Its been such a long day, i cant even remember what we've done!
James went to see Marcus and came back with a stunning machined stainless tapped rod for the gearshift. We bent this (took huge effort!) and it works a treat - we've tested the clutch and had it in 1st and 2nd gears no problem.
I then rivetted the front top of the bodywork into place and started to trial-fit all the other body panels.
We fitted the scuttle - quite challenging as we needed to mark the holes for the chassis rivnuts. Once this was in place - which took a few attempts, including slotting the holes, we fitted the bonnet. This then gave us a good fitment for the front nosecone.
The nosecone was a similar effort- working out where the rivnuts were and fixing it. The bottom one was particularly tricky. We then realised we'd forgotten the front grill... so off it came again. We couldn't see any obvious way of mounting the grill so came up with using some pipe. We were a little embarassed and almost didn't photograph it! The cable ties will come off tomorrow when the glue has set. I think we need some matching mesh for the lower hole and the three bonnet holes.
I made up two aluminium brackets and plates for the rear body mounting and bolted these to the chassis and body - much more stable now. These take all the weight of the boot so are quite important.
I connected up the headlights and tested - James assembled the indicator pod... the other one is a bit lost at the moment. We taped the side and marked it up. it seems very far forward, i'll verify that position later.
Next was the wheel arches - i drilled through from the outside and fitted 5 bolts to each. We then put the wheels back on and lowered the car off the axel stands.
Finally we wheeled the car out. Quite a moment, its a real car! Still lots to do, but its there. Lots of photos needed! And we ran the engine too. The throttle cable had popped off which messed things up a bit, i'll need to keep an eye on that. The exhaust is seriously dangerous, its so hot.
With the car out, we tidied the garage and found all the missing parts!
Todays Build: 2 people, 9 and 8 hours. Total build time so far: 108 hours, 173 man-hours.
