Windscreen mounts

We recently popped the scuttle on to drill the windscreen mount holes. For some reason this was a job we'd really been putting off. Something to do with a complete lack of hand eye co-ordination and the fact that now that parts are painted we live in fear of scratches and dings (despite the fact that when we first drive it its bound to get stone chips everywhere!)

However, by using very small pilot drills bits for accuracy and a pair of calipers to check the distance between the holes on the mounting bracket, it all went without much loss of life. Drilling into your pride and joy still feels very wrong though - similar to the dashboard experience - and we were glad when it was all over.

Gauges

As with all builds we've had a bit of a hiatus while we wait for bits and pieces to turn up. Since the gauges arrived we decided to slot them in along with a few dash board lights.

The gauges are Stack items, which are black faced and therefore fairly traditional, but they're also backlit, which looks pretty cool.

As suspected not all the sizes matched up. For the dash light this was easy to fix as it just involved a step drill, but the tacho was a different matter as the hole needed to be shifted right as well as being enlarged. An old school compass, a bit of card, some masking tape and a metal file later and all was serene. It's not very relaxing atttacking your carbon fibre-like dash board and I was glad when it was over!

Exhaust headers

Remember the hole we cut in the body work? Well, today we fitted the exhaust headers and we've been relieved to find that it is indeed in the right place to allow them to exit.

The cardboard template was spot on and we are very pleased with the result.

We also fitted the drive shaft which was a simple process and at last the sum of scattered parts is starting to resemble a real car.

Engine in!

Another big day yesterday. The front of the car was lifted and the engine/ and transmission was rolled underneath. It was surprisingly easy with just two people. The front of the car was lowered by increments and the engine nudged forward and back to clear each potential obstruction, and in the end the process passed relatively free of Anglo-Saxon language. Finally, the gear box needed to be lifted with a trolley jack to slide into the tunnel and that was it.

I wish I could say the same for actually attaching the engine to the chassis. The bolts were very difficult to align and changes in the attitude of the engine when hanging from the crane were difficult to achieve accurately. After almost crossing one set of threads we decided food and wine were more important and left it for the night to come back fresh the next day for a final assault.

Wheels!

A big day today. With the help of Brenton from Meridian, who very kindly lent a hand, we lifted the car off the build table and fitted the wheels. Once we got over the excitement of pushing the chassis up and down the garage we raised it onto axle stands so we can start fitting gauges and working on the ancillaries.

 The more observant will notice the tyres are not all fitted correctly - we only spotted this when we got them back from balancing. However the garage that did it are more than happy to rectify the situation and it won't be long before the treads all face the right way.

Steering and Transmission

After wrestling with the slave cylinder position we needed some fun so we've attached our steering wheel. It's a 300mm Sparco with suede covering. We've also gone with a detachable mounting which will make getting in and out easier and hopefully add a bit of security. The boss was welded on by Meridian and as ever they've done a fantastic job.

Fun over, we bolted on the clutch, which has a slightly uprated pressure plate and is pink. Why, I don't know, but it looks mean all the same. That done we finally bolted the gearbox to the engine and now we have a form of propulsion. Almost.....

Gearbox and Flywheel

We're using a Sierra Type 9 gearbox courtesy of Eurospeed Motorsport. It's a close ratio 'box with a low range first plus a few other upgrades. We also went for the short shift lever which has a great action and finally couldn't resist adding a billet gear knob.

They have also supplied us with a lightened flywheel which is dwarfed by the original dual mass item. As a result our clutch slave cylinder needed bringing forwards on spacers which precipitated repeated assemblies and dismantling, but eventually we got it right. We also needed to widen the aperture in the bell housing with the trusty Dremmel to allow for the repositioned clutch hose and bleed pipe.