After marking the propshaft to length (I sprayed the join with primer, and the shadow pn the inner shaft marks the position) I removed it from the car and tack welded it.

And here's the joing after it was fully TIG welded. Looks neat and hopefully will be nice and strong.

Here at last are some more pics. This shows the trial fitment of the propshaft


Here's the front coupling, as you can see there is a slight offset in the shaft but hopefully the flexible coupling at the front and the CV joint at the back will take this easily.



And here's the completed steering shaft extension. You can see the silver coloured centre UJ, this is the part I bought from CBS and welded in.

After spending my afternoon yesterday helping my sister finish off her horse-box project, I had a bit of time free this evening before work to carry on with some things in the garage.

I painted the completed steering extension shaft to stop it rusting, and I'll fit it tomorrow hopefully.

I then completed the trial fitment of the propshaft. With the thinner piece free to slide inside the larger front end, I bolted both ends to their drive flanges. I then sprayed grey primer all over the join where they met. This gives me an accurate alignment mark to put it back to, as I had to separate the halves again to remove them from the car.

With the to halves of propshaft removed, i wire brushed the end of the larger piece to remove all the paint for about half an inch up it's length, this is to allow it to be wleded to the inner piece. I also wire brushed 2 very small sections on the inner piece (brushing it all would have removed my previously painted on alignment mark) and slid them back together up to the alignment paint. I made sure the 2 ends were square and tack welded them together at the two cleaned up points. I Rotated it to make sure they were both running true, and then fully wire brushed the whole joint. I'll have that professionally TIG welded very shortly (and FOC!) but it will have to wait till I take the engine out to replace the clutch to be re-fitted.

I took some pics and will post them tomorrow - if I get time.

Well I managed to steal another hour in the garage today. Actually the first hour was spent out on the driveway, i began to remove the brake flexi lines from the rear ofthe beemer, and they look to be in a good serviceable condition so will be re-used on the locost.

I was however unable to remove the calipers as the bolts are stuck fast, and I need my electric impact gun to get them off - which is still away with Machine Mart getting fixed. I may just buy some more sockets to replace the ones i broke removing the wheels which may allow me to remove them manually but money is a little tight at the mo so we'll see.

When it began to rain I moved inside into the garage and had a go at finishing the steering shaft. I modified the new extension shaft I had recieved from CBS and cut my old shaft down to suit it. They fit together nicely, but my welder is all out of wire, and as these are critical welds, i will wait till I have plenty wire to finish this - probably on the weekend.

With some time left over I decided to make use of it by starting the next item on the list and plan out the routing of the solid and flexi brake lines. I think i have it all mapped out but I need to compete the removal of the flexi lines from the beemer, and install the front calipers to actually start it.

So I moved on to the next item (that's item 4 for those keeping score) and started to modify the propshaft. I cut out the centre universal joint - there is another one at the diff end, and lined up the 2 ends together. The rear end is small the than the front but may slide within it before it's welded up. With that I ran out of time before giving up for the day and coming to work.

So as a recap here's where i am right now:

1. Finish steering - wed up steering shaft, rack mounts. Re-cut threads on track control arms when die finally arrives from china. Assemble and test.

2. Recondition rear axle assembly - remove calipers and remaining flexi lines from BMW and install, along with connecting solid brake lines.

3. Install front brakes and plumb brakes - basic routing planned but mostly still to do. Front lines will be installed when engine is removed for step 4.

4. Modify propshaft and replace clutch - prop started, clutch just a normal service item, though new bolts will have to be sourced.

Once all these items have been achieved, I will have completed all the major mechaincal systems and the car will have full running gear, steering and brakes. Then i can get on with More interesting things!

Just a very quick update today. I have finally been able to remove the wheels from my BMW, so they will go up for sale on ebay shortly, hopefully raising some money towards buying the suspension. Removing them has also given me access to remove the rear claipers and flexi brake lines (if they are in good enough condition) which i will do on the next afternoon with good weather (snow forecast for tomorrow).

This afternoon I stripped down the auxiliary cooling fan from the beemer, soaked it in WD-40 and got it moving quite freely. By connecting the wiring directly to a spare battery (actually my booster pack) I was able to test it, and it spins fast and blows hard. So for now it's gone on the shelf with the other salvaged parts to await fitment.

Right, since my last post I've got a fair bit more done.

The metric fine taps arrived and I've now cut the correct threads into the rack extensions. They do start to wind onto the rack but the threads on the trackrods are quite badly rust damaged. I've ordered a die to recut them, but it's taking it's time getting to me as it's coming from China.

In the meantime I ordered some more bits from car builder solutions, brake unions and T-pieces, and a steering shaft with a universal joint in it. I'll use the new shaft to midofy my existing shaft so it fits properly and works without making contact with any other parts. (at the moment it fouls the chassis.)

I also re-assembled the rear axle, the diff and driveshafts are now back where they belong. My cable clamps arrived so I shortened the handbrake cables, and the handbrake now works!

As the bad weather finally broke, I started to dismantle the BMW 540 I have sitting on the driveway. Unfortunately the wheel bolts are stuck in fast, I only managed to get 1 wheel off it before my impact gun lunched 3 impact sockets then exploted in a cloud of smoke. It's been returned to machine mart under warrantee, hopefully I'll get it back soon. However I turned my attention to the engine bay and removed lots of useful parts, one of which was the auxiliary cooling fan. It was jammed solid but I've partially freed it but ran out of time. Hopefully I'll get it working again as it will save me about 100 quid ove rhaving to buy an kenlowe or pacet fan big enough to cool that brute of an engine.

Lucky me I've been put back on nightshift, hopefully I'll get some garage time in the afternoons, but not as much as i'd like, probably.

I picked up the steering rack extensions today, but unfortunately the guys didn't have a suitable tap to cut the metric fine thread on the rack end. I've ordered some taps, along with a die to clean up the threads on the rack. I'll get that finished just as soon as the tools arrive.


While I wait for the tools to arrive, I've gotten on with item 2 on the to do list, the rear axle. Today I removed all the studs I had to cut off to remove the driveshafts, cleaned up the diff casing with a rotory wire brush and gave it a coat of plasti-kote paint. The colour really isn't for show, it's just a protective coating that requires less prep than paint, and the red is what I had lying around.

I had removed the diff mounts, which I'll grit blast and paint tomorrow. I didn't grit blast the diff itself as getting grit into the diff mechanism would destroy it in use, not worth the risk.

Here's a couple of pics I should have posted earlier. Here's the wonderful moment I discovered that the instrument binnacle fitted perfectly.
And here's the view from the drivers seat (well, where the drivers seat will be?)

Here's what I've been up to today: item 2 on the to do list is to re-con the rear axle. So as it snowed heavily last night, I took the day off work and got on with it. I stripped down and rebuilt the handbrake drum brakes, installed the new cables and then fitted the handbrake handle itself.

In this picture you can clearly see the handbrake cables passing through the handle way too far, they need to be shortened. You can also see the reatainer brackets I welded onto the rear axle carrier to hold the ends of the cable conduits. Without these the cables really wouldn't work.

And here's the to-do list up on the wall of the garage, I'm waiting for some parts for the steering so I've moved on to the rear axle for he time being. However I now need a nice day or 2 so I can remove the rear calipers from the BMW outside.

Ok after spending a couple of hours nearly every day over my Christmas break in the garage and not really achieving much, i decided to get organised. The problem was that the entire project had no real planning or structure to it. What i needed was a "to do" list. So I spent an hour sitting on my little stool (right in front of both heaters) and planned and wrote it all out on a piece of scrap ally chequerplate left over from the floor.

I can't remember the whole thing off the top of my head, but I've split it into 13 mini projects and it looks whole lot more manageble now, in my head, at least. The first few things on the list are to get the running gear finished. So I'll finish the steering, finish recondiontioning the rear axle and then get the propshaft made. I'll post the full list up soon, along with the pictures i keep promising.

So, item 1 on the to-do list - finish steering. I had a go at extending the steering shaft from the wheel to the rack, and found that it fouls the chassis, great - plan B is TBA. However I did finally get round to removing the steering rack and cutting off the other BMW trackrod end. I've made some measurements and designed extension pieces. I went to the lathes shop at work to ask some advice from the proper machinists, and they offered to get an apprentice to knock them up for me as a training excercise - result! Item 1 on the list coming on well then.

Well not too much done today, I finally got my hands on my new rivnut tool and had a go. I marked up and drilled the holes in the chassis to bolt on the dash/scuttle assembly. Unfortunately, after applying the rivnuts, I found that they stood proud of the surface which pushed all the mounting brackets out of alignment. I sorted this by enlarging the holes in the brackets. Not ideal but it worked.

After this I had another go at the handbrakes, I eventually worked out that there was an piece of the old conduit stuck in the trailing arm. When I knocked this out, it was a relatively simple job to re-assemble the first drum brake, with a new cable. The cables themselves are about twice as long as they need to be, as the locost is only half the size of the original BMW. I'm not sure about the best method to shorten them yet, but I have asked the question on the haynes roadster forum and i'm sure somebody will come up with the answer very soon.

Yesterday I got another couple of hours in. I fabricated the other hoop for the dashboard/scuttle and also welded in a retainer for the instrument binnacle.

I also got the correct handbrake cables from the motor factors and found they are going to be quite a pain to change, and they are about twice as long as I need them to be. They are going to take some thinking about.