An helper and Vacations

I went away on vacations. Before going, I got a new helper. Showed the kit car to my kid (will turn 3 years soon) and he is now very excited about "daddy's broken race car that we will fix to drive very fast and make noise". He has very concrete goals...

Due to work and vacation preparations, I haven't had time to start working on the car.
(Note - Post written on 2010/09/02)

Surprises in the Boxes

Saturday was my first weekend with the car home. As I have a very small set of tools and I lack proper lighting to work on the car, I went to the storage room just to open the boxes and check what was inside each. After that, I could better access what tools I still need. And it was a good decision, since I had several surprises!

First, I unpacked my cheap electric saw to cut in bits the crate parts for fireplace wood. Well... Too cheap turns out to be a problem. When I was about to start my 5th cut, it went out in a smelly cloud of smoke. I now have to swap it under warranty, probably for a more expensive one. And buy protection goggles...

After that was the boxes. The following two pictures try to show several nice surprises I had while unpacking...

 

The fuel pipe was already on the chassis, with temporary plastic straps. What I didn't expect was that the brake pipes were already cut to size, braided and labeled so that I know where each one goes. The same for water pipes and fuel rubber hoses, that have labels in each end stating where they connect and if any remote sender needs to be plugged in between. This saved me from buying a piper cutter and a pipe braiding tool. And, I bet, some headaches on assembly... I have to thank all this to Steve from Aries!

Also unexpected was a can of sealant, to use when putting up the body panels. And that I intended to use also on the gaps between soldering areas on the steel floor. Note also the CV joint, that has a bag of grease looking like McDonalds chips' sauce bags. Saves me another buy. Other parts besides this one bring their own grease.

So, Tuesday I shopped a bit for a big power cord, a rubber mallet and some clamps. I just need protection goggles, proper lighting, a nice set of spanners and a "right angle drill attachment" to have all the major tools. But I intend to lay out and strap temporarily the brake pipes next weekend.

The kit arrived! (2nd Part)

As I wrote previously, at 19h30 four friends came around to help moving the chassis and engine to it's assembly place, down on the underground garage. After the chassis was in place, on top of the axle stands, I got inside for the customary photo.

The remaining parts were stored either on the underground storage room or on our spare room (and room's balcony). The spare room now looks as above. The storage room is such a mess that it couldn't be photographed...

After that we had dinner together, that lasted until around midnight. I delivered the van after dinner, since the next morning was back to work. My body hurt as if I had taken a beating, but the kit was finally home!

The kit arrived! (1st Part)

The kit arrived in Portugal, at a warehouse in Montijo, on the 9th. I managed to rent a van (Iveco Daily 35S11) for the 11th and get a friend to help out. We went in the morning to the warehouse to load the box contents on the van (and bring the box in parts to be fireplace wood).

The crate arrived with just some scratches on the outside. Great it was a sturdy crate, otherwise I guess it would have suffered more. It was a bit hard to open it up with just a hammer, but we managed to do it.

After we had it open, we unloaded it all on the floor so that we could break the rest and take the chassis out.

After the crate was all to pieces, we moved the crate's floor inside the van, then moved (with the help of a warehouse worker) the chassis on the van and loaded all the rest inside.

We drove home. My friend had to work and I grabbed some lunch. After it, I unloaded all the pieces into the garage or the spare room, except for the chassis (with engine), the diff and the wood bits.

Around 19h30 my friend came back, and the two of us aided by 3 other friends moved the chassis inside the garage. That will be 2nd part, since I'll have more photos later.

I'm very happy and relieved now. It is all here and I'm lost in a sea of parts, but happy!

It's On The Road!

Today the transport company, EB Cargo, sent a truck on their behalf to pick up the crate.

I'm a bit mad. They bid 190£ for the transport. And said that if I wanted the truck to have a tail-lift, I would have to pay extra 30£. I accepted on Shiply. After that, they reconsidered and now the crate was too big for a tail-lift, "proper lifting equipment" was required, it would cost 315£ instead of 30£, for a total of 505£. I said OK... They showed up today at Aries without "proper lifting equipment" and the tail-lift wasn't enough.

Steve from Aries saved the day because he had arranged for a forklift to be available near by. It was what made it possible to load the truck! Thank you Steve! He's attention and care doesn't stop to amaze me!

We can see an unknown tame forklift driver loading my crate and it departing. I should get my hands on it before the weekend!

Now, I'm curious to see if EB Cargo's distributor in Portugal will have the "proper lifting equipment" I payed for when he comes around to deliver, since I will not have a forklift around to cover for their mistakes.
And I'm also curious to see if they will reimburse me from what I payed for and didn't get, at collection...