Brake Lines (1)

With the full kit now here, along with the first draft of the new build manual covering the initial build stages, I decided to make a start on the front brake lines.

The front brake lines are a mixture of rigid pipes and flexible hoses. In order to fit the rigid pipes a brass 'T' Piece needs to be fitted to the rear of the front cross brace. This requires a hole to be drilled and a Rivnut inserted. Unfortunately, my Rivnut gun was at work so I could only drill the hole in preparation and fit the flexible hoses.

Hole drilled in front cross brace for Front Brake T Piece

Flexi-hose connected between calliper and mounting tab on chassis

Flexi-hose connected to mounting tab on chassis

Having fitted the flexible hoses, I then moved the wheels the full length of the steering rack - full left to full right - and unfortunately the solid collar along the first 15mm or so of the Flexi hose fouls on the lower wishbone. I have reported this to Westfield and awaiting a solution. I will update this section of the blog once I know what the fix is going to be.

Flexi-hose fouling on the lower wishbone

Body Arrives

Well after several months of waiting the body finally arrived today along with some replacement wheels (the ones supplied with the chassis were faulty) and a fair few other parts which hopefully completes the kit.

Body Arriving Soon

 Just had some photos off Simon at Westfield of my car in the paint shop... not long to wait now!

Body (rear) in Primer

Bonnet and Boot in Primer

Body (front) in Primer

Body (front) in Porsche Ivory 6404

Body (rear) in Porsche Ivory 6404

Factory Visit 8 December 2021

Following the disappointing first day build attempt, I sent an email to the factory setting out my concerns and I fairness they responded quickly and a meeting was arranged with Simon (MD) and Mark (Tech Director).

Juts before the meeting, Simon emailed me some photos showing my body in the paint shop all primed and awaiting top coat. This is when it starts to feel real.

As I mentioned earlier, my chassis is number 2. Chassis number 1 is going to be the factory demo and that was on ramps at a fairly advanced stage of build. 

Westfield have used this to start producing their new build manual and I was given a first draft of what they have written so far and I have to say it is much more of the standard I expected.

Regarding the issues, the outcome is as follows:

Hub spigots - Chesil never used them and neither did the original 356 Speedsters so thats one of those things.

Front wheel fouling calliper - manufacturing tolerances. Replacement wheels to be supplied.

Gearbox mounting and release lever fouling - wrong gearbox supplied. Replacement to be supplied.

Gearbox mounting kit - fasteners to be supplied.

Gearbox shroud - the old black tin part has been superseded and can be thrown away.

Whilst looking around the factory, it was good to see chassis no 3 in the workshop being prepared and seeing the learning the team are going through getting translated back into the build manual.

Went away feeling much more positive and excited about the body and rest of kit arriving

Build Day 1

When I built my Cobra, I was fortunate enough to have the help of my good friend Ali without which it would have been an abandoned build for sure, so its great news that Ali is well up for helping this time around too along with my partner's father who knows Beetle's inside out having owned and rebuilt many over the years.

So the plan for today was to have another look through the kit supplied with a view to getting the rolling chassis onto axle stands to do a spanner check and maybe get the gearbox installed.

Sadly, after three hours work, other than the spanner check, virtually no progress had been made and we called it a day.

The Issues:

The forward gearbox mounting bracket is suitable for the chassis but not for the gearbox - the bracket is for a two pin gearbox but the box supplied requires a three pin bracket. 

The front upper wishbone mounting bolts are too long and foul on the steering rack gaiters. 

The rear wheel hubs dont have wheel locating spigots and there are no split pins holding the castle nuts in place.

The front wheels don't locate perfectly on the hub spigots and with the wheel nuts tightened the front left wheel fouls the brake calliper.

The rear gearbox mounting brackets were supplied (in duplicate) but there were no fasteners supplied. There was also some confusion as to whether the black gearbox shroud has been replaced with the stronger zinc coated part. 

With the gearbox offered up in place, the clutch release lever looks like it will foul on the chassis when the vehicle is moving.

So, feeling somewhat disheartened we decided to call it a day and I put together an email to the factory setting out my concerns.

It’s Coming Home

A few more boxes of bits arrived today, so having cleared a bit of space in the garage at home, it was time to load up the van, hitch up the race shuttle and bring the rolling chassis and the boxes back for sorting out.

This being production chassis number 2, and the first to leave the factory intended for a home build, was always going to be a bit more of a challenge than taking a modified Beetle chassis that had been the basis upon which the cars had been built for years.

What was a shock was that there was still no build manual or high level build guide available. The parts were randomly packed in boxes and there was no simple way to cross check the packing list/bill of materials to what had been shipped. Sadly it took me about 3 hours to work this out and all I ended up doing was segregating parts into new plastic containers grouped by what I assumed were sensible collections, eg. Body, chassis, electrical, interior, etc.

Some of the parts also looked to be sub-standard quality, for example the fuel tank was scratched and the chrome plating was peeling off the insides of the hubs. In terms of shortages, it was impossible to say what I haven’t had that I should have at this stage although a pair of driveshaft would certainly be handy!

A call to the factory tomorrow will be high on the agenda.

Genesis

In The Beginning…

Back in 2014 I had just completed building my Gardner Douglas Cobra replica, as documented in my build blog www.keitht68.blogspot.com

Having had an attempt at a nut and bolt restoration of a 205GTi, which failed miserably as I lost interest once the car was in pieces, I had been meaning to start building a Chesil Speedster for my partner for some time but work and life got in the way and it never happened until earlier this year when I decided the time was right to take the plunge. Interestingly, I discovered that Chesil had been bought out by Westfield, who have been well known for their open wheel Lotus 7 replicas and, somewhat fortuitously for me, have their factory a few miles from my home.

Having exchanged emails and calls with Simon Westwood, the MD at Westfield, I arranged to visit the factory with my partner Jacki back in April.

After a good look around and a chat about the options available I placed my order for the new type chassis that was in development at Westfield to replace the modified VW Beetle chassis that had been used up to this point.

We briefly considered the Electric version but as a petrol head, felt it lacked soul and some of what makes the Speedster a Speedster. I also liked the suspension and steering setup that the new chassis offers over the outdated Beetle setup. This was also in keeping with my Cobra build where I opted for the GD Euro over the Jag based version to avoid the whole donor car complications and limitations.   

Our build spec is 1.8 petrol in Cream with Burgundy leather and black carpets. The photo at the head of this blog is what I hope the finished car will look like. 

I attended Goodwood Revival with Jacki and her daughter Georgie back in September and it was great to see the first two prototype cars using the new chassis on the stand. Westfield were keen to get a photo of the girls in the car as they were dressed in period costumes!

Fast forward 7 months and the wait is nearly over… the chassis for my new Westfield (formerly Chesil) Speedster has arrived at the office. I have put it in the Race Shuttle for now while I get the home garage cleared out and wait for the rest of the kit to arrive which is due in a week or so.