Wednesday 14 July 2010

A bit more bodywork

Two notches have been cut into the scuttle on either side to clear the steering rack support bar.

Rivnut threaded inserts have been fixed onto the offside top chassis rail, underside still to do and then I can start the near side panel. Something that became apparent whilst working on the side panel is that I'd struggle to do the underside as there isn't enough space for my pistol drill so I've invested in an angle drill made by ryobi so I can use the same batteries as the pistol drill. I've started mounting the nosecone on hinges along the lower edge. The hinges are in the right position and I'll need to put a threaded insert on each top chassis rail to bolt the nose cone down from the inside.

Couple of images showing how the hinges are mounted from the underside:


and from the inside:

How the nosecone looks, scuttle and side panels clamped on for the moment

Once I'm happy with the nosecone position, I'll offer up the bonnet to finalise the position of the scuttle

Sunday 4 July 2010

Few more jobs

Hole drilled in exhaust collector for the lambda sensor boss ready for welding.


I've also made new front brake lines so that they terminate and screw into the front flexi hoses through the side panel. I'd originally terminated the lines at a bracket on the chassis which meant the flexis would have to pass though the side panel. I'd planned to use a rubber gromet to stop the flexis hoses rubbing against the side panel but I'm sure I read somewhere that this could fail IVA.

I used a piece of fibreglass offcut left over from the exhaust hole to give a bit of extra support where the flexi meets each front brake line. These offcuts were stuck to the inside of the panels using a little sikaflex. The lines look a lot neater this time as I used a proper pipe bender, the original brake lines were simply bent by hand as I didn't have a pipe bender back then.


Also today, I fixed four magnets to one of the drive shafts for the speedo pickup. This was done using araldite adhesive. I've read that taping over the magnets with some duck tape gives some extra support and helps stop them from flying off. Duck tape added to shopping list......

I need to re-look at the throttle cable and get this working (I cut the first one too short) then I can start thinking about putting the side panels on.

Another item on the shopping list is a engine mount for a fiesta which I've ordered from ebay. The plan is to use this mount to support the end of silencer. I may need to weld a piece of plate between some of the chassis rails to act as a brace to bolt the engine mount to. Will see how it could work when it gets here.

Saturday 3 July 2010

Few jobs

Nose cone mesh fitted. A few blocks of wood were fixed inside the nose using some sikaflex. The mesh is then screwed onto to these bits of wood.


White stripe applied to the side panels


The position has been marked onto the exhaust collector for the lambda sensor boss.