Not quite rolling

As with all kit cars, plans often go out the window. It is the beginning of May and my plan for a rolling chassis by end-April was a little ambitious... Mainly due to lack of time, other things going wrong, and some extra DIY on my car port ;-)

Putting the rubber/steel bushes into the suspension parts proved a lot harder than I thought. Hitting with a hammer clearly wasn't going to work and winding in with a vice didn't quite cut it either. I asked the local garage to use their hydraulic press to push them in which they did for a few quid.

Front suspension went in without any major problems as the manual is quite helpful here

The other side looks the same ;-)

I did fit one side of the rear suspension and started to trial fit the diff - this is clearly a 2 man job as one person needs to raise the diff on a jack while the other fits the bolts. While checking the position and making sure the bolts fit, I realised that fitting the brake pipes after the diff would be a real pain, so I abandoned the rear end and started on the brakes (manual is less helpful here!)

Here you can see the brake servo and master cylinder from the sierra donor. This bolts on to the bulkhead and connects to the pedal box (next picture below). This is a simple (not) matter of doing up 2 nuts as the 2 parts fit together. a) the hole for the clutch cable wasn't big enough and b)it is another 2 man job (thanks Alex), as one person needs to hold the servo, while the other does up the nuts in drivers footwell.

 Clutch and brake pedal. Alex and I sat in the car and pressed the pedals....;-) Exciting!

I got bored of getting wet, and getting rid of pools of water from the tarpaulin covering the chassis. So I adding some posts and clear plastic roofing sheets to keep everything dry. Another 2 man job - thanks Michael for all your help!

Next week brake pipes if I can find the right size rivets...