Progress towards SVA......

Well, the paperwork has gone off to be checked by Chris at MNR, we should have that back in a few days to send off to VOSA and DVLA to (hopefully) get the SVA booked for around the end of April. What else have we been up to? Well.....

Last week I'd removed the old bearings from the rear hubs, but couldn't get the outer races out - they're in there quite tight and we don't have a suitable range of punches or drifts to remove them, so they got dropped off at Ron's, who took them into work. He also had the wheel studs pressed into the front hubs, so now we've got all the necessary bits to put Ruby on her wheels.....

We've also been trimming - Claire has trimmed the other seat holes, so they're ready to go, she trimmed the edges of the back panel, and the bit of the body lip which is inside the cabin area.. We also received the new throttle and clutch cables - the throttle cable fits great around the engine bay, and we've gently cable-tied it in strategic places to keep it out of the spring coils, etc. We just need to drill the hole through the pedal, mount the pedal in its pivot, and that bit's done....

We also rough-fitted the clutch cable (we'd lost one of the half-nuts for the adjuster, so I went and got one the other lunchtime), and that now fits over the clutch fork - thanks SpeedyCables!

Next, we fitted the headlamp bar. We wanted to get all of the bodywork cutting out of the way, and the nose needs cutting to come up over the bar, so we thought this would be a good idea.... The bar itself was easy enough - measure up, drill a couple of holes, bolt through it into a rivnut... Did I mention my measuring can be rubbish? I didn't take into account the relative angles of the bodywork and the bar, so had to slot the holes in the bar slightly to make it fit, but it clamps down nice and tight...

With the bar fitted, we figured out where we needed to notch the nose. It took quite a few goes to get enough off to get the nose over the bar (I never want to take too much off at once), and we finally got it fitted nicely over the top. We had to use one of the rivnuts each side of the car which were previously used for the nose, for the bar, so once we'd bolted the nose up, it could move on its mounts - not good! So, we took it off again, drille some holes in the flange on each sie, transferred them to the body, put the nose back on again, tried to bolt them up..... and another problem! Because of the location of the radiator top hose, it was impossible to get our hands in and get a nut and bolt through on the passenger's side (The driver's was fine). So, we mixed up some resin and glued in a bolt from underneath, so that the nose would sit down on it, and we could just put a washer and nut on top.

Fail! The first attempt just wasn't stuck properly (not enough resin on the contact side of the washer), so the next night we mixed up some more, and this time used some glass fibre tissue to hold it in with (we put some big washers and a nut on top to make sure it stayed tight - we tested it tonight, had to modify one part of the nose flange slightly, as this was catching on the headlamp bar, but it now fits!

I also wired the headlamps into the loom - the loom had some nice bullet connectors on, but no matching parts on the headlamps or in the spares bag, so they had to get cut off, and I crimped some new insulated bullets on (I'd thought the cables would go through a grommet in the side of the bodywork), rather than use a multi-pin connector. Another fail! The crimps (or my crimpers) are rubbish, so they didn't stay insulated after the first attempt at putting them together and taking them apart again.. Then Claire twigged that we could route the cable through the same hole as the headlamp bar, so off came all the bullets and on went some multi-pin things we got from Car Builder Solutions (which are also much easier to crimp and heatshrink). Doing the multiplugs took me much less time than the bullets, I know which I'll use next time!

We've also found out that we need some spacers for the seat runners, to lift them over the chassis rails on the floor, I've ordered these from MNR and we're just waiting for them - we need the seats in to be able to mount the steering column at the right height, and then to cut the slot in the scuttle, so we can mount the scuttle properly, mount the fuseboxes and the header tank to the scuttle - they're keeping some of the jobs from happening! We want to get the seats in while the cars still up on stands, as it's easier to get underneath it for mounting them. Ron also sourced us some spacers for the lower harness mounts, so we can get those fitted at the same time....

And finally, we've still got the problem with the exhaust - the new spacers arrived from Marc, but it still touches. We're just waiting to see if Marc or Chris have any other ideas before we take the hacksaw to the bodywork. I have sanded down the headers and collector to make them easier to slide on, and done the whole lot up with exhaust putty, so it should all come on and off as one piece now..

And finally finally, Ron's new engine now runs! There was a problem with the wiring for the fuel pump relay, which he's sorted out. It sounds really good, too! Some tidying up to do, then it should be ready for the next trackday...... :)