Anyone Still care?

Wow

six months have gone by pretty quick - oh well there you go

Progress - photos of the car in day light - note its in etch prime and is ready for the cgae builder - only a year late.... Its funny how when you see the photo of something you have been working on for four years it can look really crap but it isnt - its just not freakin well finished yet....

note also that the guards have been trial fitted and shaped - the rears require a section to be taken out of the bottom on the front the guard and this moved up - which is no big deal and something that will only take a weekend to sort out - otherwise they were a surprisingly easy adaption the front left guard also needs a bit of shaping on its front edge as well - needs to be a touch more verticle. I will do these when the car is painted and the doors hung.

cage is going to be a monster and will take the cage bloke a bit to finish as he has shut his shop and is doing my cage from his shed at home - inbetween rallies.... my timing - as ever - is off! I am building some tubular rear arms and have some machine time booked at work - all good.

enjoy the pics
w

Swiss Cheese

Doors - doors - doors - spent a few hours making swiss cheese out of the doors - 1 1/4" hole saw and a whole lot cutting fluid. About 100 holes per door into the frames - managed not to stuff the outer skins... I still have one frame to do then its about a days worth of finishing per door to get them ready for paint.... also removed the side intrusion bars from all the doors. Not sure of the wieght saving but I cant take much more out of the doors and have them still able to function as doors (and comply with the rule book - they must have a finished door card on them )-

nothing happens fast - but fast things do happen
w

Progress?!

Stunned! - Well I am tired out anyway - I spent all last week working on the car - The body shell has been sanded ready for paint - inside and out - engine bay and boot - awful nasty horrible job - I ended up with the compressors linked together giving 65 litres and 4.5 horsepower of pure puff.... enough to run a DA orbital sander and create  much dust...  the darn thing is ready for undercoat/primer... yay ( I also have no finger prints left)

 

Managed to take the beast outside lift it up on to its side (yes by  my self - it weighs almost nothing now!) and finish the underside - seam welded and undersealed - its black and ready for a top coat of gloss black when the time comes - that has been on my list to do since I picked up the car four years ago! I  even have photos to prove this effort of strength and application of black sticky stuff

 

The flares have landed - and the only need a little trim up to fit - and will be bolt on rather then be moulded on - much better for servicing and replacement....

 

Have the alloy sheet for the door cards and firewall sealing - fuel cell brackets are ready to be fitted along with the fuel pump - just need to cover them now!

 

all in all a good week - photos to follow - really...

 

w

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Picture Update

Finished and Painted Throttle assembly - Pedal tray with the newly fabricated throttle pedal - dont these old cars look ugly stripped back and being worked on - the flash dosent make it look any better either...
fuel cell tray - in steel - I couldnt be bothered with alloy for this - I dont want the cell moving around and this will be plenty strong
Seat in position - note parcel tray is gone
Front of drivers compartment and pedal tray
Boot Well showing tubbing and fuel cell tray the other side is the same!
Strut Top Mount - 8mm Steel and AN bolts!

update - progress or lack of it

Another week has dragged past and the 128 has had a bit more done on it - the Throttle pedal is finished - painted in black Hammerite it looks pretty okay actually - photos were taken I just need to get them from the camera to the blogg.

 

I will need to fabricate a mount for the cable but that will have to wait until the engine is in and I can work out what it is we are going to use. Ditto the return springs.

 

Spent some time with the sand paper and a bit of newtech body filler sorting out a few bits and pieces in the engine bay and boot wells - will continue on body prep for now as no money for the roll cage - doors are now back on the to-do list - as are a fire wall patches and fuel cell mounts/straps

 

All in all a weekend of pottering without much direction.... the more I do the more there is to do...

 

fun fun fun

 

ignore me I am rambling again......

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throttled

so what do you do when your budget temporarily goes on a sabbatical? (also known as a kitchen) - keep doin stuff..... I am too far down this track to back off now....

 

so for this weekends fun I finished the camber plate mounts with some nice AN series bolts.... these are welded to the bottom of the mounts (cringe) I could have left them float but that would have made camber changes a real pain... as previously noted these camber plates are not the optimal in elegant solutions but we shall see - they do buy any additional 25mm or so of lowering by moving the attachment point above the original height of the tower mounts...

 

I also solved the small issue of the throttle pedal for the floor mounted pedal box.... take one uno turbo gear shifter (nice single plane bearing attached) apply a 1.5 meter length of roll cage tube and lean on it....  this gives a nice even curve.... chop the shift lever at the pivot bearing and shorten the free length chop the clevis off the top shifter linkage tube - linish flat and there you have the key component of the throttle pedal.... not as light is optimal but it was free!

 

next week - finish the throttle pedal with cable bell crank and base mount

 

I will also update the photos.... really

 

still following up on the blasted flares

 

later

 

w

Mission Creep

The camber plates are shaping up - they are not the smartest design in terms of bolt loadings - they sit on top of the towers and all the tension loads for the front struts to the body go through the nuts and thread lands (i.e. bolt is in tension - with reversing loads) so the holes are being reamed 5/16 and and close tolerance AN5-10 bolts being used with aircraft lock nuts and nordlock washers. I will lock the bolt heads in place - somehow

 

that's the good bit - the bad bit is that due to some project cost overruns in real life the roll cage is back on the deferred list - if I can sell a spare Volvo and probably my Mi16 Peugeot I f can get back into things but not right at the moment

 

work will continue on body prep - throttle pedal fabrication - steering shaft fabrication fuel tank location and set up plus resolving the flare issue. I will also need wheel studs and wheel bearings solid suspension bushes - steering pinion machining and brake calliper tidy up etc.....

 

T minus 3 weeks and holding

 

blast

w