More progress, but a bit stop-start

More progress this weekend - still a little bit hidden, but the next series of steps should start to make a difference to how the car looks.

First up was to install the rear wishbones, both upper and lower. Pretty straight forward at this stage, as they just slot in with the bolts loosely fastened. The trick comes in a little while when I attempt to get about 20 different moving parts to all mesh into a single integrated unit.

Progress stopped on the rear suspension when I realised that the uprights are all still at Dad's - I've got them back in Perth now, so they can go on next week. That will make the car start to look a little more complete, as the uprights have things like brake calipers and disks etc, and you can mount wheels on. It also means that I can test the handbrake operation, then once that's done get the diff and half-shafts in.

I can also install the front uprights and therefore the shocks and springs, which should make the front a little more car-like as well.

I also started threading the wiring loom in. One thing about the new Birkins - the fuse box is now really, really small, as the engine now cuts into the space where it used to be. It also reduces the passenger footwell quite a bit. From the wiring perspective, I'd be interested in seeing how others have managed to get the fuses and so on mounted in there. One option is to simply let them float around (it's pretty tight) rather than try anad screw them to anything. They won't move around that much.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time fabracating a small bracket to keep the wiring nice and neat. Took a while, but its the first time I've actually made something for the car rather than just bolting things on.

So, more progress. Next week I'll be taking some days off, and working on the car either side of a Sydney trip.

If I had suspension, wheels and brakes installed, I could park

Three cables. One triangle thingy. Four hours.

This could take a while.

I've installed the handbrake - well, the handbrake itself (two bolts), the three cables, and the triangle that turns to activate the rear brakes when the handbrake is pulled. So far the cables go out into space, as now I have to install the rear suspension arms and uprights which include the calipers to attach this all to. At the moment, all I can achieve is to pull the handbrake, get the clicking noise and make two cables get shorter. Hold back the excitement.....

In my defense, it wasn't as simple as it first looked. I did have to get the dremel out and make a few holes a little bigger to allow the cable to thread properly through the chassis. And there was some scratching of heads trying to figure out how the pictures related to reality, plus a few missing pieces (nothing major, custom or tricky, just some split pins) to replace.

At the very least, it means I can now get the rear end moving - I can install the diff, the half-shafts, the rear suspension etc etc. It's all a progression that needed the handbrake installed, so it releases a whole series of activities that I can get on with. In project manager speak, the handbrake was a critical path item.

I'm planning on taking a few weeks off shortly to actually focus on the build, which should mean some better progress than I'm showing now. I must admit, the lack of time is starting to annoy me.