Sideways

I got bored waiting for some vital parts and cut a rear wing skin off.

And I discoverd my sills were open at the back. Brilliant. I don't think they're the worse for it, though.

I stuck the one eight wire in the Mig and patched up the chassis rail, then cleaned it up, then checked I hadn't removed too much metal and the repair was sound. Mainly for practice really. I now had a BGT bodyshell capable of being mounted on the spit, so I got on and fitted the brackets.

Why am I now obsessed with welding?

Eventually. I ordered some high tensile steel bolts to attatch the spit brackets to the body. I will re-use these as overkill bumper mounts in due course. When the bolts turned up, I tried to bolt on the front brackets, but the pre-drilled holes were too close, so I had to mill out one of the holes to make a slot which fitted. Then the pivoting bar was bolted on, and the high-lift jack summoned up. And the front was slowly jacked up and inserted into the A-frame. Groovy. Simple, that was done. I stood back and looked- This was rediculous. The car was at at a hilarious angle. Still, mad plans are the best!

She wasn't this bad, even with a broken rear spring!

The it was time to fit the rear brackets to the rear chassis legs. After removing the rear leaf springs, which was simple enough. The car sat on the springs once they were unbolted, making the cunningly-placed axle stands useless. Oh well. The brakets fitted, but the holes in the pivot bar were in the wrong place so new oned were drilled. Not a problem, I'm just glad I implusively bought a sharp new 7/16ths drill bit the other day!

That is quite high.

Gettting her on her side was the next thing. I was too impatient to wait for the local classis lads to come home from work, so at at 10 in the morning I went out to the garage and started planning.

One of the pieces of goalpost could be used as a brake. Why not! It was turned aroun with the longer end wedged into the pivot bar, and it curved in such away that it would drag along the concrete floor as the car turned and I could control the amount of braking required. Excellent. Let's go!

Richard Thompson diddn't mention any of this malarky!

It worked, perfectly. Hair-brained idea indeed! I used the bracket supplied with the spit to keep the car on it's side to stop it rolling over completely. However, the bracket started to bend slightly, so I took some of the pressure off it by a couple of piles of spare wheels agains areas such as A posts and things, more as a precaution than anything.

And there it was, the car on it's side! It was remarkably easy! Thanks are due to Robin Gell for help and advice on the process, and the spit manufacturer for building such a decent of kit for a very reasonable price.