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8th January

I haven't updated the pages because nothing significant has been completed. I have decided not to fit the side panels until all the pipes and cables have been completed - it seems it would be easier with them off.

Here is a quick overview of everything done since last month's entry:

STEERING COLUMN: The clip supplied is WAY too long so I built my own out of stainless steel sheet. Not sure if I am really happy with it yet, but it is certainly secure.

PEDALS: When I first fitted the pedals they seemed to be very high. In fact when I am sat in the car they are pretty good. I did cut the spacer between the clutch and brake pedals so they could be moved closer together. I also fitted a 10mm OD pipe, flattening the ends to secure the pedal box unit as the video advises.

RADIATOR: Ok I admit it -it's not really fitted yet... I have, however, attached the sports bottle for an expansion tank and fitted one of the two flexible hoses.

FUEL TANK: Included in this is the fitting of a piece of MDF as a back board, the spare wheel, fuel filler cap and the fuel tank. I haven't decided if the fitting is exactly right, I may want to move the top anchor point lower down so we have more boot space.

REAR RIDE HEIGHT: This was a simple matter of following the instructions on the video - I have allowed enough movement to increase the ride height once the springs have settled in. The video does describe fitting spring compressors to reduce the length of the springs, but doesn't tell how much to reduce them by! Anyway I reduced mine by about an inch and hoped this would be enough.

Well here are some pictures for it:

31st January

This is where it starts getting difficult. The excitement of the early part of the build is waning - in the early days you could see huge leaps in the build, the car took shape. Now that the majority of the main components have been fitted the build seems to become less inviting (the temperature in the garage doesn't help either).

However when I made the decision to buy the kit I made the following calculation:

40 kits collected each month for 10 months =

400 kits a year

Now that means if everyone finished their kits from RHE there should be literally thousands of 2B's and the like on the road on the sunny days, and that's obviously not the case. This means that there must be a large amount of part-built and nearly built cars lying around in garages gathering dust. I did not want to be one of those people, which means that even though the task isn't so interesting I'm going to stick with it.

I have decided that the next major stepping stone is to get the engine started (as described at the start of the month) so all the work that has been carried out is moving towards this stage. Even though the brakes are not required to start the engine I thought it best that they should at least be fitted - as I don't really want to take the tunnel sides off again once I get on with the external body work.

So this month has been spent trial fitting items into the engine bay to see if they all fit and where they will end up being positioned - until I am happy with the position of all the pieces I won't be fitting the firewall.

My aim is to have the car ready for the big switch-on at the end of February, at which point I hope the weather starts to warm up and handling metal will be a little more comfortable and easier ;-)

 

 

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