Friday, May 9, 2014

Gimme Steam!


We're off to Spain next week, and the fabrication work on the Beast's exterior should be finished while we're away. Saluki are waiting on the fibreglass wings to fabricate the tubular front framework. Once that's done, it can go into paint at Nanjgel, but we wanted it steam-cleaned first.

Should you ever need it, I can recommend 'Wheel 2 Wheel Service Station'. They are tucked away near the Eppco at the SZR end of Umm Suquem Rd. Despite from being somewhat nonplussed by the fact that it was only half a car (no discount for that), and it was staying on the trailer, they ripped into it with some high pressure steam. The Beast is now a gunge-free zone.
Meanwhile the engine is almost ready. We had a nervous moment when Trinity, the machine shop who are re-boring the cylinders and regrinding the crank, discovered a problem with the reluctor wheel. This is the disc from which the crank position is sensed, and should be pressed onto the crankshaft. For reasons unknown, it was welded on - not good, as the balance of the crank is critical. Worse, it was misaligned and rubbing on the block! So this had to be carefully un-welded, and a new one installed correctly.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Guess-the-weight Sweepstake


The guys up at Saluki Motorsport have found the angle-grinder again and given my front end a good seeing-to. Frankly, it was a mess. The inner wings had been reinforced earlier (by another garage) and their workmanship was, let us say, less than exemplary. So everything forward of the 'A' pillar is now history. This leaves a clear playing-field for fabrication of the tubular structure which will support the new fibreglass front wings. These are being moulded from my existing wings, at should be arriving later this week along with a funky fibreglass bonnet.

The dashboard has also left the building, along with a few hundredweight of miscellaneous wiring, in preparation for a new aluminium dash, which will be tastefully finished in matt-black powder-coat, for a stealthy, minimalist look. (At least, I think that's what Mark said.)

So how much weight have we actually shed? We started at 2550kg, and our minimum allowable weight is 2050kg. The two rearmost doors weighed almost 40kg. These were not included in the 2550kg figure, which did include 2 spare wheels and a quarter of a tank of fuel. (And an engine, currently on holiday with Al Numairy.)

So let's have a 'guess the weight' sweepstake. When it's finished we're going to weigh it again in full race trim, and whoever gets closest to the final figure gets a passenger ride. Sound like fun? So get guessing!