Yo.
Tax, insurance and MOT all due on the track **** - so I was starting to lose faith. Until the burger van arrived!
The old man was chatting to the local scrap man in the pub and he said he'd put a trailer aside for us.
I doubt I'll be pulling any cars (or making any burgers) for a while - but the old man has seen some potential and for £100 it was worth a shot.
He reckons he'll cut away the remainder of the aluminium body (weigh it back in) and then cut and replace a few cross members so a car would sit level with the axle - rather than sky high as it would if some ramps were added as it is.
Underneath it looks strong and I haven't got a pot to pi$$ in at the moment, so not really got anything to lose.
With a trailer on the horizon and another charity track event close - I decided to get a tow bar fitted to the daily. £200 and they did it at my workplace, which I thought was quite good. No pics of that - its just a tow bar after all.
I went halves on some replica seats with a local mong - sitting on nails is more comfortable than those Cobra Monaco's, so for £90 with sidemounts and an OMP frame, it was worth a go.
The ball and chain gave it a test.
But I felt as if I was sitting too high and so then sold the old seat + the OMP frame and got a custom low frame from the saxp forum.
And now I know how Len_beach feels whenever he drives.
The frame didn't come with holes to mount the seat on, so I measured up and had a bash and drilling through steel. After shattering a drill bit, I decided to give that a rest and enlisted the old man to use the proper equipment. So I now need some decent drill bits.
Next was the thermostat.
For those who know me, the cooling system on this car is really pissing me off.
The last track event was marred by a fluctuating temp gauge/air lock and pissing water out when it felt like it. I purchased an 82 degree thermostat from 106 parts and bled the system on the drive.
At first, the gauge was fluctuating, so I used a 2 litre coke bottle to expand the range of the header bottle and bled the highest point first. Then the 2nd bleed nipple on the thermo housing, finishing with the bleed on the radiator. There was no fluctuating and the thermo opened on cue - and so did the fan. Hopefully that has cured it.
The final task was the fibreglass bonnet that I won on EBay many moons ago. I'd partly fitted it a month back, so had to finish off the aerocatches and washer jets.
As with anything I do, it didn't go smoothly.
I'd test fitted the catches and the threaded bar, quite close to the headlights - but as they weren't fitted when I did the trial, I thought everything was ok.
Until I later realised the headlights wouldn't go back in position as the bar was in the way. Had to get the grinder out (again).
Not sure if I mentioned earlier, but the EBay muffin who sold me the bonnet neglected to mention it was a fcking bad boy one. I feel like we're going back to the max power era... but what can you do.
The long term plan is to get the roof plated, so I'd wrap the bonnet and roof to be the same colour/design.
I'm a bit worried about cooling - so tempted to take the number plate off and get happy with the grinder. I've seen some saxp owners also making the lower part of the bumper a 'wide mouth'.
But for now, it runs - so I should make the next track day, if I can borrow a mates trailer.