Long awaited parts and a few things.

Cycle wings are sorted! I think. As I said previously, I planned on a rose joint with a bolt to match going through the lot, holding it together. Turns out that the way GBS are doing it and have "specially made parts" read to be shipped. Now, I had a look on the open day and they are rose joints with a rubber cover and a bolt....nothing special, well maybe the rubber is...but nonetheless, I don't believe that it's necessary plus mine is much cheaper.

I picked my rose joints up from a UK based company which were selling them at what I believe was a reasonable price (apparently its cheap and therefore poor quality) however with a test cert. showing they are capable of up to 65.8kN! Now I don't know what sort of force I should be expecting on the roads....but to have something create a force of over 6000 times the force of gravity to break it, I'd say it's pretty high quality stuff.

So here it is, the M14 rose joint with the M14 bolt. I thought the bolt would be too long, however it is perfect with the washers on too. Not sure about the odd one or two but we'll see when the car is lowered onto the floor and suspension is set up. Plus I just wanted to get the wheels on too. You may also have noticed the orange brake pipes. Fantastic purchase - stainless steel braid with an orange rubber sleeve - 0.5m length, could probably get away with 0.4m but better to have more and shape it than not enough.

Also, with going the the open day, I picked up all the parts I had been waiting for since March. Tip for anyone using GBS, clarify what is actually happening with the parts and the cost involved. I was led to believe that the prop, drive shafts and steering extension were all simply adjusted to size - nice and simple. Plus as no cost to this was mentioned, I expected that this was part of the kit cost as it's something that needs to be done to allow the donor gear fit the chassis.....how wrong was I!? The parts were all reconditioned as new, painted and extended/shortened as required....then the bombshell in the region of £600 was dropped....Needless to say I was shocked that such a substantial amount of money had been "forgotten" to be mentioned. GBS have severely gone down in my books as they are looking more and more incompetent with running a business and despite claiming to be in favour of cars on the road over the sell, I am still failing to see that. They appear to be highly helpful if you precisely ask the question, but thats as far as it goes in my opinion, nothing more.

Anyway, you are here to find out about the build, not my rants at GBS. As I have done everytime so far, I forgot about the costs and focused on the build and how much it is doing for me and my future.

Below you can see the newly reconditioned drive shafts in place along with the rear brake splitter, meaning the brakes are now all plumbed in....do I dare finish them off with brake fluid....

Also included in my parts was the steering shaft. I found removing the column and allowing the rack to move under some slack was the best way to fit this in nicely without too much hassle. The shaft is rather close for comfort on the hole in the footwell but there is a fraction of space still between the two surfaces.

I next decided to give the rear panel a stab at bending and working around. I first tried this by estimating the rough area to bend, which turned out to be wrong when I got the top edge out to check. However, folding the tabs over and going for it I got the final shape.

 

 Held in place with a load of clamps....

 

Here is a photo of the initial trial fit.

Obviously it doesn't fit and clashes both sides - On the rear wishbones at the back and the suspension coil at the front. I will cut a slot on the rear for the wishbones as I'm currently unsure of the two holes at the bottom. As for the front edge, I will probably take a file to this whole edge for ease as the interference is rather minimal....although I'm positive it won't feel like it after an hour and still clashing!

 Anyway, now it's begining to look impressive. All in all, I will soon have the potential for steering and brakes, the two most important aspects of any car!