Cutting bodywork for exhaust

Many approaches to this according to forums and the web. Experience to date in each - zero. We went for a Dremel and used a coarse toothed cutting wheel for the rough cut inside the template. Once the hole was large enough we placed some clamps on the cut edges to damp vibrations, and then used a high speed cutter (no. 134 I think) to approach up to the final line. The edge was finished off with a metal file.

After practicing on a piece of aluminium sheeting we marked out the side using the Birkin template over some masking tape and cut away.

The end result looks fine and the process was repeated for the petrol filler cap, as we've gone for an after market one. Once we'd stripped the chassis of fuel tank and fittings, given it a quick clean up and taken a few pics, it was onto a trailer and off to the painters.

The Engine arrives

We decided on the 2.0L Ford duratec - there's a large pool of knowledge in the community on making these run outside of their donor cars now, so hopefully we'll be reaping the benefits of its all alloy block and not cursing its mental electrics.

Ours came from Allfords Auto Wreckers in Braeside, VIC and we can't speak highly enough of their services. They made sure we got everything we needed and were helpful and friendly throughout.

After arrival we got down to mounting it on its stand, stripping the ancillaries and cleaning it.

The Chassis arrives

Towards the end of January the chassis arrived, courtesy of Meridian Motorsport, along with lots of wrapped up bits of suspension arms, brakes and callipers. We're hugely grateful to Brenton for delivering it himself - all of the guys at Meridian have been extremely helpful and patient with the hundreds of questions we've had, so thank you one and all!

Even in this rudimentary state it looks great and

many hours have been spent just staring at it.

With a few MDF boards bolted to the delivery frame and the help of a mate the chassis was raised ready for us to begin.

The Garage

We started this build in January 2010 but as we have only just got the blog up and running there is a bit of catching up to do.

First off we painted the garage white - it's made a huge difference to the light levels and makes us feel just like F1 engineers. Bit surprised Ross Brawn hasn't called yet. He must be away.