Build Day 65.....Gearbox Adapter Plates

After a little time away from it, I got some more work done today on the car. Now that I've recieved the special paint I ordered I did some new paint tests with that to see how it goes.

The second, and main thing I did today was start designing the special adapter plates to mate the gearbox with the bell housing. Looking good so far, I've managed to map out exactly where all the bolt holes etc go. The next thing to do is cut the design out of MDF as a prototype to check it all works, before getting it cut for real out of steel plate.

Build Day 64.....More Bits to the Chassis

I'm still waiting for my special paint to arrive, so in the meantime I have been welding some more parts to the chassis. Not much more to say than that really. I'll post some more pictures of the chassis once I've got a bit further.

Build Day 63.....Two More Tubes

Only spent an hour in the garage today. Cut and spot welded on two round tubes to the chassis as extra triangulation/bracing.

Build Days 61 and 62.....

I've only managed a couple of hours in the garage over the last 2 night. I've been concentrating on making up more of the chassis brackets.

I've also decided to scrap my paint test and instead have ordered some specialist paint to do the job properly. I've also put in an order for some of the most expensive items of the build - the suspension springs and shocks. I need these now to ensure I set the mounting for them in the right position.

Build Day 60.....More Chassis Work

Went back to work on the chassis. Added two extra braces/triangulations. I also started looking at painting the front wishbones. The reason for this is that in order to position the brackets, I will need to temporarily attach the wishbones to the brackets when I offer them up to the chassis (to get the spacing right). For this I need to fit the bushes, and once on the bushes are very difficult to get off. So, if I paint the wishbones first, I can then fit and forget the bushes.

Anyway, I'm not sure quite yet what to paint the wishbones with. So I've started doing some tests with various paints on an off cut of steel. We'll see how this goes before I paint the wishbones for real.

Build Day 59.....Suspension Brackets and Bushes

Today I started looking at the suspension brackets which will need welded up onto the chassis. The four brackets for the lower front wishbones will be the first to go on, so the first thing to do was to make them up:

Now, the plan was to set up a jig to position the brackets correctly, however first I had a look at the wishbones I’d bought a while ago. These came complete with a set of polyurethane bushes and hear-in lies a problem. The metal inserts for the bushes are too long:

Double checked the brackets and they are the correct size, and fit the wishbone correctly. So, only one thing for it! After some careful grinding:

All fits nicely now:

Build Day 58.....Finally....

Finally finished the main welding up of the chassis:



Still loads more to do on the chassis, but at least the welding marathon is over.

Build Days 56 & 57....More Welding

Spent two or three hours over the last two days continuing the welding. Getting there now. Should be able to complete the main welding up of the chassis over the weekend.