Weld Grind, Weld, Grind, Weld, Grind I think you get the picture......

So I managed a little work on the bank holiday Monday, mainly cleaning and redoing welds I wasn't happy with.

I did tack the new engine mounts in (FINALLY) and cut the excess off with the plasma, my wisdom then took me to trying to seat out playing with the steering wheel, and well I nodded off, if it wasn't for the compressor kicking back in I could still be there!

no more work on the car tonight since I started work at 3am and have only just finished so no kit car tonight.

Teeny Tiny update

Yes I know its not even been an hour but i needed to share, or vent you choose, I brought the wrong faffin radiator! that's why it wont go low enough its too wide!

bastard thing!

Ive identified the right one now using several peoples build guides and am now going to wait calmly for the local motor factors to rip me off erm i mean open.

Every little helps.........

Small update, no new pics yet but wait until later .

so some small changes since the last update, Ive started to weld the strengthening plate in on the chassis rail, the top weld is complete and ready to be cleaning down i will finish the rest of it when i remove the engine and turn the chassis onto its back and at the same time i will finish the last of the welds on the rear tub section.

a trial fit of the radiator left me feeling dazed and confused and the bloody thing is still too high, time for a rethink methinks.

plans for today are to finalise the radiator mounts and possibly begin work on the alternator bracket.

I'll let you know later how i get on.

A Lovely Rear End.......

So Monday was a bust for working on the car, but then being on call often means that's how it goes, Tuesday night I got home but still managed to get some work done on the car, I finished cleaning up the rear frame and tacked the new grp rear frame supports in place.
I was also planning to get some more done tonight and just as i was getting home I got called out to reading festival site, ah well theres hope for later in the week.

Monkey Burgers!

Right so Friday nights run from Thurliegh to Hartlepool was a great little drive and the mondeo excelled its self with only using 3/4 of a tank there and back!

so on arriving at Saturn I was greeted by Andy (Spud) and Adam, Handy was still Akip ;)

after coffee and chatting the talk turned to more serious matters, like "lets see how it came out then" referring to my bodywork and slightly abnormal choice of color.

Well as luck would happen it turned out Great! I'm well chuffed with it! ah then we come to loading the car up, but we prevailed and it did all all fitted! even if driving back the side panel was riding on my shoulder :)

Then after a monkey burger and a chin wag off back south!

unfortunately I was off out for a Curry with some mates last night so the burning desire to prop the GRP on the chassis and make Brmmmmmm noises had to wait, whats amazing is how much room its taking up to store it properly in the 2ND lock up!

Well this morning I tackled the removal of the rear tub with the angry grinder and then decided enough was enough time to pop the GRP on and take piccies!

my hope is that i will have finished my dry build before I go on holiday and then have the chassis off for acid bath and powder coat whilst im away along with a few bits to the chrome platers so once im home i can collect them and start the rebuild in earnest!

Enjoy the Pics and feel free to comment!

So a man walks into a bar........

Well you might think that last nights effort were a bit of a joke, I managed to spend 5 hours in the lock up last night! woo, I spent 3 of them with the angry grinder cleaning up the remains of the old engine mounts back to bare chassis beams. to discover that two beams had been damaged, one of them badly by the plasma cutter.
So, rather than filling the gaps with weld I've decided to plate them, this is all good and simple until yup you guessed it the welder runs out of wire! OK so this isn't a major issue I have a spare roll, oops the spare roll has gotten damp and now has more surface rust than a British Leyland build car! its beyond use. so that effectively halts progress for the evening. or does it, infinite wisdom ensues and the time is well spent reorganising my tools, making sockets back into sets (well close to sets) and sorting tools to go back in the van.

Well tonight after work I'm off to collect the fibre glass from the guys at Saturn, I gave you a sneak peek of it the other day with the photo that Andy sent me, once I get it home I might, that's might..... drop some of it on the chassis to give you a lookie at what she will look like once the body work is completed.

and yes girls, its a she. anything this awkward has to be female!

All work and no play........

So its been all work and no play so far this week, until last night that is!

my plans for Tuesday went out the window as I ended up stuck in Dover overnight for work.

Having made my way home Wednesday I proceeded to mount the new steering set up, finding it no better than the old set up (except every things now perfect not "near enough") I took the decision to cut all the engine mounts off and start from scratch again, 3 hours later I have an engine tack mounted but totally clear of the steering column! Yay!

I also took the time to finish my tidy up and now have a clean workshop! also having removed the fuel tank and rear roll bar from the car and put them in the other lock up for the time being.

the plan for tonight is to removed the excess material left from the old mounts that I didn't remove last night as I ran out of grinding discs and make some 5mm plates to weld to the chassis for the mounts to bolt on as I am unhappy with the current 3mm ones.

then I will cut off the gar box mounts and realign that making sure its dead center of the transmission tunnel before re welding them.

Then, and now I'm probably pushing my luck i might get the seat mounts and harness mounts welded in.

here's to dreaming!

What do I have written on my forehead.....??

So last night I had planned to finish work for 5 and crack on with the steering rack mounts, erm no.....
Thanks to another engineer having some family problems I ended up heading to Reading at 4 o'clock to a generator that had Hemorrhaged 250L of fuel into the safety bund, so after draining this away and repairing the tiny piece of pipe that had split i started home to arrive in at, 830pm, bit late to be getting the angry grinder out. so I decided not to be beaten that I would carry on tidying up, which I did to some extent, well for about an hour before becoming bored and deciding i was gonna just call it a night.

Lets hope my plans for today go OK, I'm hoping to hit the Aluminum Warehouse today to collect a sheet of 2x1x1.5 Ali for making my transmission panels etc and also get home for the magic 5 o'clock and start on the steering, I really need to get this done this week before collecting the bodywork from Saturn on Saturday.

Wish me luck!

Open mouth insert foot

Ok so my plan for yesterday was to continue tidying the lockups and getting the tools sorted out so i was prepared for the arrival of the body work on saturday.
This didnt happen, Alfie decided that he wasnt content to sit in the kit and play with the steering wheel again today and that playing football with his brother was boring, so we ended up sat inside watching sponge bob and eating well basically shite all day! now I could have pulled Dad rank on them and made them come to the lock up but decided since I wont be seeing them for 2 weeks now I'd rather sit with them and just enjoy being with them.

On the plus side Sponge bob is kinda funny.

So Im about to start sorting tools to throw in the van for today and try to sort my sockets out as they are all intermingled now (thanks Alfie!)

Tonight I will try to get the steering tacked in! Im not pulling another week like the last one!

Daily Grind Part Deux

So with kids in tow I bravely headed to the lockup, having managed to amuse the kids with various running and fetching for me :) I have achieved most of what we set out to do, I managed to grind the welds clear on the chassis for the steering rack mounts. I also had a tidy up after removing the track rod ends from the old rack I decieded it was time to get the top box out of my van and get it back ontop of the roll cab, problem is empty the box weighs 40KG and its 41 inches long so kind of a strech to lift on your own, so after Recruiting Alex (LandLord) from his snooze on the sofa we put it back where it should be on the roll cabinet.

Now im jus sorting out what tools I need to keep in the van and whats going back in the workshop.

Place looks like a bomb has hit it again!

Oh well that will give me and my mini me's something to do tomorrow!

The Grind Continues

So having had a manic week at work I decided that this weekend would be a nice relaxing one, Yeah right, I have the boys this weekend again and its raining, meaning my plan of letting them kick a football about around the lockup has come to nought.

I have a couple of jobs I can do whilst the kids are about, I need to remove the Track rod ends from the old rack and extensions and clean up the chassis ready for the new laser cut brackets that arrived this morning from 3GE courtesy of John and as usual they are perfect.

I also have the engine stand i ordered from machine mart to build up ready for the permement Pinto that will be going in the car with the chrome and powder coated bits on it, ( I'm leaving the one thats curently fitted in for the moment until the shiny one is finished to give me something to build around.)

I've also decided conclusively on the wheel I will be buying for it once the build is about 95% complete Team Dynamics Pro Race 3 in white with some "Custom Detail"

So Time to force the kids out of there Pjs away from the TV and into some clothes!

So not much in the way of an update this weekend, Me and the sprogs are about to head into the workshop to have a good long tidy up as everythings all over the place and I have 2 pinto engines arriving next week / week after and my fibre glass is coming week of the 21st

best crack on!

Ok so two posts in one day

Well this is a first, after my revelation this morning I decided that the reason I'm not happy with the progress on the kit is mainly the finish, so how to rectify this? well my conclusion is I'm going to finish the welding on the chassis, IE rectify the steering problems and complete the remaining brackets for the engines ancillary systems IE rad mounts, nose cone mounts, then exhaust braking etc etc well i reckon you get the idea, then strip down and off to the powder coaters for a decent finish. then rebuild the rolling chassis before off to the local garage to get the tracking and wheel alignments set before covering the track rod ends with the IVA proof gear.

Ive also decided to remove the 2 litre pinto that's currently fitted in order to strip it and check it over, I do have a 1800 pinto i can drop in so as to make sure that all the pipes brackets etc etc are in the right place.

I'm also planning to "pretty it up" chroming and powder coating various odds and sods and stainless bolts.

I feel like I'm having a ramble here so I'm gonna leg it and see what the kids are destroying

Eureka!

OK so its been a while again but I haven't been totally slack! works been crazy busy so build time has tumbled to weekends and as I have my 2 boys (Liam 5 Alfie almost 3) as often as I can this prevents a great deal of work on the car at weekends. Kinda hard to weld or grind with a couple of super inquisitive sprogs tagging along :)
But back to my excuses about not making any progress with the kit, I've managed to secure the use of a 2ND shipping container which has been put down about 15 feet from the existing one making my storage double what it was! so I've been busy fitting lights and power etc to that and testing my two new toys; a brand new plasma cutter from http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com/Welding/SWP_Cut_40_Plasma_Cutter.html
Great bit of kit I cant recommend them enough the guys there are very helpful and the service is top notch.

the second new toy is a DC tig welder, now I've never tig welded before and have spent a while trying (3 hours or so) now since its on disposable argon cylinders (which only last for 1 1/2 hours a pop) Ive used up 4 tungsten's and 2 gas bottles trying to teach myself so i think I'm going to pop it up for sale on locost builders then try eBay if not.


Ok so the Eureka is all down to my finally figuring out the problem with the steering, part of the reason was I couldn't see the wood for the trees so to speak, the steering rack mount is back to front meaning the rack is too low making the angle too steep for the column extension, OK so that's problem one, problem 2 is that my steering rack extensions have been made to book spec (Brought from 3GE) this means that they are about 70mm too long! this means that the left and right wheels are trying to steer in opposite directions at the same time! OK so that's problem two, problem 3 is the steering rack i was sold as a Mk II escort rack is wrong!


so on to the solutions, One, Order new plates for the steering rack mounts from 3GE to replace the u/s one, Two, ordered new extensions from Rally Design, and Three, New Steering rack from Rally design.

I've already checked that these parts will fit with the guys on the haynes forum so I'm feeling happier with it all now, I have to admit this steering issue has been getting to me and Ive been questioning myself a lot over if i should continue but haven't give in (although I've been close!)

So the progress for this update is small, the steel steering column bearing is in (with Clecos) and working well lets see what happens next week.


I'm going to try to post some new pictures etc with the next update when i fit the new rack.