Dad has to take over...😢☹️...

Well – since prodding Mr. P. to work on this poor blog hasn't worked, and given it won't update itself, Dad has had to assume control...

We're now in the final stretch of getting Shelby on the road...

Last month, we put on the body, and then added all of the additional finishing items including lights, mirrors, wind screen, Bumpers, latches etc.

As part of the process to get a VIN, we had to send DOT details of all the components and get the car weighed... Rocco did the tracking and alignment, and provided a nice list of things we 'should clean up' including a sticking rear rotor...

Putting on the body - Huge Step!!!

Lots of preparation, checking, riveting etc... With Riki's help, we took the body dolly out for the first time in years, and got ready to lift and place onto the chassis... It was pretty tough to bolt on the long stainless steel exhausts as the lock nuts were tight, and the hangers had to bolt thru into the foot wells.   Lifting the body without  bending it too much was pretty difficult, and once we got the front on, and bent the dashboard sides round, the back prived hard to push into place. We also discovered that the exhausts had to be taking off to put the sides of the body on, so emergency exhaust removal had to be done on the driveway

Testing the functioning go-kart!

Last bits of testing  in the garage – propped the back of the kart up, started the engine, and gently ran through the gears including reverse.

Lot of fun driving around in the go-kart checking for leaks, testing brakes, steering etc – very noisy and fast!! Nice bday present for Dad.

Quite scary the first time we took the go-kart out of the garage and down the driveway with no power - very worried the brakes wouldn't stop it and so moved the cars and bins to give us space. Accidentally stepped hard on the accelerator and dislodged the throttle wire - took ages to bundle the ends and re-tighten!

Greasing joints and adding all fluids...

Wow - almost in the final stretch of getting this working - using the 10k PSI grease gun, injected all the joints with red high performance grease (nearly blew up one fitting because the grease had nowhere to come out, and we kept pumping), and tightened all fittings to ensure no leaks as fluids were added - transmission fluid, rear end gear oil, motor oil, coolant etc...

Fitting lights, adding hood scoop, painting rear storage...

Started  putting on the indicator, brake and headlights and fastening them to the body. Checked to see if the  electronics were working – the red light came on – hooray!  Spent a good amount of time sending down the fiberglass joins and tried to fill / sand the low areas with very quick drying rage gold body filler.

The hood scoop was a bit intimidating to cut out, but  followed the instructions, measured the center, drilled the rivet holes, and used the jigsaw to cut out the panel from the double layer hood material -  looked cool with the cleckos holding it on!

On the road to go-kart level

As of now there are only a few steps left before we have a functioning rolling chassis. 

First off we had to order a throttle cable bracket which holds the throttle cable and allows it to actuate the carburetor.

The bracket is the hoop shaped thing; on the left are the return springs and on the right is the throttle cable.  

Here's a picture of our flexible fuel line connecting into the engine. 

This is me adjusting the handbrake so it doesn't bump into the transmission tunnel. 

We aligned and drilled the mounting holes for the seats, they are skewed outwards to be more comfortable and roomy. We broke 2 drill bits in the process of drilling through thick steel. 

A better shot of the skew. 

These are our custom trunk compartments, I spent a good long time filing down the edges to make the walls flush. 

Look forward to my next post as we'll likely have carpets somewhat installed!