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July & August has gone all to fast. Holidays and other family commitments have curtailed my build progress, but I’m not in a rush or a panic. It’s all a question of priorities when your into a long project such as kitcar building.

Spare Wheel Bobbin
I cut some round plates out of steel and four pieces of tube and asked my friend John to weld them all up. Once painted, I drilled four corresponding holes in the rear panel and secured them with long bolts. The spare wheel is now attached to the bobbin and seems fine.

Boot Area Wiring
The wiring in this area is now nearing completion. I need to get this finished before turning my attention to lining out the boot.

At the Harrogate Show I bought some more bits & pieces including some carpet and a matching pair of lights for the rear (Reversing & Fog). The lights supplied in the kit didn’t match each other and wouldn’t have fitted as nice as the ones I’ve bought. For SVA, they need to be fitted so that the lenses are vertical. The show itself wasn’t blessed with the best of weather conditions. Some electrical problems. Some of you may recognise this fella? Despite the weather, it was good enough for the second annual gathering of "Hoodies at Grizzly's House" on the Saturday evening and was well attended. Many more tips were gained in return for burgers on the BBQ followed by lashings of tea and biscuits (yes it was a bit nippy!). It was good to see about eight Hoods in the drive and have a closer look at them all. Favourable comments were received as to the standard of my build so far, even though it’s nowhere near one of the quickest! Very encouraging though and a good time was had by all – Thanks Guys!

Rear Suspension Mountings
One thing which did come to light during the BBQ evening was the fact that the top rear suspension mounting points were not ‘in plane’ with the swing of the suspension arms. I could have left this but in the end, decided to put it right. They need to be angled at about 18 degrees from an imaginary line going across the car between the two rear wheels. This shows that they’re now angled correctly. In addition, I finally got around to solidly securing the rear sub-frame/suspension assembly to the underside of the car. There’s been some discussion though with regards to the rubber mounting bush being too low and causing cars to ground out on bumpy roads. Some builders have opted to do away with the bush altogether. With everything in place though, this isn’t an easy task. Basically, I decided to go about half way on this and slice about 15mm off the bottom of the bush and replace the cup washer with a flat one. I think this will just about give the required clearance.

OK, so that’s another two months flown by. It doesn’t seem very long at all since I was at out here in the garage typing the last lot of words for May & June. As they say, ‘ Normal service shall be resumed as soon as possible’. I’m hoping that this will be the case and September & October should show some more substantial progress. I’m getting to the stage where I’ve pretty much bought all the parts & materials I need to conclude the build. There’ll always be the odd bits & bobs I’m sure though.

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