Given this glaring omission in the otherwise highly informative episode, I thought I’d fill in the blanks. If you are racing against the clock (or the Stig) you might want to bear in mind that the handbrake shortening will slow you down somewhat (unless of course, you’re building a Caterham; for you it will just magically be the right length). However, it might be a stretch to claim it’ll add 2 years to the build.

Credit to Ross for this idea

Step 1: Get a handbrake (from a Sierra, in this case)

Step 2: Remove the rubber handles
They just pull off. They might be sticky with years of jelly-baby-slobber, sloshed coke and other unmentionables. Soak in warm water if necessary.

With the handles removed, measure the handle length from somewhere near the button to somewhere near the back of the handbrake lever. Make clear marking points, for reference. You’ll use this length to determine how much you’ve shortened the handbrake.

Step 3: Cut a piece out.
Now be careful here – there’s an important piece of metal in the center, so you want to carefully cut your way around the handle.

Now a confession – I actually split the handbrake first. I can’t remember if that was necessary to take it apart, but I don’t think it is (assuming you cut the piece out as shown above). If you want to split it, I did it by forcing two chisels into the groove (under the handbrake) and then clamping them together. This leveraged the tips apart, and cracked the weld:

Step 4: Widen the groove.
I used a grinder with a thick disk. Works well, lots of sparks.

The purpose of this is to allow the handle to slide over the rest of the handbrake, providing considerable shortening. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this, but the final welded picture gives you a pretty good idea. I did quite a lot of testing and filing to make sure I was happy. Then I did Step 5, cut too much off, and so had to do more cutting and filing.

Step 5: Shorten the button rod (that’s the technical name, trust me)

Remember that measurement you made in Step 2? Now measure again to figure out how much you’ve shortened the handle. Warning, don’t forget that you still need to fold the end over, so leave enough for that!

Step 6: Reassemble.
This can be quite tricky, especially to get the handbrake button back in. Test first without the handle on, so you know what you’re trying to achieve. I had to slide the handle back further than first expected, to make the button catch.

Step 7: Weld back together.

The metal is quite thin, so be careful and possibly practice a bit first on something similar. If you’re MIG-welding, make sure to clean the metal thoroughly prior to welding.

Step 8: Put the handle back on.

I
I chopped quite a lot of rubber out from inside the handle, as well as the end that linked to the rubber sleeve. A Stanley knife helped, but the dremel ultimately was the answer.

Step 9: Behold the beauty in context

Beautiful might be a strong word, but I was rather pleased.

B

Building a Locost does seem to be a lot of “hurry up and wait”. So many aspects of the build are interconnected, that if one part holds you up, you can’t do much else. Our next big thing to do is put in the floor. We want to do this next because it’s easier to do with the chassis up side down. However, before putting the floor in you need:

a) the panelling to do it.

b) to drill the holes for the transmission tunnel panels.

We can’t do (b) because:

a, again) we don’t have the panelling.

c) it’s better to put in the brake lines while the panels are out.

So we need to order the brake lines. This requires estimating their length, and selecting the correct fittings for the end. You need to know which fittings beforehand, because the shop will flare the ends for us, but the nuts have to be in place before flaring. To know which nuts you need requires knowing which nuts the brake calipers use. So we need to find brake calipers. Nobody on this planet sells brake calipers. Somewhere in the rant above is (d), (e) and (f).

To be fair, it’s not true that nobody sells calipers. We had a lot of help on the forum to know where to look, and phonecalls to some very helpful people (Midas, Rand Ford and A.T.E.) put us on the right path. Calipers will be got next week, hooray.

To figure out how long our brake lines need to be, we laid “simulated” brake lines using normal fencing wire. This was bent and shaped to the chassis, and held in place with cable ties. We added a few loops here and there which can be lengthened or tightened to provide a reasonable margin for error. We also were cognisant of where the T-pieces were, and made suitable breaks in the wire at these points. Once we were happy with the layout of the wiring, it was removed, straightened and measured.

Our aluminium panels have been bought and paid for, and we hope to fetch them on Tuesday – what a laugh that was. It’s amazing how certain suppliers act like they are doing you a favour. This is an actual quote from the chap at the alu place:

D (3 days after the first email): “As requested in my previous email, please confirm order, price and date of delivery.”

Supplier: “I WILL REPLY ASAP, THANKS SIR”

Perhaps his caps-lock got stuck, or perhaps he just needs a holiday?

Nonetheless, it’s now cut and ready, so when we get it we’ll have a number of tasks ahead of us.

Despite all this procurement hassle, it’s not been complete idleness. The Lobro joints are in the process of being grease-packed. That was a pleasant buying experience, with the supplier flying two tubs of the fancy CV grease (Everon) up to Jhb for us. Very cool – I recommend them.

We’ve also been back to the scrappy (as is apparent from all the pics), for almost the last donor bits. We got our steering column (including switch array and ignition), handbrake and seat runner (hopefully a plan can be made to fit it).

I aim to update the various “summary” pages with what has been learnt so far (diff, steering column, front uprights, brakes) at some point in the near future. I’ve also been playing a bit with blog software options – hence the new picture design. However, I’ll probably be back to the old style in the next post.

B