New home and new garage

We are now finally settled in our new home and the car is in its new garage.

Seems much smaller than the old one and my day to day car won't physically fit width wise so it's quite tight, but a very understanding wife lets me keep some parts in the house.

Rear panel

After finishing the rear shocks I thought I would test for the rear panel. Damn it looks good now.

It again was straight forwards and is just held in place with clecos for now. I will fit it permanently after the fuel tank and wiring loom is in and after I've moved home in a few weeks.

Drive shafts and hubs

My wife arrived home last night with a boot full of parts she had collected from GBS that I'd bought with my remaining Christmas vouchers.

Today I found a short break in the wind and rain and got to work. I fitted the driveshafts and then the hubs and calliper mounts.

It was all fairly straight forwards and just bolted on. The calliper mounts only fitted one way and took me a while to find out which way round they went. 

The shock absorbers were a tight fit but it really helps it to start looking like a car.

 Both sides done and on. Will put the hub carriers on when it's all tightened and torqued up.

Transmission tunnel

After checking with GBS, it seems they bond and rivet both sides of the tunnel in place so I will do the same. Im waiting for a new socket bit to arrive so I can tighten the propshaft to the diff and then I will look to add the drivers side tunnel panel.

Just need to check there will be space to secure the propshaft to the gearbox when I get it.

First interior panel in

Another job I got some today was the first interior panel along the transmission tunnel. Nice and straight forwards and considering screwing the other side in so I can remove it if required in the future.

Steering rack

Today I got a few good jobs done, one was getting the steering rack in. Was a bit of a pain due to the powder coating making it slightly too big but all good now.

Really starting to look like a car. 

Rear panel bending

This is one job I wasn't looking forward to. It will be one thing that will be seen when the car is complete and expensive if I mess up. So I brought it in to the house to do in the warm. I rolled a towel around a small flask and rolled the edges around it - it worked absolutely perfectly and all the holes lines up. I just need to trial fit it and get the shroud on. 

This is all the tabs bent into position with a set of large pliers.

Ready for the bend...

Done!

Rear wishbones

A fairly easy job for today, I fitted the rear wishbones which went in without a problem and move freely. Just waiting for an order of parts to arrive so I can add the rear shocks.

A little memorial plaque

Sadly my grandad passed away recently so as it was him who taught me about cars, I decided a memorial plaque was in order. 

I've riveted it to the pedal box and it looks great. 

Front brake lines

Yesterday I fitted the front brake lines. They all seemed to go in quite easily but think the passenger side is too long, will have to check before I go any further as the brakes are one thing I don't want to mess up!

Fuel system

Today I tackled the fuel system. As I had no instructions I made a diagram and checked with GBS that it was correct before I started anything. Turns out I was correct so made a start X 

That's the diagram I'm going by. 

I now have the swirl pot in, low pressure pump, highly pressure pump and filter.

Some big jobs done

So today I got into the garage for a few hours and finally fixed the first few panels into the car. They were drilled, cleaned up and then a bead of polyurethane sealant added before they were riveted in place. 

Doesn't look a lot but took its time as usual as I want it all right. It's starting to take shape now and look sort of like a car.

At the end I put the dash on just to see what it looked like. 😀

A few too many rivets I think. Have used much less on other panels.

Brake line covers

Just a quick job to finish off today, I put a bit of plastic tubing over the brake lines on any exposed areas to protect them from chaffing.