CHRISTINE'S LAIR
WEEK 4
7th July - 14th July
Injury of the week – a classic. Bear is using a very large, slow-speed, high-torque, steel-cased drill, as old as Methuselah but perfect for the 3” hole cutter he’s using. It’s all going well until the cutter gets hold a little unexpectedly and tears the machine from his hands, the side handle whipping round and catching him square in the wedding vegetables. I tried not to laugh as he staggered about trying not to be sick. This easily trumps the mangled finger or welder’s sunburn.
Most-played in the garage – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 1 – in honour of the deceased road-car named Cordelia, now being operated on and reborn as Christine. Oh go away, Cordelia was so very, very pretty.
Helper of the week – Mr David, for sorting the electric water pumps out.
Week 4 - this is the really hard work, the part where we get burned and cut and hurt, it's the part of a build you'd gladly delegate to someone else, a hundred hours of filth and discomfort, but if you DID let someone else do it, would you ever be confident it was right?
Still cleaning and cutting and welding. Bear borrowed a plasma cutter so some of those hard to reach areas suddenly lose their innocence.
Bodyshell, by Monday evening, has been flamed with acetylene to cook off the last of the seam sealer, and it’s now seam-welded as far as the seats. Cleaning seam sealer off to allow seam welding is actually the most time-consuming job, the welding takes little time, but it doesn’t work without clean steel.
It’s that dirty, heavy phase of the build. Muscles hurt, clothes filthy, hands burned and cut, microblisters all over because your overalls are old and let sparks through, tiny meteorites of blackened steel hiding at the bottom of burn craters, your face lined with sweat and grit with just a clean triangle from the breathing mask, bits of steel and grinding disc gather in the corner of your eyes, it’s really not a job that we call fun at this stage, but it is the most vital part of the whole project, no car is going to handle properly without a decent body to bolt the springy and spongy bits onto.
Bear is already at work on the radiator project. He’s a cunning Bear and determined that an alloy radiator is actually cheaper than a recored Jaguar item. It’s not really therefore a decision that took a lot of making, and it’s as close to a perfect fit as you’re going to get. Some small reworking of the mounting panel and it’s in. The hoses will want a bespoke job, but we’d have to anyway given the electric water pump the car’s gaining.
This week is definitely the crunch week which determines if this car will be at Silverstone or not. By Sunday night we’ve got a welded shell ready to take a roll cage. Leaves us 3 weeks to cage, paint and assemble it. Whether we make it looks rather dubious, but we’re not giving up yet.
By Tuesday night the damage the silly man did with the forklift is also jacked back into shape and rewelded, and the rear window now fits properly once more, the seam welds now stretch to the rear of the car, and up onto her side she goes to tackle the underside.
Guess what, more residual underseal and sealant to lose. More fire and smoke, but patches made to finish off and strengthen the front suspension mounts, and the underside gets a spiderweb of weld spreading across it.
Bear actually WEARING protective gear. We're all stunned. Note the bracket on the radiator crossmember for the tow strap to mount to later. And the fact that the headlight pods are missing. Gearbox hole extended to facilitate on-car changing.
Captive plates for the seatbelt eyebolts are welded on whilst we’re here. Fortunately the underside is not rotten, there is some work to do, but it’s not exactly taxing. The floorpan was partially replaced by me some time ago and merely wants some more strength adding. The radius arm mount was repaired at that time as well, but now it has been blasted a little more metal in that area looks like a good plan.
Down to the floor and flip to the other side to catch all those seams that were upside down when she was the other way up, and now with the underside welded it’s time for primer, then back on her belly. Time to play with the cage as Bear welds in the new boot floor, the stepped design salvaged from the old red car.
For the avoidance of doubt, this is us working at a pretty phenomenal speed. My car took 3 months. This one is being done in 4 weeks. The difference is 2 men working on it, and better weather, you simply work longer and faster if it’s not below zero in the garage. And of course the number of parts to refit to an E car are fewer, and modifications are encouraged, not scowled at like in D. But for amateurs working evenings and weekends, this isn’t bad speed we’re working at, it is seriously taxing us physically, but determination is pretty good fuel.
Let's hear it for Cordelia again.
mmm....
It has taken 9 days to patch, grind and seam-weld the shell, and weld in a new boot floor. The blue car took 36 days. Proportionately speaking we’re on track!