1st April 2006
Firstly I need to point out there is a bit of a lack of pictures in this section at the moment. The reason for this is two-fold, one I've all but run out of space at my web host, and secondly I didn't really have/make time for taking lots of pictures.

As anticipated I spent time getting the garage back into an organised state today. The paint had dried nicely, so I was able to get the shelves and their contents, and the bench moved back and tidied up.
So now I think I have a garage which is in a much more useable state, it will finally be a much nicer place to work on the car. I'm glad I managed to get the floor done, rather than putting it off until later, it is so much better than the dusty state it was before.
I had enough paint left to allow me to paint the first row of brickwork at floor level, which just tidies the edges up a bit more neatly. At some point I'd like to get the walls painted white down to this level, but that's not a priority right now, so not sure when that will get done.

6th April 2006
I had an early finish from work today, so that gave me a couple of hours in the garage to hopefully complete the fitting of the exhaust. Firstly I fitted the can into position using the clamp and some assembly paste to help seal it (as it a slightly sloppy fit). I then ran the car up to ensure it all sealed ok.
Then I made up a simple steel bracket which attaches to the underside of the U-bolt clamp, and bridges the gap to the rubber bobbin on the mount on the car. Not quite a perfect fit, but plenty good enough for the run to an MOT and back.

8th April 2006
The car is going away to have the cage fitted next week, so in anticipation of this I have borrowed Steves corner scales again, with the intention of weighing the car before and afer the cage fitting. So today was spent hanging around weighing various cars, as a few other friends came over to weigh cars and generally kick some tyres. Not a very productive day in terms of getting the car ready to go, but hey. Oh and it weighs 490kgs, way too heavy!

9th April 2006
Time to get on with getting the car ready to go off to have the cage done on Tuesday. So today I spent time removing clearing space at the rear of the car to give access for work on the rear stays - removing the boot box, draining and removing the fuel tank, and sealing and tying up the fuel pipes and some wiring. Also I removed the seats and harnesses to give easier access for the side fittings for the cage.
Also in preparation for the car being away from me for the first time (!), and it having some direct welding work done, I took the precautions of disconnecting the battery, blocking the airbox (it's bound to rain whilst being trailered), and also disconnecting the ECU just in case.

23rd April 2006
A quick update. The car was collected to be taken off to Caged, as predicted, it decided to chuck it down with rain for most of the day, so I'm sure it had a good soaking on its trailer ride - glad I took the precautions when preparing the car.
I had a call on Friday to say that the car was finished, and I've had a very generous offer from a friend to collect the car for me, so it will be coming back on Thursday, all being well (probably in the rain!).

So this weekend, I've spent a little time preparing the bits which are still here so that they are ready to go back onto the car next weekend. This just involved cleaning up the fuel tank, giving the harnesses a scrub clean, cleaning the seats, and working on re-attaching the harness slot protectors which are always falling off.

With this years tour now only 4 weeks away, the focus is on getting it all back together and working, and prepared for an MOT, next weekend, which is fortunately a bank holiday. Then its hopefully just a case of doing an MOT and running it around a little bit to get used to it and make sure all is well, before heading off on tour.

27th April 2006
It's back. Daren very kindly offered to collect the car and bring it back home for me - for the price of a few curries anyway. He sent me some pictures of it on the trailer at lunchtime, and at first I wasn't too sure about the look of it, but it grew on me over the course of the afternoon. When you compare it to how it looked before, it looks much more purposeful, and it makes the standard roll bar look like it wouldn't help very much should the worst happen.
Just time to give the car a good look over when it arrived back. There's a few issues to resolve: the side repeaters have been removed as they are obscured by the cage front mounts, the bodywork is in contact with the main hoop mount on the nearside, it is also a bit loose at the back now as the support has been reduced. Plus it is absolutely filthy from being on the trailer in the rain on the way down to Caged.

29th April - 30th April 2006
So, onto sorting the car out. Fortunately it's a bank holiday, so that gives me an extra day to fettle. However I soon realise that there is lots more to do than I had first hoped, so having it ready for an MOT after the weekend is just not going to happen.
Quite a bit of time was spent cleaning, everywhere. It was quite filthy, and cleaning it all up also means I am giving everything a good eyeball and can spot any problems along the way. I also made sure that I have done a complete spanner check on the whole car, every nut and bolt I can see and get to, have been checked.
With Richards help, I managed to squeeze some U-section rubber trim onto the bodywork where it is in contact with the cage main hoop mount. At the same time, Richard had the good idea to replace the bolt which was rubbing the GRP with a socket cap screw, which was also much easier to do up.
I refitted the fuel tank, having put some fresh foam on the tank straps. Also I started on replacing the fuel hoses at the front of the car where most of them had perished (I'm not sure why I've had so many hoses perish?). This took quite a bit of time as it is very fiddly to get at the end of the steel pipes to fit the rubber ones, down at the end of the passenger footwell. I also ran out of new hose, so will have to finish this job later.
I loosened the scuttle and managed to move it forwards a bit (also had to remove the inner shaft of the upper steering column), and it was then that I realised just why the side repeaters have been removed. Not only are they obscured by the cage, but they actually foul it, just, which means the scuttle doesn't sit back down, just. What a pain, not sure what the answer to this is yet, without just making new holes for them, which I'm not overly keen on doing.
I cleaned up the floor of the cockpit, painted up where there was some rust, so that is mostly ready for the seats and belts to go back in. I've got some new nuts and bolts for the seat mounts, and have painted up the spreader washers which were getting a bit rusty under the car.

There's probably other stuff I did, which I can't remember now. I know I worked the full day all weekend, and that's quite knackering as I'm not used to doing it!

©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4