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30th October 2011.....Again only half a day but I have now 'sort of' got the nearside half of the bulkhead in place. It doesn't look pretty and it is on ly tacked in but  I think it will be okay. There is stacks of room around the back of the engine, perhaps a little to much, but it's done. I have a cunning plan to help get to the top two bellhousing bolts. I've dished the centre tunnel slightly and will cut two holes in the bulkhead to enable me to get a socket through to make things easier. The hole will be filled normally by a grommet. Clever huh! I've then thought about doing the offside and have realised that maybe I need to sort the pedal box first. This will require some infomation from the others before I go welding up that side.
29th October 2011.....Managed half a day in the garage and spent all the time on SHW's new tunnel. It is taking me ages to figure out how I want this tunnel section to look and to make sure there is enough room around the engine to get at things. I cut the centre tunnel back another inch to help aid getting the bellhousing off, then I decided that I wanted to curve the nearside round in the footwell. I spent ages making a couple of sections up which kept having to be offered up, bits removed, then offered up again. By the end of the day I decided to tack weld the lower section in place and go from there. When Derek turned up for an Indian at six I called it a day.
18th October 2011.....Last night I fitted the Bosch electronic ignition to DHR after the weekend debarcle with the condensor lead coming off. Now I've only had it sitting in the garage for two and a half years so thought it was about time. I'd had to ask Spot where all the wires went but with my little wiring diagram in my hand I had it fitted and working in no time. I also couldn't believe my luck because she fired up first time. I had to set the timing right but that was all. Wednesday morning I took her to work. She started first time and ran okay. No pinking or any other problems at all. Why did it take me so long?
16th October 2011.....Spot had to go home earlier than he first thought so went about lunchtime after an egg, bacon and mushroom sandwich. Edd and I went back over to the barn in Thame. We managed to get the suspension back on 'Mr Rusty', his white'ish GT. We had a bit of a tidy up and took a fair bit of crap out to the metal bin. I managed to cut the offside inner wing from the V8 shell that is going to be scrapped to see if it will help with SHW then Edd found an old outer wing for the nearside so it looks like SHW can now have metal wings instead of fibreglass. He also loaded me up with some baby Viva stuff for the estate. I left about six for home and a wonderful roast dinner. What a great weekend.
15th October 2011.....The day all the lads have been waiting for, its race day again. Back to Stratford-upon-Avon. I always feel at home in Stratford being a literary person of standing, me and Shakespeare have a lot in common. I took my son David to Ed's to met up with Spot and Edd for the drive up. A good journey, although very slow owing to a certain person who likes to run at 50mph to save fuel. Spot does that then drives flat out down a drag strip! Anyway we get there and the weather is just brilliant, its not to busy and Paul and Sicknote are already there as always. My first run was a record breaker....43.51. The condenser lead came off the dissy so I just had to roll the strip. Luckily they make you wear a crash helmet so people couldn't see my embarrassment. Needless to say it has been mentioned one or twice since. We had a brilliant day. Paul's HA did it's best time ever, Martin again had his best time of 14.2 in the V8, Spot's convertible did 18.3 which he wasn't really expecting, I did my best ever 17.3 and only Edd was disappointed. He driven over from Germany on Thursday spent all Friday putting the triple webers back on his V6 but couldn't get them to run right. His best was 16.9, he's usually in the 14's. We got home then went for a beer and a curry back at my house and the slept over. A very, very good day and I would encourage anyone to come along and have some fun. You don't have to have a rocket car, just come and enjoy. Pictures here.
9th October 2011.....The morning was spent at a VBOA meeting for the Outlaws club then a visit to the Vauxhall Heritage Centre. I managed to get back home for about half one so was straight up the garage to finish the tunnel. I managed to weld the bulge in place and the two triangular sections where I tilted the end of the tunnel up. I then put some P38 filler on and rubbed it all down before giving all exposed areas a couple of coats of primer. (I havent used tub loads of filler it reall was a skim over and rub down). I pleased with the result as it doesn't look like an add on to much. Its raised by about an inch and a half. Pictures here, last four.
8th October 2011.....Only had the morning in the garage as the family were coming round to celebrate or comiserate for my birthday. It's not till Monday but I'm out tomorrow so they came round in the afternoon to sample my daughters attempt at a birthday cake. (Actually she made a Victoria sandwich and it was great, plenty of fresh cream). I made up the bulge section for the offside tunnel centre and tack welded it in place. I think its slightly better than the nearside one, certainly slightly bigger.
2nd October 2011.....Only had the morning as we were having a BBQ because the weather was so nice. (A BBQ in October!). Welded the old gearstick hole up and welded the plate on, then cut the top section to lenght. I then managed to remove the gearbox ready to give to Tony on Wednesday night. He is the genius who will make the gear linkage shorter for me. The got slowly drunk whist burning sausages. The joys of summer.
1st October 2011.....What a gloriuos day to be welding in the garage. I now have small burn marks as I didn't want to wear my overalls. In the end the pain got to much and I had to put them on. Spent the morning working on the tunnel on SHW. Got on really well and used the old original part and made a new bulge section. The gearbox has an ally end section which mates to the cast section, this is the widest part and the tunnel needs to bulge slightly both sides. It was easier to cut a section out and fabricate a whole piece to put back in. See pictures here.
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