With the October Indian Summer hitting hard this weekend I thought I'd lock myself in the garage and crack on with the build. Saturday started with a messy job, I had to clean the drive shafts ready for painting, joy! In actual fact the back of the rear drums and the drive shafts cleaned up really easily, so out came the paint and they were then done for the day. The engine below looks much cleaner than it really is!
Next task was to finish mounting the master cylinder so I could start connecting up the brake lines. The master cylinder is now in along with the reservoir, I've connected up the rear brake line but it looks a bit messy. May revisit once the other brake lines are in, as a collective they may look good.
Following this task I set about fixing in the passenger foot well, clamped in with a bit of sikaflex I left them to stick overnight. On Sunday I then stuck in the rivets and removed the classy protective film. It's amazing the difference a couple of panels can make to the overall appearance.
Final task on Saturday was to fit the handbrake & cable, this was a relatively easy job and is another tick on the overall plan. I was a bit disappointed my original Sierra handbrake didn't fit the mounts but £60 later for the full GBS kit I was well on my way. It fitted 1st time with no issues, another well built part from GBS.
That was it for Saturday, a good 4 hours in the heat but it felt like good progress. Sunday came about and I was keen to get the painted drive shafts in, I had been advised that a bit of grease would be required so I gloved up ready! Grease on, drums lined up, I was quite surprised that both drive shafts reattached to the diff quite easily. Bolts went in and the job was done, took about an hour but I thought I was going to have more problems. The end result looks great..............
You can also just about see the rear end of the handbrake cable.
After riveting the foot well in place (as above) I then start playing around with some of the scuttle panels, wanted to get a feel of how they will all fit together. It's really a job for another day but its good to plan ahead. Also looked at the steering rack, need to speak to GBS for advice of this as I don't think the Sierra steering rack is quite right, don't seem to fit on the mounts. I decided that I'll give them a ring, also need to ask them about the deceleration valve as used on the Sierra.
To ensure I finished on a high I decided to test fit one of the side panels, fits like a glove, the clamps are there just to make sure it doesn't fall and to help it take some of the shape of the car. Can't really properly fit these until the front brake line p-clips have been drilled but it'll give me an idea of where to aim!
Roll on next weekend when the main job will be the fuel tank, sender and pipes.
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