Build Day Thirteen, Rear Anti Roll Bar, Suspension and Track Day Roll Bar

After yesterday's beer and half kilo steak fuelled trip to London, I was sceptical about how much I'd get done today, but a quick Costa and I was right back on it about 11am.

Firstly I fitted the cotton reel shaped rubber bushes to the rear anti roll bar using plenty of rubber lubricant, and a flat headed screwdriver to prise the bushes around the corner.  They were then bolted to the chassis.

Rear anti roll bar with bushes, and attached to chassis.

I wanted to get the rear shocks in today as I have the track day roll bar this needed to be installed before the suspension.  Otherwise the suspension blocks access to the cap head bolt of the underside of the roll bar mount.  Derek (my sisters boyfriend not CC) popped over today to lend a hand, so it was back in with the fuel tank, boot panels, and then the roll bar went on.

Track day roll bar mounted to car.

After the roll bar got man handled into place, we then had a try at putting the rear a-frame into place, but there was a little too much powder coat on the De Dion mooting points, so I had to get (the new) Dremel out and fettled away a small amount of the powder coat for the supplied bolt to fit snugly.

Rear A-Frame ready for installation, but there was a little too much powder coat on the De Dion mounting points, so had to get (the new) Dremel out and fettled a little of it away for the supplied bolt to go through.

Rear A-Frame in place.

 Then the rear shocks went in along with the anti roll bar drop link connectors.  The instructions are a little confusing when it comes to the mounting of the drop link connectors, but after some reading, checking and re-reading we got there in the end.

Rear shock in along with the anti roll bar drop link.

We then decided to put the watts link arms on, we measured and adjusted them according to the instructions. Tried to then fit them into the bell crank's, but there's either too much powder coat or the wrong ones as they're about .5mm - 1mm too tight.  Will check with CC Derek tomorrow to see what he suggests.

Watts link arms correctly sized and ready to fit.  Shame the bell cranks seem too tight.

The half finished project..! Great to see it coming together, with the roll bar and rear suspension (half) on it really is beginning to look like a car.

Some guys are due tomorrow to remove the twin stripe decals from the sides and centre and then to replace these with the triple stripe I originally ordered.  After that they'll be applying a stone chip protection film to the entire side panels, rear arches and nose cone.