Hub painting

The hubs are coming along nicely, a couple of coats of red oxide and then gold top coat (yep, sticking with the iron man colour combo!). Despite the photos they actually are the same colour, I think the front hubs had just dried a bit more by the time I took the photo. I've also included a couple of suspension brackets that needed to be done. I still have all four rear suspension arms to paint, but that needs a bit of set up. I might try and do that Wednesday, depending on whether the weather leaves me stranded in Leeds.

Oh, and a note to my past self... remove the driveshaft nut BEFORE dismantling the car!! I've had to do all my rear end work with driveshafts attached to the rear hubs. It's been fine when sorting out the suspension linkages and similar, but a pain in the bottom when I only need the hub on it's own. And I still don't know what the bearings are like!! They seem to turn quite smoothly, but it could be very different when the engine is trying to turn the wheel to move the car.

Ah well, not something to think about for now.

Breaking news...

It is with regret that I must announce the passing of the brake disc shields. I did all I can to save them but they were too far gone...

To be fair I actually didn't try too hard, I just got fed up of trying to get them clean so they got removed. Five out of six bolts came undone with some persuasion, the sixth needed it's head ground off. No matter, it's not as if I'm going to put replacements on!

Front hubs are now back in the bucket of Deox C for their last soak before removing, cleaning drying and painting.

Music musings....

Yes I know, audio options are not exactly top of the list when it comes to kit cars. However, the MX5 donor seats come with speakers in the head rests, and it seems appropriate that I make them functional for those longer journeys.

The plan is to have an 'invisible' audio system, that is entirely driven from my phone. Bluetooth connection to a pre-amp receiver, to a small amp that drives the seat speakers. It's similar to what I have in the tintop at the moment, a Bluetooth receiver going to it's aux-in. It obviously still needs a power source, but that's easier than an audio source.

Problem is, it's not the best quality, so I've been trying a few things. First test was to try an alternative to Bluetooth. As people may know, phones are powered by USB, but in my tintop at least it causes a horrendous earth loop when the phone is plugged in (partly why I use Bluetooth, no earth loop!). So headphone out is a no-no (unless I resolve the loop part). I do have a USB DAC which works, so I bought a phone USB hub off Ebay and tried it. The DAC works fine (plug and play, excellent!), and the sound quality is actually really good. But as soon as I plugged power into the hub, I got a high pitched squeal.

It also turns out the hub can't actually supply power, so I'll have to see what the seller says about that. If I can resolve the squeal, then it might be useful to be able to just plug the phone in and go.

To summarise, I can go with;

1. The bluetooth receiver which isn't the best quality but is easy to get working.
2. The headphone socket which is better quality but causes an earth loop.
3. USB DAC which is the best quality but I have a faulty hub so couldn't power the phone.

Time to jump on Ebay and see whether it's actually faulty or whether it's just something about my phone.

(Update). The seller accepted it being faulty and I got a refund. I've now ordered a different hub so I'll see if that is any improvement.

Hubs

The next bit of cleaning is the front and rear hubs. These came from the donor MX5, and while they were in usable condition, a few years of sitting around has left them dirty and rusty. In particular the brake dust guard on the front hub is pretty bad. Then again, that's about normal for most cars, and I tend to remove them when they get too bad. Fingers crossed these might be ok, but only time will tell.

The rears were first, an overnight soak in deox c rust remover got rid of a lot of it. I did make a bit of a mistake though. You're meant to scrub the metal on a regular basis to dislodge the bits of rust. I did do this, but I was scrubbing it in the rust remover bath. So basically I was giving the rust remover so much extra work to do!! What I should have done is took it out and scrubbed it separately, that would have allowed the rust remover to only work on attached rust. As it stands the rears are now mostly done, but I've got through an entire bottle of rust remover doing it.

For the fronts, I'll be doing it properly. I have one bucket of 1:20 rust remover (1 part remover to 20 parts water), then in another bucket I have water with washing up liquid. There's a hub in each of them now, what I'll do is every so often swap them over, and whichever one ends up in the water bucket will get scrubbed. Hopefully this will make the rust remover go a bit further.

Having said that, the rust remover has been truly excellent. It's not overly cheap (and even more expensive if you use it wrong!), but being able to just leave the part in a bucket to sort itself out is really useful. I had planned on electrolysis first, but I was having real trouble with finding a location where it wouldn't get interfered with by wildlife or the elements, where I can DC power safely, and where the gases can escape. At least the rust remover can just be done in the garage.

Pictures of the hubs to follow, I should do a before and after but because I didn't do a 'before' it will be just an 'after'. Then on to the next job.

And done!

Well, I think they came out quite nice. All seals and rubbers replaced, I reused the pistons and sliders because despite them looking pretty rough initially, they cleaned up very nicely. New bleed nipples (the old ones were just asking for trouble), but the handbrake mechanisms just needed a bit of cleaning and greasing. The last bit to add are the small chrome pad sliders, I could probably just put them on when the pads go on. They were similar to the pistons, just needed a bit of a clean.

They're now in sealed bags where they will hopefully be ok until I come to use them.

Next job, steering rack. Hmm, I wonder where I left the track rod ends that I bought...

And cleaning...

The cleaning is going well, although it's proper back breaking work!! This is the result of a weekends hard slog. Turns out the best stuff so far is the Deox-c that I had bought a while back. Whilst it doesn't seem to work immediately, what it does is loosen the rust so it can then be rubbed off with a green scouring pad (the washing up kind of pad). What was apparent though is that the bare metal very quickly gets a haze of rust almost as soon as it comes out of the solution. What I'll need to do is remove each part in turn, give it a scrub and dry then paint it.

In terms of other parts used, I've bought all new seals (£30 for all four corners), new bleed nipples (a fiver) but I'm going to reuse the sliders as they seem ok (apart from needing a clean as above). I also have new copper washers (no brainer for that one to be honest). I'll be reusing the various bolts as well, again they just need a good clean.

And the rears are a challenge. As I figured out, the pistons are screwed in, so it took the whole of two minutes to remove the pistons. Problem is, the bolt that screws them in also needs to come out (there's a seal that I think has perished on one), but it needs a circlip removing that is inside the caliper. I've ordered a pair of internal circlip pliers that I am hoping are narrow enough and long enough to get inside. Once they're out, I can replace the seal and check the handbrake mechanisms.

Apart from that, I seem to have lost a rear caliper bracket (but I still have three!), and I may have to replace the rear pistons as I'm not sure they are usable.

In other news, I am now the owner of an Escort Mark 2 steering rack, obtained for the princely sum of £40!! It looks almost brand new, it still has end caps on and protective paint on the threads, so I'm not even sure it's ever been mounted. I'm going to remove the bellows to peek inside, but if everything checks out I won't be doing much else to it. Oh, apart from finding some decent mounting brackets. I'm tempted to go for solid mounts, but I'm also thinking it might make the ride a bit harsh.

Cleaning...

One of the things I've yet to do is clean up the donor parts. In this case it's mainly the brakes. The ones that came off the car were definite MOT failures, but when I took them off I was hoping they'd clean up. Having said that, I also bought a complete extra set of brake calipers, discs and pads for £80, so I have double of everything.

And I needed it!! The first front caliper came apart quite easily (if a little mucky). I did the compressed air trick to shift the piston, and it came out with an almighty crack. I was off to a good start.

The second one I picked up was missing a dust seal, not good. Turned out the piston wasn't going anywhere, in or out. So I removed the sliders, carrier and other spare parts, and marked that one for the bin.

Third one wasn't much better, it had a dust seal but was ripped. So again I scavenged what I could and put the caliper aside. So that was a working left caliper, a failed right, a failed left.

Thankfully the last right hand caliper piston also came out quite easily, although the sliders didn't. Still, overnight soaking in plusgas should solve that one.

I'd made enough mess by this point so I stacked up the rear calipers ready to dismantle them sometime today. Then it's a good scrub and grind to get rid of the rubbish, followed by a coat of paint. The new front seals are on their way (£14 for both sides including slider boots).

By the way, for anyone using compressed air for removing pistons, heed the warning about them coming out with force. If there isn't anything to stop the piston coming out, they will end up flying. Fortunately the front caliper was big enough to contain the piston, however I can see the rear piston is small enough to shoot straight out. Leave a brake pad or flat metal in the caliper to stop it doing damage. And keep your fingers out of the way!

Next job after the calipers, removing the surface rust off the chassis and putting the first coat of oxide on it.

(A quick note to self... the rear pistons won't 'blow' out, they're fixed in with adjuster screws. In some ways that makes them easier to dismantle, although it still won't work if corrosion has set in. Anyhow, that's this weekends job).

Fixed pedals and new holes

Quite a productive hour today;

The clutch pedal has been straightened and welded up so it sits in between the brake pedal and the transmission wall. The hole has been cut for the brake master cylinder, and I've positioned the gas pedal for fitting tomorrow. 

The gas pedal should be even easier than I expected;

Basically I need to make two brackets off the cross member to hold the spring where I've clamped it. It did occur to me that the cable mount is at an odd angle, but it can be quite easily bent to shape. 

The clutch master cylinder is on order, so I'll wait for it to appear before cutting the clutch holes. Then I need to make stops for all three pedals. Bent pieces of metal work for the manual, so I'll do the same!!

Then I need to figure out how to bolt the entire unit to the chassis, shouldn't be too difficult but I want to make sure it's reinforced. 

Two down, one to go (ish)

Well, there you go. Two pedals mounted on the back plate...

So a few things spring to mind. The plates were a good choice, the thing is rock solid. If I can finish the top and bottom bolts then there will be no flex at all. On the flip side, the welding was awful. Good penetration (pretty patterns showing through the other side), but so ugly it needs cleaning up.

But the main issue is the clutch pedal. I had hoped to retain the angle of the arm to keep the master cylinder out of the way of the engine. But having it in the right place actually has the two MC's in the same place. So I had to move the pedal 20mm to the left, which means the foot plate itself is right against the side of the foot well. Unless I want to spend all my time pressing the clutch with the side of my foot, it needs to be moved.

Tomorrow I'll cut off the plate (again!!) and reweld it in a better place.

But thankfully the brake pedal sits underneath the steering column absolutely perfectly, so I'm well happy with that. And plenty of space for the gas pedal, which will hang from above.

Hmmm, I need a shoe to measure...

Here's to getting the car finished this year! Well, at least moving under it's own steam, actually getting it finished is in the hands of VOSA and DVLA so that could be any time!

Pedal box next stage

OK, a quick review of previous posts shows that the clutch pedal is actually offset to the right. This was to avoid the transmission tunnel in the original MX5, and will do exactly the same job here. So I'll mark up the position of the master cylinders and drill holes to mount in the required position, but also retain the spacing that I had originally planned for.

I also need to weld on one more plate for the pedal brackets, this will sit parallel to the floor. Normally it's bolted to the floor, but there's zero strength in the floor. So in my case it'll be bolted to the frame. What I'm planning to do is cut out a section of the chassis and replace it with thicker steel. This will then be drilled and tapped to accept suitable fixings. I had thought of rivnut or similar captive nuts, but this will be inside the frame and amazingly fiddly to get to if they go rusty. So it's just easier to make it part of the frame itself. It also needs to be completely flush, which also removes the possibility of a rivnut.

Of course, I want to compare this plan with the original, just in case I've missed a trick here.

Some work (finally!)

I've been allocating an hour each day after the little one is in bed, to get into the garage and do stuff. The first couple of evenings have just been tidying (it's unbelievable how much stuff a garage will 'accumulate' when it's not in use!), but I've finally managed to get some welding done.

The bottom panel of the pedal box is now welded, although as expected it distorted whilst welding. In a way it worked in my favour though, when I bolt/clamp it in place it's absolutely rock solid. With a reinforcing plate across the top I think the pedals should be nice and firm.

And so, the next step. Welding the brackets for the pedals. I've got them out and wiped the dust off, and I remember what I had planned. I'm fairly sure on here there's also a drawing for the pedal layout, so I'll use that as reference.

Then I need to cut and mount the clutch and brake cylinders. The clutch cylinder will be new (the original was servo driven so won't be reused), but I'm thinking of using a new brake cylinder too depending on the price. Time to get shopping!

(Later that evening...)

Well, a new brake cylinder is out of the question, triple figures for the few that I can find. There are repair kits so I might try one of those if needs be. I've ordered a new clutch cylinder, car builder solutions has them for £40. The 0.7" apparently is not as common as the 0.75" (the latter being a Landrover common fit) so it's slightly more expensive. Still, it's ordered now, so I can get both master cylinders fitted when I do the pedals.

I also had another look at the manual, and it did occur to me that the clutch hole is where it is because it needs to stay away from the engine. Which means I may need to modify my drawing to be more in line with what they're suggesting. No biggie, just might be less space between the pedals than I had planned.

Time to go undo all the brake lines on the old cylinder, just to see what I'm working with...

More than a year...

Wow, I've just noticed it's been more than a year since I posted on here, and therefore even more than that since I worked on the car! The joys of having to go where the work is unfortunately, I haven't yet found a hotel where I can get some welding done in the evenings. Hmm, perhaps that would be a good business venture, a bit like a spa hotel but with spanners and stuff...

Anyhow, back to my car. Well, almost. Unfortunately the daily driver (A 2006 Saab) is suffering from a very rattly exhaust, probably either the front cat or the flexi pipe. Both units together are several hundred pounds to replace, and potentially a full day in an average exhaust builders. But it did get me thinking, what if I could make my own?

First job, learn how to weld stainless steel. This was easy enough, got some stainless MIG wire, turned up the settings as the interweb said, and then proceeded to blow seven shades of stainless through the plate I was practising with! Turns out the settings don't have to be that far off normal steel welding, and soon enough I was getting a good strong weld between stainless plates. I then also welded stainless to mild, because it did occur to me that the existing exhaust may not be stainless all the way, and I only want to replace the parts I need.

Now that I'm happy with stainless welding, I've bookmarked a catalytic converter, a length of pipe and a flexi. Total price just over £100 (with the cat being most of that!).

Next stage, figure out how to do the bends. Now the top of the cat turns a sharp 90+ degrees into the turbo, and I'm not confident I could get a sharp enough bend without compromising the diameter (not what I need straight out of the turbo!). So I found a thing on the internet called 'lobster cutting'. Basically you chop a piece of pipe into segments, each with a certain angle on them. Then if you rotate every other segment 180 degrees, you end up with a bend!

Just for an experiment, here is my first attempt at a lobster cut bend with some spare tube I had;

As you can see, it's just taped together, but I think it's actually turned out really nice. And it'll be more than enough to get the curve off the turbo into the cat.

Next week, I might get chance to work on the car...

Front grille musings

I want to get a decent lookalike for a real Healey, but I've always been concerned about the amount of chrome and other 'posh' bits. The logical route would be to go for a rally Healey look, but that brings in it's own challenges.

No doubt other things will pop up, but the first thing is the front grille. The standard Healey uses vertical chrome bars, which will either be horrendously expensive, or horrendously difficult to make.

The rally versions of the Healey are different though. They eschew the standard grille in favour of an exposed radiator. The radiator takes about 50% of the centre of the hole, and then there are curved sections either side (air intakes or similar). So that's the look I want to go for.

This means two things, finding a radiator that works in it's exposed form and fits in the position, then the curved sections mounted on each side. The curved sections are a dull metal, aluminium springs to mind. So I've been looking at salad bowls, mixing bowls, anything bowl related that is made of aluminum, and I've failed miserably.

Then I had an idea. Big old lampshades are the correct dull metal, and also nicely curved!!



I reckon a bit of planning and a sharp hacksaw will give me two appropriate sections, that can then be mounted on the side of the radiator. A bit of standard chrome edge trim around the mouth opening, and this will (hopefully) be the end result;





(Actually, looking at other examples it might not actually be that curved...some cars just use flat metal!!)

Pedal alterations

Time for surgery on the clutch and brake pedals. The originals are designed to fit around a brake servo, hydraulic clutch and a small footwell. There are various angles on the metal that just aren't needed. They're also a fair bit too long.

First thing, chop everything up. Here's the pedals in bits;

The gas pedal will stay as it is, so that is put aside for now. I'm working off the same measurement as for the Sierra brake pedal. The Sierra clutch pedal is cable operated so is lifted off the floor, but with both clutch and brake being hydraulic here it means the hinge is at the base (hence both being the same length as the Sierra brake pedal). So both pedals will be 191 mm from the edge of the outer bush to the centre of the pedal plate. A decent cut on both to keep the profile tidy, nice and simple. I also screwed both the plates on to a piece of wood, to keep the angle correct and have them at the same length. It made it easy to measure from the bush to the wood, and to keep everything at right angles.

A bit of welding leaves me with this;

The metal used for the pedals is quite beefy, but with the welder turned up high I'm happy I got penetration. It certainly took long enough to cool down (as evidenced by a very sore thumb).

Once things were cool enough to take apart, I was left with this;

A quick boot measurement had the pedals at just right place, which is fantastic. One last trial was to replace the aluminium faces;

Unfortunately they can't stay as they are because the IVA requires a permanent non-slip surface, either rubber or skateboard tape. Tape will be cheaper.

The holes for the pushrods are in the same place as before so hopefully things should still work well. 

Tomorrow will be the brackets and holes for the master cylinders. 

Pedal design

I've said from day one that I want to use as much of the donor as possible. The pedals were one place I wanted to keep the MX5 ones. Partly because it makes all the linkages easy to put together, but partly because I've seen multiple posts where the Haynes pedal box design has failed (or has been seriously compromised). That seems to be a bad thing in my book, considering the middle pedal is the one I rely on to avoid possible bumps.

So, I've done a quick drawing, and I can see that the pedals are too long. No matter, I already knew that. A bit of trimming, that's all. But then I realised a small design flaw. I've done my absolute utmost to have the steering wheel dead centre and absolutely square on (memories of my old Nova with wonky steering has made me completely over the top with it!). But it means I can't have both the steering wheel and the brake pedal in the middle, and measurements show that if the brake pedal isn't in the middle, I can't actually get my feet on the pedals!

This is based on the pedal hanging from above, which is the original MX5 layout. It occurred to me that the pedals themselves don't care which way is up, so I turned them round. If I do that though, I've got to shorten the gas pedal, which means I couldn't actually open the throttle fully.

Then I found a few drawings where the clutch and brake pedal are floor mounted, and the gas pedal is top mounted. And that looks like the solution. The brake and clutch do need to be cut down, but I can do that.

This drawing shows the original pedals (being too long), and the pedal layout once they've been cut down;

Note the gas pedal isn't being altered. I like the angle of the pedal, and the pivot point works well with the steering column (blue). Cutting down the brake pedal is straightforward, its slightly less leverage for my foot but the pushrod is the same distance from the pivot point which should maintain the MX5 brake 'feel'. However I might drill a second hole a bit further up to give an element of adjustment.

The clutch pedal changes shape as it's cut down, instead of the angled piece (designed to avoid the MX5 transmission tunnel) it's just straight down to the pivot point. As with the brake pedal, I'm not changing the pushrod point, but hopefully the hydraulic clutch doesn't need as much pressure.

All this means that;

1. I retain all the pivot points (bushes, return springs, etc).
2. The pivot point for the brake pedal can be easily reinforced (as can the associated master cylinder).
3. I maintain a top mounted gas pedal (my personal preference).

By the way, the drawing on the left is my shoe (just for height and width, rather than actual representative shape!) The pedals will end up on the ball of my foot (which is the inner rectangle of my 'shoe')

I did also consider the cut down. I had thought about just cutting the bar at the best position and then welding the two halves together. To me that seems to be just asking for trouble. So I'm going to cut the pedal faces off, shorten the bars by an appropriate amount, then weld the faces back on. That keeps joints under compressive forces rather than bending forces. I'll take some photos of that process, mainly to keep Mr IVA happy.

Steering

Now the seats are in, I can put the steering wheel where I want. The MX5 design is very similar to the Sierra one, but the MX5 column isn't adjustable. So it has to be put in the right place.

A few sitting sessions got me a good position, then excessive use of metal and clamps got it locked in place. Then it was a case of cutting up and welding the three bars that make the front mount, a couple of flat plates for bolts, and lots more welding. Which got me this;

It's a steering wheel in the right place!! However, I had to consider IVA at this point. The brackets are designed to fail in an accident. The upper bolt fixings use the MX5 column slots, so the column can deform with enough force. The lower fixing is a u clamp, again it should allow things to collapse.

The top RHS piece is the same size as the Sierra one, but the left and right pieces are very different (a couple of inches longer on both sides). It did get me a bit worried, but the set up looks like other MX5 columns so I'm happy with the outcome. And I can get my legs underneath.

Next job will be the pedal box. Since I'm going way off the beaten track and using the standard pedals, I'm expecting a lot of design issues. First issue, which box of donor parts contains the pedals?!!!

Seats

Time for a big update I think. It's been some time since I last updated this blog, and rather unsurprisingly I've not actually done that much. A big push in the last couple of weeks have got me two big chunks though.

First off, the seats. Fairly easy one this, first a couple of cross bars;

The holes have got welded in crush tubes, and they're actually quite large. It was to match the holes in the seat runners, but I think the standard bolts have a shoulder on a smaller diameter bolt. Ah well, no danger of it failing IVA due to the size of the fixing!

Seat rails are bolted in;

The ends of the rails are actually bent to fit the MX5, they do straighten out to suit a flat mounting but I had to shave a few edges off for the sliders to work.

Passenger seat base in first;

Then the drivers seat, and job done;

The seat bases are compressed on the side, but not excessively. I could leave them, or I could take the leather off, 'rearrange' the base and re-cover them. I might do that anyway as I'd not realised how tall these seats are! I think it's called a 'foamectomy'...

So now the seats are in, I can fit the steering wheel. Next post.

More metal

Well, I came to do the seat mounts, turned out it's going to use a fair bit more metal than I thought. It's amazing how such short lengths become big lengths when there's quite a few of them. So I had to get some more, but getting back to Camp Steel is challenging, especially with work and Birmingham traffic.

So I found Steel Express in Wolverhampton, round the back of where Strykers used to be on the Stafford Road. A length of 1 inch and one length of 3/4 inch cost just over £40 for the pair. They're actually longer than the Camp Steel ones, 7.5 metres, so the price is a bit more expensive than Camp steel but less fuel (and time!) to pick up.

I just needed to take my hacksaw and chop it up into 2.5m sections. Interestingly, my SEAT saloon was able to take 3 metre sections, whereas the Mercedes estate can only take 2.5m max!!

So now I have sufficient metal to continue, but as ever the time available is limited. Once the seat bars are fitted and I can put the seat in, I'll be able to gauge the position of the steering wheel and pedals.

Then again... am I going about this the wrong way? The seat is adjustable, but the relationship between pedals and steering wheel isn't. Perhaps that is the 'magic number' I ought to be considering.

I'll have a think about that...

(Later that day)

OK, I've thought about it. If I sit on the floor with my feet and hands in roughly the right place, I think there will be 70 centimetres from the pedal box rear panel to the steering wheel. The same 70 centimetres works for the Merc so it seems like a good number. Therefore it doesn't really matter where the seat will be, as long as the distance between feet and hands is maintained.

Let the cutting begin!

part 1... complete?

Time to take stock of where I am and plan the next stage.

So far, I have;

• A basic chassis from square section
• Front suspension mounts
• Full front wishbones (painted)
• Transmission tunnel
• Diff mounting
• Rear suspension mounts
• Full rear wishbones
• Seat belt anchors

In theory this gives me a rolling chassis, albeit with no floor! Well, it work for Mr Flintstone I guess...

So following the manual, the next things are;

• Steering wheel mount. This will be a variation of the Haynes one, to take into account the MX5 column.
• Handbrake mounting. I'm planning on mounting my handbrake under the steering column, similar to the white example. It seems quite tidy and keeps the transmission tunnel clean. This does mean I can't do much until things are built as I don't quite understand how it fixes in place.
• Steering rack mount. I think I have precut metal to just bend and mount.
• Radiator mount. Um, might leave this one until I actually have a radiator to mount!

Ooh, then the next thing in the manual is the engine mounts and the floor!!

Long time, no update!

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated this blog! Ah well, probably ties in well with the amount of work I've done on the car. Several months have gone past with virtually no progress, and I have nothing but my job to blame for it!

Anyway, a quick update mainly for my own benefit. It's relating to the bodywork. An LCB member posted a link to an Ebay ad where the bodywork was on offer. I won't post a link here as it's very unlikely the link will work for more than 30 days. However, hopefully kitbitsdirect won't mind me posting one of the pictures;

This was the shell I saw at Stoneleight 2015, and was only the second shell I'd seen of this particular Healey rep (the other being the completed white car). What I didn't notice initially is that this car has no wide arches, and comparing it to the white one;

Makes it look like a very different car. I can't say better or worse at the moment, just 'different'.

The point of this is that the standard kit was on offer for £449 (the narrow car), with an extra £200 for the wide arched version. Those are mega cheap prices, about half what I'd actually budgeted for. Even the wide arched version is still cheaper than expected, or even what it was advertised for as an 'offer' at Stoneleigh. The only thing will be pick up from Derby, but I'm sure a couple of hours with a borrowed transit will resolve that issue.

Now some techie details (for my own benefit). The wheelbase for the car is adjustable (as I remember from before). Standard is 92.5 inches, with an option to shorten it to 87.5 inches if necessary (so 5 inches of adjustment). And of course it can be extended if it's too short.

The width of the car is different for the two bodies (as expected). For the standard body, it's 54.5 at the front and 58.5 at the back. The wide arched body is 62 at the front and 67 at the back.

I am leaning towards the narrow body, just because it's closer to the original in terms of looks. Even the rally cars shied away from wide arches. So now I just need to measure my chassis and see what I can get away with!!