Somebody has commented that the design of the “L assembly” is different to the “book” design.  There are 2 reasons for this:

1.  The “book” design is difficult to fabricate

2. The assembly had to be re-designed to accomodate a Gemini upright as Sierra parts are not available in Australia.

Spot welded the lower chassis rails, but when I removed the clamps one of the rear corners (closest to the camera) popped up about 2mm which means I have to grind of the welds in 3 places and do it again.  The bottom rails are the foundation of the car, so there is no margin for error.  I’ll tackle that task tomorrow. The remainder of the chassis is flat thank goodness.

Cut and welded up the front frame (’L’ assembly) and it was dead flat when I removed the clamps – yippee!

I needed to buy 25mm square section steel for the car. I decided to stop paying outrageous prices to the local steel supplier and to make to trip to Mascot Steel & Tools. This meant I had to devise a way of carrying the stuff in my Subaru Liberty, so I ripped out the passenger’s seat. This allows me to get cuts of up to 2.7 metres into the car. The return trip to Mascot was surprisingly fast and I have now managed to cut and lay down the first 3 rails of the car.

I have completed the build table and drawn out the plan of the lower rails.  Had quite a job getting the top flat, not as easy as you may think. Its on wheels, so when I am finished work for the day I can easily move it to get the car into the garage.

The work bench is finished and I have started on the build table (see photo below).

There have been some major changes to my clubbie plans. I have made the following decisions:

Chassis: As close as possible to the design in the Chris Gibb’s book

Engine: Mazda/Ford 2 litre MZR/Duratec (from a Ford Focus or Mazda 3)

Gearbox: Mazda RX-7

Front End: Gemini

Rear End: IRS with Subaru diff

Should finish it by next weekend…

We have thrown a lot of junk out of the garage, but it still looks like there is an awful lot more on there.  The steel for my work bench arrived 3 days ago and I have started welding it up.

I have also collected/scrounged some more parts:

- a pair of Gemini uprights (the Cortina uprights are “on their way” but I have decided not to use them)
- complete set of ball joints and tie rod ends for Gem uprights
- set of suspension brackets, bolts and bushes for front suspension

I am trying to come up with a design for the front end of the car which isn’t too wide. Based on the following criteria, this is what I have come up with: (see diagram below)

1. Escort Steering Rack (580mm)
2. Gemini TX Uprights
3. An “average” 15 inch road wheel
4. 6 degrees caster

Its still seems very wide at 698mm, but its the best I can do I think.

Redback Motorsport had a new Escort steering rack for $195, seemed like a fair enough price so that became the first part for my car.

I have also got a pair of TE Cortina uprights coming next week ($100 for the pair) and a bit of an impulse buy was a set of factory Cortina Ghia alloy wheels on EBay- won’t be needing them for a while, but can’t go wrong at $10 each .

We have a council clean-up next week, so we are spending the weekend clearing all the junk out of the garage.

It can only get better from hereon in. I’ll have a lot of questions for my welding instructor on Tuesday night.

A Lincoln 180C MIG, havn’t tried it yet.