Interesting dude, welding appears better.

Will they clear bonnet?

tomorrow il be putting my spare block in to start working out and mocking up the new engine mounting on the drivers chassis rails

i'll be using the 6n standard side engine mount

also cut my gussets out today :)

also welded in a centre brace that goes from the a pillar cross brace to the front firewall brace to help give some more rigidity

cant see it very well in those pics but il get some better ones tomorrow

and i cut off all the old door bar mounts ready for putting the new proper door cross bars in

dunno if they will clear the bonnet Nick will have to wait and see

il only be running the outer skin anyways I'm removing all the bracing

it will be held on with aero catches lockable ones at that

Snazzy

This is barely a polo anymore! Once you're done, will it be possible to drive without a body skin if you wanted to, i.e. will it be fully space framed?

Welding is getting better all the time Pete. But then it should, you're doing plenty of it! Your work is almost Eric-speed too, so I'm expecting this when?

the welding has generally always been this good tbf alot of the stuff i had pics of before was just to get the bits welded in place (tacking but stronger) so i could get all the other bits around them done

alot of the rear end isnt fully welded yet as once the car is on its side on the rotisserie il have more access and everything will be welded properly

alot of it needed to be in place to mock everything else up and there was very limited access at the back

also helps when the welders working properly i fixed all the niggles today and also sorted the handle gas valve that blew the o ring seal out this morning when i went to start tacking the turrets :/

but all fixed and working perfect now

yes it will all be fully spaceframed thats what I'm hoping for and yeah could probably drive it without the shell but who would want to when breadvans are so cool

I'm hoping it will be on the road in the next few months maybe not painted or show worthy but i would rather get it road worthy and fully legit first as in SVA all done etc

I think it's gotten better, which isn't to say it wasn't good to begin with, just that it's now better :-)

What are you doing about paint? Doing it yourself or get it to a booth? Think your idea about getting SVA'd first is a good idea. Be a kick in the c**t to get it looking nice to be told you need to change it in some way

it will get sprayed professionally as it would be a shame to do it this work and it gets let down by the paint job wouldnt you agree and yep

would rather it be all legit then make it show worthy and just not sure whether to get bits powder coated first or not but that would be bits like hubs etc as i wont wanna put new wheel bearings in until they are painted but I'm not sure of the state the old ones are in as i bought complete used hubs

and i wasnt having a go about your comment either Si sorry if it seemed like that

Thats the reason I've been putting pics of the welding up now just to show its no Vtec in a polo welding lol

Edited 12 January, 201313 yr by StinkyPete

Love it

Not at all, i didn't think you were. I wish i had got mine running before tarting her up. Engine bay needs another repaint

Still watching this closely.

eric-speed hahah love it!

looking good pete. good to see your welding improving. id neaten up as much of it as you can with grinders ect especially as its getting sva'd, just so its not so in your face. top stuff

i would rather have all the welding visible for the SVA so they cant try to say I'm hiding a bad/bodge job and thats its unsafe

yeah obvs visible, just make it look more presentable, so it doesent stand out if you know what I'm saying

well thought i would do some weight reduction today to save some of this weight I've been adding in (so this is for you Eric and Nick)

so chassis rails before

Front chassis rails off

front of the car at that stage

then more removing

everything removed lots of weight saved probably around the 30kg mark easily

how the front is looking now

then added some sill strengthening infront of the roll cage a pillar

before

after

and then welded inside the front turrets now i could get to them so they are seem welded inside and out for strength

and some pics of the tca mounts and old chassis rail stubs as they stand atm

so quite alot done this weekend and its coming along well

also mocked up my spare block so i know where to put the engine side mount now will be getting the plate for it this week so i can start getting that sorted too

need to start working out and mmeasuring up for the bottom front space frame to strengthen all of the front end

this will go below the drive shafts and steering arms so there will be no clearance issues and the tcas and compression struts will be mount off this

Edited 13 January, 201313 yr by StinkyPete

i hope your bonnet will shut!

awesome tho haha. u dont mess about lol

Edited 13 January, 201313 yr by erixtar1992

who needs a seam welded chassis when you can make a spaceframe like this

i would like to see the finshed thing on a weigh bridge tho

it will be under a ton when fully built up my aim is 800-900kgs

I hope it passes the IVA, there's no going back now

I was talking to my brother about the SVA test as he's building, and has built kit cars. He said with those there is a certain amount of subjective judgement on the part of the tester and that this varies from station to station. Apparently Portsmouth (or was it Plymouth) are particularly harsh, whilst Nottingham are a little more favourable. I'm not suggesting that any of the testers allows unsafe cars to be put on the road, and you certainly don't want a death trap but it may pay to so some research (try the kit car forums) to see what the consensus is on various stations. It may save you a few headaches due to a particularly pedantic tester.

its having an SVA not an IVA Si i looked into it last week

An IVA is only for cars upto 10 years old

and mine is obviously older so goes into the SVA and there is 2 categories it comes under i dont know which it will actually be yet, its either amateur or custom going to ring up vosa/dvla and find out and start the ball rolling on the sva procedure as it can be a drawn out process

and il be going to Nottingham depot anyway as its my closest and screw driving too far for a different one lol

and yep no going back now and this will probably be the safest polo on here by the time I'm finished hopefully

i have been doing quite abit of research on the subject and when its ready il take it and see what they say as worst case it will fail and il have a list of things to sort just like an MOT

Have just emailed VOSA to start the ball rolling on the SVA application procedure :) hopefully all goes well

Nottingham? Thats worked out well then!

it turns out i have 3 stations within 55 miles

there is Derby, Nottingham and Leighton buzzard nottingham is the furthest of the 3 by 2 miles and the other 2 are literall the same at about 50-52 miles lol so not too bad as i have a choice but you have to put 2 down on the form so will probably choose Derby and Nottingham

Will only be safe should it fold it folds in the right way, and not directly into you, hence cars having collapsible steering columns etc, but I'd rather not crash into you than another standard polo anyway

'easily put back to standard'

LOL love it.