Got the engine mounts aligned and welded on yesterday.

I think I'll sneak an hour in the garage today as the wife is in bed nursing a sore head after drinking copious amounts of vodka and coke at a do at the social club last night.

I gotta get the gearbox mount made next, and add some triangulation to the chassis in certain places. I'm going to be using larger tubing than the book reccomends, as the book chassis is designed to take a 1.3L OHV Ford engine. As i'm using a far larger, more powerful engine I need to add strength over and above what the book calls for.

Anyway here are my luverly engine mounts!

Picked up the engine rubber mounts today, got them home and used some old spare 4" x 2" (3mm thick) box section steel I have lying around to fabricate the chassis engine mounts. The steel really is quite old and is rusty on the inside of what was the box section. As I have opened up one side of the box section it should be pretty easy to clean the rust off.

I'm not working this weekend (first time this year) so hopefully i'll be able to get plenty done. No Pics just now but ill take some soon.

I have finished, painted and welded on the chassis mounting boxes. I have ordered a set of engine mounting rubbers from car builder solutions which I have to collect from the courier depot tomorrow, so hopefully i'll be able to get the engine back in and fabricate the engine and gearbox mounts tomottor. once this has been done I can knock the legs off the build table, loxer the chassis to the floor and mount the rear axle.

I'll have a bash at it tomorrow and post some pictures up.

Had a good few hours on the car today, I fabricated the other chassis mounting box, tacked them both to the chassis and lined up the axle, before centering it and marking where the bolt holes were to be drilled.

I then ground off the tack welds, took the boxes to my drill press and drilled the mounting holes up to 10mm, they need to be opened further to 14.5mm but I don't have a drill bit in the garage to suit at the moment. I think I have some in my toolbox in work so I'll have a look tomorrow afternoon and then drill the holes out on Tuesday.

Yesterday I made a run to Bristol to collect a set of front hub assemblies from a Sylvia Striker (actually from a Ford Sierra) as they fit standard locost wishbones. I've given up on the idea of using the BMW front hubs as to be honest I'm not 100% confident in my ability to fabricate the front wishbones accurately enough to maintain proper wheel alignment. Even a slight mis-alignment would make the car's handling awful.

The other major decision I've made this week is that I'm not going to submit the car for an IVA test, which means it cant be driven on the road. This isn't a big deal for me, when I finished my last car project (restoring a Ford Capri) I hardly used it, and it sat in the garage for months at a time wasting tax, insurance and mot money. This car will be so mad when it's finished then a racetrack is the only real place for it. So when it's done I'll take it on track days, this also gives me another project for afterwards - build a car trailer to carry it on! All this means, I can leave it sitting in the garage - not costing me a thing. Also, the build is graetly simplified as things like catalytic convertors, lights, chassis number and all the attached beauracracy are not required.

The steel arrived today and as I had booked a half day off work (got virtually nothing to do at the moment - and there is only so much nothing i can do before it gets to me) I spent the afternoon in the garage making the mounting boxes for the rear axle.

In fact I only made 3 quarters of the first box, I need to make the same for the other side, then mark up and drill the holes for the mounting bolts, before welding on the top plate and drilling through the top mounting holes. Don't worry it will all become clear!

Here it is, just clamped on to the chassis for the time being.

I've worked out how to mount the rear axle assembly to the chassis, it will require some fabrication from 3mm steel plate - which I have ordered.

Today I have been up the garage and been laying some practice welds on some scrap 3mm plate, getting the TIG welder settings right. It was actually easier than I thought to weld on material of that thickness.

Now I just need that steel to arrive so I can get on with it. I'm looking forward to making real progress on the car.

Ok first real post of 2009!









I'll TRY..... to post on here once a week in future.









The chassis is now about half built, today I went up the garage and welded on the engine mounting plates - the full mounts will be fabricated and welded on top of these in due course.


Further back, I have fabricated the first stage of the transmission tunnel, I do need to fabricate a mounting system for the BMW rear axle assembly, then I can construct the rest of the transmission tunnel.



I can't stay in the garage for more than about an hour at a time at the mo as it's just soooo cold up there!

Ok it's been quite a while since I last posted. One of my new years resolutions is to post on here more often.

Anyway, I got me a nice little TIG welder and the chassis is now half built. I'll take some pics and post them up soon.

Happy new year!