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Right here we go!
Provided in the kit is a piece of 2mm aluminum sheet, the
chassis is turned upside down and the profile of the chassis
is marked on to the aluminium. Then as the tube is about
50mm diameter, I marked an internal parallel line of
15mm, giving me a cutting line just over
the center
line of the tube once in place.
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Here is the sheet cut out, de burred
and ready to be riveted. As I mentioned, the edge overhangs
the tube center line by about 10mm. |
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I started on one side and drilled
holes every 100mm, I used 4.8mm large head rivets for
this job, the holes were drilled 10mm from the edge. The
rivets were temporarily put in place to make sure the
sheet did not move.
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Once all the holes were drilled,
I removed the rivets and de burred all the rivet holes,
on both the chassis and the aluminium sheet. |
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Putting 100 plus rivets in gives
you cramp, it would have been nice to have a pneumatic
rivet gun, maybe a
present to my self this christmas.
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All riveted. Jobs a goodun. |
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A quick flip back the right way
up and now time to get on with the suspension.
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These used hubs are supplied by
MEV as part of the kit. For a smallish fee I popped them
down to my local engineers and they sandblasted them
giving a nice key'd finish, I then primed
and painted them with satin black enamel paint and cooked
them in the oven for about an hour at 120 deg C. I think
the finish is pretty good considering.
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The stub axles are provided
in the kit and have also been sandblasted and then a
coat of enamel paint applied, any one making a kit with
used parts,
I
would
suggest
its well worth the extra effort and cost.
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The bush's
for the wishbones are supplied but not fitted and this
was actually a fairly time consuming task. For each
corner there were 2 bush's to press in, then a coat
of teflon grease around the inner holes and then the
crush tube finally being pressed in place through the
two. Satisfying once completed though. Here you can see the
semi completed hub assembly.
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As part of the SVA test, there cannot
be and radius less than 2.5mm protruding, to help matters
some plastic wheel nut covers are placed over the bolts
and nuts to help comply with the regs.
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The original
wheel studs have been removed as they need to be upgraded
to longer ones. Wilwood 4 pot calipers added as an upgrade,
they look better and are a lot lighter than the original
focus steel calipers.
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Rear wishbone assembly assembled
and wheels fitted to complete a rolling chassis. Fender
stays are yet to be fitted, I will leave this task to
last.
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Drive shaft fitted to temporarily help keep the rear
bearing together. |
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Top view of the rear wishbone assembly. |
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The donor focus steering wheel assembly attached to the
mounting brackets. M6 holes were already in place, but
I opened these out to M8. |
