Kids.

Just a quick update. My ally tube arrived from CBS. Very prompt.
But with tax and delivery,a 2m length came in at over £30!!

And now the bad news... My 17 yr old son is leaving next Sun to join the Paras,up in north yorkshire. So we let him have a leaving party last night. BAD IDEA. Someone at the party decided it would be a good idea if he ripped one of our radiators off the wall!! We stayed round the in-laws to give him some room,so didnt find out till this morning as he was too scared to phone us! Luckily one of his friends brothers was a plumber and he came over and turned everything off. He then came back this afternoon to repair the damaged rad. Unfortunately,in the mad skirmish when there was water spraying all over our lounge,some kind party goer decided to go down into the basement,tip my nicely stacked ally sheets onto the ground and trample on them.All of them have creases and are bent! All five sheets are damaged! I hope I will be able to cut round the damage on at least a couple of the sheets.
Bloody kids!

Sorry

Sorry all.
Not had time to do a thing this week.
My wife and I are foster carers,and at the moment,we have two boys under two.We also have a seventeen year old who is off to join the Paras on March 7th. And a nine year old daughter.
So time is the most precious rescource at the moment.
Hopefully I will have some time to make some progress soon.
I ordered a new piece of ally pipe this week and bought a load of clamps and 2 tubes of sikaflex,in preparation!
Cheers James.

floor

The floor is cut out,and all he holes to drill have been marked.That is alot of holes!!

On the kitchen floor.

Here is the panel laid out on the kitchen floor.

Here the chassis is laid on top.

And here,the outline of the chassis is traced onto the sheet.
So now I know where to cut the sheet to form the floor.

one bent pipe

I used a tree and a brick wall to bend the pipe. I found that
by bending a tiny bit,then moving the bend point by a fraction,and bending a fraction again,etc etc,stopped the pipe from creasing.
(This was the second attempt.The first pipe creased after trying to bend it too much in one point).

Later,(once my wife has gone out! ) I will bring the chassis into the kitchen and trace the floor panel outline onto the ally floor panel.

Job #1

My first actual Job.
Making clips to hold the aluminium water pipes that run from the
radiator at the front,to the engine at the rear. Next is to bend one of the pipes.
And then for the first of many riveting jobs,attaching the pipes onto the chassis!
Cheers James

Any requests?

If anyone wants any pics of any specific parts,please let me know. I am happy to oblige.
James

A visitor....

I had a visit from my good friend Trevor today. He came over to see the chassis and the boxes of bits. He has a Sylva Mojo, and drove down from Reading last summer to take me out in it. So it is partly his fault that I now find myself in this situation. Thanks Trev!! : )
His endless enthusiasm is infectious,and he gave me a dvd with about a thousand pics of his build,which will be invaluable in my build.Thanks Trev.
I have added his blog onto the useful sites list.
I also bought some pro snips,and some riveting equipment today,so I can get on with some bits and pieces.
Cheers James

kids!

I knew ther would come a day when one of my kids would come in handy!
Thanks Fred.

chassis pic

A pic of the chassis and the gate that it will have to fit through!

My chassis

This is my chassis.Note the lack of a roll bar.

Phase 1

Starting to clear the garden.

A couple of pics of Jeremys car.Trust me when I say it looks even better in the flesh.
Having a serious rethink on the colour,as it looks really good in a nice bright red scheme.

Stick out?

A quick pick of me in Jeremys car. I was a bit worried,as I am 6'1",andthought that I might stick out a bit,but I think that it will be ok.

The fabulous Mr. Phillips

OK.
Picked up the chassis kit on saturday from the fantastic Mr. Phillips.Hooray!!
Left at 8.30 am,and got back 8.30 pm!! A round trip of about 430ish miles!!
Chassis is leaning up against my back wall at the moment,so I wont post any pics until I have a better setting.
I had a close look at Jeremy's prototype,which is looking beautiful.The pictures on the net don't do it justice.
I will post a few pics that I took when I get the chance.
Cheers for now, James.

Hopefully.

Hey,hopefully this time next week I might be able to post something remotely related to kit cars!!
Hoorah!

Sorry Honey

Just a quick update.
Still no skip,as the skip company cant get a permit to put it in our road,as the gas main is being replaced!
Boiler fixed,although we also had to get an electrician in when the heating engineer discovered that the whole house had no earth running through it!
On the upside,I am still on course to pick up my chassis kit on the 30th,and spoke to Jeremy Phillips this week. He was very helpful,and steered me right where I had been gently going down the wrong road on a few points. He seems like a very nice chap,and I am looking foreward to meeting him next weekend. I must thank Jon Regan too,who is the southern agent for the J-15.(He is building the green one.) For he has also been very helpful.
Jeremy is welding some supports onto the chassis for a bolt on roll bar,should I fit one,although,as he pointed out,it would look pretty without a roll bar at all.
So next weekend,It looks like I will be looking for somewhere to store some large car parts!( Sorry honey!!!)

Starter switch

I almost forgot.This is the first item I bought for my car,over a year ago.
It came with an aluminium backing plate that had a carbon fibre pattern printed on it.
But I had some real carbon fibre off cuts from some rc modelling projects,so replaced it with some good stuff! Both switches are illuminated.COOL!
(Yes I am a big kid,I know!)
James : )

Flavour?

Anyway,here are a few images to give you a flavour of my ideas for the car...

bloody weather!

Still no skip! At least we have heating and hot water now though! No skip means no workshop,and nowhere to put the kit when I get it on the 30th.

No Skip.

No skip today. Too icy out there.
Still No hot water or heating either.( 4 days now.) : (
Also having new folding doors installed in the kitchen today,so there is a 10' x 7' hole in the wall too.
Now thats what I call a bit brisk!!! : (
Wife and kids have gone out for the day,as its so cold in here.
Hopefully they will thaw me out in the microwave when they get back! : D

Just been given a pickup day for my chassis kit for the 30th Jan.
I will have to organise a van. According to google,it is 4.5 hrs each way!
Hope the weather gets better by then!!(Deep snow at the moment!)

On a positive note...

I forgot to mention that I also already have a steering wheel too.
A Momo Team 300,Mmmmmmmmm!
I get it out and play with it sometimes,when no one is watching!!!

Bad timing

Our boiler has only gone and died on us today!
There goes any chance of getting any goodies for the car for a while. Bugger!

Skip

Booked Skip for thurs morning.
Taken Friday off work!!

Parts so far

 

This is a pic of the parts I have collected/refurbished for the car so far.

Build area

This is the area behind the shed,where the car will be built.(see the problem that I am going to come across once the car is built,yet?) : )

The build area! : (

This is a pic of my back garden at the moment.
I like to think of it as a blank canvas!
The 6x4 shed is due to be replaced by a 10x6 shed/workshop,and the build area is behind the shed. We are waiting for a skip at the moment to clear everything out,so I can get started.

The Factory Prototype

This is the prototype J15.
Just to let you know what it is supposed to look like!

The plan is for mine to be black,with a modern interior,also I have ordered my chassis without a roll bar, hopefully making provisions for a removable one during the build.

Introductions

As a brief introduction.
I am 41,and live in Littlehampton,West Sussex.
I have had an interest in kit cars for longer than I can remember,but never had the opportunity/time/money to do it.
None of that has changed,but I have decided that if I don;t do it now,I never will!
So what the hell,why not just give it a go.
I sold my collection of remote control cars/boats/helicopters,and bought some donor parts,like the brakes/front uprights etc,which come from various Fords.
If anyone wants any more info,please ask.
I ordered the chassis,along with the shock absorbers from Sylva in December,to be collected from the factory late January (ish!).
I will be building the car in my back garden. I thought about renting a garage near by,but the ability to pop out into the garden to work on the car was too much to pass on.Although by doing this,I have created a large problem,that I hope to have come up with a solution to by the time the car is finished!!( More on that later.)