Spent most of the weekend doing house stuff, getting ready for Sophie’s birthday at the end of the month.

Only managed to get about an hour on the car over the course of the weekend.  I used my new bender to bend up some sheet to start building the firewall and floor.

This pic is from inside the front wheel well, looking back at where the pedals are.  So this section is now sealed up.

Another view, from a lower angle.

I also made the panel to cover the upper part of the transmission tunnel – the section where your radio and air-con controls would normally be.

I also cut up my old exhaust, so that I can use the bits to make the new exhaust.  The ‘new’ parts are now cut up and I’ve mocked the new exhaust up, with the bits all taped together.  I’ve just got to make the final outlet in an oval shape, and then the main fabrication of it will be done.  The rest of it is ready to be final finished, then welded.  Once that is done, I’ve just got to add two mounts to it.  One will go from the first section of the exhaust to the gearbox – to take any flexing load off the back of the turbo charger.  There will be another small mount near the outlet, that is going to be near the front edge of the passenger door.

Got a lot done today, in not too many hours.

I machined up 6 threaded inserts to mount the pedal box into the tubes of the chassis.  They are all lined up and welded in now, so the pedal box mounting is complete!

Next, was some work to finish the steering column.  I ended up cutting off the very end of the mount up near where the steering wheel is, cause I was not happy with it.  Made a new design that I’m happier with.  Also pulled all of the column apart to finish drilling the holes where the steering wheel mounts, and to paint it all.

The I moved onto the lower mount and built and fitted that.

The shaft is now also cut to its proper length.  I kept going with the steering theme, and fitted the steering rack temporally to work out the final bits of the steering.

I then cut up the old steering to get the splined ends, to turn them into the new section of the steering.  So thats now all cut to length and painted, ready to be fitted.

Then I bolted the pedal box back in, and the seat and steering wheel so that I could check the fitment of everything.  Sitting in there I’m really happy with how it all feels at the moment – time will tell….

Almost looks ready to go 🙂

So,  one of the next items is to start paneling in the firewall and floor etc.  I need to be able to bend pieces of steel and alloy sheet – so i made a bender.  I’ve had this on the list of things to do for quite a while, but now i need it.  It’s wide enough to fit a 1200mm wide sheet in it, so should be able to do everything that I need.

It’s all made from scrap bits from around the shed, the pivots are gudgeon pins from an engine, the bit thats attached to them are from an old trolley jack –  Neil would be proud 🙂

It works well though, even a piece of 3mm thick stainless steel strip was no match for it.

The current upper clamp has a rounded edge, creating a nice rounded bend.  I’m going to make a another upper clamp from a piece of angle iron, that has a sharper edge, for making  sharper bends (The upper bit is removable).  If the need ever arises, I think that it would also be nice to have another one with a larger radius bend on it.

Until tomorrow…  Hopefully I can start paneling in the floor.

Posting from the shed for the first time 🙂

Been working on the mounts for the pedal box tonight. I’ve also had the pedal box apart and re-drilled the pedal mounts for a different angle on them. The mounting holes are all in the base plate, and I’ve also taken out some of the material from the main mounting box, to make it lighter. I hadn’t done this before as I was unsure of where it was going to mount to the car.

Along with this, I’ve also added another small bar to the chassis to mount the front edge of the pedal box to. JC has his mounted to strengthened parts of the standard car floor, and under braking it is bending the floor – that’s how much force you are putting into the brake pedal at racing speeds!

I’ve also added a small bar to the drivers side seat mount, to tie it into the rollcage better. This is instead of the diagonal idea. This small piece is a lot lighter than a full diagonal, and I feel that its every bit strong enough.

I can’t wait to start building the next chassis (after this one is done and I’ve raced it of course), as I have learnt so much during this build so far. There are already so many things that I will do differently next time – to make it stronger, and lighter at the same time. Probably the biggest part of this will be designing the frame so that things like the seats, pedal box, steering etc will all just mount direct to the chassis, with no need for extra bits to adapt to them like I’ve had to do this time.

More tomorrow…..