MORE EXHAUSTING WORK

Westfield Fasteners did it again and the bolts ordered turned up within 24 hours, so today I decided to fit the side pipe. The clamps are really something, laser cut from solid billet, they are almost sculptural and although it only required six holes to be drilled to fit them it took an inordinate long time.

As I had decided to bolt the clamps through two of the chassis upright rails I had to measure very carefully to ensure that when I drilled from the outside the pilot holes would emerge more or less centrally in the upright. The rear clamp was to be fitted first and the pilot holes emerged just as planned, I opened them up and bolted the pipe and clamp to the chassis rail. When I checked out the alignment ready to fit the front clamp I was shocked to see that the pipe was no longer parallel to the bottom edge of the car, fortunately I quickly realised that the pipe had turned slightly whilst I clamped it. Simple solution; release the clamp, twist the pipe until it was level and re-clamp it, I marked the position for the front clamp, again released and dropped the pipe out off the way and drilled.

Fortune smiled again and the pilot holes came out just where I wanted them to. I used big penny washers to spread the load and the job was done, just got to trim off the excess bolt protruding through the central lock-nut.