Card Bored

The car hasn't really had a look-in this week.  Last weekend I started mocking-up the fuel tank.  To do this I needed to support the axle at what will be maximum-bump - it at least confirmed that the raised rear tube will work nicely.

Unfortunately I ran out of 'craft' card.  I should say that the main reason for doing this was to see where the rear ARB mounts could go.

Yawn! 

BOBFOC

As planned, my fabulous fiancée and I headed over to the workshop on Saturday afternoon to test fit the body. This was the first time that chassis and bodywork had met and it was in fact the first time that I had seen the front and rear sections together.

I've heard about a couple of cases of tubs having to be cut and re-glassed in various areas as they failed to fit properly against the chassis. Happily, it looks like there are no such issues for me.

Bearing in mind that there will be aluminium riveted to the chassis and the fact that I'll probably space-off the exhaust side to try to get some air in, that doesn't look too bad.

One minor issue is the fact that my unusual fuel tank will clash with the intended mounting point at the rear (the vertical piece of GRP that you can see with the boot panel off.  I'm sure that this can be sorted however.  A further minor issue is the fact that the boot isn't quite centred.  This may mean that the Roll Cage back-stays go through the body at different points which might look a bit odd - oh well, it's a racecar and not entering the Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me is that it confirmed where I'd be sitting in the car.  Compare my old Locost to the new car:

Vs

Its not all that easy to tell in actual fact but I'm some 5" further back than I otherwise would've been.  I'm right at the back cockpit, which isn't often the case when you are 5'7" and short in the leg.  That's the joy of setting the controls to suit yourself.

Apologies for the ugly mug (mine!)

TC

Hasn't my welding improved?

The implied message in the title and photograph above is a deception.  The lovely aluminium weld above is by Martin Keenan or one of his chaps and comes from the rear tunnel cover that I asked him to make for me.  I made him a template as seen below and he did the rest.

Am I happy?  Very much so.

The part is relatively heavy at 770grams so I wouldn't want to do too much panelling this way but the front of  the driver's footwell is going to need similar 'jiggery-pokery' so I'll get another template sent once I've sorted out the final reverse motor mount.

Martin is also going to supply my tanks - fuel, swirl and catch; again all from templates.

For some reason Blogger is turning my photos clockwise by 90degrees. Please accept my apologies if I cause you to twist your neck!

TC

Raising the bar.

A bit more chassis related progress.  We really are getting close now.  I think.

So, the car is going to run with a rear ride height of 100-105mm.  The standard chassis isn't designed to run that low and hence, if it did, the Panhard rod would likely come into contact with one of the chassis tubes.  Consequently, something needed to be done.  I actually forgot to take a 'before' photograph but figured that a picture would help, so what you can see directly below is me holding the original (downward sloping) tube against the new one.

The new tube therefore looks like...

Neat, I hope you'll agree. 

Other works well under way include the prop catcher (here shown at a bizarre angle and highlighted in red.)

Also, the aforementioned water-cut bracket for the Digi Dash 2 arrived and has been tacked into place:

The bracket can be seen behind the paddles.  

The next major(ish) job requires the propshaft so that will be ordered next week.  In the meantime, Kate is going to help me to trial fit the bodywork on Saturday.

Watch this space....