Epic Fix-Up Day

Yesterday we had a long, but rewarding day in the garage. Now that the front of the car has been painted, our attention has turned to finishing off a lot of loose ends in the front of the car.

First up, off with the front body work. It's been a long time since we've had this off, so it warranted some photos.

Next up, we bolted the front frame in properly (we'd unbolted it for painting and were using odd spare bolts). Recently I bought a bolt set. This is the best $120 I've ever spent. Unfortunately there are no bolt shops in the area that are open on the weekend. So since we started building this car our normal method of procuring bolts has involved driving to Supercheap/ Autobarn/ Repco and getting ripped-off big time for 2 bolts in a Champion plastic-pack that are normally the wrong size. Now we have a full selection of bolts there will be no more wasting time and money getting bolts. Why didn't I do this 2 years ago?

The next job involved securing the coolant lines. We never finished securing them after we ran the coolant lines (too keen to start the engine). We wanted to get the coolant line rubber away from anything it could rub on. Tim spent some time looking at this a few weeks back and came up with this awesome idea of making a hanger off the round K-frame bracing tube. A quick bit of welding and drilling and I was done. Very happy with the result.

Tim recently bought a Rivnut (nutsert) kit and was keen to test that out so he mounted the brake reservoirs. 

Another job was to make up some spacers between the top of the K-frame and the chassis. For some reason, the manufacturer leaves a 20mm gap here. I think it is so you can adjust the chassis alignment. The previous spacers were very flimsy. Tim welded two bits of 10mm plate steel together. Job done. Pics coming.

So all-in-all, our long session in the garage was rewarding. Hopefully we continue to have sessions like this.