dougie@curtainwall.co.uk

The plan:

I don't have the space to build a car from the chassis out so I'm doing it as a series of sub assemblies which I intend to assemble later - that's the plan!

(close your eyes and think of those soldiers you see buiding a Landrover in 3 minutes at those "isn't the army wonderful" displays)

So far I have a chassis and the drivetrain.

The engine is a 1600 Ford from a Capri MkII

The gearbox is a 5 speed unit from the same car as is the axle.

The front uprights came from a Mk5 Cortina.

The first job is reconditioning the oily and rusty bits.

Starting with the rear axle I ground off the old brackets and cleaned off the rust. I painted it with red oxide and stuck it at the back of the shed untill I get the brackets fabricated for the new radius arms and shocks. When the brackets are on I'll fit new cylenders, shoes and drums.

I bought an engine stand for thirty quid from Machine Mart to hold the engine while I clean it up and paint it with red enamel paint. I don't plan to open the engine up as I figure it worked in the Capri so why mess with it?

The first problem so far has been the front uprights. The bolts holding the calipers on were locked solid. The local Kwik Fit were happy to get them off with their monster air tools.

More Later.

.... three months later

Ok the bottom line here is The Plan as detailed above was bollocks.  The sub assembly thing doesn't work unless it is your second or third car and you know what size everything is.

I moved to a house with a garage and progress is now being made.  The first job was the front suspension parts which were made from the cds tube recommended by Ron.  These were Tig welded then powder coated black - Tig welds on these highly visible parts looks much better than Mig.

The chsssis built by Jeroen had to be attacked with an angle grinder at the rear of the transmission tunnel to clear the offset diff casing.  This is not over yet as the engine isn't in yet so the drivetrain may need more room than is currently available.