Saturday 29 January 2011

Progress?

Made some real progress last weekend, with the final removal of all the sound deadening in the driver and passenger area. This was too well stuck down for cold chipping, so used the blowtorch...only a couple of little fires, and it only took a couple of days for the toxic fumes to clear from my lungs! Still, a definite move forwards, and makes the car look better.

This week I have sourced the replacement screen, possibly even a fitter, and arranged for the cage to be fitted. The seat has arrived, I'm waiting for the slider to turn up, and then will be looking at fitting the belts and then .... I think we'll be going testing! Just to check it runs properly and nothing falls off, before back to the drive and prepare for spraying. Also lined up some Challenge spec suspension, but that may wait until after the 360.

If it happens that is! I've no doubt the car will be ready but there's no drivers yet, they've all fallen by the wayside. Frustrating, it is a pretty cheap event with a load of track time for about the cost of two standard events, but it falls awkwardly between Easter and May Day. At this rate I'll be all dressed up with no place to go. May even be reduced to mechanic work on the MGDavid 924 which will be frustrating.

So if anyone reading this has a National B licence or higher, fancies a drive in a six hour race, and has some money (£600 - £800 is the budgeted cost) please contact me max-at-midgetmax-dot-com!

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Slowed to a crawl?

After the excitement of the Christmas break, work has slowed to a crawl as the combination of dark evenings and weekend working have eroded time available to work on the car.

Successes are limited to:

- chipped off the sound deadening from the driver's and passenger's footwells. Still got the seat spaces to do plus the rear deck
- temporary build of the roll cage (easier to store!) awaiting someone to weld the mounting plates into the shell
- finished stripping out the interior and repaired the "924 pox" in the battery tray - car now (mostly!) watertight
- gradually sourcing bits, but now need to find the cash to buy them and the time to fit them! Managed to get hold of a full 924 Challenge suspension kit secondhand :-)
- looking for co-drivers to share the entry costs! Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship racer Nick Clark has signed up, and fellow racer Wayne "Waz Pablo" Osborne is taking a break from his pest control business to engineer the attempt, so we're pretty committed now! Still two drives available, check out the driver/sponsor proposal here.

Chipping off the sound deadening has been a hard job. Wood chisel, large hammer and plenty of elbow grease....these Germans know how to build a solid car! If it had been a 70s MG I would be through the floor by now......

Hoping to spend some more time on it soon, but work, road car problems and Alex's kart mean time is at a premium. Wish me luck!