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