Third Time Lucky

It may not sound like much of a step forward but at the third attempt I finally managed to do a decent job of putting the last wheel together so that it doesn't leak.  I don't know why this one was so difficult when the other three went together fine first-time.  

It's rather a large relief.  To celebrate I weighed the wheel:  

That's rather pleasing, even if it does now have 35g of wheel weights attached - which isn't bad actually.  Here is the offending wheel actually on the car...

The panhard rod is also visible here - all bolted-up now that I don't need axle stands where the rod should be.  Also visible is the rear anti-roll-bar.  This isn't quite finished as I need to plate a couple of mild steel spacers to stop them from going immediately rusty.  I've bought a kit; have no idea how to use it.  The wife did chemistry so I'm hoping that she can help.

She may kill me for using that image - it's from a spoof video that she did whilst at Uni.  I should add that despite initial appearances, it bears no resemblance to Fedde Le Grande's 'Put Your Hands Up For Detroit' video.  Anyway, I digress.

Here's more of the ARB.  I had to strip-back the powdercoat for the sliding drop-link connecting things,  This was annoying.  I've waxed the bare metal to stop it from rusting.  Can you guess that I hate rust?

You can also see that the handbrake is starting to take shape.  Interestingly (to me at least) it looks like I will get away with using one from the Escort with the only mod being a longer spring.  That would be good. What else is there to report?  Ah, I'm still working out how I will fill any holes in the bulkhead - for the gear-change rod, a bellow-style boot from a Beetle and some swaged aluminium tube will soon be welded to a small panel which will then be bolted or riveted in-place.

Also, I've finally fitted the panel that sit's adjacent to the driver's hip.  There was a small gap at the bottom where it is notched around the tubes so I've run a bead of grey sealant up the whole panel to fill the gap and keep it tidy - the passenger-side has had the same treatment.  For some reason the photo won't load.  It's not very exciting so I won't bother - not that being boring has ever stopped me before.

Before I sign-off I should say that whilst away on holiday I wrote a list of what still needs doing and attached estimated time to complete the action against each entry.  It totalled 120 hours.  Apparently you can put a Westfield together from scratch in that time.  Perhaps that's what I should've done.

TC