Slowing down

CablesThe car that is. This is the second update in as many weeks, I’ll have you know. This one is really about controlling the car and I’ve now finished running control cables. in this photo, if you look carefully, you can see the gearchange cable (along the top rail) and the clutch and throttle cables (snaking up from the floor). I’m adopting the sort of strategy that you see in proper race cars and trying to avoid drilling any holes in the chassis by the copious use of tie-wraps. The chassis is such a nice thing that it’d be a shame to start drilling holes in it. Continue reading “Slowing down”

Slow progress

The chassis returnsSo, after a couple of weeks, I got the chassis back and put it up on stands in the garage although, as you can see, there’s rather of lot of junk in the garage as well.

The floor of the chassis has been bonded in, as well as riveted  with some rather natty flush rivets. Now, all I’ve got to do is to put it together. The only problem at the moment is that the grey semi-shiny finish seems to upset the camera I use and quite a lot of the photos look bizarre…

Continue reading “Slow progress”

A-coating we will go

Off to the powder coaters-002So, as promised, I took it all apart again, painfully aware that there were lots of things that perhaps I should have done but haven’t managed to get around to doing. All the same, I put it on the chassis all on my own (the last time I did this I got Anthea to help and she ended up with 8 stitches in a slash to her knee). Here it is sitting on the trailer ready to be dragged over to Thetford where Andy Bates preferred powder coaters are. I’m getting it done in a colour often used by Andy which is sort of mid-grey. They call it anthracite but it isn’t as that’s essentially proper black.

Continue reading “A-coating we will go”

Driver positioning

Pedal boxSo, it’s been a bit quiet hereabouts, but I have been getting on with things slowly. I’m now just about at the point where I need to get the chassis powder coated. So, this is a bit of a catch up post. One thing that is worth mentioning is that I’ve decided to skip this year’s Birkett race so as to get properly prepared for next year’s race season. I’m also in the process of losing my responsibilities as RGB formula rep which should mean I can concentrate on just racing for a change; which will be nice…

As a bit of catching up on a previous post, Nick at AB Performance managed to get the recalcitrant bearing cup out of my diff, with the aid of a 30 tonne press! I’m just hoping that the diff itself is OK.

Continue reading “Driver positioning”

Fit the Fifth

Expired CV joint-002…in which our intrepid hero sets out on his fifth quest to slay some unperceived dragon, albeit starting by avoiding a trip to Pembrey in the land of the dragons.

Back in the real world I took the J15’s bodywork off to have a look at the damage as a consequence of the CV joint. As you can see a goodly quantity of CV joint grease was scattered about and I found a single one of the balls out of this tripode joint skittering about on top of the floor pan. The rest of them must have escaped captivity in Snetterton.

Continue reading “Fit the Fifth”

A tardy Caddington Park

As seems usual these days, I start with an apology. Since the last post I’ve been racing at both Cadwell and Doningon. It’s the usual excuse, I’ve just been too busy, although I did spend a welcome weekend tramping around the Peak District. All the same, despite the tardiness, I did go to Cadwell and Donington and completed four races without major mishap.

Wasn’t quick enough though…

Continue reading “A tardy Caddington Park”

Electrification

So, on with the tale of the engine upgrade.

As a couple of people suggested to me, I made a support for the standard-sump equipped engine as in the photo here. This allowed me to support the engine in position to see what I was going to have to do to make some engine mounts.

Note that I’m using a motor sport magazine to get the support at the right height.

Continue reading “Electrification”