Thought is was time for an update.
Haven't got anywhere near as much done as I would have liked lately, mostly due to work commitments, small kids wanting attention and general laziness
But that's given me a bit of time to slowly develop ideas, and figure out how I'm going to do certain parts. It's odd - initially when I started I was frustrated that the build manual had very little info in it, now I'm finding that improvising and thinking outside the box is one of the most rewarding parts!
So lately I've done some little bits and pieces like temporarily installing the indicators, fabricating a bracket to neatly space the steering shaft bearing away from the firewall and starting to make the fuel tank.
I decided to make the fuel tank out of 3mm ally, and its going to be about a 60L capacity. I'm making it out of 2 u-shaped pieces for the outer shell, 2 1.6mm plates inside for baffles, and am planning to mount it in the boot so it's buffered by a rubber strip - ie, not solidly bolted to the car. It will have a slight slope, the front bottom will be 30mm lower than the rear bottom to help get fuel near the pickup and to avoid the horrible oversized speed humps around where I live.
Fuel pump will go on the passenger side because that's the side of the engine the fuel line is on. Will mount it on a flange made out of 6mm ally plate, that I've yet to make.
Here's a pic of it so far, bearing in mind it's a work in progress. Obviously, the baffles still need to have some slots made in the bottom to allow fuel through, for a start... plus please excuse my grubby hand prints all over the inside
it still needs cleaning up.
I got my bending allowance right. yay me.
At this point, I found out that the old 70's era sheet metal folder in the workshop isn't that great. one edge would be 1-2 degrees out one way, and the other edge would be the same out in the other direction. Not the end of the world, but slightly annoying.
Now the tank is mostly just sitting there waiting for me to make the pump flange, filler pipe and a place to mount an earth to, then weld it all up. Which I was going to do soon. But when I tried to set up my MIG welder to do aluminium, and spent an hour practicing on scrap, I decided there was a reason people TIG the stuff where possible.
So I've given up on the idea of using a MIG welder, and have ordered a Chinese AC TIG. It's the same brand as my stick/DC TIG welder that I bought 3 years ago, and that has been a VERY good little welder, so fingers crossed this one will be just as good.