I feel a bit like someone being mentored after rehab. Every day or two I get an email from Andre, along the lines of “you haven’t touched a drop, have you?“. Although instead they are more like “how’s the build progress“. And I must confess, I do find myself running out and doing something on the car, just to report back with some progress. Unfortunately progress on the car has resulted in neglect on the blog, so this may be a long one. I recommend just looking at the pictures.

The fuel tank has a very nice hole in it, to fit a fuel gauge. However, our’s is going to make use of the more technological “dowel dip stick” method, which doesn’t need that hole. So the hole was covered. Note the engraved “1” to help future lining up (because it wasn’t really machined to micron specifications). It will be sealed using some sort of petrol-proof sealing ring/paste.

I started feeling bad about the way the scuttle had been mounted. So I welded up the old bottom holes, and fitted riv-nuts to the top holes. So the scuttle is now mounted using riv-nuts. I think it’s a better solution, although sub-optimal to damage the chassis powder coating.

Then we took another shortcut, buying the windscreen from Wiekus. It’s beautifully done, far better than we could. Part of the package is the rubber seal along the bottom, which ensures a very neat fit with the scuttle. It is his own custom design, specifically with an angled groove for the base of the windscreen.

He also supplies a printed cutout sheet for the support arms, which I glued to a piece of 1.6mm alu to make temporary brackets to mount the windscreen.

Fitting the windscreen to the scuttle is fairly straightforward. First I wanted a straight line on the scuttle, so I clamped two pieces of wood to the chassis, rested the ruler on them, and drew a line on the masking-tape-coated scuttle. This was a useful reference to ensure the mounts were properly horizontal.

Then attach the rubber to the base of the windscreen and shift the whole thing around on the scuttle until there seems a reasonable fit and roughly even spacing on both sides.

Then comes the scary part – cutting the rubber. I tried a couple of knives; it needs to be sharp and have a thin, flat blade. The best ended up being a super-sharp serated Victorinox kitchen knife (don’t tell the missus).

I put a thin layer of oil on the blade, which prevented it from sticking. Because you want a nice smooth edge running down between the bracket and the scuttle, fading to nothing, you must extend the rubber a bit past the end of the windscreen. Simply cut in a straight line down. It might take a couple of practice goes to get it right, but Wiekus gives you a bit of extra length to make some mistakes first. Once you’re satisfied with your abilities you can cut the other end (no going back after that). I purposefully cut it slightly too long, to fill the gap with the bracket.

Although the fit is slightly imperfect, it should come right once the rubber is stuck down on the chassis.

The windscreen was on the critical path, because it needs to be in place to fabricate the roll cage, which is done at the same time as the exhaust, which is done before the wiring and the cooling brackets. Now the car can go in for its exhaust.

The final fuel lines have been put in, although the last couple of holes must still be drilled for the p-clips. This includes replacing one of the original lines, which clashed with the gearbox. The gearbox won. It always wins.

I put my new MIG welder to use, welding the engine mounts to the chassis plates. Fixing the engine position means you can move forward in several other areas.

Once the engine position is finalised, the prop shaft can be manufactured. Ours was done by SAJCO in Strijdom Park. Frankly, they were amazing. The only specification they needed was the length from the gearbox oil seal to the diff input flange. I took them our yoke, which they didn’t fit but was useful for spline sizing.  There are at least two input shaft sizes in the wild for the Ford Type 9/Type E box, so you need to get this right.

I also gave them an old Sierra prop shaft, which they took some parts from including the flange to connect to the diff, and some of the tubing.

The amazing part? I dropped the bits off at roughly 12h30. At 15h30 they phoned me to tell me it was ready. Very impressive.

Using a suggestion from Deon I made an adjustable alternator bracket.

Start with some accurate small pilot holes. In this case I wanted an 8mm groove, so the pilot holes were drilled 7mm apart:

Then drill a set of bigger holes – 7mm now:

As you can see, the holes start to run into each other:

After this, drill with the 8mm drill bit. Then file the points down to make a flat groove (it’s quite easy at this point):

Who needs a milling machine anyway.

It’s some progress – haven’t touched a drop (of not working on the car).

B

I can still remember, how that building used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance, that I could make that Locost…

Building has recommenced, after a break of almost two months. Sometimes one has to bow to the demands of the job. And when those demands take you to far-off lands, it’s tough to bring the chassis along with you. So it was good get the hands dirty and full of little splinters of metal. Ah, the joy of building.

We started with a visit to the scrapyard. Our outstanding bits include the yoke (connecting the gearbox to the prop-shaft), alternator mounting bracket and alternator pulleys. Hermann actually gave us a yoke, but it seems it’s for the smaller gearbox output shaft.

I can’t help but feel a little sad when going to scrapyards. Hundreds of engines, diffs and gearboxes all just lying around. Like organs for sale. Those once belonged to Daddy’s (or Mommy’s) pride and joy. They came home one evening, and said to the kids “come look outside”, and got all the “wows” and “hoorays” – Daddy has a new car. Now that pride and joy is an unidentified chunk of metal rusting on the scrap heap. And that’s not even contemplating the final act that may have caused it to be there. Sheesh, that got melancholic rather quickly.

Anyway, on a cheerier note, the visits were a complete waste of time. Scrapyard 1 was completely closed, despite a confirmation call the previous day saying it would definitely be open. The others had prop-shafts, but not exactly what we needed. The alternator mounting bracket, as well as pulley, were a complete loss. Then they all closed. We did find out (thanks Brad) that actually the guy who makes up the prop-shaft can typically source the yoke anyway.

For the afternoon we decided to sort out the fit between the gearbox and the engine. Previously we had machined the  end of the gearbox input to 10mm. However, the pointy bit is too long and must be cut down a bit. To avoid changing the steel tempering (hardness) we decided to cut this the old fashioned way – hacksaw. But first we needed to measure how much to cut off.

So we removed the clutch pressure plate and clutch. Then assembled the engine, bellhousing and gearbox. Remember to attach the bellhousing to the gearbox first, not to the engine. We knew this, of course. The photo is just demonstrating the wrong way to do it.

Now because our gearbox needs to have a bit chopped off, there results a gap between the bellhousing and the engine. We adjusted the various bolts to ensure the gap was even the whole way round (check with the vernier), and then took that gap as being the amount to remove. The whole shebang was disassembled and then the tip was lopped off at the right place (well, more or less). Be warned, that thing is made of hard metal. You’ll need a good quality hacksaw blade to get through it (or rip the teeth off a cheaper one).

A file was used just to neaten it up a bit, and we’ll probably give it a last touch-up with a grinder. A bit of water-paper to polish it up.

The reason for all of this is that unlike a FWD gearbox, the RWD needs to be supported in the crank. The crank has a 15mm hole in it, for which a brass bush has been made. It’s 15mm OD, and 10mm ID. The gearbox fits into the bush, providing the necessary support. Since these only spin at different speeds when the clutch is disengaged (i.e. no load), it’s hoped that the bush will be sufficient.

Next up will be engine mountings, since we have now sourced all the materials we need.

B