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Old 5th September 2019, 08:33
Mick O'Malley Mick O'Malley is offline
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Talking Pitching In - At Last

Tuesday's task was to re-install the fuel tank. When I removed it I noticed that the 12mm ply floor was bowing slightly. I imagined this increasing with the weight of fuel, road bumps etc., until the filler pipe pulled the cap down far enough for it to bind against the body. Having to use water pump pliers on the cap when filling up didn't appeal, so I strengthened the floor by bolting through a length of 1.5" steel angle. Job done.



I'd discovered some time ago that the gearbox cover GRP moulding was too narrow, perhaps it's a version for a Ford 'box as the kit's heritage is unknown? It was hitting the 'box on the driver's side so I cut out most of that side with a panel saw, leaving a little at the tunnel end. Once the body's bolted down I'll fabricate something removable from aluminium.



I Sikaflexed the strip of ply to the bottom of the passenger side to get it to sit at the right height. Nothing seems to fit!

When I saw the Lenham Alfa-Romeo at Prescott Breakfast Club a couple of months ago, I noticed that the builder had come up with an elegant solution to the aeroscreen mountings which didn't use the flimsy castings supplied.



I had bought a small sheet of 5mm aluminium in anticipation of this job so yesterday I set to. I decided to use the existing holes for mounting my supports to keep things simple. Using the tried and tested cardboard assisted design method I carefully hacksawed out the two passenger side supports, and filed, drilled, bent and polished them before bolting in place. As they're at right-angles to their inspirations, I ran an M8 die down the mounting stubs and bolted them through my creations.



Not as pretty as their inspirations, particularly the centre one whose vertical portion needs to be tapered, but passable.

I'm off down the cave to make the driver's side ones now, then to Yate to stay at my kit-car chum's place for our annual dawn sortie tomorrow to the Beaulieu Autojumble weekend. The weather forecast is good!

Regards, Mick
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