Slowly, slowly

At last a little progress to report, if no photos to show for it! The last few weeks have brought more time away with work, however, I have managed to get a few hours in the garage. The pedal box has been exercising my thoughts for a while now - even with the brake pedal bracket I was so pleased with. i mocked everything up in the car and wasn't at all happy with the positions of the pedal pivots. Also, I was never happy with the ration of the clutch pedal. I decided to remake the clutch pedal, this time as a pendulum pedal, rather than floor mounted. This enabled me to retain almost the original pedal size and ration - a much better state of affairs. I then reused the floor mounted clutch pedal as a throttle and made a transverse rod so that the cable only has to travel to the centre 'tunnel', and not loop around into the footwell - photos will make this clear! Finally, I cut up my precious brake pedal bracket and remounted it in a better position. The overall effect is that there is now a little extra leg room on the drivers side and scope to move the pedals back if required. I would have taken photos but I want to wait until there are a few less clamps holding everything in!!!

Still alive, honest!

Well, it's been a frustrating 6 months with little meaningful progress to report. Once back from my 'holiday', spare time was taken up with a major kitchen refit. This had the effect of not only taking up any time thay have been available for car building, but also resulted in the garage filling up with non-car related DIY items. Once the kitchen was finished, it was a necessity to clear the garage before any work could commence. It was decided that some of the panels/doors from the old kitchen could be usefuly employed as boarding for the loft in the garage which had been partly boarded by the previous owner. I ascended into the loft to complete the task but at some stage, trod on a board that was insecure at one end! All I remember was feeling like I was in a Harry Potter flu-tube and ended up on my backside on the garage floor. On my way, I landed on the front of the car. Fortunately, the suspension cushioned my fall, however, some damage was done to the front - the nose panel was damaged ant the light broken off. I was very lucky though as I landed a few feet away from a box of off cuts that, had I landed on them, would have taked a core sample from my torso!!! Resultant injuries meant a few more weeks off followed by a (careful) concerted effort to re-sort the garage. Now that task is complete, I once again find myself on 'holiday' in the same sandy, dusty place as before. Oh well, I'll keep at it I guess although some sort of miracle where the car gets finished for me in some sort of 'Overhauling' scenario!!!!!

Progress recently has been a little minor tampering with some trial bodywork - photos to follow!!!

Keep watching - hopefully progress soon.....

Back again

Finally back in the country following a couple of months in the desert! Re-introduced to wife and kids and managed a short while in the garage today. Just before I went, John and I drilled through the rear upper chassis rail for the harness mounts. Inevitably one of the chassis tubes was in the way - a result of not knowing which seats were being used when the chassis was made. There was no other choice, within the constraints of the SVA mount heights, other than to cut open the tube and re-weld it. The mounts themselves are thich wall threaded bushes. At the rear end, I welded thick washer to the tubes. These were fed through the chassis rails from behind then welded in. Another washer was slipped over on the front side, then welded up. This is what I got on with today. The welding went OK, although I was probably over-zealous trying to make sure of good penetration. As a result, some of the welds don't look as neat as they might but I am sure that they are secure!

Now with lights

Today I spent a little more time adjusting the clutch pedal. The ratio is still less than I would like but it is not easy to improve it - it will involve a new pedal. I've decided to stick with it for now and accept that when the car first rune, I might need a different pedal. I also made the light mounts as I felt that I couldn't make a proper decision about the bodywork without them. what do you think?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! Today was hangover free, due entirely to my wife being ill which has restricted social activities. However, it meant a couple of useful hours in the garage today. I worked on the clutch pedal - I am worried that it will not have enough travel and think that it might need a redesign. Meanwhile, my 'little helper' cleaned all of the paint from the edges of the Beetle engine cover ready to join them. I joggled the edge (thank you John!) and welded the 2 together. I forgot how thin production car metal is and blew some decent holes in it, before getting the welder set up correctly on the minimum setting. I now have a dilemma, do I continue the bodywork all the way to the back of the car, as per the original concept, or do I just fit a nose cone? If it is the latter, I will probably modify the shape a little - you may be able to see the felt tip lines on the left of the nose. The area back to the 'cockpit' will be panelled with flat aluminium - any thoughts?