6: The Bit In The Middle

...Continued from previous page

So, front part done with for now, it's on to the rest of the thing!

We've got a back axle hung on some springs, a tub loosely sat on the chassis… and that's about it!

Now, you may recall that the “new” chassis came with a crusty bulkhead… this was deemed to be better than the one I took off (or had it been cut up & scrapped during phase 1? Can't remember!

Aaaanyway, if you're putting a V8 in a Series you need to widen the transmission tunnel which means cutting the bulkhead around - I can claim no credit here because it was done by Vince in my absence - I left the bulkhead in the lab and when I came back the next weekend it was done. Or something like that, it's been a while.

Anyway, here it is perched upside-down with the new transmission part welded in:

However, would that it were so simple… the bulkhead still needed surgery, as you can see by all the marks around rusty spots here:

Cue a lot of cutting & welding & grinding…

And eventually we hung the bulkhead on the chassis to see what it looked like:

Nearly finished, innit!

Here's a pic from further into the future showing the bulkhead / tunnel and gearbox bellhousing more clearly:

Onwards to Tub B or Not Tub B