Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Clearing The Workspace

Tonight, I took a look at the state of the garage and decided a clean-up was in order. Initially I'd just put all the wheel-bound boxes etc in the back corner so they could be moved back to the middle in case I needed to put an extra car in the garage. 


 I've since worked out that it's easier to simply have it set up to work on a car at a time - as long as the E21 is drive-able I only need one side of the shed to be empty enough for a vehicle. As a result, I've decided to re-arrange the rest of the shed along the walls and across the doorway. 


 Before-hand, I've had things jammed here there and everywhere and it means that working in the space also means constantly evaluating, adjusting and navigating the space. I've also fallen for the usual trap of placing things on every flat surface, rather than the shadowboard where they belong. 


Part of the reason for this is that with the boxes as-is, you have to travel quite some distance around numerous objects to actually get to the shadow-board. 


All of this, of course, slows down the progress I can make in any time I get to work on the E21. As that time is sometimes quite limited, every bit I can do to make the space more efficient makes my time in the future more efficient also.


As you can see, quickly finding a tool, or a drill bit (or a roll of tape) in this is not a fast process.


Something I did the other day was purchase a new pair of goggles. I've been following Nigel Petrie's Engineered To Slide blog for a few years now and it's been no small amount of inspiration for forging ahead with this build even when it's seemed I'm facing an insurmountable amount of tasks. Shortly after I started reading his blog, he mentioned having to go to A&E with a metal shard in his eye from grinding, even while wearing safety glasses. His recommendation was then to purchase googles - I did and the pair on the left are ideal as I can wear them over my glasses and they are also comfortable! I've got other pairs but none really do it like these.

The unfortunate reality of all that use though is that they get dirty, grimy, and scuffed/pitted from sitting near welds and getting covered in spatter, grinding and being showered in sparks etc etc.

So, I took the opportunity to pick up another pair - the difference when wearing them is night and day! Before I couldn't see very well at all with them on, now it's like I'm not even wearing them! If you're interested, they are Stanley branded and available at Super Cheap Auto (as well as likely numerous other sources).


The beauty of all these boxes/cupboards having wheels is that they can be re-arranged like a giant chinese picture-puzzle, allowing me to do all of this re-arranging on my own despite the weight of some, and without having to remove the contents/objects on top.


Here my shadow board is filling back up - I love ratchet spanners and it's great being able to grab a ratchet, combination and socket in the required size due to the way I've got this laid out.


Plenty of lengths of aluminium and steel lying around. I want these off the floor so they are no longer a tripping hazard and so they're out of the elements if it floods in here again. 


I had to fold a couple of the aluminium lengths in half to get them into this space, but it's far better than how it was before!


It doesn't look like it's getting any better from this angle!!


But this angle tells a much different story!


And this one even more so.


Here I've moved the stainless steel-topped bench and air-compressor to beneath the shadow-board. This will give me a fantastic location to assemble the accessories to my fathers 350ci SBC (hiding under the sheet to the right in this image)


At this point, I've called it time to relax for the night; the rest can be done in the days to come - it's mainly just sorting out what's against the wall so the welder, box of parts and drawers can go against the wall. I'll move the table against the roller door so on nice days the roller door can be opened so I can take advantage of the daylight for visibility.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Boosted Falcon Annual Great Ocean Road Cruise - Photos

Today I went on the Annual Boostedfalcon.net Great Ocean Road cruise. A great day with some great people - I try to make this cruise every year, especially because it's as far for us (from Warrnambool) as it is for the Melbournites among the group. I took the E39 this year, not keen on taking the wife's EF, and not having anything resembling a falcon registered myself. It's not the first time I've taken a non-falcon on one of these cruises and probably won't be the last! The E39 impressed me quite a bit to be honest; despite feeling like a bit of a boat initally, it was very predictable. DSC off and in steptronic, it generally behaved as it should.

Anyway, a great opportunity to get the camera out and take a few shots. Per usual, I have only uploaded those I'm happy with despite taking quite a number more.

























Friday, December 13, 2013

Fan and bumper support

So I'm sitting here about ready to go to bed and realise I've got a bunch of photos on my phone from some extra work I've done on the car while my internet was capped (for 14 days!)


Firstly, I was delayed due to a typically Warrnambool wet end to spring; and further water ingress into the shed made welding look like a risky prospect. As a result I was moved to the front of the car by necessity. I've since looked at the drainage on the driveway with the landlord and hopefully we've got it sorted. With any luck summer will be nice enough that we won't get any super-heavy rain for a few months anyway.


If you've been following this build for some time, you will have seen this bumper before; for those that haven't, this is the metal front bumper or rather fender (as the E21 has a seperate bumper that runs over this). As you can see, not a lot is left once it's clearanced for the radiator. This will be further complicated when clearance is made for the thermofan in the center. As a result, I need a solid mount inside the fender to mount the fan assembly to and to try and prevent minor knocks and impacts from pushing fender, fan and radiator into one another.


Here's some random steel that I got from my father in law



Measured, cut, and welded.


Clearancing the radiator support because my lack of foresight didn't ensure the radiator could be dropped through the support.


As you can probably tell, further work is required here.


And here...


Here's how the bumper "clears" the radiator in situ.


Painting the welds just because I had some paint sitting around this time.


Rad removed and stand offs welded to the sheet metal front - remembering that while this is intended to be rigid to prevent movement of the fan and bumper, it's not intended to be structural; unfortunately because of the radiator size it's next to impossible to tie these properly into the chassis from the front, and until I get a better look at wheel lock and suspension travel behind these parts, I can't really attach from the back either. Put that down as work-in-progress.


Tacked and tested.


Welded and painted


Radiator re-installed 


Not sure if I've posted a shot showing the radiator support in place with the bonnet closed; so here you go. Scarlett loves "Daddy's Race-Car" and I'm not allowed to move it without her in it!!