Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Second set of rear mudguard struts made, mudguard drilled & gusset tacked in place.   

[gazzagood]

very nicely designed and made sir.your talent wasted as postie should of been sheet metal worker.or engineer.  well done.mate

[Manky Monkey]

My Dad used to tell me, As a mechanic, you'd make a good dustman.

[BikerGran]

Reminds me of the friend who once welded my exhaust for me - he was trained to use welding equipment when he was in the Marines and the instructor told them they were not to think they were welders, they'd just learnt enough to use the equipment without blowing up themselves or anyone else.

When it was done he told me it was guaranteed for 5 miles or 5 minutes down the road, wheichever came sooner!

[Manky Monkey]

 

[texon]

comin on a treat m8  I agree with all the above COOL AS PANGUIN PISS 

[Manky Monkey]

Hiya mate. Nice to see you back again. S-o-o much left to do, but getting there, slowly.

[blair]

When it was done he told me it was guaranteed for 5 miles or 5 minutes down the road, wheichever came sooner!

i always give a sight Guarentee , once you cant see me that it guarentee finished

[Manky Monkey]

 
Second rear mudguard welded up, ready for Loony to TIG weld the little triangular gusset in place, (marginally tidier than my MIG welding & in a confined space where it's awkward to get the MIG torch in. Off to Loony's workshop now to see if they look alright.
Spent ages measuring the height of the guard off the workbench in my shed & trying to hold everything square while I tacked it in place. Still not convinced the guard sits perfectly right compared to the clamp, but a small tweak on the clamp when we weld the tabs to the axle should bring it into line.

[Manky Monkey]

Both rear mudguards tacked in place. I unbolted the pick-up bed from the chassis to check the alignment of the axle. We only roughly set it up when we fitted it. With some tweaking of the adjustable 4 bar linkages, it's spot on now. We're told the diff should be inclined upwards by 4 degrees, to allow for suspension travel. It is. I've added 1 inch thick stainless spacers to the bottom shock mounts, to ensure they move freely, without fouling on the axle.
The guards are hand-made & not entirely symetrical, but sit as equally as we can get them.

[BikerGran]

That won't be noticed anyway when you have the body on as it's only on very rare occasions they'll be looked at from directly behind.

Lookin good!

[Manky Monkey]

True Bobbi. The bead down the centre of the guards lines up with the centre tread of the tyres, which is the most obvious reference point. The great Ed Roth, 60s custom car builder extraordinaire, used to say you can't look at both sides of the car at the same time, so they don't need to be identical, just close enough that people think they are.

[Manky Monkey]

Bought a bag of holes & bolted some to each mudguard strut. The big ones are for access to the brake fittings on the back of the hub. Little ones are fake, just for show. 
Started drilling them as Loony was shutting up the workshop for the night last night & in my haste, drilled one in the wrong place. So had to weld it up again today & redrill it. Sorted. 

[Manky Monkey]

Mr Loony was busy paint spraying today, so not advisable to go waving welding torches about in the same workshop. So I collected the seats from the upholsterer instead. I bought these seat frames a couple of years ago from the Brooklands autojumble. They're reproduction Austin 7 Chummy seats, normally covered in brown leather.
50s hotrodders often used war surplus American bomber seats, pressed or folded in lightweight aluminium. These are a reasonable substitute & British -for my Britrod.
I was going to powder-coat them metallic silver to simulate aluminium, but will go with gloss black instead. In the spirit of recycling, I had the seat bases made & covered in black leather from an old Volvo seat, donated by Loony. Mike the upholsterer had to find 2 matching areas of unblemished leather, which dictated the eventual pattern. He had to mix & match the buttons to get enough good condition ones too, then create the red piping to add a liitle detailing. The bases have to lift out to give access to the brake master cylinder under the driver's seat, so Mike stitched a lifting tab in either side.
Verdict- suprisingly comfy.

[triker_Chewie]

snazzy