Gingea1pom's Build Diary

[gingea1pom]

18 Oct 09

I have had a pretty good Sunday all in all. Got up late then straight into the garage, stopped for a Sunday roast, back in the garage until the start of the GP.

I have now completed ¾ of the transmission tunnel just the near side top rails to do (TT7, 9, 10), the cuts on either end of TT11 are compound cuts again, they should have a warning against them, took my time with the hand saw and they turned out OK, if they had been standard angles I think I would have finished the transmission tunnel, no rush, I am not setting a time limit, it will get finished.

Pictures are updated here is one of today’s work.

[IMG][/IMG]

[gingea1pom]

Evening,

Despite being stuck in a 6’ x10’ box that the Sergeants mess call a room, I have made contact with the outside world. The technology in my ‘box’ is quite impressive I think.

I have managed to bid, win and pay for a mk2 escort steering rack which was brand new and in the box for £26.66.

I am getting a little ahead of my self, however. I had this, slightly, and misguided may be, miss conception that Mk2 escort steering racks are rare, so I brought it.

I have been following a few Steering Rack (SR) threads and believe if I use standard Sierra track rod ends with my new Mk2 Escort SR and a set of 130mm extensions from Rally designs that that will be a working solution. Or am I way of the mark?

I am looking forward to getting home at the weekend to sit and look at my part build chassis to take my mind off this websters course. The forum is light relief at the end of the day too.

Bleating on now I’ll get my coat.

[HandyAndy]

Hi Ginge,
sounds like you got a bargain on the rack,
as for the extensions i haven,t got the info with me at the mo but i too bought the extensions/tre,s & upper & lower ball joint/drag links etc from rally design & they where spot on & look great, i also bought my rack from them too, but mine was more than 26squid.....£65 got carried away at stoneleigh show

andy

[gingea1pom]

Since my last post I have placed my order for £150 worth of chassis plates, which I will be picking up at the Exeter Kit Car Show.

31 Oct 09

First time in the garage for two weeks and it took me 5 seconds to get back in the groove. What with getting up late and having a kids Halloween party to go to at 4pm, I only got to finish the transmission tunnel.

1 Nov 09

I made a start on the RS’s and after asking a few questions on here decided to just weld up the RS1,2,3 frame and the RS4,5,6,7,7a,8,9 frame square on the welding table and wait for the chassis plates so I can get the fames in the correct position.

I don’t think it will hold me up as I won’t get in the garage next weekend and possibly not the weekend after (work load on this course is fantastically unrealistic) and the following weekend is the show and the end of this course.

Sorry bleating again

[gingea1pom]

25 Nov 09

The whole of November without an update, that’s bad!

I have managed a little work in the garage at weekends whilst on course and have now updated the pictures in my signature.

The transmission tunnel is now complete, although when I look really closely the near side TT6 is like 1 mm to long and there for pushes the corresponding TT7 up a little, so I will remove it and get it to the correct length.

I made a start on the rear suspension framework, welding up the two U shapes of RS1,2,3 and the top one of RS4,5,6,7,7a,8,9 all on the bench to ensure they were both square then spent ages attaching the two RS10’s, fully welded up, ground down and ‘dressed’ (if that is the correct word) with a flap disk they look good.

I was going to fit the frame to the Seat Back assembly but decided to wait for my chassis plates from 3GE.

So I moved on to welding the chassis up fully, took my time and rotated the chassis so I was always welding downwards, I am not that good. I must point out at this juncture that over the past 5 weeks I have put some time in on AshG’s Roadster.

Using his ‘proper’ welding machine (mine is a Clarky 150 something) I have ramped the power right up on my machine and weld faster and deeper now. Learnt load of stuff whilst working on Ashes car so a big thanks for the experience Ash.

Ash and I had a little accident whilst running his car up to temperature see the full story
here. so I am taking it easy for a bit an hope to get back at it on the first day of leave on Monday.

I have started a car build bank account complete with debit card so now MY build money, from selling MY stuff won’t get swallowed up by the current account.

Cheers Ginge

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by gingea1pom

25 Nov 09

I have started a car build bank account complete with debit card so now MY build money, from selling MY stuff won’t get swallowed up by the current account.

Cheers Ginge

Top tip there Ginge

Almost my entire build costs to date have come from the sale of classic car parts, well that & clearing a mountain of scrap !!??

I have lost count of the amount of times that money has been transfered to the household account, then promptly swallowed up by day to day costs.

Following your build progress with interest mate

[gingea1pom]

27 Nov 09

Just had to make a entry. After missing out on a sierra on Ebay that I was willing to spend £300 on I have found one in Swindon (only an hour from me) for £150. It sounds like the battery or alternator has gone as it only starts with a jump start. The woman selling it is away until Monday, we have exchanged text messages watch this space.

28 Nov 09

Spent half a day in the garage this afternoon. I started by cutting of the offending TT6 and made it 1mm shorter, it will get welded back in tomorrow hopefully. I have finally welded the rear suspension frame onto the chassis. It took a while to line up five reference points then tacked it all together; I think it had got slightly out of line when I welded it up as it required a little pull on one corner before welding.

Pictures have been up-dated

[IMG][/IMG]

[mark]

Looking good, very neat

Just a word of advice though, be carefull when grinding welds flush even with a flap disc as it can (in my opinion) be very easy to go a little too far without realising and take some of the strength out of the weld

Personally i would leave them alone, apart from the areas where they do need to be flat to fit panels etc

[AshG]

looking good that is mate. if you have them to hand weld on the rear suspension brackets now as its easier without the rest of the rear in the way.

[gingea1pom]

Cheers Mark, that makes sense, I will calm down with my flap disc.

Ash, I have all the suspension brackets, just need to make the jigs and get some threaded bar.

How’s your hand? My arm feels like normal just looks odd now.