Purchased Canon Powershot 200 digital camera for recording the build. My previous digital, a Kodak DC290 stopped working after about two years and maybe two hundred photos. VERY disappointing. The Canon is ok, but I find the controls a little confusing. It seems to go into movie mode when all I want is a simple snapshot.

Started on the website.. Decided to keep it simple, and lean as there are lots of battlers like me still using 56K modems. I am using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Photoshop. I experimented with Image Ready and Fireworks, but I can't be bothered re-learning all the functionality for what should be a very simple website.

Uploaded the website, and set up my hotmail account for westfield correspondence. mywestfield@hotmail.com. I was surprised it wasn't already taken.

Ordered Westfield SE Wide kit from John Bosci ( Queensland Westfield Dealer). Paid deposit of $3300.00. The full price is $13210.00 and includes the comprehensive kit for the live axle SE, shockies, scuttle hump, and delivery ( a fairly hefty slug at $900). As detailed elsewhere on the website, I am holding back on a few items;

I haven't ordered the main electrical loom, as I need to dicsuss this with other club members, plus it is fairly late in the build.

I left out the petrol tank, which John Bosci claims is basically rubbish. He is developing a better one in alloy which should be available at the time I need it in a few months.

The headlight shells are really late in the build, and I need to talk to other builders before paying $130 for these.

The anti-roll bar I omitted on John Bosci's advice. (I am not going for a hard core racing machine here. Just a simple, low cost, high fun sports car for the road)

For the same reasons as above, I have decided against the CAMS approved rollover bar. This will mean I can't go racing in CAMS events, but the official rollover bar is only $220, and is a bolt on item. So I can upgrade later if I feel the need. Personally, I think they look rubbish, and I really want a car that looks as good as possible. I was thinking of chromed individual rollover bars, but these may be impractical due to safety considerations.

Purchased two new fluoro lights for the garage. The new double tube fixtures should make working a bit easier.

Spent the Labour day weekend tidying the garage. My first job was to paint the concrete floor. Others had told me that fast-drying paving paint peels off very quickly, so I wasn't too keen on that. Eventually, after staring at paint tins in Bunnings for 30 minutes, I purchased two cans of Pave Stain, which is, unsurprisingly, stain for concrete. Another big plus, it was old stock so I got two 4 litre tins for $80, which was a discount of $16.

This is oil-based paint,so took about 24 hours between coats, but it looks great and should be non-slip and long-lasting.

The next job was to install the new double tube fluoros, which went in without too much trouble. They are a big improvement over the single tube fluoros, which were obviously designed to give enough light to avoid bumping into things, and not for working.

Bought a 4" Record bench vice for the garage. Thought about getting a much cheaper Chinese vice, but went for the quality Sheffield product. After all $153 isn't much, and it's my only vice (sad, but inevitable pun).

Bought the following parts from Ford Wreckers Clontarf.

One Escort Mk II diff including drum brakes, and with 4.44 centre;

Two Cortina front hub assemblies;

One Escort hand brake and cable;

One Escort steering rack, and ;

One Escort radiator.

Total cost $740. I paid $300 cash for the 4.44 diff centre, as the guy that owned the wrecking yard was selling it privately. However, I think I might have been ripped off just slightly. The 4.44 diff had it's cage welded up for speedway racing, and was useless for the road. He threw in a new cage, but after inspection of the centre, the input pinion looks shot. So I may need to get the centre reconditioned. I could ask for a replacement, but the very rare 4.44 diff will be great for acceleration.

Phil Bradshaw has calculated top speeds etc. for different gearbox/diff combinations here. With a 4.44 diff at 8000 rpm (possible for the 20 valve 4AGE according to John Bosci), I should get a theoretical top speed of about 250 km/h with 15" wheels and 225/55 tyres. That is as fast as I am willing to go in an open top car, and as the speed limit on the road in Australia is 110 km/h tops, it will do. High top speed is not a requirement.

There are kits for re-conditioning the front calpers, and also the rear drums, and I will do both. I want a car that stops and steers well!

John Bosci (Queensland Agent) phoned to let me know he had found a 20 valve 4AGE half cut for $2100.00, and was I interested? Absolutely John! My early inquiries about 4AGE's or half cuts had all been about $1200 for the engine only, and $2500 for the half cut. Apparently I was second on the list, so he will phone back and let me know whether it was to be mine.

JB phoned to say the other guy wasn't ready, so the car was mine! He would pick it up with his trailer, and deliver it to my house on Saturday. Now is that good service or what?

Promptly on time at 8:30, JB arrived with the half cut on his trailer. He couldn't tell me what model the car was, as it was a Japanese import with no panels, however the factory identification tag says the model is an E-AE111-BOPVF. If anyone knows what that is, please let me know. It is an automatic transmission, so I will have to replace the flywheel/torque converter with a manual clutch. Hopefully not much else will be needed. JB says the Australian wrecker he got it from had the motor running, so it is all ok. It has only done 80,000 odd klms, so it should be in pretty good nick .

It has obviously been in an accident, but the air bags have not deployed, so it can't have been too bad. The engine looks in very good condition. It is a black top, meaning it has the black alloy cam covers, with the black plastic cover between them over the spark plugs and leads.

Spent the rest of the Saturday pulling electrical connectors, and variuos hoses/pipes apart and removing all the paraphenalia of a modern engine. The last time I took an engine apart was my mate Darryl Smith's Vauxhall Viva when I was about 19. This is an entirely different proposition. You almost need a degree in electrical engineering to work out what goes where in these engines.

This one has ABS, power steering, computer controlled auto trans and engine, air bags, central locking etc etc. There must be 20 Klms of wire under the bonnet and dash. Anyway, my son Ryan and I managed to locate most of the important stuff, and remove it. What I really need from this car is the engine, computer and loom, steering column, and perhaps instruments.

About 4:30 pm, I realised I better run down to the local equipment hire shop and get a hydraulic engine hoist. I had considered buying one, but it costs about $350.00 to buy one, and only $30 per weekend to hire one, so I decided to get the rental unit. My local equipment hire company is Centenary Hire in Darra, and they are a great bunch. Very friendly and helpful and with good prices. In fact they just won the Australian Hire company awards for 2003 (I didn't know they had awards for rental companys, but there you go).

At the end of the day, we had most of the electrical gear detached and either kept or thrown on the junk pile. I am keeping the stuff I mentioned before, plus the fuel filter, wiper motor, radiator fan unit, engine mounts, plus all the nuts and bolts..

After much grunting and bruised knuckles, we got the engine and transmission lifted out. It's amazing how much time you can take trying to get one bolt out! Some of the engine mount bolts were *really* tight. I improvised for some by sliding a length of steel tube over the end of the socket handle ( a perfect fit), giving me heaps more leverage. Also, we were under time pressure to get the engine out today, as the hoist was due back tomorrow morning. So when we couldn't get the wheels/ suspension off due to lack of tools/experience, I decided to simply cut the transaxles off. The engine lifted out fairly smoothly after that! Note to other builders, If you can get the hubs off, the axles simply slide out of the CV joints. The only thing holding them in is the rubber boot.

We labelled most of the plugs and leads (of which there are many) and hopefully we'll be able to work out what goes where when re-installing the engine. We got the engine and auto trans seperated, and the engine is now resting on blocks in the garage. It looks really good with the four throttle chambers. I will probably have a go at cleaning it up a bit before installing it.

Anyway, after cleaning up and putting everything away, and getting the engine hoist ready for return tomorrow, I am feeling pretty shagged, and will think about the engine maybe next week. The chassis should arrive from Westfield in about 2 weeks, so I will have to get organised with a few other jobs, like reconditioning the diff, brakes, wheels, and steering rack. Also, I am going to make a tubular steel frame with wheels to use as a mobile support for the car during building. Busy, busy.

We started building the support frame for the chassis today. Basically this is a 600 * 800 * 1800 frame welded together from 25mm square steel tube, with castor wheels on. According to several builders, it is a real help in building the kit. I am expecting the kit end of this week or next week (earlier than originally expected), so I need to move the old half cut shell out, and get the frame in. I bought the steel (about 8 x 2M lengths) from MetalCorp in Oxley, just around the corner from me. It was all in the scrap bin, so I got the lot for $30. All it needed was a run through the wire wheel on the bench grinder, and it was ready for use.

I found a guy (known only as Greg) who picks up car bodies for nothing, presumably for the cost of the metal. There's not much left of this shell, as we also spent the day removing the main loom, and anything else that might be useful. All the nuts and bolts have been sorted, and put in little draws for future ease of access.. I also purchased 3 large 20l plastic bins on wheels to store the engine parts etc.

Finished building the frame, and painted it a nice hammerite blue (Budget Auto Parts at Oxley only had pink, bronze or blue). We somehow managed to end up with only three castor wheels from Supercheap Auto, so apart from that, the frame is looking good.

I cleaned and disassembled the front discs and uprights. I think I will get the discs re-machined, as they look in pretty good nick, and have the caliper bodies re-conditioned (if they'll take it). The steering rack might also do as it is, and I will get a new bearings for front and rear axles. I will try and get away with the diff as it is. If it is too noisy or loose in operation, then I'll get it reconditioned. I am aware of the money disappearing!

The body shell is out on the driveway ready for pick up tomorrow. I've kept the auto trans, as these cost roughly $550 from the wreckers, so hopefully I should be able to sell it for $250.

Bought bearing kits for Cortina front hubs, and Escort rear axles. Dropped the discs, calipers, rear brakes and drums off at Brake & Clutch at Wooloongabba for reconditioning. Their quote was around $400 for reconditioning/replacing all parts. I guess that's not too bad considering my life will depend on these brakes working.

Spent the rest of the day at John B's place pressing the bearings off the rear axles (a difficult job as it turned out), pressing the new bearings on, and grinding the brackets off the diff casing. I had hoped we would weld the new brackets on to the diff, but due to a misunderstanding, the brackets were not there, so I'll have to wait for the arrival of the kit for that job. This is a bummer, as I was hoping to have the diff finished, reassembled and painted this weekend. Ah well.

Stripped and repainted the calipers with proper high temperature yellow paint. They are starting to look pretty good. I can Imagine them lurking behind the nice five spoke black alloy wheels I hope to use. The rear drums can stay black. No point drawing attention to them!

Purchased an engine stand from ABC Spares in Oxley for $99.00. At that price, you can't go wrong. Now I just have to put it together, then get the engine lifted up somehow. Brute force probably.

Decided on the sensible method of lifting the engine. Hire the hoist again!. $30 for the day, and it was all done in 30 minutes. The engine looks great hanging off the stand, although we experienced some anxiety at first. I mean, who designed these things? It looks completely unnatural to have a 120Kg engine hanging off four bolts into the back of the block. Anyway, nearly ready for the kit delivery now!

Just as I finished clearing out the garage, JB arrived with the kit on his trailer. All the neighbours got a good look, and I'm sure there'll be a few questions pretty soon. The frame with bodywork taped to it, was loaded onto the build frame, and I can see the frame is too high. The top of the bodywork is at chest height, so I'll have to think about shortening it a tad.

Next step is to get the rear suspension brackets welded to the diff (at JB's place), then re-assemble and paint the diff, strip, prime, and paint the chassis and drop the front wishbones and rear trailing arms and panhard rod off for powder coating. That's this weekend!

It's hard to see that this mess of unpainted steel and GRP will become a little sports car one day. I've got a lot of work ahead of me!

Ryan has bought about 80kg of steel, and is busy building an engine hoist. He wants to have this done by tomorrow, as we need to pull the engine off the stand again, so we can remove the flywheel and backing plate to take to JB's on Saturday for alteration. Busy, busy!

Well we didn't get the engine hoist finished, and didn't get the backing plate off, but we can always do that next week.

We spent about 4 hours at JB's place welding the brackets onto the diff, then grinding them off, then re-welding them on. The brackets, which connect the trailing arms to the diff, should be parallel to each other, and we were assuming the vertical section on the Escort flanges were parallel to each other. In this case, they were not! So one bracket had to be ground off, and rewelded. Good to get this sorted out now, instead of finding out when I got home!

The T50 gearbox and bellhousing etc JB promised is there, but the thrust bearing and gear selector mechanism were not. So as soon as JB can locate those bits, he will give me the whole thing.

Removed all suspension components (front wishbones, rear trailing arms and panhard rod) , they will be dropped off for powder coating. Stripped/cleaned the bare metal using acetone, then primed the chassis with etch primer. We used a one-pack epoxy etch primer from HiChem. I had hoped to have the chassis painted this weekend, as I had intended to have a 3-day weekend. Unfortunately that was not possible due to rostering problems, so I suppose I am pretty much on track for the two days I had.

The diff casing has been painted chassis black, and the chassis will be painted hammercoat charcoal as soon as I can get around to it.

Picked up the powder coated components from Heritage Powder Coating in Seventeen Mile Rocks. They are finished in a satin black, and look pretty good. I wondered about getting the springs done too, but John Bosci advised against it. I will probably paint the springs yellow.

Picked up a T50 gearbox from JB's place, and also took a copy of his template for making modifications to the backing plate. We will use this to modify our existing backing plate when we can get it off the engine.

The lower ball joints and tie-rod ends had arrived at Budget Auto Spares, but not the upper ball joints, as these apparently are rare, and had to come from Sydney. Hopefully they will have them Monday. I also bought a spigot bearing, and ordered a replacement thrust bearing. I still need a flywheel and clutch. The clutch can be bought new or reconditioned, but I don't know about the flywheel.

Painted the chassis in Hammercoat charcoal. After reading of other builders' experiences, I decided to do most of this by brush, as it seems to make the hammer finish more pronounced. Apart from the odd drip, I am pretty pleased with the result, although it would have taken much less time by spraying. I used a spray can of the stuff to paint inside the tunnel as this is pretty hard to reach.

The diff centre has been re-assembled and mated to the casing using the epoxy gasket stuff. Ryan is concerned the diff will explode spectacularly in service, but I think it should be ok once we get some oil into it. The awful blue gearbox has been cleaned and de-greased, and I will hopefully get around to stripping and repainting it tomorrow. I still have to get the selector from the guy that sold it to JB.

We have decided it is probably a good idea to get the relevant workshop manuals for this build, i.e. Cortina, Escort and 4AGE (which we have on disk). This would probably help greatly in assembling parts!

Also, painted the springs yellow ( to match the calipers) as the car is looking a bit gloomy so far. Seem to have spent most of this weekend dealing with painting and colours!

A frustrating day of disappointments and mistakes. The upper balljoints did not arrive, so we could not assemble the front suspension as hoped. We made two trips out to JB's to have the bell housing re-drilled, but with no success. First, we had filled the wrong gaps in the bell housing perimeter, then JB had to go out, so that job wasn't done. Hopefully Ryan will be able to finish this tomorrow, as I am back at work.

Bought two workshop manuals from Drysdale's Auto Books. The Gregory's Manuals for the Escort Mk II, and the TC Cortina. What I really need to know is the installation procedure for the Cortina front ball joints, and the Escort diff. The Westfield manual has none of this info, and expects the builder to either know this or find it out somehow. Frankly, the Westfield manual is almost useless.

Picked up the remaining parts from the Westfield kit from JB's. The windscreen rubber, side intrusion bars, and accelerator pedal mount. Paid a visit to Rod Jensen at Bellbowrie, who is another Westfield builder. Got some useful tips on mounting and connecting the steering column, and on choice of brake master cylinder. It seems I have to use a Suzuki Swift component not the Cortina one, as the 4AGE engine will foul on the Cortina master cylinder. That's a good tip, thanks Rod!

Also picked up the Escort rack mounting brackets and bushes from the Ford Escort Shop in Boondall, and bought a nylon/copper head hammer and some engineer's chalk from Trade Tools in Coopers Plains. So today was basically a day of bits and pieces. I have Monday off, so hopefully I will be able to gather the necessary parts for the steering column by then.

Fitted all suspension components. Painted steering rack brackets and attached the rack and tie-rod ends. Fitted new cups and bearing for the front hubs, greased and fitted the hubs and calipers.

I received some good advice from Merv McCallum in Victoria, that the Westfield chassis brackets for the steering rack are too fragile to withstand a shock like running into a kerb. Merv recommends reinforcing these brackets, which I will do when I have got everything else installed. That way I will be able to make the modification without affecting the fitment of other parts.

Had the day off work, so went to Eric Blyth's (ex- Qld Westfield agent and official Dept Transport inspector) place to ask about steering columns etc. We have a Toyota Corolla AE111 steering column, whereas the Westfield manual expects an older Corolla column from the rear wheel drive models. Hence, the Westfield supplied extension rod is useless, as we found out.

The Queensland registration requirements are covered by ADR (Australian Design Rule) 10/01, which specifies a collapsible column, and shear bolts. The AE111 column meets these requirements, so all that is left is to fit a dust seal where the column passes through the firewall. That leaves us with an engineering problem of how to connect this column, with the Escort rack. It looks like I will have to have my own extension rod manufactured, but this shouldn't cost more than $200 or so. Eric suggested Engine Engineering (great name!) in Rocklea.

Also today, I stripped and cleaned the gearbox and bell housing ready for re-painting in a less lurid colour (silver!) , and bought two engine mounts from Blackwoods in Coopers' Plains.

Ryan picked up the gearbox mount from Repco, plus a few other bits and bobs we needed. He also bought a battery charger, and hooked up the battery from the half cut. It stayed on charge for 24 hours, but now seems to be holding a charge of around 13 volts, so we may be in luck there.

I contacted Greg at ABS brakes in Mount Ommaney to enquire about buying the required 'bundy' tube for the brakes, and also to ask if they hired out brake flaring and bending tools. He said they didn't as the kit was too expensive etc. I was about to thank him and hang up, but he was interested in why I wanted to do my own brakes. Anyway we got talking and it turns out he is a car enthusiast himself having done up MG's in the past.

He said he was interested in my Westfield project and could come out to our place and do the brake lines, or we could do them under his guidance. This sounded more than fair, so I will get the details of tube lengths, and required fittings, so he can organise this. It's amazing the interest this project can generate in people!

Also this morning. the gear lever arrived from Rob Cullum in Bundaberg, who had originally located the T50 gearbox I bought from John Bosci.

I put an ad in the wanted section of the OzClubbies forum for a 4AGE flywheel and clutch to suit the 20V blacktop, as my engine is from an automatic car. Paul Arnott in NSW answered that he had a lightened 4AGE flywheel and flex plate for sale weighing only 3.8 kgs. He was asking $200. This component from Alloy Race Components is $600, and you have to send them your flex plate for the ring gear. I wasn't really looking for a lightened flywheel, but as this was the same cost or cheaper than an original from the wreckers (which I couldn't get anyway), I snapped it up. The only problem was the 16V flywheel needed a 16V clutch which may not take the extra torque of the 20Valve engine.

Then Merv McCallum from Vic emailed that he had a 16V clutch, slightly used, and that it was a Daikin special heavy duty and well able to take the extra torque. Merv used it for sprints in his 20V Westie, (but only 3 times and very carefully!). I was concerned at the direction I seemed to be taking with these components. I wasn't building a racing car, just a fun sports car. Merv assured me the clutch was very light in operation as he used it with a push cable system in his car, and that it wasn't anything like a button clutch. So I took that also for $200, and Merv threw in the studs etc.

Picked up a Suzuki Swift brake master cylinder from Rod Jensen at Bellbowrie. He needed one for himself, and found two at ABC Wreckers in Richlands. It's great to hook up with other builders. With the master cylinder in place I will be able to accurately measure the brake line bends and lengths.

Dropped in at White Pointer Fibreglass at Northgate just as they were closing. Reinhold (who is president of the Westfield Car Club) was happy to stay open and explain a few facts plus details of his own car, which I sat in to test the width of the seat. I only just fit! It's very snug, and I will definitely think about having a go at starting the process of considering the importance of losing some weight! The driver's side seat is narrower, at 375 mm, than the passenger due to the flared opening at the driver's side transmission tunnel exit. (this is to accomodate the offset input for the Escort diff).

Anyway, I bought two seats for $256, and will now be able to sit in the car and make brrmm noises, and also work out the ideal height and reach for the steering wheel.

Cleaned up the brake master cylinder. It looks good, but we will have it checked by the experts. Hopefully Greg from ABS will be around sometime this week to help us run the brake lines, and he can have a look at it then. We trial fitted the drivers seat to check the steering column position. As it was, you would need to be a particularly tall ape to drive this car, and the column had to come down, and in by about 150mm.

We checked the gear lever by installing the box on it's mount, but the lever comes out under the dashboard. We need to move the shifter 450mm back for it to be comfortable. I know other builders just bend and extend the lever, but I want a short lever with a short throw, and have it right at hand near the steering wheel. So we have been working on plans for a remote shifter, and think we have a solution.

Also bought four G clamps from Bunnings to help hold things in place while we are playing around with positioning.

After an unplanned period of inactivity, we finally have the brakes plumbed. I was hoping to have the lines plumbed in aesthetically pleasing lines, but with my limited experience, have had to settle for functional. As long as they work, that is the main thing. I used a Tee piece on the rear axle instead of the 'serial' method of feeding the brake line into the left drum, then out into the right drum. This way seems much neater and costs only a fraction more. I think the original Escort serial method must have been an accounting decision by Ford rather than an engineering one.

Now the brake lines are in place, I need to fix them with 'P' clips, and look at getting the engine and gearbox assembled and installed.

Spent the day modifying the engine backing plate to fit the T50 bell housing. This meant cutting the hole for the starter motor, which is on the other side on the original auto box, and welding a piece in to fill the original cutout. We found a suitable piece of steel plate (~1.5 mm) at Metalcorp Oxley. They didn't even make us pay for it!

Bought 3 Kg of aluminium plate from Recycling Metal Industries in Archerfield. This is to make the spacer that goes between the Suzuki brake master cylinder and the pedal box. We didn't need 3 kg, but I bought a selection of different thicknesses just to be sure. Also bought a couple of bolts, nyloc nuts and washers for the gear selector extension we are planning to make.

Merv McCallum is sending me up some clutch clips (you're a legend Merv), so once they arrive, I can assemble the clutch, bell housing and gearbox, and install the engine/transmission. My mate Greg from ABS brakes, has offered the use of his engine hoist for a short while. Seriously, it's amazing how helpful other builders and people can be. It's quite humbling actually.

Assembled the flywheel, clutch and gearbox. The biggest hassle was getting the right bolts. Everything has to be high tensile (8.8 or higher), and the flywheel bolts had to be Toyota parts. I tried to get the bolts ( which are M10 x 1.25 pitch and 27mm long) from local bolt suppliers, but without success. The bolt heads need to be smallish (13mm I think), but the nuts 'n bolt places only had big 17mm heads. So, I had to buy the proper Toyota bolts which turned out to be fairly cheap anyway at about $4.50 each. Then we had to get the correct bolts for the clutch pressure plate.

We pressed the old throwout bearing off the slider, and pressed the new(ish) one on. This was attached to the fork using the special clips, then greased and assembled. We lined the clutch up by loosening the pressure-plate bolts, and man-handling the gearbox spline into place, then removing it and tightening the bolts. For some odd reason, the main bolts along the top of the bell housing seemed to go in ok on the test fit, but wouldn't go in after fitting. This caused us some alarm as we imagined the thread in the block being stripped. We cleaned the threads out with a M12 1.25 end tap, but the bolts still wouldn't go in. So we cut about 5 mm off the bolts, and they then went in without problem. Weird.

The next job is to modify the Westfield-supplied engine bracket (driver's side), as the forward bolt mount overlaps the alternator mounting on the 20V engine. The bracket has been modifed and tack welded, but we have to get a more powerful welder to finish the job.

After a lazy Father's day morning, and several hours at the Archerfield air show, we headed off to my Brother-in-law's place to pick up his welder, so we can finish the bracket etc. He is selling us a very powerful gas Mig welder at a very good price, so thanks Neal!

The airshow was ok, but not nearly up to the standard of airshows in the UK. When we spent a year in Kent in 1996, we went to the Farnborough and Biggin Hill airshows and they were great! Still, Archerfield is right next door to us, and is close to my heart as I did my first solo there. Also there was a display by the Westfield club of Queensland. This has again fired up my enthusiasm to get this car finished and on the road. Maybe even in time for next year's airshow:)

Ryan welded up the bracket with the new welder (which is great!) and I painted the block in high temperature black, and the brackets in hammercoat gray. Getting the brackets to align with the engine mounts proved a very difficult and time-consuming task. Nothing was quite right, and a lot of force was required to get things to lign up. Still that job is now done, and I feel like some sort of milestone has been reached. Next task is to get the steering sorted, now that I can see where everything is, (and there isn't much space left up front). Then I can get going on the exhaust, radiator, fuel system and wiring loom.

1 October

I found out today that I have the wrong gearbox. It's not a T50 as advertised, but a Celica gearbox, which apparently, is indistinguishable from the outside. The only reason I found this out, was because I emailed pictures of the shifter mechanism to NSW Westfield agent John Henderson. He sells a CNC-machined remote shifter for the T50, which I was chasing up. However, the remote is designed for a T50, which I don't have. Bugger. John Bosci, who sold me the gearbox, has offered to take it back and replace it with a T50. I'll probably end up paying more for the box, and then for the shifter. Plus I'll have to go through all the hassle of re-jigging the bell housing for the blacktop motor. Once again, bugger

.

The modified ECU arrived from Westfield, so the car will can now be be certified for ADR 79/00.

Bought four cheap steel wheels and tyres from the Ford Escort Shop in Boondall, and the steering coupling for the Escort rack from British Auto Care in Salisbury. The coupling is a re-conditioned Triumph 2000 part. This car is really going to be a mongrel. Also bought a length of wooden dowelling to check the required length and fit for the steering column extension shaft that I need to get made up. The shaft is very, very close to the alternator bracket, and too close to the top of the cutout in the firewall, so I am going to tilt the steering wheel down, and maybe also drop it a little to make more room. The front driver's side brake line is also too close for comfort, and I may have to re-run that line.

Anyway, the car is on it's wheels and rolling around. It's amazingly low to the ground. The front wishbones are not yet parallel to the ground, and maybe with the extra weight of the finished car they will be parallel, which I assume is a good thing. We jumped up and down on the frame, and the suspension seems very stiff. Should be good. I may keep the cheap wheels for a while, at least until I can afford nice alloys. The 13" 155 rock hard tyres should be entertaining to drive on !