More work on the front

Only 3 hours available this Saturday morning on a Bank Holiday, so continuing with the front end build of the car. had to stop the build last week due to 2 essential missing parts... the lower ball ends. These were out of stock when I picked up the kit back in November, and planning the build I put all the front end parts in a box ready for this part of the build and totally forgot there were parts outstanding, and not only where these 2 parts missing but other items as well. Luckily we managed to find some of the parts... manly bolts, but still missing 1 pinch bolt, back to GBS next week for more parts ? In the mean time we managed to get the lower ball ends and continue the build.

Track rod ends where also adjusted to an approximate length so that the steering looked straight, final adjustment will be made when the wheels are on and when the car is in for pre-IVA checks at the factory.

Brake calipers look close to the brake discs, these will be centralised when the wheels are fitted.

Next the radiator, before fitting 4 fixing brackets had to be removed with the grinder, so that the radiator would fit inside the brackets on the chassis. Also the hose's for the cooling system had to be cut down to fit, took several attempts to get this right, didn't think I'd have to cut that much off ?

The cooling fan just clips into 2 groves top and bottom of the radiator, a bit of bending of the plastic required, but clips in nicely.

While the car is still up on the tressel's some more riveting was required underneath. Just a few running down the underside of the side panels at approximately 6 inch's apart. Didn't know if these where necessary ? but after reading a few blogs thought while still up in the air to put a few in to keep the IVA man happy when inspecting the underside.


Finally, just one more photo from the side of the build so far...

Many thanks again to Simon for the help today, always when 2 of you are working together we seem to get more done.

Total man hours today... 6 hours

Total build time so far... 139 hours

Rear Panel

Its been nearly 4 weeks since my last blog, been a bit busy and only spent a few hours on the car. With the help of my son, Alex, we fixed trim around the holes for the front suspension on the side panel, and secured with the "black sticky stuff". We also attached the runners to the seats, and located the holes in the floor ready for fixing and fitted the seat belt harness. finally cleaned the garage and sorted all the tools.

Today was fitting the rear panel, with the help of Simon. Raf from GBS had given instructions on bending and fitting and sounded very straight forward ? All the tabs where bent back and bending proceeded, all well and good, offered it up to the car and looked good again, Then came issue number 1... Getting the cables through for the fog/reversing/number plate lights. This was a pain and a half but we finally got them through the holes ! ... then issue number 2...

Bolting the light units to the back panel... some what difficult to reach past the fuel tank with spanners in hand ? ... so off with the back panel to fit the light units first.

First panel fitting.

Second panel fitting with lights fitted.

Next sequence of fitting was to attach the rear panel to the roll-over bars support with the top trim.

While I was drilling the top trim panel and fixing with temporary rivets, Simon noticed a slight mistake we made while re-fitting the sump ? ... The Solenoid cable had become trapped between the engine and sump ! and we only just noticed ?... Rollocks ! and other nasty words ? No photos of this mammoth cock-up but it did take up and hour or so to fix.


God I hate drilling Stainless Steel, broke 4 drill bits this afternoon, only got 2 left ! Drilling this panel was taking some time, so Simon started on the front steering and suspension.

Next "pain in the butt" was the fuel filler cap. This involved once again drilling stainless steel, and then trying to get 6 extremely small nuts and bolts through the filler cap to fix it to the rear panel. I have large stubby fingers which have lost their feeling in the ends, so this job did not suit me, also seem to be running out of steam at this point ?

Next job on the rear panel was to get the rear light electrics through a small hole, sounds easy but the cable had a large connecting block attached, so had to be taken apart... not the job for stubby fingers with no feeling in the ends !

Meanwhile Simon was cracking on with the front suspension and wishbone assembly.

Been at it for 8 hours, and we have both it the "brick wall" and run out of steam. Time to stop for today.

Time for rear panel fitting and part fitting of front suspension and steering ... 16 hours

Total build time ... 133 hours