It’s Christmas Eve (I wish this time of year was still as magical as it was when I was a child) and I’m stretching out the time until Santa arrives by writing this post. Not that there’s much to write about to be honest.
I’ve finished making the new suspension components, as you can see in the photo here. (Not that you can see very much, the brilliant white rather mucks up the camera’s exposure.) I did have a bit of a panic about these new rockers this morning when I convinced myself I’d assembled the spherical bearing bits wrongly, in that the braking and accelerative forces were going to be acting on the circlips retaining the bearings. However, after I was just about to start making some new ones I realised my mistake. Anthea tells me I’m always doing this and I don’t think she’s wrong.
One thing you might be able to see if you peer really hard at the photo above is that as I’ve now got an AC TIG welder I’ve been practising my aluminium welding skills. Actually, with a bit of 
twiddling around with the myriad of knobs on my the welder and a bit of practise it wasn’t too hard to do. Those aluminium towers are there to hold down the bonnet in the event of the splitter getting ripped off. Originally they were rivetted together but now they’re welded too.
I’ve also build up the rear suspension as in the photo here. Again, the brilliant white it just too much for the camera but you should get the idea anyway.
That means I’ve done what I’m going to do to the suspension. Next thing I want to do is to do a minor mod to the engine cradle. This is a bit of a problem really as I’d expected to have the new engine by now. (Did I mention that I’d eventually decided to get another engine to replace the one I knackered at the Birkett? If nothing else, it means I’ve got a lot of spare parts. Problem is, even though it’s supposedly arrived in the country I haven’t seen hide nor hair of it and I guess I’m sunk until after Christmas now.) Perhaps I’ll have to mock something up with the casings from the existing engine…