It's 27 days according to PJQ and that's not much....Today I took the tail off and started to zip everything up around the fuel tank . There was a tiny leak around the fuel line at the bottom of the tank and I hadn't yet made a mount for the fuel filter. I did those things and then lagged all the lines in the tail section with fibreglass ( that's how we spell it here) and foil tubing . I made a better breather too, it goes to a hole in the floor so that there is no chance of it spewing fuel onto the exhaust which is what I suspect may have happened at the T&T day.....I won't elaborate on what else happened to that breather but suffice to say I think a steel one is better and it is very well secured too.After that I replaced the cement sheet and aluminium sandwich which we made to act as a heat shield over the exhaust union At the airstrip test and tune day we hadn't yet put a floor in the tail section ( a triangular piece a yard long and six inches at the front)and as the original fuel tank went much further back and down ,the exhaust hung very low , so low in fact that it turns out that it won't fit now I have put a floor in.The other issue with the exhaust is that it has a long unsupported section from the union behind the rear bulkhead to the tip of the tail .This has been a source of some friction between the Rev and I , If there was any superstructure there it would be easy to keep the pipe where we want it .....However because the bodywork needs to be taken off in order to weld the pipe when adjustments are made it becomes a tedious and imprecise .....The Rev bought a flexible section , which of course won't solve the problem ...because, the pipe is unsupported ....are ya gettin me? I had one of those moments late this afternoon when I thought to myself " pack up now, you're annoyed and you'll end up wrecking something..."
Tomorrow I go and buy another piece of 3inch exhaust tube and , make , another tail-pipe
The only saving grace is that with the doors cut for the 'chute I can do it all from the top ....and compared to lying underneath the car that's bloody luxury .
I 've also been tidying up the axle shrouds on the tail section , they look great ....they make it nearly impossible to get it on and off now....
..... In time we will have this all sussed out , maybe cutting the tail section into two pieces might be the solution, but the time is not now........another job on the card today was a tinker with the canopy latches , the Rev had made some bungs that I hadn't got around to which the skin mounts onto the frame around the screen with .Of course as soon as you even look at the canopy the latches get fussy....I gave the cable release a bit more slack a they seem to be better than ever now.....
On the weekend the Rev made a cover for the gearshift which has graduated from prototype to bimbotype( dunno if it works any better but it looks great) , we have the new aluminium sticks and lock-out shaft. The new steering wheel has been kidnapped by Vaughn our tame fitter and turner in order to tart it up and finish off the center cap he made for it , it certainly looks better than the cut down and bent Mazda wheel we had.......even if it was just hacked out of 10mm plate by a hill-billy with a jig-saw( moi
)...right now that's about all i can think of...........but there is I can assure you all , more to come
