Ok so I am quite happy to admit that I was a little short in my last few blog post, but that is because I have been so busy doing the work that when it comes to recalling it I was finding it a little difficult to maintain the usual wadding that I use to make the posts a little less dull for those of you who aren't interested in oil sump modification and just want to see a few more photos. Well its Saturday today and I chose to spend a day doing nothing. I would like to claim that it was scheduled but in all honesty a sizable hangover left me as good as incapacitated this morning and so being the ever innovative and accommodating planner I rearranged my car building schedule on the fly. This has basically meant that I now have time to leave what I hope is an epic blog post full of entertainment, media and all round fun. I am also trying to give it a helping hand with the application of a bit of positive mental attitude. You can't say I don’t try.
So where shall I begin... this was another eventful week as the time came to get the chassis powder coated and oh boy was I excited. I should say at this point for those avid readers who don’t know me that well that this whole blog would be far more true to life if read with dusting of unenthused sarcasm powdered across all text just before reading. No but seriously I was quite excited. I am not going to go into the details of the powder coating process but here are the key points: it's a bit like painting, it's a harder finish, and you have to remove everything you don’t want to be coated as well as anything that could melt in an oven. We had to take everything off the chassis. And before people rush to point out the lack of forethought on my part I was very aware that this was going to have to happen I just needed to make sure everything would fit before I got it done. Either way, with a little help from the son of one of the garages neighbours, an enthusiastic engineer/scientist of the future, we had the car stripped down in about half a day, and true to their word North London Powder Coaters (link added to sidebar) picked up the chassis up at 10am on Tuesday morning.
So where shall I begin... this was another eventful week as the time came to get the chassis powder coated and oh boy was I excited. I should say at this point for those avid readers who don’t know me that well that this whole blog would be far more true to life if read with dusting of unenthused sarcasm powdered across all text just before reading. No but seriously I was quite excited. I am not going to go into the details of the powder coating process but here are the key points: it's a bit like painting, it's a harder finish, and you have to remove everything you don’t want to be coated as well as anything that could melt in an oven. We had to take everything off the chassis. And before people rush to point out the lack of forethought on my part I was very aware that this was going to have to happen I just needed to make sure everything would fit before I got it done. Either way, with a little help from the son of one of the garages neighbours, an enthusiastic engineer/scientist of the future, we had the car stripped down in about half a day, and true to their word North London Powder Coaters (link added to sidebar) picked up the chassis up at 10am on Tuesday morning.
At 11am the next day it was returned in all of its bubble wrapped glory and it looked great. A really nice glossy finish thanks to its finishing lacquer coat. The one day turn around for a finish that good was pretty awesome but it does come at a price, it would have been cheaper to paint but the time it would have taken doesn't bare thinking about and the finish would not be comparable to the results that I got from the aforementioned chosen method. That's me in the photo...
That same day with some help from my dad we got the wheels on and with a short break at around 6 for food, and to help get the rolls that I share the garage with, we set about getting the engine in as well. Incidentally the car had its first feel of the public road as we needed it out of the way in order to get the rolls out so we just parked it up.
The engine went in with a little bit of physical encouragement and I decided that it was only right to do as I had done upon removal and record the historic event. Below is the sped up video.
When it was all done Charlie came over with his really nice camera (no sarcasm there) and took some great photos while dad and I sat, with a beer and admired our work.
With that done it was a big step forward in the construction and it was followed by a slight dip in productivity. I got the brake lines in the next day and the pedals in as well. I also managed to get the steering column in as well as the radiator fan. Charlie and I starting working on the template for the dashboard and dial arrangement but it really amounted to very little productive work. In order to stave off this period of low productivity we set about fitting the fuel level sensor into the tank, a job which proved to be very tedious indeed which served to make it all the more satisfying when it was complete. That was where we left work for this week and celebrated the incredible progress with a regrettable volume of wine, but hey you only build your first car once... Here are a few more photos from the build progress and I hope that the prose in this post has been of a more satisfactory standard. Cheers for reading and check back soon!!
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