Day 45 11-7-11 Bubble trouble

Earlier in the week I recruited a couple of friends Russ and Carl to assist moving the tub on the stand.  Russ turned up with his wife Claire who confessed she couldn’t see any difference from the last time she had visited – That was when Russ had helped me lift the rear differential out from under the donor car.  In order to fit the “hockey stick” fuel line cover the tub needed to move.  It was only a couple of inches, but it was necessary.  I untied the front end from the stand and it was clear the tub was back heavy as the front end lifted.  Carl held it in place whilst Russ and I took the weight at the back then we all lifted.  It took a couple of attempts to get it right and this time I used 2 pieces of rope to tie the front down.

Having spoken with Graham about the fixing spacing I decided to space them approximately 250mm apart.  Technically cables and pipes are required to be fixed every 200mm (8” in old money). However the hockey stick isn’t technically a pipe it is a cover.  So my decision was to have a max spacing to 250mm between fixings. Carl and I measured up from the front end but couldn’t get a reasonably spaced fixing at the rear. So we marked up the frontend up to the bend and then measured the fixing points from the rear up to the bend.  Then laying the pipes in the cover we held it in place and drilled pilot holes and added the self tappers and called it a night.

Carl had also spent some time checking my measurements and it would appear my idea of a right angle is somewhat lacking and one of the points for the hand brake I had marked was out by a couple of millimetres. Now corrected I looked to the “pinch”. The pinch is the best way I can describe it. It is a crest of resin and fibre in the centre of the tunnel.  By all accounts it should not be there and Graham confirmed it could be removed. I took the Dremel with a cutting disc and sliced around it underneath there was a void, a bubble if you will. I cleared the area and then thinking back to my sailing days I tapped around the sides with the back of a screwdriver.  One side sounded different. The top layer was delaminated from the base layer.  I tapped further it was not massive area but it needed cutting back and re-bonding.  I cut the top away one small piece at a time until I couldn’t put a screwdriver blade between the top and bottom layers.  I have some glass fibre mixed resin left over from the roll cage mounting pads that should finish the job off.

Next it was the handbrake cable grommets no problem with the aid of a 20mm hole saw and the Dremel.  I ran the handbrake cables through the holes and looked at the cable mounts.  The clips were corroded so I stripped them back and treated them with metal prep and a couple of coats of paint.  Whilst I had the wire brush head on the grinder I looked to the brake disks that had been sat on the garage floor since I took them off the donor car.  I cleaned them off and had a look at the state of the discs and something looked wrong the front discs were fine but the inside face of one of the rear disks was a mess.  Now I know when I bought the donor car I knew the brakes had been overhauled and the disks had been skimmed.  That was one of the reasons for choosing this donor.  But the inside face of one of the rear disks clearly had been missed.  I will have to see if I can get that disk face skimmed on a lathe.