Been a couple of weeks since I've updated this, so here goes:

I've mostly been doing the donkey work on the exhaust, it's nearly finished though. I'd have had it finished on Saturday, but ran out of gas... typical!

Kit of parts


Right hand done...



Left hand ALMOST done!

I've also had a pinking at a couple of little bits - the brake light switch and the cover for the front of the footwells.

This kind of shows my solution - I've made up a bracket out of 16swg onto which a microswitch is bolted - or at the moment held in with a couple of nails as I have no bolts of the right size! The bracket bolts into the pedal box, so it's adjustable with the pedal. I've welded a plate onto a nut which threads onto the pedal push rod (again allowing some adjustment) and is held in place with a locknut. Seems to work well enough for now but I've got some misgivings about the plate on the pushrod - may try to sandwich it between locknuts or even put some loctite on it to be sure.



Finally I've cut the top panels into shape, will rivet and bond them into place next weekend. The aluminium front of the scuttle will bolt down onto the top of these, probable via rivnuts.



And finally my new rollbar compared to the existing one... whoops...

cant you just get that hoop bent a bit more?

It may be possible, but at best the edges of the tubes would be smack on the edges of the chassis. I'd like to avoid throwing good money after bad on this one, plus on the styling side I prefer having the angled sides.
I'll bung it on Ebay at some point to try to recoup some of the money in it.

So it's been a while again since an update; I've been busy but it's all been little bits really. This is the summary:

Got the inlet manifolds made up (I used Alu-Weld to join the tubes to the plates since my TIG welder couldn't put enough heat into it), modified the throttle bodies to accept bosch style injectors, made up some spacers and then assembled it all on top of the engine. An easy summary but there was a fair bit of detailed work involved! Also got the throttle cable set up sorted for now - I expect I'll have to tweak it a bit in the future (especially if I make some cam covers), but for now it proves that the throttle pedal has sufficient travel and both sets of bodies open equally.

I've also made a start on the rollcage - made the mounts, and notched the tubes. Turns out one side of the front rollbar is longer than the other, didn't notice it before the trial assembly! Just need to move the notch up a bit. Other than that it fits together quite well :D

Sometimes you have to go backwards a bit to go forwards... after straightening up the front hoop I cut off the rear rail and pockets in order to gain enough access for the roll cage rear stays.



I made up some plates so the for the rear stays and welded them in.



Because the garage has a relatively low roof and the car is quite high on the build tunnel I'm having a hard time judging the position of the roof bars, so for now these will stay tacked only until I get it on the floor to have a proper look at it. I nearly got the rest of the welding finished last weekend, just a couple more bits to do and then I'm onto the cooling and fuel systems.

Need to get the seats in (if only temporarily) so I can make the harness mounts and I need to weld in a bracket to support the throttle cable and hold it clear of the exhaust. Also the garage needs a bloody good clean - it seems like it takes no time at all for everything to get covered in crap and dust :(

In preparation for getting on with my cooling system I've been eyeballing the radiator and nose positions; I'm not yet convinced that I can make them fit.

The radiator is from a Mk1 1.9D Clio and is a pretty tight fit within the nose cone - in the pictures below it's pretty much wedged in the nose but also pretty damn close to the front of the chassis. The original fan simply will not fit, so I'm either looking at a slim line one or a pair of motorbike ones.

Have I missed a trick here or something?

Minor update- not had much time and it's been slow going when I have. Got the roll cage finished for now, including making up some spacer plates out of 5mm aluminium. This is so that the front roll cage mounts don't have to clamp the fibreglass bodywork (I'll "let" the plates into the side panels).



Got both the passengers and drivers seats in position, both mounted on runners. I've tried to keep the drivers one a bit more adjustable (there's a removable spacer in the mounts) so it can be adjusted in the future to suit someone who isn't me.



I've received my new radiator and fans - it's a 190E one and is considerably smaller than the Clio one, however it's also aluminium so hopefully it'll be up to the job with some ducting and good fans. The fans are SPAL units off Aprilia RSV's and cost me a grand total of about £30 :D Hopefully it'll all hang together Ok!

Finally I've had a quick go at knocking up some alternative mounts for my harness, after realising the original Haynes design may not pass the IVA. It's a bit rough at the moment but I think proves the principal.