11 December 2005
Day 28 - Missed panel
I noticed that I had forgotten to install a small panel, the one which sits between the upper pedal box and the outside chassis rail. So spent 1 hour in the garage preparing the panel for fitting. Painted the drilled holes in the chassis so will attach panel later when the paint has dried.
12 December 2005
Day 29 - not a lot!
Only spent 20 minutes in the garage attaching the panel as mentioned above.
15 December 2005
Been giving much thought amongst other things as to what uprights, hubs, brakes can calipers I am going to be using. I have made another decision, whoa! I am going for the Raceleda ones. Why? Well I am not going to go into a full comparison between the various sources as this did my head-in and will do so even more if I write about it! In short, Raceleda is not too far from me and I can pick up the bits. They do a front-end kit which is a complete kit to bolt onto the wishbones (need ball joints which they can also provide) and this provides the upright, steering control arm, bracket for caliper, 4 pot calipers, drilled and grooved discs and all the various bolts and washers. I started to think how much more is this going to cost me over, say the standard westfield AP up rated items, the answer, nothing, it is actually cheaper and lighter to-boot. The other advantage is that the upright is an assembly of a universal upright which you bolt on the brake caliper bracket and steering arm bracket, I think this opens up more possibilities and also if you need to replace a damaged bracket is simple. Raceleda can also supply Pro-tech shocks and Quick ratio steering rack for the Westfield.
The guy I spoke to, Bruce was very helpful and has much experience of building kits cars and Westfields.
I also had email communications with a fellow Builder; Niklas Libell. He has installed them on his MegaBusa and is very happy with them. Here is a photo of his install:
I think you will agree, they look the dog's bits, you can see more details on his site at http://www.westfield.se/MedlemsBilar/Niklas.htm
17 December 2005
Day 30 - Front upper wishbone threads
Visited Tim and Chris in Oxford today primarily to borrow a M18 x 1.5 tap to clean out my front upper wishbone threads for the upper ball joint. Also took opportunity to look at their progress of the Westfield 1800. It is coming along nicely. Spent only about 15 minutes in my garage cleaning out the threads, twice to make sure, as there were quite rusty! Anyway I have smothered in Copper Slip now so should stay corrosion free.
I am going to be ordering some more bits soon to keep me occupied over he Christmas holiday.
28 December 2005
Day 31 - Lower steering column and rack
Westfield opened today for first time since Christmas break so I decided to take a trip up there to spend some (well all!) of my Christmas pressy money! I bought Steering rack (quick ratio), lower steering column, race (lightweight) rack mounts and SVA compliant steering wheel with boss kit. Spent about 60 minutes installing and torquing up. I have installed the steering wheel but not torque up the main bolt as this will need to be removed again to install the dash. I just wanted to see the steering wheel, I know, but it is another milestone occasion.
Picture of the left-hand side of the rack showing the lower steering column:
Here is a picture of the business end!
30 December 2005
Day 32 - Picked up Differential
No time in the garage done a few hours drive round trip to pick up a differential that I purchased from Ebay. Differential is 3.36 LSD as used in the ford Scorpio (2.9 I think?), anyway the unit is brand new and never been installed. Was sitting in someone's garage for a few years. Anyway got a good price, saving several hundred pounds over a new one. I have double checked it is a LSD by rotating one of the output drivers. In an LSD both drives rotate in the same direction when no resistance is applied. In an open diff the output drives rotate in opposite directions. Unit looks brand new with labels still attached, I shall however take off the cover and double check cogs look good as doing this after it is installed would be much more of a pain.
Here's a picture of the differential, not cleaned up yet:
Go to January 2006