Last week started with fetching our freshly-cut aluminium panels. The problem of how to fit several square meters of aluminium sheeting was solved by the folks very generously letting me borrow their Syncro (Kombi). What a cool car – big and homely, but so manoeuvrable. Oh, and we met the chap behind the annoyed emails. He’s a good guy, but he does need a holiday.
Once the panels were safely back at the build, we decided to double-check the cuts. We were told that the actual cut would consume just 0.5mm of metal, so we did the layout quite precisely. We found that while it may be true that the actual metal loss is just 0.5mm, some of the cuts were over 10mm off. Some weren’t even straight. Fortunately it doesn’t look like any of the bits are unsalvageable, but it was a lesson.
Front calipers arrived, very cool. We had a lot of help with these, in particular from A.T.E. – great people. We also got the front disks (vented) and have ordered the rear disks and calipers.
The exceedingly messy job of packing the Lobro’s with CV grease has also been done. While it is probably less messy than the initial clean was, it’s still messier than a two-year old at a syrup festival. And with the grease being bright blue and staining everything, it’s even less tidy. Required items include a syringe and rubber gloves (read out of context, that sentence may get me into trouble).
We’ve now started cutting the panels to fit the chassis. While there are clearly a number of ways to do this, an absolutely awesome solution is to use a jigsaw with an HSS aluminium blade (Bosch). It neatly zips through the panels, is easy to control, and fast enough to get the job done. It also happily cuts off the thinnest strips (if the sizing is a little bit out). It isn’t quiet, so not good for late nights if you don’t want neighbours who hate you.
We started out using clamp-on guides to keep the lines straight, but it’s easy enough to get it right freehand. Hopefully the cutting will be complete by the end of the week.
It really feels like we’re building a car now.
B