Well, I hadn't realised quite how quickly the time had gone.
One minute, I've just updated the blog, then two months have gone bye bye. Quite unbelieveable! So apologies to all you millions of watchers. Well, at least one anyway, who's only comment I don't intend to detail.
Well, what's been happening on the car. Let's see now.
Er well bonnet is now nearly nearly done. I'm just being a bit retarded in my ability to apply paint. Wouldn't think it'd be that difficult really, having already sprayed all the bodywork in a previous millenium.
I think the prob has been my lack of time to work on the car and impatience when I can, so when I paint, I paint; and paint and paint. Paint is quite thick, and cracks as it dries. Well it did last weekend, so I left it till Tuesday to dry a bit better. Last night I put on a thin coat of primer filler and did same again tonight. This is of course after I had what I thought was a finished surface. ready for polishing and moulding.
Still, hopefully this Sunday should see me at that stage. Hmm, I'm moulding the bonnet regardless, any imperfections will be dealt with in the mould and the new bonnet.
Hopefully, I'll mould it Sunday, leave for a week, lay up new bonnet the folllowing Sunday and remove that from mould the Sunday after. New bonnet on car by end of July. Promise (but fingers crossed!
Anyway; pics, I'm sure that's all you really want to see, so the following should give you a good idea on how the bonnet looks, but you can't see the cracked paint, so it won't matter. You'll also notice the front roll hoop/windscreen frame is nearly sorted, couple more tweaks and I can weld that up too. It's going to be bolted in, and welded to the rear hoop (which is also bolted in) and theoretically, it should be removeable. There will be two top bars that connect front to rear, a cross piece in the area below the screen and side bars between front and rear. I had all the tubes bent by Anvil Tubesmiths near Seddlescome for a very reasonable price, and nice quick service (2 days)!!
I think the lines are much better than the old. The scoops on top are for the intercoolers. Side exits will be cut into the new bonnet.
Here's side view (nah, really!!)
In this pic you can see the drastic measures I taking to aid cooling. The main panel is outset by three inches. The black bit also has a hole behind it allowing air in, directly towards the turbos. The forward facing scoops (both side panels are the same) have the air filters behind them. What you can't see, though I was hoping you could, is the vent in top of bonnet behind the rad, another cooling aid.
Once front hoop is in and the bonnet is on, I've got to get it on the rolling road to get engine running correctly, then I can use it. Next steps will be tidying car up and thinking about the new diff I have. Ratio is somewhat less than current one (2.88 compared with 3.92) so gearing should improve, and so should economy. I see now reason why 45mpg might not be possible:) Might put a diesel in it next:D
Anyway, I'm going to have a nice cup of tea and some of the rather large bar of Galaxy I got for my birthday.
I'll try and post a bit more regularly, even if not much has happened, though as you might have gathered, I'm expecting to do quite a lot over the next fortnight.
Cheers for now.
