Well it's been a good while since my last update, so sorry for the lack of ongoing pics and info, but there hasn't been that much happening since we've been waiting for the car to come back from the chassis engineers and they had a holdup for 3 weeks with their machine so we got put in a holding pattern.
Good news is that the chassis is now been measured up all good and we've got a map so we know where everything is at for setup later on which was the main point of that process.
I got started removing the roof which wasn't as bad as I'd expected, but was still a mission. Bought myself a great little weld removal tool which worked perfectly in the most part (there's a pic of the round holes in the roof it leaves). That also means we can use the hole to realign the roof when it comes time to weld it back in place. Then once I got the top skin off I then had to start on the underneath skin / bracing which was much tougher as it's thicker also, so not the car looks like a T-Top........... but we've got the access we need to get the cage in and welded.
Steve then started making the footplates for the cage which have to be glued and bolted to the aluminium chassis rails and then on top of that will be welded a second landing plate which is where the cage itself is welded.
I cleaned up and prepped all of the areas where the plates will need to be bolted and glued to and then Steve drilled the holes through the main chassis rails for the steel crush tubes which will go between the steel plates.
Then came the moment to use our new welder / plasma cutter ............ (Tim Taylor moment........) to cut out some plates for the top of the strut towers which will in turn hold the tube upright which will then in turn be the mounting point for all of the bars coming from the main cage and the cross bars between strut towers.......... first time using a plasma cutter and they're an amazing bit of kit......... sliced through some 4mm steel plate like butter...... awesome.
Here's the end result.
Action shot !!! LOL
The rest of my stuff from the USA arrives very soon too (early next week) (tyres, gearbox, wireless scales, bonnet etc etc) so we're going to knock on with the cage hopefully next week as we have to get it approved before the end of the year as they're changing the regulations.
Once we've got the cage done then it'll go to Carboglass to have the undertray and aero stuff made as well as the interior carbon stuff, and then it'll be onto Speedtech for the engine stuff, electrical wiring and ECU / Dash wiring and setup.......... that is going to take a while, but I prefer to list it out like that as it sounds not as bad !!! LOL
The seats themselves fit OK, but the side head restraints are too high and you wouldn't be able to clear the door when closed and was too close to the side of the roof.
