Ok so after a few days concentrating on the mini I can happily say it is now back on it’s wheels 
. So I’m now concentrating on the Sabre. All my mates spent last weekend having fun at Silverstone and I didn’t, and so I need to really make progress on this beast if I’m going to make the Anglesey meeting in August.
To that end, I’ve drawn a line in the sand in order to give myself a hard deadline, and I’ve booked the chassis in for powder coating next weekend. Of course this means that the chassis needs to be completed before that happens. More than that the chassis needs to be complete with ever little tag, mounting, threaded bush, hard point and every other widget that needs to be welded on because there are few things that are worse than grinding off the brand new powder coat in order to weld on the one thing that you forgot!
So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been laying out the following ancillary bits n bobs so that I can finalise the welded bits.
I’ve been turning, drilling and tapping any number of gismos… 3/4 forward and 1/2 turn back as I was taught in my youth
You can see here a small selection of the turned & tapped bushes that I’m currently welding in.
- Hand brake lever and cable guides.
- Rear ARB Mounts
- Left hand engine mounts.
- Weld in the tacked on rear suspension mounts.
- Mounts for the front support cage/Crash box.
- Threaded mounts for side pod mounting.
- Supports for throttle/clutch cable end adjusters.
- Fuse box mount.
- Complete the lower part of the rear damper mounts.
- Chain cover retainers.
- Crotch strap 9/16th eye bolt tubes.
- Coolant header tank mounts
- master switch mount block
- Earth points.
- Head rest
- Rain light mounts
- Steering column mounts/crush tubes.
- Recovery hard points.
- Fuel tank and catch mounts
- Any incomplete welds in the main chassis tubes.
The chassis is now stripped and flipped over as welding in small bushes is most definately easier when you can do it standing up, as opposed to lying on your back with your arms in the air and blood draining from your fingers.
BTW the little yellow arrows all over the chassis are where I need to complete a weld, insert a bush or just fill a pin hole. As I do the work, if sand off the arrows, so when all the yellow paint is gone. Hopefully the work is complete.
Which brings me to powder coating. I had hoped to get it coated in silver, but it seems powder coat silver is more like grey… Tim and Duncan both suggest white… on the premise that it will show up any cracks easily, and is easy to match with paint should i need to repeair any areas. I just think with the hard life a race car lives it will look nasty and scuffed everywhere, really quickly. Plus perhaps it will heat discolour in the hot engine bay. Hmmm
Still we’re not there yet, and for the moment progress is stalled as I’m out of Argon.