2nd May 2002
With the help of some people from the cam7 list, I have sorted out a list of things I need to get for the garage. This includes tools, safety equipment, etc. It’s quite long, but got some good suggestions from people who have built Westfields so should be fairly accurate, and also pointers on where to get it all from.

4th May 2002
Started garage preparation.
The garage has finally been cleared of all things resembling... well anything, let alone junk! Spent an age removing loose paint from the floor, and trying to provide some sort of key for the new paint. This involved scrubbing the whole floor with a wire brush – very knackering.
To avoid passing out, I interspersed the more physical activity with removing the defunct outside light, sensor, and wiring.
Started painting the walls white. Quite hard work painting onto bare masonary, but a notable improvement already.

5th May 2002
Finished the first coat of wall painting, and also completed the second (with some help on this bit). The walls are looking pretty good now, certainly much better than they were. Another coat would make them fairly perfect, but this might be too much effort and will perhaps wait until after I’ve built the car – I’m sure I’ll make it all mucky anyway.

6th May 2002
Stoneleigh National Kit Car Show.
A bit of an early start, as Jim came round at 0800 to pick me up, so that we could meet up with the other cam7ers at Caxton for 0830. The weather was looking decidedly dodgy on the drive up there, but I was comfortably ensconsed in Jim’s Golf V5 (which makes a lovely Audi- esque 5 cylinder warble!). Had a 6 car convoy over there with me taking the navigational duty.
Arrived at the showground at about 1030, where Jim and myself were separated from the group to park in the “normal car” park. We spent the rest of the morning having a good nose around the kit company stands in the indoor halls. I also took a walk over to see the Westfields parked up outside in the WSCC parking area – time for colour comparisons. Managed to find examples of most of the colours which are in the running, and some others to add to the mix.
Spent the rest of the day mooching around the many different types of cars parked up in the their respective parking areas... very interesting to see the wide range of kits around from Z3 look-a-likes based around an MX5, to the more agricultural kits, to the lovely Ultima sports cars.

Called in with some parts Jim had picked up from the show for Tim. Had a quick look at his Dax which is pretty much finished now – looks like a real brute and very nicely built by Tim’s expert hand!

7th May 2002
Emptied and dismantled the loft space in the garage to enable easy(er) painting of the underside of the loft boarding panels. This was rather knackering and took quite a long time, but the painting part was dead easy, and hopefully the results will be worth while.

9th May 2002
Re-assembled the loft boarding and re-loaded all the stuff back into the loftspace. Again this took ages and was quite knackering, but was a very worthwhile task as we now have some useful space available up here for stashing bits of car, and everything is more useful.

11th May 2002
Time to sort out the garage electrics now. We currently have a single strip light somewhere near the middle of the garage, and a single spur socket on the back wall. Obviously this is not really enough, let alone for building a car under. So I’ve decided that we need to upgrade to three double sockets – one on each side wall and the back wall, and four strip light units – one towards the front and the rear on each side of the garage.
After some measuring up and mind bending about how two-way switching works, I went out and bought all the bits I need except for the new strip lights (cos that shop was closed by the time I got there!).
Then I installed all the wiring for the mains ring as concealed as I could, by running all the wires around the insides of the soffits. I then fitted two of the three double sockets, and installed the second 4 core wire from front to rear for the second two-way switching circuit. Before i knew it, time (along with a shortage of trunking) ran out for today.

12th May 2002
Installed the final socket – and tested the mains ring, all working.
Tested the wiring for the twin two-way wiring requirement, then installed all the wiring proper for the two sets of lights and the first two of the strip lights.
It’s a good job my dad knows his stuff about electrics… there’ve been quite a few “help” phone calls over the weekend!

13th May 2002
Finished wiring up the one side of the new garage lighting and sorted out all the switches – it works which is quite the miracle!
Oh and I’ve finally chosen the colour and told Westfield so there’s no going back now. I’m going for “Bright Blue”, with a black nosecone which I hope to get a blue band painted around the front. Also my spec is that I’ll have carbon effect front cycle wings, and large rear stoneguards. It should look quite subtle and smart I think.

14th May 2002
Collected the new twin tube fittings for the build side of the garage, all the lighting is now installed, and working. Hopefully, with the addition of some spot lighting where I need it, that should provide me enough light to work under.

16th May 2002
Now it’s time to start painting the floor. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this job, as I was expecting it to be really tricky with gooey paint. Turns out that it was really quite straightforward, though quite knackering rolling the whole floor, made worse by the sudden warm weather.

17th May 2002
Ordered some tools and safety equipment from Screwfix. This is going to add up rather quickly I think, but it’s fairly unavoidable, and I'll have a good set of tools for the future.
Contacted MSM Insurance to organise my build-up cover. This will cover the value of the pile of bits against everything except me accidentally dropping it. It also covers it all whilst in transit and as an unregistered car driving to SVA, MOT, or to a garage for professional work.
Painted the floor with a second, slightly easier, coat of paint. I just hope it sticks ok now – I expect it will soon get peeled off by warm or wet tyres, but it’s a definite improvement over what was already down.

18th May 2002
Following a top tip from someone on the BEC group, I’ve bought some plastic shelving for the garage. Sounds scary but it’s pretty chunky stuff and a bit cheaper than the “proper” stuff I was looking at getting.
Also went and bought some more equipment/tools from the list. I’ve almost got all the stuff from the list now, just a rivet gun to get (quite important though that bit!).
No more work or fettling or anything planned for this weekend, I’m having a rest after two weeks of solid (spare time) effort on sorting the garage out.

20th May 2002
Start to organise things in the garage now all the “decorating” is complete. Built the shelves I bought and moved some tools and equipment into the garage. Starting to look like a place more useful to build a car in now – though need to get the workbench sorted before I can house all the tools properly.
Contacted Machine Mart to order the workbench and bench vice I want to get. Turns out that the easiest and safest way for me to get hold of the bench is if I call into the Machine Mart shop in Birmingham on my way past with the van on Friday.

21st May 2002
Received the stuff I ordered from Screwfix. Fitted the fire extinguisher in the garage, and added a bit more to the pile of tools and equipment. The garage is coming along nicely now – just needs some organising once I’ve got the workbench and all the bits for the car.

24th May 2002
Collection Day.

Packed a pile of blankets and sheets up and went off to collect the van at 0830. Fortunately I get a fairly new VW Luton van, and it is pretty huge complete with it’s super-fast tail lift. So jump in and off I head. The weather leaves a little to be desired, with intermittent rain, and quite strong gusty winds blowing the empty van around a bit.
Managed to make better time than I expected, and was at Machine Mart in Birmingham before 12pm to collect my new workbench and bench vice for the garage.
Got to Westfield for around 1230, where I was greeted by a collection of vans and trailers blocking the path to my kit. I noticed that amongst these was a trailer sporting “A Racecar Is Born”, which is the TV series on Discovery where they are building a Westfield.
A short wait and I’m clear to start loading. I see my kit for the first time, and it looks like a seriously disjointed pile of bits, with two blokes looking at it scratching their heads trying to check all the parts are present.
I help to load up the van, but try to avoid distracting the work, so take advantage of the opportunity to take a load of reference photos of the factory-built (also dry-sumped) MegaBird which is currently for sale at the factory.
After almost two hours the kit is finally all loaded, paperwork signed, and monies exchanged. I’m on my way.
Have to call in at my parents who live not far from the factory, to collect a loan trolley jack and axle stands.
The van is a little more stable on the return journey, as it is now weighed down a bit more, but I still got some funny looks on the motorway as I laughed out loud at the van lurching around the lane, blown by the strong winds!
Get back home at about 1830, after some good fortune with the traffic – by the sounds of the reports on the radio half of the motorways in the country are clogged up, yet I’ve had no problems.
Joff, Steve, and Kris arrive to help to unload, and it just starts to throw it down with rain as we are unloading the final bit and getting the chassis into position on the stands in the garage. It looks a bit like chaos at the moment, so I spent an hour or so sifting through all the boxes and rearranging them into an assumed sensible order (i.e. all the engine bits together in one box etc). Once this is done the garage is looking much tidier, since I’ve got all the bits either on the shelves or under the chassis, and there’s just the engine to shuffle into a more convenient position to free up the other half of the garage again.
I’m knackered!

©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4