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What is the 2B
[Or, dietary tips for Sierras]

The Build Diary
['99 - Aug. '00]
[ Aug - Nov. '00]
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[Early Jan '01]
[January '01]
[February '01]
[March '01]
[April '01]
[May '01]
[June '01]
[July '01]

The SVA
[Did my 2B pass?]

On The Road
[Whats it like then?]
[And now it's been improved!]

New for 2003
[Suspension Mods]

New for 2002
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[If you are really bored...]

May 2001

With the mechanical side of things largely complete, it began to look as though I might hit that June target after all. That was of course before I started the rear wings!

I first found that I had two nearside fibreglass pieces. They are subtly different and I hadn't realised this at the collection day. I have sent one back to RHE for exchange. In the meantime I put together the n/s wing and found that my lovingly crafted rear body side had the wrong curve on it. With the advantage of hindsight (if only you could bottle that and sell it) it would be best to fit the rear panel, then the side but leaving the rear section loose, then position the assembled wing and make the two fit at the same time. Also, don't fit the RH tank before the wing, as you probably won't get a drill in the gap left. Anyway, releasing the lower edge of the side allowed things to be made good, but it's taken a while. I also decided that RHE's co-ax' cable would be better off staying in the bag and bought some proper wing piping from Woolies.

At this point, I will say that of the suppliers so far used, I have found both Woolies (for trim) and Namrick (for nuts and bolts etc) to be very good, both prompt and fairly priced. Addresses and telephone numbers in the kitcar mags.

The stone guard fitted ok after a bit of pruning and about 30 pop rivets but I then found I'd left the trim off. Bugger. Looking around for it, I decided that the trim intended by RHE was a sort of grey piping stuff which didn't look too cool any way, so I'll wait and see if the edges fail the sva along with all the others! Either that or I'll carefully put small beads of black Sikaflex over them all if I can do it neatly enough.

"Bibble bibble, burble on about cars, burble dribble wobble wave the arms around a bit burble expound waffle drivel etc, etc oh and some trim." - a quote from the girlfriend!

She hasn't been the same since that bonnet balancing episode, poor girl.

I tackled the front n/s next, as the car was a convenient way around in the garage for it. As I have 1¼" wheel spacers, the brackets were too short in places so I extended these as required with the offcut tubing. I have no idea which way around the rear ones are supposed to go so just went with what seemed best, but they could go the other way almost as well! Due also to the spacers the wings don't fit as per the red car in the brochure (which is more use as a build manual than the video is by the way), so I cut recesses in the inside edge to keep the wing close to the wheel. A couple of self tappers locate the wing and it will sit on a bed of Sikaflex in the final event. I have to say that the bracket that it all mounts to, the one under the spring, is a desperately weedy affair which I expect to fracture after not too many miles, so I wish I'd gone for the swept wings now, but you live and learn I suppose.

Finding the spot to drill through the wing for the second bracket was tricky until I found you can shine a bright light through the back of the fibre glass and thus see where the bracket is from the outside!

The second wing went on a lot easier than the first, so I guess it's all down to experience.

I had a bit of wing piping left over and decided that it would be just the job to put between the bonnet halves and tidy that up, as it currently has gaps at the ends, RS only knows why this should be, it's 6mm piping and looks just right.

Click here to find out what happened next...