An unhealthy habit and a new addition...

I appear to have developed a costly and unhealthy habit which has occasionally led to me jabbing myself with small pointy bits of metal. Contrary to what people might tell you, I have not become a heroin junkie. I do however have an unhealthy habit for drill bits. On Friday alone I snapped 5 – that’s right, 5!!!

It all started to go ‘Pete Tong’ when I was drilling a piece of flat bar which would normally be used to mount the handbrake. The 1.5mm titanium bit I was using snapped – I was probably going too fast. Some of the drill-bit got lodged in the chassis and subsequent attempts to drill the bar resulted in blunt bits, a melted bit and a pleasant red-glow around the hole – well the garage is cold! A brand new Bosch bit finally did the business and normal service was resumed.

So why all the drilling? I finally thought it time to crack-on and fit the posh stainless braided brake lines. On the whole it went ok. The only real PITA is that I didn’t quite have enough slack to go as straight as I'd have liked in the front of the tunnel. The result (pictured) looks more like a Welsh mountain pass than a roman road and I shall dispise that part of the car for ever as a result… hopefully once the prop and motor are in though it won’t be so obvious. It also took-up the area that I was intending to use to mount the regulator/rectifier so that’s now moved to the top of the tunnel. The brake lines are nearly all in. I just need to replace the Cleko fasteners with some ‘real’ rivets once they arrive.

That's real blood in the picture as well - Ouch!

There’s been a new addition to the family – Julia’s twin sister gave birth to Francesca Scarlett Coleman a few weeks ago. I’d like to show you a picture but I can’t so here’s a picture of my baby in its cradle instead.

The weekend also saw some serious head scratching in terms of the wiring. I’ll say more when I know what the hell I’m doing! Parts either returned or on their way back to me this week include rear bearing carriers (thanks Derek) with new bearings fitted, a modified steering column (thanks Col – your welding shames most of the manufacturers!) and my freshly ceramic coated exhaust. How exciting is that?

Anyhoo – I’m off to do a bit more.

TC