| 1st July 2004 | |
| I've been trading some emails with Carl, who found me via the website who is also building a Megabird. He has seen my musings about replacing the airbox with a foam filter, and the adapter which is needed to do this. He has access to machining tools and has offered to have a go at it, and make a copy for me in the process. So I dug out my template and extended it to include a mock up of the backplate which would be needed - offset so that it clears the inside of the bonnet and sits in the bulge. |
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| 13th July 2004 |
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Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates, I'll backtrack what I can remember! So a day off from work today as I went to Silverstone with a few other cam7ers to watch the F1 free testing. As it is the week after the British Grand Prix, most of the teams hae cleared off to test at other tracks, but there were two teams present, McLaren and Jordan. It is free entry to the circuit on test day, with access restricted to the Bridge/Luffield corner complex. Although the whole place is pretty busy with taking things apart after the GP, not a huge amount of people watching the testing. |
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Had a good day and were lucky with the weather given recent times! The drives were
in the main uninteresting, but fun all the same. That was until I was nearly home.
Leaving the A14, when I got to the top of the slip road, and pulled away onto the
roundabout, as I grabbed second gear the gear lever came flying off and landed in
my lap! It had sheared clean off at the base, and a quick fiddle showed that I
was unable to change gear. Fortunately it had gone into second and I was only a
couple of miles from home, so had to limp slowly home. Inspection shows that where there is a thread welded for the main lever to screw onto, this weld has failed. It's an easy enough fix, just get it welded back up. |
| 17th July 2004 | |
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A trip up to Adrian
to disturb his race car building and get my gear lever welded up. This is a pretty straight
forward job (for someone who can weld!), of just getting it all aligned, and then
a quick weld around the base. Previously the lever was able to be screwed onto the
base part, but I can't see any reason for this, so a straight weld is stronger
and easier. Before long it is all welded and cleaned up ready to be painted and refitted. |
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| 21st July 2004 | |
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Got another couple of days off to get some things done around the house, so also
take advantage of being around to get a few coats of paint onto the repaired
gear lever, and get it refitted to the car. I decide to go for a quick trial run out to make sure all is well. All is well with the gear lever, but all is less well when I get pulled up by a police car and grilled about a lack of front number plate. Fortunate (I guess) that I am simply advised to rectify the situation. |
| 30th July 2004 |
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With the requirement to fit a front number plate, and wanting to fit a self
adhesive one to the nose (rather than block airflow to the radiators with
a normal perspex one), I decided it time to do a long overdue clean, cut,
and polish on the car. So over the course of a few evenings, I throughly washed the car, T-cut all the bodywork, and finally tonight a frantic polish to get some protection back on the car. Once this is all done, I fit the stick on number plate. |
| 31st July 2004 | |
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So the reason for last nights frantic polishing efforts are that today I am
helping out Greg with his trade stand
at a SELOC Lotus show. Previously I wasn't
going to take my car, but Greg had been let down with a car or two, so I offered
my car to go on the stand. It was a very busy, very long, and rather warm day, although quite good fun. My car looked pretty good all cleaned up, and hopefully helped to attract a bit of attention to the stand. One highlight of the day for me, was when I was chatting to someone about the car, and he said he thought it looked very well built - it turned out this chap worked for McLaren building F1 cars for a living, so I was quite chuffed at that compliment! |
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| ©2002-2009 David Hackett |
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