable for us to repeat visit !
Westfield suggested we made sure our 'Westy' was protected at all times by blankets for the journey .... Ted took it literally !

After an exhausting two days we arrived home with our car and filled the space we had available in minutes there is much more than you think ! We left the bodywork at my friends house as he has the space free to store it safely.