First off i needed to strip everything off that was being replaced, repaired or hampered doing it. All the body work was removed, hopefully it will not be going back on as i will have time to get the new body fitted and painted ready for the first race.
With everything removed from the front i could get a good look at the state of the chassis
You can see the paddock brazing work which doesn't look pretty, but it not only got the car back on it wheels and silverstone, it lasted until the end of the season, and looks as if would have lasted another season!
Due to time constraints i've decided that i am just going to replicate what is already there, but add some bracing. Ideally i would like to change the top pick ups aswell, but realistically i'm just not going to have time, so that will have to go on the jobs to do list.
As the nearside pickups are still in one piece i will just brace these up, but the off side had to be cut out and started from scratch. 30 mins with the angle grinder and i was in no going back situation.
The undamaged near side.
Extra 3mm plate gussets welded in place. I think i've over engineered it big time, but hopefully means that i won't have to worry about it, well until it gets pranged!!! Although it now looks that strong it may be the only thing left intact after an incident!
And here is the replacement part for the offside. Its only tagged together at the moment, but 20 minutes after the picture it was fully welded up and strong enough to support the titanic!!
I had no engineers blue, so some left over yellow paint from the body repairs last season did the job
Once this is on the chassis and the last couple of webs added i need to brace up the steering rack mount as this has already bent out of position.
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