I've been enjoying my week off over Christmas, and luckily getting a couple of hours in the garage too!

Yesterday I removed the rear brake calipers, as they were pretty corroded. They aren't in the best of shape so I might use the ones of the dead 540i sitting on the drive. I know these are good as I was driving it daily till it packed up completely in September. I decided that whilst the rear axle is partially dismantled, I thought I'd go the whole hog and re-con the parking brake at the same time. On the 5-series this is a small brake drum inside the brake disc.

So Today I removed one of the rear brake discs, and found lots of corrosion inside it. I cleaned this up with a wire brush and it all looks very useable. In my haste to remove the rear axle assembly from the donor I had cut the handbrake cables, and have now found that I may not be able to replace the cable conduits. However all is not lost as again, I have a 540i sitting on the drive which may have to donate it's trailing arms.

The other thing I've done in the last 2 days is fabricate the base and front hoop of the dash/scuttle assembly, complete with fixing brackets. I've ordered a rivnut tool from CBS which I will use to fix the assembly to the chassis. The nice thing about this is that by pure chance, the dash instrument binnacle fits perfectly between the steering column and the dash hoop. Brilliant!

As always, I've taken some pics and will post them up soon.

Happy new year for Friday!!!

Well hello everyone and a very Happy Christmas! (yes I know it was yesterday but all the same!)

The wife was very generous and bought me a digital video camera for Christmas, so I thought I'd have a little go of it and give you a little look around the car as it stands. No matter how many pics I post, a video will always be better.

And please excuse the burp, I didn't think it would come out quite so loud.

Last night I reconditioned the 2 BMW allowys for the rear axle, and painted them gloss black to match the steels I had done earlier. I had been warned not to grit blast them, as it might be too powerful and open up the pores of the alloy, but found that by turning the blast pressure down to 25psi, I could remove the paint without damaging the alloy itself. I then went over them again with a sandblaster (actually pink aluminium oxide grit but very bery finely ground) and this left a nice smooth surface, but sufficiently keyed to accept paint easily. Anyways, here's the pictures:

Ok here they are before I started, one was painted black. I masked the centres of both, as they did not need painting. Just worth a mention that the tape is fibreglass tape, ordinary masking tape wouldn't be able to resist the blasting process.

Here they both are after a good 45 minutes of grit blasting, and a 10 minute sanding.

A close up of the inside of a wheel shows there is no damage to the surface of the alloy, just nice and ready for paint.

Back in the spray booth, primer applied.

Followed by gloss black. And what a pain in the neck they were to paint, all those different angles in the multispoke pattern. But I am really pleased with the result.

Ok, finally found a way to upload my images without a data cable, so here's the back end of the chassis after i sprayed it with hammerite.

Yesterday I finally got round to de-rusting and painting the rear half of the chassis. I was avoiding it as the big knotted wire brush on my angle grinder was very fierce and would nearly pull my arms off if i caught it just right on the edge of a tube. Then it dawned on me, my spare grinder has a variable speed control! So using the one with the speed turned down to just below half, I de-rusted it all in super quick time.

I then painted it with a can of hammerite aerosol rustproofing paint. Unfortunately the only colour I could get was silver, I may well repaint it in the future but for now at least it's all protected - looks nice too!

I did take a picture of it, but my new phone (a replacement from O2 - the product of a 3 month saga) didn't come with a data cable, so as soon as i get one, i'll upload it.

I recently got some time to myself, so I reconditioned 2 steel wheels to fit the front axle. They were very grubby and rusty, but luckily I have access to an industrial grit blaster which does an amazing job of cleaning them up. see the pics below for the results:

Here are the wheels with the tyres removed (incidentally my local tyre fitters charged me a bank-breaking £3 for removing and disposing of the old tyres!) as you can see they are very mucky and rusty around the rims. However under the tyres was immaculate, so I masked off the centres as they simply did not need doing.


This is the rear of both wheels after I blasted one of them, you can see the difference it makes, the metal surface is now clean and perfectly keyed for paint application.


And here they are after I had finished the blasting process. If you do this yourself, make sure you blow off all the grit with compressed air, paint them withing 2 hours of blasting as they will rust VERY quickly if you don't. And DO NOT touch the blasted surface with your bare hands as you will leave fingerprints in it that WILL show through the paint.

Immediately after blasting I placed the wheels in a spray booth and applied 2 coats of primer.

Followed by 2 coats of gloss black. And don't they look superb!

Oh well so it's yet again been a month since I last posted.

I wish i could report a whole new wave of progress - but i can't. The truth is I haven't done much at all on the car. There are a few good reasons for this though :-

1. My wife has recently become pregnant with our first child, so I have lots to do to prepare for that!
2. I have been put onto permanent nightshift. ( although this may have it's benefits ;) )
3. I have finally decided to do something about my ever increasing waistline and now spend an hour a day working out - the same hour I used to spend in the garage.

Anyway, the couple of things I have done are these: I fabricated the mounts and fitted the BMW 3 series steering rack, although it isn't actually connected to the wheels yet as I need to design and fabricate some appropriate rack extensions. Also i need to connect the steering shaft to the rack by means of a long extension piece.

The other job i have started is fitting a new steering wheel. The BMW one is unsuitable as it is way too big and has an airbag fitted. (the law says where one is fitted, it has to work, and that's never going to happen). I picked up a nice 3 spoke wheel from an autojumble last Sunday And today i started stripping the BMW steering wheel down in the hope I could re-use the mounting boss in the centre. This may not be possible and I may have to buy one - but as always, persue the Locost option first!

Ok, so today didn't go so well. I thought I'd better post up they odd day when I'm not so productive, you know those frustrating days when it all just goes wrong - just to have some balance to this build record, honestly!

Today I attempted to mount the steering rack - and failed. After taking lots of measurements, and doing several sets of workings out on scrap paper with marker pens I finally had the dimensions for mounting brackets, that would hold the rack in the right place relative to the steering arms on the front hubs.

Having cut a couple on the saw, I proceeded to drill the mountng holes in the drill press, but they had vanished into thin air! I knew I hadn't moved from that spot, and they were gone! So I proceeded to make another set, at which point the first set magically re-appeared. Grrrrrr.

Having finally got all the brackets made, I had very little time left before work but decided to weld the first section in place, just so i could say I achieved something. I fired up the welder and made a very neat and tidy weld. I stood back to admire my handiwork, and realised it was the wrong piece of bracket! Dammit!

At this point I just gave up, I'll cut it off tomorrow and have another go.

The only other thing I have done since is dismantle the acclereator pedal and mask it up ready for grit blasting and painting. it will be painted black to match the other 2 pedals.

I was a little bored at the end of my garage session today and found a bottle of engine cleaner and had a little go at the drivers side head cover. I think it came up ok for 5 minutes work.

Compare that with the other head, with no cleaning:

Ok here's how I made my accelerator pedal. Blogger for some reason put all the pics backwards on the page so go to the bottom of this post and work your way up.

Here's the completed pedal, with the link bar attached via the clevis, pin and clip.


This is the link bar - made from a length of M10 threaded bar, welded to a flat plate with a 10mm hole to pick up the cable, screwed into a suitable clevis from the donor. The threaded bar gives me an extra degree of adjustment in the throttle cable. A locknut will be added on final fitment.

Here's the pedal all welded up.

I made a pedal pad from 1.5mm plate, and welded a smaller piece of 3mm plate to the back of it to add strength.

The first step was to weld an 8" length of 3mm flat bar to a crank that was part of the brake force transfer rod in the donor BMW

Ok picture time again!

Here you can see the installation of the master cylinders, the brake one mounted on a large flat steel plate and the clutch on a smaller bracket, welded to the other.


Here you can see more clearly, the brake master cylinder mounting.



And a better picture from above.

Ok here's the pics and updatey stuff!

I have done a little more work today. I have about 75% completed the back half of the pedal box and mounted the master cylinders. So the pedals are now functional.

Next job on the list is to fabricate the accelerator pedal. I've taken some pics and will post them up soon.

Gotta go now as the wife is huffing and puffing as she want's the laptop back.

Woo hoo I got a mention in Complete Kit Car magazine!!!

I wrote a quick email to Ian Stent after the track day I went to recently to thank them all for the experience and inspiration it gave me. He apparently liked it so much that it got printed in the readers letters section - he even included my plug for this blog!

Hopefully the next might be a feature on the finished car! If I ever get it done.

Ok since posting the pics up this morning, i grabbed a quick hour or so in the garage before work and fabricated the other 4 exhaust headers required for the other side. The exhaust is now as far as it can go without me spending more money on it (I need 8x 90 degree bends to complete the manifolds) so i will go back to the pedal box, fabricate an accelerator pedal and mount the master cylinders.

That will probably take me a few more sessions, by which time I will have been paid and can order the exhaust parts. Failing that, i have the steering rack to do. Failing that, the brakes need starting, as does the fuel tank, painting the rear of the chassis, overhauling the rear brakes, differential ect ect the list is endless.

Ok piccy time!

Ok here is one of the manifolds partially mutilated. As you can see it is a twin skin design, the outer stainless steel, the inner titanium.

Some of the flanges, removed from the manifolds.

And welded on to the header pipes...

And finally Bolted onto the engine! Stage one of the exhaust complete!

Ok, well Tuesday came and went... didn't go up the garage due to havng a rather large hangover from being down the social club late Monday night. Have you ever tried using an angle grinder when you have a headache? I don't reccomend it.

Anyways, I got on with it on Wednesday instead and managed to separate all the flanges from the old exhaust manifolds - wearing through 3 cutting discs in the process. 4 of them, I ground down flush and welded on the header pipes. I had to stop as I was out of time, and my hands were ringing from a couple of hours of constantly using angle grinders.

I bolted up the first 4 pipes to the drivers side cylinder head, and they look great. Also it looks like I will be able to route the steering past them without too many problems. I took some pics and will post them up later on.

On Friday i decided I was fed up and went to buy a new saw blade from machine mart (they are the cheapes stockist at 28 pounds.) only to find that when I got there, they were out of stock. I pickecd up some more cutting discs for the angry grinder as the exhaust manifolds are ripping them to shreds, and they were only 30p each.

On the way home i decided to drop into B&Q to see if they had any saw blades - which they did - 38 pound each, a full tenner more than machine mart! I went to the till and had a moan about the price, the lady was very helpful, and after a phone call to machine mart to confirm the price, duly matched it, and reduced it a further 10%. In the end I bought it for 25 quid - result! Nice one B&Q.

The new blade might light work of cutting the pipe for the top sections of the exhaust manifolds, cutting quickly and cleanly. I Still have 6 flanges to remove from the old manifolds, which i will do when i can sneak a couple of hours in the garage next, which i imagine will be one morning next week. We have a viewing on our house on Monday so it's all hands to the pumps to make sure it looks perfect for that. Roll on Tuesday so i can get on with it!

One thing I forgot to mention in my last entry was that the steel tubing I am using for my exhaust manifold, and my lovely metal cutting mitre saw don't get on very well. The first cut I made (for a trial piece that didn't work) almost completely blunted the balde, and the second cut finished the job. So now i need a new saw blade, at 28 quid each cheap they aint.

For the time being I'm going to get on with what I can without it, ie. removing the flanges I need from the donor exhaust manifolds.

Having done some online searching, i have found a company that can supply all the other parts I need for my custom exhaust system www.jetex.co.uk and they aren't too expensive either. I've also found a few places to get the foam for the interior parts. Now just need to find a good vinyl supplier.

Today I went to the steel stockist and bought the steel tubing required for the first part of my exhaust manifolds. As usual I overestimated the amount I required and bought twice as much as I needed. It only cost £17 though so I'm not too bothered.

Anyways, when I got home with it and got straight up the garage I cut a piece to length, and welded it to a flange I removed from the donor manifolds, I was a little concerned as the flange wasn't very magnetic (ie. not mild steel) and I may not be able to weld to it. As it turns out it welded fine - I still don't know what it is!

In other news - I found reverse! After checking on a diagram what the gear layout was, I was finally able to select all 6 gears, so now I can fully weld the gearshift mount.

Laters!

Ok here we go, finally a proper update:

After my last post I've since found that I could split the brake master cylinder from it's hydraulic servo, making it less than half the size it was originally, which means it's now quite useable. I also managed to mount the clutch return spring so it fits against the floor and operates properly. As far as the rest of the pedal box is concerned, I now have to Make up strong brackets to mount the clutch and brake master cylinders, and fabricate an accelerator pedal. This will take some careful designing as I need to make sure it will produce enough travel to pull the cable through it's full range of movement, otherwise the throttle will be compromised.

I spent some time in the garage this afternoon and dropped the engine and gearbox back in. It now looks like it's coming together quite well. Having the engine in really helps as I can now design things to fit around it, like the steering shaft, and the exhaust manifolds.

I also made up the gearshift, using the donor linkage, and a fabricated mount which for now I've just tack welded into position. I'll fully weld it as soon as I can verify it goes smoothly into every gear (At the moment i can't find reverse, but to be honest I can't remember where it is!).

Anyways here are some pictures - enjoy!

The brake and clutch pedals are now shortened and fitted. I had to mount them on top of a piece of box section to ensure they had adequate travel, and also to locate the clutch return spring.

But as usual, in solving one problem I've found another. The donor brake master cylinder is way too big. I don't know if I can use it, but on first inspection it looks impossible. I'll have to fit the engine and see what sort of clearance I have.

Ok all is not lost with the pedal box. I spent an hour today stripping it down completely to it's component parts. I found then that if I fabricate up some brackets I should be able to use them after all - with some modification. Actually, only the brake and clutch pedal are suitable, I'm going to have to make an accelerator pedal from scratch. No Worries though, it's all good fun!

The other pedals are way too long so i cut about 2" out of them but that's still too long so I'll chop another 1 1/2" out of them to give a good fit and comfortable placement.

As usual I'll take some pics and post them up soon!

Just thought I would post up a pic of the steering column fitted.

Ok I've now mounted up the steering column, and it seems to be in a comfortable position. It's now also in the right position.

I've run into a problem with the steering rack I bought. The long trackrod ends are completely rusted on. I cut one off an accidentaly also cut off an as yet unknown length of the rack with it. I'm really miffed about this as I may have completely ruined my steering rack. I hope not.

I need to buy some sierra trackrod ends in order to make accurate measurements for the steering rack extensions, once I get the old ones off.

Today I trial fitted the steering rack (well, when I say trial fitted, I actually mean that I shoved it in the front of the chassis to see how it looked). With it in place, I could see that it was too short by a few inches. Also, the trackrod ends are too small to fit the sierra uprights.

I will therefore have to fabricate steering rack extensions like those used on the Haynes Roadster, these will both extend the rack to fit the width of the car, and allow me to fit sierra trackrod ends.

Yesterday I bought 8 meters of 3x25mm flat steel bar from a steel stockist - for a fiver!!! I can't believe how much the price of steel has gone down, the ERW box section I bought for the chassis cost me over 200 quid a year ago!

Anyhow, as soon as I got it home, i set to work making brackets, as the car is now a rolling chassis, it's time to start fixing things to it. I trial fitted the BMW steering column on some made up brackets, and it's not quite right, so this afternoon I'll grind the welds off and try again. I hope to use the donors steering column as all the electrics will simply plug back into the loom, and will save the expense of buying another column.

The other thing I'll be doing this afternoon is collecting my steering rack from the courier. I'll see then whether it is suitable.

And here's how mine looks!

A couple of ideas for interiors:

The new MEV sonic 7:

Today, Sept 6th 2009, for the very first time, it became a car. It's on it's wheels!

I've completed the mock suspension setup, fitted the rear wheels, dropped it off the stands and rolled it out of the garage.

I took a few photo's with our digicam, and along with the pictures from yesterday's complete kit car magazine track day at Llandow, I'll upload them soon (I've lost the cable for the camera).

Ok a little bit more progress today:

I discovered that if it tightened the front wheel nuts up using a socket on a breaker bar, then the studs would actually be forced through the nut caps (they are only very thin steel) and I could secure the front wheels properly. So the car has now been fitted with front wheels. These are 13" steel wheels from my old Ford capri. As far as the now broken front wheel nuts, they will do as mock-up parts for now, I will buy proper open nuts much later on in the build when I actually need them.

The steel capri wheels are quite rusty, so the plan is to take the tyres off 2 of them (I Have 5 altogether) and have them grit blasted to remove all the rust and old paint. I'll then paint them gloss black. At the rear I have a pair of 15" BMW crosspoke alloys which will be given the same treatment, I'm hoping that having all 4 wheels painted in a very dark colour will lessen the impact of them being different.

Also today i fitted the rear trailing arms to the axle carrier, the are now ready to have the mock suspension struts and brackets fitted, then I will fit the pair of 15" BMW wheels to the rear, and the car will be placed on all 4 wheels for the very first time! It's getting exiting now!

Tomorrow I will be attending Complete Kit Car magazine and Omex ECU's kit car only track day at Llandow race circuit, I'll take my camera along and hopefully post a few snaps up here. Depending on what time it finishes, I may or may not get some time in the garage, otherwise I'll have Sunday afternoon up there. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Well,

serves me right for saying it wasl flying along. Seems like weeks have gone by with very little progress. Just when I managed to pick up the pace, loads of things got in the way, my BMW broke down and it took me over a week to fix it, then the garage lights blew and it took me another few days to fix them. Well no more excuses now I'm getting back on with it.

I have now got the correct bolts for the front wishbones and they are now fully assembled. I've fitted some pieces of 25mm box section stell with 12.5mm holes drilled in either end, in place of suspension springs/dampers. This means that when I have the wheels fitted properly, I can put it on the floor on it's wheels.

Talking about the wheels, I've been unable to fit them properly as the nuts I got from a scrappie are capped and won't run far enough down the studs to clamp down on the wheels. So I need to get some ordinary, open-ended ford wheel nuts.

I've also got the correct bolts to hold the rear axle carrier in properly, and fitted it. So It's now doing it's job as a supporting member of the chassis. Today I cleaned up the rear semi-trailing arms And I'll get them fitted on soon. They will then get the same treatment as the front, with tubes in place of suspension for the time being.

I'm waiting on a steering rack to be delivered, I found a BMW 3 series (E36) one on ebay cheap the other day (£30 delivered) so when that arrives, I can start developing the steering.

Back from Blackpool and straight back on with it.

Going to work early today so not only got about half an hour in the garage, just dressed the edges of the floor and turned it back up the right way and stood in it to test the strength of the floor - it's plenty strong.

And it's got a floor!!!

This afternoon I riveted on the floor and front panel, also sealed up with silicone sealant. This is for 2 reasons, one is it acts as an adhesive, and the other is that it makes the panels watertight.

It's a good job I got so much done in the week, as I'm off to Blackpool for the weekend! I have taken some pictures, but unfortunately my phone is in the shop for repair, and I don't know how to get the pictures off the one they gave me as a loan phone. I will try to get them up.

The plan for next week is simply to finish painting the chassis, and finish cleaning up the rear axle carrier and trailing arms, as I'm not allowed to spend any more money on it this month.

Just a quick update on what I got done in a few hours this afternoon.

I made a small aluminium panel to fit under the radiator at the front, drilled and temporarily riveted it to the chassis, then removed it to clean up the chassis tubes and give them a coat of paint.

I then finished off marking up the floor and gave it the same treatment as the small panel, drill, rivet etc.

So tomorrow, when the paint has dried, I can go back in and rivet on the floor and the front panel - let's hope i can keep going at this pace, it's just flying along now!

ok, this evening a dismantled the wishbones again, as I needed to flip the chassis over to gain access to the underside.

I spent an hour and a half painstakingly grinding off the chequers from my floor panel. I made it from a sheet of 2mm chequerplate, but for it to sit flat and seal against the bottom of the chassis, I had to remove the chequers where the 2 meet. It's not safe to do this with a grinding wheel, as the aluminium builds up in the stone, clogs it, expands and the stone may explode! So the safer way to abrade aluminium is to use a flap wheel or disc. These break up easily as you use them and cannot be clogged by the ground aluminium.

I actually went through 5 flap discs to do it, my hands are stinging and my ears are ringing but it will all be worth it in the end.

After this, I flipped the chassis over (which is getting harder - it's getting heavier all the time!) and clamped the floor panel on flat and marked out the lines to drill the rivet holes along.

All in all one very productive evening.

The polybushed for the front wishbones arrived today, along with the reaming tool required to open up the holes on the bottom of the sierra uprights for the Austin Maxi bottom ball joints.

So this afternoon I reamed out the uprights, assembled the polybushes into the wishbone bush tubes, and fitted the drivers side all together. It all went together without much drama and moves quite freely. Looks nice too!

I'm going to have to take it all apart again though as I need to flip the chassis over (again) to finish some of the welding and install the floor.

Here are the front wishbone mounts - as soon as the bushes arrive i'll trial fit everything and weld on the top shock absorber mounts as well.
The rollover hoop, really changes the look of the rear of the chassis - and I like it!

And just to prove I actually did it - the tidy garage! Notice that I chopped the legs off my build table to improve access to the chassis. Hopefully I won't need it at all soon!

Well that last few days have been quite productive, after making up some basic jigs, I have welded on the front suspension mounts!

I really need to get on with cleaning and painting the rest of the chassis so I can move on with the rest of it.

I have taken some more pics and as soon as I can be bothered to transfer them to the laptop i'll post them up.

Well today I finally got on with it again! I've welded on the rollover hoop - what a difference to the look it makes! I took some pics and will post them up soon.

I also ran out of wire in my MIG welder, will have to get some more tomorrow.

Since my last post I've finally gotten round to welding in the rear bulkhead tubes that I had been avoiding.

After finishing them, I decided that I waqs fed up of working in a seriously messy garage, climbing over things and falling over other things and decided that I had to clear up. So, with my driveway finally empty (I sold my spare car) I had the space to take everything out of the garage, throw out loads and generally clean it up. It's now a far more pleasant place to work and I'm looking forward to getting on with more. The other thing I did was to pull all the legs off my build table, so it's now only about 8 inches tall, should improve access to most of the chassis.

I unfortunately didn't get anything done last weekend, as I had to go and do extensive repairs to my sisters horse box. But hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of mornings up there this week, as I'm on afternoons. However the wife has come down with the dreaded Lurgy - swine flu.

Ok I have actually managed to get in the garage 2 days in a row!

I fabbed and welded in a fillet plate that again I had been putting off, and then painted the front half of the chassis.

I also cut out the floor, from 2mm chequerplate. I then started to grind off the chequers where the floor will make contact with the chassis. To do this safely I used a flap wheel on an angle grinder, as using a grinding disc may cause it to explode. It's taking quite a while as the flap wheels aren't lasting long.

Any progress is good i guess.

Wow I can't believe it was MAY last time I posted!

I can't even say I have done much! I have now finished my other project, the BMW 540i and am driving and enjoying it daily! So, back to the locost!

I have a cold at the moment, and with the latest grand lurrgi being swine flu, my GP has told me to stay away from work till this cold is gone - just in case. Well, who am I to argue? I have been up to the garage today for an hour, and fabricated and welded in a rear panel tube I have been putting off for ages. Maybe I'll get a little more done this week.

Well one good welding session later - and it's not finished.

The welder keeps cutting out due to thermal overload. As it's not a fan cooled welder it's not meant for the heavy use I'm currently giving it. The advantage is that while I've been waiting for the welder to cool down I've started dressing the welds with my angle grinder. The underside is now completely flat which It must be to allow the floor to be fitted.

The plan at the moment is:

1. Finish welding
2. Dress all the welds that have to have panels fitted over them.
3. Wire brush the chassis in stages and paint it as I go.
4. Weld on Suspension Mounts
5. Weld on Strengthening fillet plates
6. Fit wishbones and rear axle
7. Try the wheels on!

So my target for the coming weeks and more probably months is to get the car to a rolling chassis.

BRING IT ON!!!!

I spent a good few hours in the garage this morning. After swapping my bottle of Argon for argoshield (for the MIG welder) my welding is now much better.

I spent the time this morning welding, endlessly welding. The chassis is nearly complete, but it was mostly tack welded, and now needs fully seam welding. I was welding so mucg I actually max'ed out the MIG welders duty cycle 3 times and had to wait for it to cool down each time to continue welding.

I think one more good session of welding should see it done. Then begins the grinding, endless grinding, dressing the welds where panels have to fit over them. I can't wait to get this chassis finished so I can get on with some other jobs, it's really starting to drag now.

Ok ok, I know, I haven't updated in AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGES. I have been making slow progress though.

The transmission tunnel is done, although not fully welded yet (more on that later), I have finally recieved my front wishbones - I had to order them from 3ge components in the end.

I removed the engine, gearbox and rear axle assembly (that was one heck of a struggle!) to allow me to manipulate the chassis around so I can fully weld up all the joints I so far havent done.

It's coming along....

Ok, it's been a while - AGAIN!!!

Well I have recently aquired (for free!) a SIP handymig MIG welder - Thanks Wyn!! I have been using it it weld up the transmission tunnel. That was, till today when I ran out of gas. So, I went down to my local motor factors to buy some more and thought i was in luck when i bought their last 2 cylinders, only to go in my wallett and find my bank card is missing! So I buy the cylinders on my credit card and rush home to look for it, to no avail. After spending an hour on the phone to the bank sorting the lost card out, I have only half on hour left to go up the garage and finish my welding before I have to go to work.

I get up the garage and coneect one of the new cylinders, only to find it's empty! And what do you know, so is the other one. Bloomin motor factors have sold me not 1 but 2 empty welding gas cylinders, great. No problem thinks me i'll just pop in there on the way home and swap them for full ones, but when i get there they remind me that they were the last 2 they had. But they will give me 2 full ones tomorrow when they have a delivery. What a day! At least work was uneventful - for a change!

Today I recieved all the parts I had ordered, mushroom inserts, shock absorber mounting brackets and transit drag links.

I now just need to get some maxi balljoints, and await the wishbones from Shug.

Oh, and I made one more rather rash purchase today, a BMW 540! I bought it from one of the guys in work, it has been sat in works car park for about 18 months, needs a fair bit of welding, but it only cost me £250!!! I havent even decided what to do with it yet, to break it for more parts for the locost, or get it on the road and drive/sell it.

Today i welded in the 2 bottom rails of the transmission tunnel. I can't really foresee getting any time in the garage till Sat/Sun at the earliest now. Next on the list is to weld in the 2 rear bulkhead support tubes and fabricate the rest of the transmission tunnel.

Then I'll remove the rear axle assembly, engine and gear box and fully weld up the chassis.

Hopefully by then I'll have recieved all the parts I've ordered and can press ahead!

Adios!

Right.

I've managed to grab some more time in the garage recently as the house is now very much on the market.

The rear end is now about 90% done, all that still needs doing is the rearmost top rail and the 2 tubes between that and the bottom one.

I've been taking some measurements for the transmission tunnel, and due to the differential input flange being off-centre (towards the drivers side - typical!) I may have some trouble fitting seats in, so i may go down the route of home made seatin, but, i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

Today i have ordered the suspension mounting brackets and mushroom adaptors from 3ge components. My front wishbones should be on their way in the next few weeks - many thanks to Shug at Clyde Auto Marine who are making them for me! When all that arrives, I'll actually be able to fit 4 wheels and officially call it a rolling chassis!

As always, I'll post some pics soon.

Rear axle is now in place, not permanently fixed but just bolted in situ to allow me to fabricate the rear end, which is about 50% done at the moment.

I was hoping to have a bit more done by now but after burning myself after dropping a filler rod (it burned stright through my jacket pocket and my t shirt - stings like hell!) and cutting a couple of tubes too short i just got frustrated and left it for today.

I'll take some pics when I have a little more done.

I think next week I'll have to go get som e more argon, as my size X cylinder is nearly all gone. Another £50 for that.

Well I have blasted up and painted the gearbox mount, no other progress at the moment as once again we are considering selling the house and moving. This time we are going to do it, we have had the house valued and it's going on the market next week, hence this week has been just a mad rush to tart it up before the estate agent comes back to take the photo's for their advert.

Hopefully i'll have some time to get some more work done on the car this week, but i wouldn't count on it.

Yesterday I made and welded on the last triangulation tube for now. There are 2 more to go one but they depend on the position of the front suspension support tube. As I haven't bought my wishbones yet I haven't finalised their position.

I also yesterday fabricated the gearbox mount, I'll get it grit blasted today and paint it, and weld it on tomorrow. I may add a couple of fillet plates underneath it to add strength, as there will be a heck of a lot of torque going through that mount.

Here's some progress pics:

spent a couple of hours adding 3 of the 6 side triangulation tubes. I have all tomorrow afternoon up there so ill add one more triangulation tube and fabricate the gearbox mount.

its starting to come together now, well, a bit.

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!