Welding Practice

Not really a build day today as I've not done any work on the car. I have, however picked up a MIG welder to build my chassis. Not done MIG welding before, so I've been reading up on it and today finally got to have a play. After many hours I think I'm now getting the hang of it enough to start building so tomorrow is the day when the car will actually start to take shape.

The other thing I did today is buy a large 8'x6' sheet of chip board. This will form the flat surface on which the chassis will be built.

Build Day 16.....Nice and Shiney

I have finally finished de-rusting, cleaning and painting the rear drive components:

I still have drive shafts to clean up, but I need a CV boot kit for them first so these will wait till later.
Talking of nice and shiney, the metal for the chassis arrived today:

Over the next few days I should be able to actually start build something rather than dismantling and cleaning off rust.

Build Day 15.....More Rust Removal

Yep, still cleaned parts yesterday. Looking forward to getting the metal though as I can then actually start building something. Mind you, not sure how much time I can spend on things at the moment as I'm looking for a new everyday car.

Build Day 14.....BIG CHANGE OF PLAN

Well, my poor old Rover 620ti is to be scrapped. It has developed a fault with the Power Steering pump. To have this replaced is almost as much is the car is worth, so it's got to go. However, the engine in this car is great - a 16v turbocharged engine giving out 200bhp with bags of torque! So I've made a big decision with the engine choice for my locost; rather than, as planned, buy another donor car with a V6 in it, I'm going to use this engine from the Rover instead!

Meanwhile, back on the build, I've been cleaning parts as always, but I've also been out and put my order in for the steel tubing used to make the chassis. It will hopefully be delivered later this week.

Build Day 13.....More Rust Removal

Gary came round yesterday and we spent the afternoon in the garage doing more cleaning of parts, this time the rear components as dismantled off the subframe. The diff is now clean, ready for painting and we instigated the use of a bigger vat to bubble away the rust on more than one of the rear hub and break components at the same time.

Build Day 12.....Dismantled the rear sub frame.

Just been completing the dismantling of the rear sub frame. Now have lots of new parts to clean, de-rust etc. Unfortunately I have to go away on work for the next two days so won't get chance to do any more until the weekend.

Build Day 11.....Tight Nuts

Managed to spend a couple of hours tonight in the garage. Turned my attention to starting to dismantle the rear subframe. First thing that needed to be done is undo the hub nuts. Easier said than done. Firstly I had to go out and buy a huge 41mm socket at great expense. I then tried to undo the nuts, but to do this I had to brace the hub, otherwise it would just spin with the nut. A few bent metal braces later I decided to make a special tool out of a heavy duty piece of angle iron which bolted to the wheel bolts. This successfully braced the hub and allowed me finally to apply all my strength and body weight - Result: SUCCESS. The nuts are now loose:

Up and Away

The sierra has gone. And they collected it for free too :)

Build day 10.....The Donor has Left the Building

Well, it's gone as far as the drive. Put together a trolley using strong castors. Lowered the car onto this and then towed it out of the garage onto the drive. It is now ready to be lifted away by the scrap yard who should be comming tomorrow morning:

Also, spent some more time with the gearbox. Looking good now:

And the news you've all been waiting for :) I've finished the uprights!!

Build day 9.....Continued reconditioning components

Yep, you guessed it, I'm still doing the uprights! I've completed the dismantling which was the hardest part. It's now just been a case of waiting for the last bits to bubble away in the bucket. Meanwhile, while I wait I have turned my attention to the gearbox. The box seemed good when I drove the donor, with no strange noises or dodgy changes so I'm not going to recon it, but it does need a damn good cleanup. Started by scrubbing it down with degreaser. Then I treated the iron casting part with rust eater. It now stands ready to be painted once the rust eater hardens off.

I've switched my build diary to a proper Blog site

I thought it would be better from now on to post my build diary entries in a proper Blog. To see the early entries (from days 1 to 8) click here: OLD DIARY

I thought I'd also re-post the last entry from the old diary below:

13-14th June 2006 - Build Days 7 and 8.....Continued reconditioning components

It's a long drawn out job this, even with the clever science. However progress so far is that one of the uprights is now complete and the other is almost dismantled ready for rust removal. As promised, here are the before and after pics: (The Actual disks and calipers are missing from the 'after' shot as these will be replaced with new items)
BEFORE:

AFTER: