22 October 2011 – Assembly






















Since the spraying on the car is done, except the front fenders which needs to be fitted and cut, I started with assembly, what a great feeling to put the parts back in place, some of which was in storage for more than a year and six months. All the parts that I have been sourcing can finally go to its designated location, this must be the best feeling of any huge project car.






The first areas I concentrated on was the front and rear suspension, once this is in place and done, moving the car around to assemble the rest will just be easier. I started with the front suspension as 98% of the parts are 100% done, not like the rear upper control arms that still need a few small changes, everything went back to its place without a huge struggle on the front portion, but a few delays on the rear hubs wasted far too much time, the only reason I could think this would've happened was the fact that there is a few ford parts and as we all know the only method of assembling or dissembling a ford is to use the biggest hammer to your disposal, since this is no ford a hammer was out of the question. During the day we struggled with a unwelcome guest, luckily his visit was short lived and we could continue.




















During the last 2-3 weeks I received my newest batch of lazer cutting back and could take the sump and battery box for welding, I'm very happy about the outcome. Just by making these parts thru the week, I probably saved a weekend in the process which is a huge benefit to me.








On my last visit to the car, work started on Friday evening, first on the list was getting the sump on the motor, a few tweaks and changes here and there and everything slipped in place. The original oil pickup was warmed and bent to pick up the oil lower in the new sump and a brace was added to strengthen it. The next morning I started with the upper oil pan, after applying some Lock Tight gasket sealer, it was bolted in place and soon after the sump, while I was busy with the motor, work continued fitting the engine mounts, power steering pump, VVL solenoids, distributor, flywheel and clutch assembly.






























The rest of the day and night was used to bend the mock up brake lines, this is quite a time consuming job to figure out what is available, what can be imported and how the final layout should look like, a specially with a car which lines will be on the inside. Before I could do the front left brake line, I had to mount the radiator expansion tank, while i was busy drilling holes, I moved onto the fuel side of things in the boot as everything will be located there, only hard lines to the front and short flexible lines to the fuel rail and back. I decided a while ago to keep my low pressure parts on the one side and the high pressure on the other side. Between 12 and 1 the morning I started mocking around with the fuel filler, luckily for me this revealed a few challenges and will be placed at the back of the queue for now.




















On Sunday morning I continued with the brake and fuel lines. Later on the motor went in to find a temporary solution on the intake side of things, my end goal will be to run the engine with a set of 60mm throttles, but that will be a venture for next year, for now I will cut and weld the original intake to get the car going. Later the day my father arrived and we work out the layout for the main battery leads, then also shuffled a few items in the engine bay as the right hand side was getting to cluttered.

This car just continues to amaze me.

What snake was that???? He liked your work too

Thanks, it is coming along nicely now, ordered all the small hard line brake parts yesterday, if the yanks is fast, maybe i'll have it in the next two weeks, waiting on prices for the soft lines. Also picked up a new slave cylinder for the gearbox and two service kits for the VW Rabbit III GTI rear calipers and all the brake (hard lines) and fuel lines (8mm feed and 6mm return).

The snake in question is a Cape Cobra. A rather beutifull animal when really pissed off. We grew up with this sort of animals around us, but for some odd reason I never became friends with them.

From Wiki: "The Cape Cobra or yellow cobra (Naja nivea) is a moderately sized, highly venomous cobra inhabiting a wide variety of biomes across Southern Africa. The Cape Cobra is also known as the "geelslang" (yellow snake) and "bruinkapel" (brown cobra). Afrikaans speaking South Africans refer to the Cape Cobra as "koperkapel", mainly because of a rich yellow color variation.
The Cape cobra's venom is made up of postsynaptic neurotoxins and might also contain cardiotoxins,[5] that affect the respiratory system, nervous system, and heart."

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Cobra was trying to tell you that with all that strength and craftmanship now the 2 doors can go on :)

Lol D

Obviously you didnt want to hear that from the Cobba
look what it got! Lucky Im over here :)

Your beast is looking wilder than the wildlife though
thanks for the progress pics.

Hehe, I won't say it is a beast, as it is standing in the shed currently, it is a hunk of formed metal, costing me time and money, but damn, I'm going to enjoy it.

Looks absolutely brilliant, well done.

Thanks, all my brake parts needed is ordered which include, fittings, nuts, braided lines etc. Also got the steel pipes for brakes, fuel lines and clutch, the majority of stuff will be imported from the US and UK as it is very difficult to source these sort of parts from South Africa. A few other bits and pieces is also on their way over the water as I will be changing the AN10 fittings on the fuel cell to AN6 items. I've also been busy with designing the bracket on the steering wheel for the switches.

Hopefully I can finish with all the metal pipes this coming weekend and install the motor and gearbox permanently.

I love this build, I hope my VE 1200 sedan looks as good as this when im done. I've been doing a heap of work on mine lately, I should update my build thread on here shortly