Placing the seats

In order to place the seats I have screwed in threaded bar, extending 20 mm from the under side of the seats (the spacers for mounting will be 20 mm high).












Then I placed cardboard on the bottom of the car.














I gently placed the seats onto the cardboard. When happy with the location I pushed the seats down, so the threaded bar left a mark on the cardboard. The dog approved this method of working...











I have drilled 9 mm holes on the marks. The seats fitted perfectly!

Assembly

Even though I have not sorted the registration yet, I have decided to continue the build for now. So I have assembled the chassis and the suspension units which were more or less ready. It's looking good. Next thing will be mounting of the seats, but after that I need to decide which engine I will be using, and source one.

The original idea was to use a 1600 Kent (Crossflow) engine. The eninge and gearbox mounts are designed for this setup. Because of the difficulties with registration, I need to go for another engine with fuel injection, lambda and a catalyst. Bye Bye Kent.

Roll-bar and rear brake drum

Last week I have welded the roll-bar onto the seven. Looking good. When I have my fuel tank, I will add the backstays.













Also I have opened up the RH side brakdrum of the rear axle. Something was not running properly. It turned out that a liner came loose from the brake part. I will exchange the brake parts later on. For the alloy rims I do not need to get longer studs! Save a few hard earned Euro's!

To remove the brake drum I was advised to use the Fu*$^!@ Big Hammer method, because the brake liner could be worn into the drum. This was not the situation. The drum was stuck onto the shaft. With the flame-torch it was easily removed.

Update: no progress

I have done some paintwork, and I place a seat: almost nothing since the last post. The reason is not being motivated. Besides the below zero temperatures in the garage, it is mainly the news about registration that I got recently. It will be difficult to register the car. And if I can do it, it will cost loads of money. So much, that it is not worth it to continue the build. The estimation is approx. € 6.000,- to 8.000,-.

I have given it many thoughts, and I am still not sure wether to continue the build or not. Why not buy a car which is already registered?

Anyway, when the temperatures go up, at least I will assemble the car with all the parts I have now. Pics will follow!

Lower harness mountings

Finally I have been able to work on the car again.

I have done some small jobs last month. Like paint jobbies, and cutting the lower harness mounting strenthening plates. And yesterday I finally welded the plates to the chassis. Also, I have finally welded the steering rack mounts.

The seatbelt mounting plates should be fully welded to the chassis. Where the wheel arches will be, I had already welded a steel plate (1.6mm) to the chassis. To be able to weld the mounting plate to the chassis, I have removed the lower edge of the existing plate.









I have fully rewelded the new joint, and filled up the gap between the existing plate and the bottom plate.













Then I have put the triangular strengthening plate on top of that and fully welded all of it.














I still have to remove the welding spatter, clean up a bit.


















Nice and painted!














Next jobs:
- strenthening the handbrake cable welded nuts,
- fitting seats, making the uppper harness mounting points,
- welding a roll-bar to the chassis.

Since I cannot bend the steel pipe myself and I have to source the correct material (at high cost), I decided to buy a complete roll-bar, ready to weld on the chassis. I expect it to arrive any day now.

Final welding on rear axle

Yesterday I did the final welding on the rear axle. The panhard rod mounting and the handbrake cable brackets still needed to be fully welded. Also I have made a combined brace for the panhard rod mounting and the right handbrake cable bracket.

Note the additional brace against torsion on top of the bracket.






Before I could do the welding, I have removed the axle from the chassis. This had to be done anyway, because the chassis has also some items which must be fully welded. Therefore I need to flip the chassis over.

And I will refurbish the drum brakes on the axle at the same time.







Yep, that's me!

Handbrake 2: change of mind

I have changed my mind about solving the interference problem. It is a design problem and it should be taken care of asap. The longer I wait, the more problems will show up, for example in the interior trim.

I had a discussion with some blokes at www.locostbuilders.co.uk (great website!). I was given the tip to put the brackets for the outer cable behind the transmission tunnel instead of in the transmission tunnel. Because of the location and the fixed lenth of the inner cable, I will have to remake the handbrake cable adjuster. A small job, which I will tackle in a further stage, when the rear drum brakes on the Escort live axle are refurbished.


Modified routing. The cables run up and sideways. This shot is taken with axle in full bump situation.













Again at ride height.















At this time I have just tack-welded two M10 nuts onto the horizontal chassis member. When the axle has been removed in the near future, I will brace and fully weld the nuts.












On this picure can be seen what happens to the inner cable due to the angle at which it is coming in. I don't know what will happen to the inner cable when the handbrake is used.

This situation is not perfect, but still better compared to what is was.