All the cockpit tin is in!

All of the interior aluminum panels are in! I finished up the passenger side dead pedal and forward section of the side today.

There's still a bunch of work to do on the firewall and other panels, of course, but this step is done.

Next items currently on my mind: Rear suspension, mounting seats, and wheels and tires. Next thing in the build manual is the pedals and steering column, but I have lots of threads in my mind right now.
 

Over to the other side of the cockpit

 

Back out to the shop today to work on interior aluminum for the passenger side of the cabin. The nice thing about having the frame on dollies is that it was the work of just a moment to move it back and over to the other side of the shop, easing access.

Then I got up to all the marking, drilling, deburring, sealing, and riveting. The middle and aft panels went in today, and my goal for tomorrow is the front panel and the dead pedal. In fact, I already did a little bit of work to massage the shape of the dead pedal, and started test fitting them both. Now that I have the experience of the driver's side, the passenger side will be much less frustrating.

A strong finish for the weekend

I spent another good chunk of time in the shop yesterday, installing the last two panels of the interior aluminum on the driver's side. These were a little more complex because of the way they fit together with each other as well as the frame of the car, so it took a bunch of messing about to get it all in place to the point that I could drill, Cleco, and eventually rivet it all in.

It was a good, satisfying day, though. next up: the same four panels, but on the passenger side.
 

A good afternoon in the shop

Back to the shop for an afternoon round!

Here's the next piece of aluminum for the interior, marked and drilled. This took a bit of care, because there are some places where frame members get in the way, and I wouldn't be able to get a drill or a rivet gun in there. You can see a few places I have colored out to remind me not to mark for holes there.

Then here it is all Clecoed up onto the frame.

 And here it is riveted into place. For an example of places I could not reach with the drill, look at the lower edge of the panel, closest to the floor pan. The two black steel tubes that form the X shape kept me from putting rivets at the very front and rear - about the first and last three inches.

Overall, a very satisfying day. It feels good to be unstuck, and putting pieces on the frame always feels like real progress. All the side sub-projects are good, but not as good as actually building the car.

A good morning in the shop

 Well, I didn't get as much done as I had wanted to over the last couple of weeks. I've been kind of stalled because I was so pissed off at myself after destroying the bearings and seals in the rear knuckles, and because other things have been getting in the way.

But today, I finally cleaned off the workbench and got started on interior aluminum. Here's the first panel of the day on the bench for marking. Also featured here is my home made rivet marking gauge.

And after drilling, deburring, Clecoing, and sealing, here it is all riveted up.

There's another panel aft of this one I am hoping to get done this afternoon, after lunch.

In other news not related to the build itself, I am getting a few spam comments submitted on various posts. This is why I have moderation turned on - every comment that's made gets sent to me for approval. So if you do make a comment - and you're encouraged to if you're not a spammer! - but it doesn't show up right away, please be patient; I'll approve it as soon as I can.

Interior panels - first test fit

 

Since I am stopped on the rear suspension, I'm moving on to the nest step of the build - installing interior aluminum panels. Here we see the first test fit of a couple of panels, which showed me one place I will need to remove a small amount fo material to clear a weld on the frame. There are two more panels which will go forward of these to finish closing up the side, and form the dead pedal to the left of the clutch pedal - and, of course, matching panels for the passenger side.

More pressing concerns!

Another session on the shop press today. The goal was to press in rear bearings and hubs, and I did manage to get that done.

The new hubs came with standard studs, which I wanted to upgrade, so first I pressed out the stock ones.

... and pressed in the new ones.

Then I pressed in the bearings. Not shown here is the seals going in, or the actual hubs going in.

But here's what the assemblies look like, completed.

And right this minute is when I realized I forgot a part - the brake plates I spent so much time on.

So I had to go press out the hubs and bearings again. I did get the brake plates installed, but now I have to order new bearings and seals - the hubs I can re-use.