Post Christmas update

Yes I know it's February, and yes I know my last post was September, but that pretty much sums up the build to be honest. It's been dormant for about four months for various reasons.

Anyway, lots of updates;

Phil at Talon finally got me a new diff case, and it fits perfectly. He's also suggested a few things for fitting, mainly so I don't actually damage the casing while it's being fitted. I've also figured out that the two plates that I had for a Sierra diff can be chopped up and will become the fixings for this diff!

The casing arriving does mean I was able to crack on with the rear suspension frame, and that's all welded up. Well, on that subject the whole chassis has now been fully welded, and I'm really happy with the results (even if it took more than twelve months!). I am a bit short of metal now though, I don't have enough for the extra triangulation. At some point I'll pick up one more 1" section and a 3/4" section.

I also popped over to theflockkeeper (Ebay person) in Telford for some steel offcuts, and came away with a good selection of 1mm for panels, 3mm for brackets and 5mm for suspension parts, all for the princely sum of £60. I still haven't got a floor but I've got pretty much everything else. Now I have no excuse for putting together the wishbones!! I won't be panelling in the engine bay, I'm working on the assumption that it will have a full bodyshell over it so the panels are redundant. It might help with cooling as well.

I managed to run out of welding gas while doing the chassis, a quick journey to my nearest Hobbygas supplier got me a full tank for £30 + VAT. I'm really liking not having to pay rental on the cylinder! I've got through at least three rolls of welding wire as well, I would go bigger but I've heard problems with the bigger rolls and it's not a huge difference in price.

Another bargain found as well, a fellow LCB member sold me a full set of coilovers for £100. Platform and damping adjustable, they just need a bit of a clean up. They even had the spring rates written on the springs! They were off a locost chassis rather than a Haynes chassis, but I think the lengths are ok. The front look fine with good spring rates, the rears might need stronger springs and perhaps a modification to the mounts for the length.

So the next stage is wishbones and mounts... See you next year (probably!)...

Oh, and one last thing. I'm using a 1.6 MX5 as a donor, and as any MX5 owner knows, there was a design flaw with the crankshaft (google short nose crank for more details). So I decided to check before I got too much further with the build. Turns out I have the updated crank with the better fixing, so no self-detonating engine for me!! Yay!