The chassis was turned back over and the rear flexi-pipe's attached to the bracket after drilling out the hole to 10mm diameter. The rear nearside and offside wishbones were bolted into position and the new aluminium 'pro-tech' coil over dampers attached using washers to pack them out. Rear brake pipe branches were cut to size, flared, polished and then P-clipped into position. Work also began on the rear section of the wiring loom.

9th October 2003

Copper fuel pipe was picked up yesterday and laid in position down the transmission tunnel awaiting p-clips. The diff back plate was removed for either repair or replacement, depending on availability and cost.
The engine was then cleaned up and the mounting cradle bolted to it. Now, you don't need an engine crane, or a possé of mates to mount the engine - two people will do. The combined engine and six-speed sequential box weighs in at about 55kgs, plus a little more for the mounting cradle. It was easily lifted over the car and dropped down into position. The bottom engine mounting bolt was then inserted. The beast is now caged! (must stop watching Mark Evans - A racing car is born, A car is re-born etc, etc)

11th October 2003

The diff back-plate was taken to MK Engineering where it was cleaned up and the crack drilled out of the aluminium casting. The resulting hole was then welded up by Martin. Whilst we were there, we took the opportunity to machine some aluminium grommets for the steering column upper support bracket. On our return, we carried out a little fettling of the back-plate and then re-assembled the diff and filled with new EP90 gear oil. It was then sprayed up and left to stand overnight to ensure there were no further leaks.

12th October 2003

The diff was checked and there was no visible leakage, so it was now time to bolt it into position. It's not an easy task and quite awkward to support when it's three feet in mid-air but after a bit of effort, we finally managed to get it into position and securely bolted. Next on the agenda were the drive-shafts. Now this should have been a straight forward job but after getting the nearside shaft into position and nine bolts inserted we suddenly realized that we wouldn't be able to torque them up sufficiently because the threads were covered in grease. After a small amount of cursing we removed the bolts and shaft and proceeded to clean up all the holes and the nine bolts with thinners. We cut a recess down the length of a standard 8mm bolt with a hacksaw and ran this through each and every hole (all 24 of them) to remove the grease and dirt. We then did them all again (just to be sure) and cleaned the holes and the faces of the drive-shafts. The shafts were then placed in position, bolts inserted and torque up to the required force in accordance with the Haynes Manual.
The fuel pipe was then p-clipped. As we had discovered our flexi's for the rear were not long enough, we decided to re-route the brake pipe (it's easier to see than describe, so if you're curious, have a look here). We hadn't seen any others which took this route and couldn't understand why - it seemed like a logical route to us. Maybe we'll find out in the near future!
We manufactured a couple of brackets from some stainless steel strip and riveted these to the chassis. Rear brakes were then finally connected up and clipped into position.
The final job today was to place the aluminium grommets into the upper steering column support bracket and bolt firmly. The casting and ultimately the steering wheel were then fastened down.

Work continued on the electrics.

Roll bar, front upper and lower wishbones and headlight bar collected from Brother-in-law. Now complete with a superb 'mirror like' chrome finish.

PU bushes smeared with copper slip and inserted in upper & lower wishbones.

A pedal set had been ordered from MK the previous week, so we popped down to collect them. As usual there was a steady stream of people turning up, one of whom we discovered was Loafersmate (tag name on Locostbuilders), or Ben to give him his correct name. He arrived in his recently completed blue MK Indy and what a cracking car it is. We got talking (as you do!) and found out that he had a no longer needed SVA manual which he kindly offered us. We were desperately in need of a manual but unfortunately; he left before we had time to arrange anything. Hopefully we might be able to contact him through Locostbuilders.

Myself and dad ventured out to the local scrap yard in the morning to try and obtain a Micra radiator and fan. The first one was closed, second one was closed but third time lucky, we found one open, which just happened to have a couple of Micra's in stock. We looked them both over and began extracting the radiator from the newer (1991 H Reg.) of the two. We also picked up the horseshoe shaped bracket on the rear of the Sierra handbrake, which we had forgotten to retrieve from the donor vehicle.
Back home we set about the brake pedal. We manufactured a push rod from some 8mm threaded bar and began to screw it into the clevis pin. Unfortunately the threads did not match and before we knew it, we had snapped the bar inside the clevis. Oops! Job abandoned until we had a replacement, we attempted to remove a snapped exhaust manifold stud which we had discovered in the blade engine block. Despite numerous attempts we could not move the stud and figured our only option would be to remove the engine and try welding a nut onto the stud. Without any welding gear, we abandoned this job also and turned our attention instead to cleaning up the radiator. Whilst dad was doing this, I mounted the headlight bar in position and then gave dad a helping hand cleaning up and painting the radiator and fan assembly.

23rd October 2003

Collected SVA Manual from Ben (AKA loafersmate) after contacting through locostbuilders. Job done... thanks Ben!

25th October 2003

Deciding to leave in the engine - Dad asked one of his mates to lend a hand trying to relieve the engine of it's nut's (eh, hem!). As he had a portable welder, he obliged to try to remove the offending stud. Inserting a nut over the stud and welding the head on, it was thought to be enough until we tried turning the nut - snap! The head sheared off, leaving us with little more to go at. Attempt two, saw us drill and chamfer a piece of steel plate to get right up to the engine block. Filleting in the chamfer gave it much more purchase. When it cooled we tried again... b****x - the stud sheared off again. This left only 1-2mm of stud protruding from the engine block. Now the only alternative is to drill a hole and try stud extractors - failing this, the only option is to leave it in!

Collected a petrol tank and scrap aluminium from MK - tank was quite badly damaged so Martin gave it us for a knock down price...

27th October 2003

After the catastrophe that happened with the exhaust manifold stud - how could anything else possibly go wrong!

After grinding flat the awkward stud (for want of a better word) and centre punched with extreme accuracy. We proceeded to drill out the offender... the stud was extremely hard probably in the region 50Rc as it was rapidly blunting our 8% Cobalt drill! I would say it took 25 minutes to drill out the full 25mm depth with the recommended 6.3mm diameter drill, with say... 4 regrinds! Our previously purchased Stud Extractor was here to save the day... or maybe not. As I began to wrench in the extractor it became apparent that this baby didn't want to move. Then... finally it cracked, not the stud though... the aluminium lug which housed the stud!!! Now our name was very much literal "HELLFIRE" - to say the least!

Deciding to cool off for a while, we decided to pursue final fitting of the Micra Radiator. Offering each bracket to the Chassis/Radiator as we progressed.

After plenty of offering and filing we finally managed to position it successfully under the "nose cone" now affectionately known as "Snow Cone" (thanks Monsters Inc.). Securing was simply a matter of drilling, Texflex and rivets. Approximately 4 hours later we had achieved our objective...

What was the despair of the irremovable exhaust stud, was now an public debate on how best to repair the problem. Many suggestions were made by our members of Locostbuilders and we are still undecided which would be the best route.

Anyway, time was creeping on and we needed our days agenda. So, our plan for today became:

• Fuel Pipe connection and completion.
• Cleaning out exhaust threads.

Dad made a lovely "left handed" bracket to mount the "fuel filter" then rightly bent it the wrong way! Take 2 saw another lovely fabrication of aluminium excellence... then proceeded to bend it the wrong way again! Finally, he managed to get the bracket right. While all this was taking place I was mounting the fuel pump and cutting the necessary pre-formed "bike pipe".

Although I'm not entirely happy with the fuel/filter pipe, this can be rectified at a later stage.

After acquiring some M8f 'tapping bits' I then continued and persevered to clean out the exhaust manifold threads. They were strangely quite badly corroded so the oxide removed was plenty. So, with 7 threads cleaned out and fit for purpose we need to decide on our attack for the 'bad one".