Assembly Continued

One of my bodywork concerns was that the new radiator hose routing might interfere with the side bodywork below the seam with the sidepod on the left side. Thankfully this was not an issue at all and the panel went right into place. Eric had designed my new engine bay cradles so that I could retain the Dzus fastener setup (mounted on a barrel that slides inside the rear upper cradle attachment point). This worked very well, and the lower panels went on with no drama at all.

One quick note:
Before I mounted these panels, Dad and I bled the clutch slave cylinder. This process led to much consternation, because after all of the air was out of the system, we still could not get the clutch to disengage. It seemed to be working, but depressing the clutch still did not disengage the engine from the gearbox. I was really starting to worry at this point. After coming this close to making the test day, I just knew something would crop up that would be a show stopper.

After more head scratching and several more bleeding sessions, we came across a simple idea: maybe the Honda setup required a little more clutch travel than the FC Pinto engine. WHAT AN IDEA! So a few turns to lengthen the clutch pushrod later - all was right with the world. I could easily row through the gears, and applying the brakes and clutch at the same time allowed me to stop the rear wheels from spinning without killing the engine... PROGRESS!

As the evening wore I was on a roll, so after a short break for dinner and a rare visit with the other occupants of the Maisey household, it was back out to the shop. As the car is coming together the process keeps getting more addictive. I just couldn't stop...

So with the engine lower panels in place I decided to bite the bullet and see just how bad the engine cover was going to be to fit. Turns out it was not really all that bad...

So out came the Dremel tool and with the removal of the small 'hump' behind the headrest and some clearancing of the area around the top of the fuel rails and the depression for the FF2000 carb. it fit fairly nicely. Certainly not quite the finished look that I will ultimately want, but certainly good enough for the VIR test...

So here she sits. Almost ready to take out for a test spin around the neighborhood. I must admit that I have spent most of the last hour just sitting on the steps admiring my (and a lot of other people's) work... I am pretty darned pleased with the result.

Tomorrow:
- Fit the rear undertray/floor panel.
- Alignment and corner weights.
- Clean out the trailer. (of course - it is supposed to rain all day).

I am hoping that I can fashion some sort of intake scoop/airbox in the next couple of days, but even if I can't I will feel perfectly comfortable doing the test next week the way she sits now. After all the objective of that test is not raw speed or asthetics, but to figure out if it all works together properly (and hopefully nothing falls off or leaks too bad).

Later, time for some Ibuprophin and sleep now,
Sean