Nearly finished...

Alright, it's still not quite done, but you get the idea...

More fabbing...

The shelf needs to be strong, so I made a cross bar with thick steel ends that can be drilled and bolted to the top rails.




Then welded this to the 80s desk panel - I chose tube that matched the curve that already existed on the desk panel, so that the edge nearest to the driver would have a smooth curve. That's as far as I got today, because I wasted so much time putting my new tool box together and wittering on to Dan about Dodge Darts...

80s furniture and axle tart-up

Bit more progress yesterday. Got the axle back in (cheers Dan!) and cleaned and painted it.







And then got on with cutting up this bit of 80s computer desk:



To keep the car looking right for the 60s, I've decided I want to hide as much of the electronics as much as possible - previously the ignition module and coil were attached to the side of the chassis in plain view. I will be adding ignition retard modules as well, so needed somewhere to put it all. So I'm making a removable shelf to sit above the gearbox in the footwell, and using the perforated steel from the computer desk because it will allow air to flow round the components, as well as being easy to attach bits to with nylon ties.

More work on the steering

Even despite the hangover, I manage to drag myself to the garage this morning. Finished off the bracket I'd been making for the steering:




It ended up completely over-engineered for the role it plays, so I'll likely drill some holes in it to lighten it and make it look a bit less like something off a steam train. The reason I've made it is so I can screw a 5/8 rose joint into it to form one part of a sliding joint to support the steering linkage:




Although just mocked up there, that stainless steel bar will slide within the joint and allow me to put an extra pivot point for the steering arm in line with the point where the hairpins are attached to the chassis. In theory, this should cure the horrendous bump steer the car suffers from, caused by having the steering arm three times the length of the suspension arms. Let's hope the theory holds true...

Finally, some work!

Started the day derusting the frame with Metal Ready from Frost:




Then ground off and filed down the old body mounts, being careful not to damage and weaken the tubes:




Bit most of the day went on making this bracket, to support the new steering I'm making:

More parts: rose joints

I've also bought a selection of different-sized economy rose joints or spherical bearings from eBay seller mcgillmotorsports which will hopefully form the basis of a new and improved steering set up. They also sell steel inserts and they were so cheap getting a few to play around with seemed worth it, plus I feel like a proper racer with these things about. Don't they just look so fast?

Parts, parts, parts 1: wheels

The wheels that came with the car were some very tatty Keystones with shot tyres. They were too narrow, required spacers to clear the bodywork and most of all didn't have the early sixties look I wanted. After viewing lots of options over in the States I got lucky and landed these on eBay.co.uk, saving a fortune in shipping.