Yesterday I went to Exeter Kit car show, I bought loads of bits and pieces:

2 brake light switches (one for the pedal and the other for the handbrake)
A battery warning light
A proper electrical crimping tool
Rear wheel spacers
exhaust mounting rubber bobbins
Bonnet latches
big ratchet straps for the transporter trailer

I also saw this car, which I have pencilled in as my next build, the MEV Exocet.

Last weekend I made the template for the bonnet:

I also made the dash cowling: And I'm really please with it too.

Last weekend I got some more bodywork done...

I had a feeling that my progress was going to slow and indeed it has. This past week our baby daughter has had a spell in hospital (much better now though) so I haven't had the chance to spend any time at all in the garage this week. Anyway, excuses over, I managed to sneak up there and take a few pictures for the blog:



Here's the side/rear infill panels. I had to add these where my redesigned rear end lengthed the locost chassis.

Here's the rear panel.

This is where the next panel is going, over the top of the scuttle. here you can see hoe it's bolted through the chassis rails, and the ECU and expansion tank mounted on it.

Here's the front suspension, and headlamp. Also note the 14" Ford Focus wheels now fitted.

And finally the nosecone mounted up. I'll fill the gaps and paint it as one of the very last jobs.

Fingers crossed I may get some garage time tomorrow afternoon.

Well I swapped the wheels over, and the front track has now been narrowed to 66", matching the rear, and narrow enough to fit on my car transporter trailer without having to drive over the reinforced whellarches. Well happy with that.

Also John did indeed pop over and helpe me with the brakes. After the first round of bleeding the pedal was still very spongy and I got very little out of the rear calipers. After some investigation, we found that the brake bias valve was set heavily to the front, after releasing it, we re-bled all the brakes and the pedal went nicely hard.

So - onwards and upwards!

Well I'm really chuffed, Ive made some good progress at last.

Front suspension is done and sitting correctly.
Rear panel is made, fitted and looks great - its a huge hurdle I'm glad I got over.
I've also re-installed the rear anti-roll bar.
I've mounted the nosecone.

Tomorrow the plan is to switch the front wheels for a set I got from a ford focus in a scrapyard. The reason for this is they have a much more positive offset than the capri wheels currently installed and should narrow the front track nicely. Also, my friend John is popping over to help me bleed the brakes.

The new springs arrived today and i fitted one. it was much much easier than removing the old - way too long springs. the front end already sits much much better. I'll get the second one done and set the ride height then.

I also bought some decorators lining paper and set about making a template for the rear panel. looks like it should be ok.

I've pencilled in tomorrow morning as garage time, so I'll hopefully get some more work done then.

I have now fabricated, painted and fitted the seat back panel out of the 1mm steel plate i had. Although it's quite heavy when compared to an aluminum one, it adds quite a bit of stiffness to the chassis now it's riveted on.

I have also fixed on the scuttle, with 4 M8 bolts right through the chassis rails, it's very strong and won't be coming off again in a hurry!

And, I've welded on ALL the seat belt mounts. All 8 of them! Then pained them and the surrounding chassis to prevent rust.

Yesterday I made a template for the dash cowling from some very thin (0.5mm) aluminium and clamped it on - looks pretty good. the actual panel will be made from 1mm ally.

next couple of jobs on the list are to glass on the titanium mount to the nosecone, fix the now expanded nosecone in place and then make up a template for the bonnet. Also make a template and cut out the ally for the rear panel, then fix that in place. Hope to get all that done this week. Fingers crossed.

As an aside, I bought the front suspension units off ebay last week. When i fitted them, the car sank all the way down their travel - no good. So I have ordered some stiff springs to fit on them, and hopefully all will be well! Fitting them is a doddle.

Yesterday evening I finally got a lttile time to myself up the garage. I'm finding it quite difficult to fit any garage time in between working late, helping around the house and spending time with the wife and our 9 week old baby girl.

Anyway, with the short hour and a half I did get, i finally fitted the passenger side panel on the transmission tunnel. Before i could fit it, I had to fill and bleed the clutch. The pedal is very stiff, I'm hoping it'll loosen up in use, if it doesn't, i'll have to remove and re-design the pedal.

I've also fitted the 2 small panels on the driver and passenger footwell tops. Next job is to fit the drivers side trans tunnel panel, then the scuttle can go back on.

I have unfortunately found that I didn't buy enough aluminium, so to save on buying more, I'm going to have to make the seat back panel from steel. I have plenty of 1mm steel plate haning about to make it from so it's not a problem, but it will have to be painted before fitting.