aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
Offline
I've been welding and hammering away on the old A35. :hammer:
It's been a busy Summer, so I'm not as far along as I'd like to be, but things are starting to fall together.......slowly.
I spent a good part of today getting the rear and springs off the chassis. I doubt they've been off in 50 years. This required lots of heat from my oxy-actylene torch and a five pound sledge.
As you can see, I'm using the same method the works BMC team used to work on the bottoms of their rally Minis.
After I get the bottom of the car clean and the major rust fixed up, I'll spray it with black tractor paint. I may flip in onto the opposite side tommorow.
The race-Spridget and MGB already have dibs on any garage space I have, so this thing sits outside at our Summer house. As you can see, my work space is pretty primitive, but it's all I have. Fortunately, our neighbors are pretty cool. Actually two of the guys have come over with beers to chat and look at it.
(but I know they both like to "escape" to my house too) :wink:
Speaking of which, I still owe JPSmit some beers for all his help with the Canadian paperwork.
Anyway, I put the bolt-in roll cage into it and drilled all the holes. It's back out now because the cage would get in the way of other work. I have the right-hand drive rack and pinion steering trial fiitted (thanks Drew!). This car was orignally left hand drive and the A35 has a old-time steering box with lots of links, joints and attendant monkey motion. Converting to the rack was a big job but will pay off in the long run. The motor and firewall had to be shifted back a little bit, but this gave me a chance to do some rust repair in that area. The changes are not radical and the rack is from a Bugeye, so I still consider the car to be basically "period correct".
School starts next week and I have Lime Rock plus NJMP coming up (plus some other family things to do), Still, I should have this thing rolling on it's Midget suspension by the end of September.....I hope. Then it gets painted and then the 1275 will go in. After that, the cage gets re-fitted plus fuel cell, gauges, seat, pedals, hydraulics, etc.
I'm doubting it'll see the track this year, but I'd like to at least drive it before years end.
We'll see....
Cage
Steering rack conversion.
It's been a busy Summer, so I'm not as far along as I'd like to be, but things are starting to fall together.......slowly.
I spent a good part of today getting the rear and springs off the chassis. I doubt they've been off in 50 years. This required lots of heat from my oxy-actylene torch and a five pound sledge.

As you can see, I'm using the same method the works BMC team used to work on the bottoms of their rally Minis.

After I get the bottom of the car clean and the major rust fixed up, I'll spray it with black tractor paint. I may flip in onto the opposite side tommorow.
The race-Spridget and MGB already have dibs on any garage space I have, so this thing sits outside at our Summer house. As you can see, my work space is pretty primitive, but it's all I have. Fortunately, our neighbors are pretty cool. Actually two of the guys have come over with beers to chat and look at it.
(but I know they both like to "escape" to my house too) :wink:
Speaking of which, I still owe JPSmit some beers for all his help with the Canadian paperwork.
Anyway, I put the bolt-in roll cage into it and drilled all the holes. It's back out now because the cage would get in the way of other work. I have the right-hand drive rack and pinion steering trial fiitted (thanks Drew!). This car was orignally left hand drive and the A35 has a old-time steering box with lots of links, joints and attendant monkey motion. Converting to the rack was a big job but will pay off in the long run. The motor and firewall had to be shifted back a little bit, but this gave me a chance to do some rust repair in that area. The changes are not radical and the rack is from a Bugeye, so I still consider the car to be basically "period correct".
School starts next week and I have Lime Rock plus NJMP coming up (plus some other family things to do), Still, I should have this thing rolling on it's Midget suspension by the end of September.....I hope. Then it gets painted and then the 1275 will go in. After that, the cage gets re-fitted plus fuel cell, gauges, seat, pedals, hydraulics, etc.
I'm doubting it'll see the track this year, but I'd like to at least drive it before years end.
We'll see....
Cage




Steering rack conversion.
