Shifty

Work is progressing on the assembly of the car - at last.
Fabricated a new internal/external shift linkage ( which looks suspiciously like a bent piece of tube) and started hanging the flares. Doors are ready to go on as is the front and rear suspension just waiting on Koni to send my rear shockers back.

yay

OHMYGODITSORANAGE!!!! now how did that happen?

Well quite apart from anything else I am well pleased... the car is ready for assembly - and at the last moment at the paint shop I decided that instead of balck it would become - well - orange - really - its a PPG colour in commercial transport grade paint... no particular reason other than I drove past a VW Polo that was a nice shade of orange on the way to the painters... duh
the paint crew at New Zealand Panel and Paint in New Plymouth did a very nice job... I spent four days on the sanding blocks and they only managed to tell me "its not worth the effort your just going to bend it anyway" about five times each day....

Overall it took 40 hours of sanding prep and 30 hours of painter time..... now thats alot - 8.5 litres of material on the car - end result there is no trace of the previous Fiat blue - anywhere - and I am broke - again!

so there you have it - check the pictures while I go and get a roll of bubble wrap so I can wrap the car up so it dont get scracthed.

So now its assembly time... with a stack of moinor fabrication - fitting up and general mucking around to do... little stuff like the fluid lines and the wiring loom... dash and switch panels finish the gear shift linkage glaze the car.... did I mention that I am broke? The engine is doing my head in - I have a 1600 Tempra that is only just run in at 440,000 km that I can pinch the engine out of - chuck in the FT7 cam and adjustable pully - scab a set of headers from somewhere and a set of bearings and rings - flywheel and clutch off the 1500 in the parents in laws shed and Bobs your Aunties live in lover! Sticking with the four speed as long as its still okay... if I can beg and borrow there is still an outside chance of running at DeHav drive in October - I really should start hitting up some sponsors... which could be a bit of a laugh :-) Starting from this...

Yes it looks pink!

But pink sands off to be orange...
Then it was masked (about four times!)
And - yes that is a bloody great dent in the left front guard.... heavy handed handling - fixed straight away

Ending like this - you can just make out the panels tucked in behind the car....

Yes it still exists

Some evidence of the summers activities

- Fabricated rear arm - yes there are two (still one tab to add) on the dummy jig and a range of suspension parts - from left to right- front tension struts and brackets - delrin bushes - rose jointed main arms - (top) gear shift tower- solid engine mounts [RH - Top (temporay fix - evo version coming)- bootom]- Delrin bushed rear arms.

Not shown but also done are the rear brack caliper mounts, internal gear shift tower mount, delrin rear upper bushes.

Still waiting on the paint job - then I can start some reassembly.

Cheers

warwick

Rollin

Okay wheels on - guards massaged - lookin wide and low - thats a Fiat Tempra sedan in the background the 128 door tops are just above its bumper line... ground clearance is 110mm at the front Jack point and 80mm on the sill jack points.... I will take iyt all aprat again next week for final paint prep... oh and a pic of the top secret instiu adjusted swaybarless front arms

More Cage Pics

Some more of the cage

Roll Cage Central

FInally! its looking like a race car.... and now weighs about 80kg more than it did when it left... 30 metres of 1.5" roll cage tube - another 3.5 meteres of smaller tube and sundry bits - so the following are all hanging of the cage;
seat mounts
belt mounts
steering mounts
front bracing
I am Now Broke - oh also have some VERY nice willwood four pots and mounts as well... REALLY broke :-)

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