Build Officially Started!

[Tatey]

Well I just thought I'd let you's know how I am getting on.

I am all settled into my new house/garage now. The work bench will be completed tomorrow morning which I am really looking forward to. It feels really solid so far and I think it will get stronger once its complete. Pics will come on Tues when the internet is activated in my house.

I've found myself a cheap steel supplier as well. I got the following for a grand total of £42.60 delivered (inc vat)

1000x500x3mm Steel Plate - £12
2 * 6m of 30x30x3mm steel angle - £7 each
£10 delivery
+ VAT

So overall they seem quite cheap.

I have started work on the suspension brackets and I am hoping to have them done for Sunday night, meaning the car should be on its wheels by the end of the weekend!

[HandyAndy]

Nice one Tatey

Sounds like you are cracking on in your new home, & you seem to have found a bargain supplier too

Take your time getting the wishbone brackets in the correct place, looking forward to seeing your chassis rolling

post up a pic or 2 when its rolling

cheers
andy

[twinturbo]

Originally Posted by Tatey

I am still aiming to have the car completed and on the road for my 21st birthday on Jan 10th 2010, which is a tall order, but I think if I try hard I will be able to do it.

Errrrrr.... I think you failed already


TT

[Tatey]

Well after a week I have been productive in some areas, and not productive at all in others.

When welding up my workbench last weekend, I managed to knock the gas cylinder over and put a large hole in the rubber hose, which quickly ended my ambition of getting the suspension brackets welded in place. I've been quoted £10 delivered for a new hose/brass fixing so its not too bad.

So until I find some more money I've been trying to find jobs to do on the car until I have more money to buy some more welding wire, flap discs, new hose, new tips and shrouds.

So far I have:

• Ground down all of the welds on the bottom, left/right sides of the chassis and I've half finished the seat back welds.
• Stripped down my drum brakes, as they are very rusty so thought the back plates could do with some time in the electrolysis bath. I then found out that the transformer I was using is broken and blowing fuses, so that has been chucked out and I need to find a new power source to get me up and running again.
• Since moving to the new house I had noticed a lot more rust on the chassis, and due to having no money to finish welding the bits to it and going away for 2 weeks with the army at the start of sept. I decided to give the chassis a quick coat of primer as I felt that the time required to remove the primer to weld was going to be much less than the time to completely de rust the chassis. To put 1 coat of primer on all tubes accessible with the chassis sitting upright took about an hour with a roller , so I would highly recommed doing it this way and getting the inaccessible areas with a brush instead of painting it all with a brush.
• I finished making all of the chassis plates I hadn't made yet, or misplaced during the move.
• My work bench is pretty much finished now, I just need to weld some cross bracing to the bottom of the legs to prevent them from moving and then weld on some nuts to allow each leg to be adjusted to make sure it is level. The top feels unbelievably solid, it has been made from 3mm thick plate with 80mm of wooden slats below that and then top off with a rim of 3mmx30mm steel angle. It is all held together with the M12 bolts which were supposed to be used for my car suspension, so it looks like I will be buying a new set .
  
  So it is all slowly getting there, once my finances allow it I will be buying the bits I need for my welder and getting cracking with these suspension mounts!

[tkpm]

Thats one hell of work table, are you going to be building more than one car with it?

Terry

[Tatey]

That's the plan . I always wanted a decent bench which I could actually use and I now do! It has only cost me £50 as well, which for a custom made bench 1m x 0.5m and at the right height for me to work at (I'm 6'6") so standard benches tend to be a right arse to work at for me.

I'll try and upload pictures of the bench and chassis later on tonight.

[Tatey]

[Tatey]

As it's been nearly a year and a half since I updated this thread I thought I would post a very long over due update!

Since the last post on this forum I've added the suspension mounts, engine/gear box mounts, steering column mount, driver footplate, front brake hose mounts, as well as a load of other brackets. My car has now been moved back to my house in Newcastle, and it fit perfectly in a long wheel base sprinter, I honestly never knew how big those things were!

Today I managed to get the radiator mounts finished. I still need to tidy up one of the lower mounts but they are functional at the minute. I need to buy some self tappers for the top mounts.

Over Christmas I contemplated buying myself a BMW E30 325i, even to the extend of going to view one in Manchester from Newcastle with the cash ready to buy, however I ended up walking away from it. This then got me thinking about why I was considering buying a new faster car when I have my kit car unfinished in the garage 2 and a half years after starting it! So outcame the savings and money has been spent! I have also extended the steering column so I now have functioning steering as well.

At the minute I am waiting for the following to be delivered/picked up by myself this week:

• GRP Seats
• Roll Bar
• Fuel Tank
• Harnesses
• Fuel filler cap
• Alloys
• ZX6R Carbs
• ZX6R Fuel Pump
• Seat Runners

I dropped by alloys off at the powder coaters on Thursday to get a nice coat of anthractite (gun metal grey), I was originally going to sand these down and paint them myself, but at £40 a wheel and with the new drive to get the car finished I decided to bite the bullet and get them done! I will be picking them up on Tuesday and will post some pictures when I get them back.

Once I have my seats and seat runners I can make my seat mounts, then move onto the rear brake line brackets and the roll bar rear stay bracket and finally the driver footwell plate. Then chassis will be finished and I will finally be able to paint it satin black and then get the floor in place. My plan is to order the ali for the floor the first week of feb.

By the looks of things I still have quite a bit to spend on the car with all of the bits I want, but my aim is to get it done for the summer, as I don't want it to go over 3 years of building, as then I would have been able to complete a degree in the time its taken to finish it .

I have also decided that I will be getting a full set of braded stainless steel fuel and brake lines made for the car by Voucht, these will be expensive but I think well worth while and are a nice bit of 'bling' that should hopefully set my car apart.

Here are the latest pictures of my build.

[Davidbolam]

Good to see your photo's. Where in ncl are you. I am building in Brunton Park

[Tatey]

I'm actually in Northumberland, 10 miles East of Hexham. It's good to see there are a few more builders in the North East!