Today's progress

Since I'm dying of manflu, or possibly something even more deadly, I was only out in the garage this afternoon. But I did manage to make some progress beyond tidying up.

And that progress is on the new A frame for the rear suspension. As I'm changing the front mounts to be a much stiffer and more secure mount, I need to make a new longer A frame to match. The new mounts are based on the existing mounts, but cut down. The idea is to move the mounting brackets so they are in the middle of the bolts, rather than hanging off the shell on the bracket. These are the existing mounts:

And this is what they look like when cut down to the size I want:

The new brackets are based on a template taken from the existing mounts. All four were roughly cut but accurately drilled before being bolted together for shaping. This ensures all four are the same shape and have the mounting hole in the same place.

The brackets were then roughly assembled with the rod ends, threaded inserts and spacing washers, to allow a little extra adjustment should it be needed, before being tacked into place:

So with the brackets done for now, the threaded inserts needed welding into short sections of CDS. I decided to use these rather than rubber bushings as they're easier to make for a DIYer. Bushings require accurately sized tubing and are often press fit, and I don't have a press. And rod ends also allow a degree of adjustment that bushings just don't have. Plus, they're shiny.

These were then bolted back into the brackets and the whole lot put back on the shell.

With those done for now, the De-Dion tube mount needed remaking too. The Caterham A frame uses 1 1/4" tubing, but I didn't have any so mine are 1 1/2" instead. The only difference this made was that they needed a slight angle filing on one edge to clear the welds on the main tube.