Brooklands December

I managed some more time in the garage today and managed to make a
quite a lot of progress. I've been busy this week in the evening with
Round Table as we run a Carol Float around Huntingdonshire in December,
and I was out collecting with it on Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, back to today. Started off by welding nuts to the top of the
petrol tank brackets as it occurred to me once the rear bulhead and side
panels were fixed it would be a sod to refit the tank if I removed it. This
way I can just bolt it up into captive bolts. Next task was the brake line
as this is another item that will be difficult to access. The problem is that
there is no recess in which to run it, and although the spring seats are
lower, I was still a little uncomfortable. In the end I decided that the
brake pipes has blue nylon tubes that slid along the pipe, so I drilled a
hole the width of the blue nylon tube right through the cross memeber and
used the nylon to protect the pipe . You can see what I mean in the photo
(apologies for the quality). I'll do the same on the other side with the fuel
pipe.

I then rivetted the two bulkhead skins together (I decided on two skins so
that it strong enough in case it does get used as a rear seat), cut a hole
for access to the fuel sender (thanks for that idea Peter) and then
mounted the fuel pump onto the bulkhead using metal plate an two rubber
mounts to islate vibrations. Finally I sealed and rivetted the bulkhead in.

I doubt I will get any more time in the garage before Christmas, so I
would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a healthy and
prosperous new year.

Been away for the weekend so not as much progress as I would have liked. I swapped around the suspension
so that the right springs and rods were in the right place - I'm still awaiting the new bushes for the dampers.
Whilst I was working on it I checked out the full stretch of the damper, and I suspect that there won't be
enough travel, something else I'll have to check.

Anyhow I decided to fit the floorpan. To be honest I was dreading it as itis the largest panel and it looked
awkward. As usual, the more worried you are the easier it is - I had it done in an evening. The only rivets that
I left out were around the footwells which I'll tackle next.

Another night out in the garage. You seem to make so much more progress when you get consecutive time
working on the build. Tonight was footwells night. These come as a flat template which need some complex
folds. Whilst it's fairly easy to see how it should work once you know what a footwell looks like, forming
them with neat consistent edges is difficult as the shape makes the use of formers difficult. Anyhow, the
first one went well, the footwell dropped in like a glove, however the second was a pig. For some reason one
of the folds was off line and it took90 minutes to get it to fit. The problem wasn't the templates, it was more
my ineptitude. Never mind, we got there in the end and all experience is valuable.

Oh dear. I knew eventually the web site would prove its value, and it has done. Peter Donbavand, a fellow
builder who I met last weekend was looking at my site and noticed a "minor error" with my floorpan (thanks
Peter). The edges should have been curved to match the upper rails rather than straight as I had made them.
Grrrrrr! It was my fault as when I re-read the manual the information was there, although a diagram would
have worked wonders. So I had to think about how I would sort this one out. First up I didn't want to
remove any rivets if possible as it would leave rattles in the chassis which would annoy me. In the end I
decided that I would make a narrow former with the curve, wedge it under the panel firmly with battens
against the floor and see whether I could form the shape. If this failed the panel would be knackered and I
would be forced to create a new edge, drill out the existing rivets down the outer rail and rivet it on into the
same holes.

Well, the former idea worked well enough as you can see in the
pictures on the right. The flange is a bit crinkly but that isn't
surprising given a flat sheet folded into a curve, and it will be
covered by the body panels.

That took a couple of hours, but I decided to press on with the rear
bulkhead. Again, the vertical flanges have to have a slight curve to
match the outer panels, but this time I did it first by creating a
slight curve on a former and folding them over. The result was
good, except for the fact that there is no way it will go into the
space over the fuel tank. Peter had the same problem but his chassis
has a front to rear strap on the hoops, so I had hoped mine would
fit. Looks like I'll have to use a bigger hammer!

And lastly, I discovered the rear dampers were the wrong ones so
I'm waiting for Phil to send me some replacements. The rears are
longer than the fronts and somehow I had got two sets of fronts.
Although they fitted, the rear arms had very little vertical movement
until the dampers reached full extension

Someone is trying to tell me something. No sooner do I get the site back up again after the second problem
with the hosts, than my phone line packs up (in fact, all 4 lines!). BT said they would get it back up after the
weekend. I suspect such a lacksadaisical approach to paying my bill wouldn't be accepted! If you're reading
this then you will know that it has been fixed.

Anyhow, progress on the car has been slight as I've been busy this weekend with Christmas preparation and
family stuff. I did manage to get the rear bulhead in by cutting off the rear upright section, I'll rivet it back
on with a fillet section. I also checked whether the fuel pump would fit on the bulkhead panel and it does.
last thing was to tidy up the garage as it was full of sawdust amd metal shavings.

No update last week as I was working abroad again. That's the last trip this year though so hopefully I'll get a
few evenings in next week before the festivities begin. When I got back a) the revised rear dampers had
arrived with the new bushes for the front and b) the phone line still wasn't fixed which is why you didn't see
the December 8 update.

On saturday afternoon I got into the garage and replaced the rear dampers and fitted the new bushes to the
front dampers (which meant complete removal). Hopefully that means the last of the fiddling with suspension
until we get it on its wheels and set the ride height

On Sunday I got into the garage for a couple of hours and spent more time
on the rear bulkhead panel, trimming the area where it meets the rear
chassis. I have decided to add an extra cross member which I fabricated
and welded on, and thenm primed and painted. Basically it is a piece of
steel angle which supports the rear bulkhead where it bends upwards
towards the rear of the chassis. This will support the panel better, and
I'm also toying with the idea of adding some jump seats in here in the
future for which I will need somewhere to anchor lapstraps.

Preparations for Christmas and working abroad has really eaten into my
available time and progres has been slow. Lets hope I can start to speed
things up over the next few weeks.

At last, an evening in the garage. I had some help last night in the shape of my son, Timothy, who's 6 on
Christmas day. He comes out and "helps" whenever it's appropriate which is usually when spanners and
hammers are involved. Last night he wanted to help so I decided building the gearbox was better than metal
bashing.

The gearbox all went together fine although the clutch mechanism took some thinking about, particularly how
the release bearing fitted in relation to the release arm - what isn't immediately clear is that the spring clip
passes through two small holes in the release arm and then into holes in the bearing mounting plate. Finally I
filled it with EP90 and fitted the top cover

Although the new adaptor plate looks to make fitting the bellhousing bolts difficult, in actual fact there is
enough room to get a socket and ratchet in and tighten it up. A tip here, fit the bellhousing and then the stub
axles (with new gaskets) but don't tighten the stub axle bolts at this point. First fit the eight bolts in the
bellhousing then the stub axle bolts. If you don't you will get leaks from the box/bellhousing joint.

I lied, I got a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon and finished off the rear bulkhead as well as
had a look at the front bulkhead panel, which is next. Since then the cocktail shaker has made an
appearance and I'm probably not safe with a soup spoon let alone a web design tool so I'll leave it there.
have a great Christmas everyone!

Thought I'd give the last update of the year. Since the last update I've finished the rear bulkhead and laid
in the brake lines properly from back to front. I also had a look at how the fuel line and wirimng lomm will
run but haven't decided exactly how to protect them from grounding - drilling through the chassis memeber
won't work for the fuel line.

Next step was to fit the front bulkhead. Flanges bent as usual with a former and the horizontal bend added
with straight pieces. One awkward job is to cut the slots for the pedal assembly plates to pass through.
After some thought I used (several) cutting off wheels with a Dremel which made for a neat finish. After
trial fitting the panel these need to be lengthened slightly to align the plates with the chassis member that the
master cylinder attaches to. Before rivetting I also trial fitted the top panel.

Next time I'll take some photos so that you can understand what I just wrote! Happy New Year everyone,
see you in 2003.