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Handy Links MK Engineering
The picture in the logo was taken by Richard Crowe on a wet day at Nutts Corner on the 24th of Febuary 2004. |
28 Oct 200 The pics don't do
them justice, the rivets are symetrical and evenly spaced (where
possible) and there were no major mistakes! Honest. As Da
commented, it's highly unlikely that either will blow off in the
wind..... 27 Oct 2003 Update Well I got about half
the rivet holes drilled into the floor tonight. I really feel I've
started building properly now. Very impressed with the quality of
the chassis, there no end of neat little touches such as integral pipes
for the accelerator and clutch cables. It's very well finished.
The only 'problems' are there is a hole cut for 1 master cylinder (I
was hoping to fit 2 to use a brake bias bar) so I'll most likely go with
a 1 and a bias valve instead, and the roll bar is powder coated, so
(initially anyway) I won't have it chromed. I'll see what it
looks like, then decide. Nothing too major. It looks
brilliant, and I can work myself to a standstill! 27 Oct 2003 Good news! The
chassis arrived today along with all the outstanding bits, except for
the silencer. The only thing holding me back at this stage is
me! Here are some pics of the chassis. 25 Oct 2003 Well good news (sort
of). The chassis has made it across the Irish Sea, it just hasn't
quite made it across Tyrone into my garage yet! I should have it
on Monday one way or another. Today I popped down to Dublin (sorry
Jen and Joe, I couldn't make it down on a weekday) and picked up my new
seats. 23 Oct 2003 Not too much to report, but I
did order a set of tail lights today from Europa Spares. The ones I
ordered are here
and have the order code HS11ST1 and have the indicators, brake and tail
lights in one circular housing. I also ordered a number plate
light at the back and a couple of reflectors. Finally I ordered an
ignition button (starting on the key is soooo 1998) and I've a picture
(nicked from the Europa spares web page I admit).
21 Oct 2003 Well I am now pretty
much caught up, just waiting on the chassis. I bought new
calipers, as one of the old ones was siezed. 19 Oct 2003 Popped down to
Kirkistown today to see Sean McGoldrick (Locost CBR 1000) and Richard
Morgan (Westfield Megablade) at a track day. Richard Crowe also
popped along to see what all the fuss was about, and at least he had the
gumption not to forget his digital camera (unlike me!). Ricky
e-mailed a few photos to me, they're over in the gallery
section. 18 Oct 2003 Well I popped down to
Traynors with Brian McGoldrick and got my Fireblade engine. It is
a thing of beauty, so I took some pictures. And I got the clocks
as well. I was expecting the speedo to be digital, but to be
honest I kinda prefer the analogue one anyhow.
Basically just
waiting until I get the chassis now. I'll finish off a little more
spraying today but that is almost me caught up. It's all coming
together! Many thanks to Brian for his help this morning, if it
hadn't been for him I'd probably have walked out of Traynors with half
the bits missing!
Today I had a better
look at the brakes and then went shopping in Europarts in Dungannon
where I picked up new brake pads and shoes, ventilated disks for the
front, cylinders for the back drums and some small springs for the drums
also.
I bought some
Hammerite as well and got using dads spray gun. Great fun to use, and
a lot trickier than it looks. Of course I make it look soooo
easy :-)
14 Oct 2003 OK Just a brief
update to let you know I've updated the Gallery
with some better pics. 14 Oct 2003 Well I've just
finished all my moving, and I also was able to get a couple of pics off
the camera, they're a bit poor, but now I have the PC working, a net
connection, new batteries in the camera and can hopefully work the focus
a little better I WILL have more pics tomorrow! Body panels in the
back of the van.....
7 Oct 2003 Well colour me stupid! I did remember to bring the camera up to Dungannon, and I did remember to take some pics of what I have of the kit (including my lovely seatbelts), I even remembered to bring the camera back to Dunboyne to stick on the web page. I did not, however, remember to bring down the camera lead to allow me to transfer the pics. I'm gonna bring up the computer up Wednesday or Thursday, so I should be able to get the pics up soon enough. Myself and
Dad took the van up to Gortin, in the wilds of Tyrone, to visit Bill
Adair, he's the MK agent in Northern Ireland, the fella I'm getting the
kit off. We were able to pick up a good section of it while we
were there. I got (amongst other things) the wishbones (they've
now been sent off to NiChrome in Glengormely) the shock absorpers, the
springs, the seatbelts, the body work, the blade manifold, the
brake lines, the rivnuts, the modifiied steering rack and all 4
uprights. The seatbelts are brilliant, a 4-point harness, 3 inches
wide, aircraft style relese and bright red. Magic (kinda sad isn't
it?). I am
still spending most of my time moving my stuff up north, and when I'm
not driving up or down, I'm taking a wire brush to the old sierra parts,
before I prime and paint them. I think I'm busier now than when I
was working!
Well we got quite a bit done since I last updated. I quit work on Tuesday and drove up home, stopping only to pick up a tin of WD40 on the way up. I got home late, but managed to get underneath the Maroon Dream and spray some of the WD40 on a few of the nuts I knew would be tight, like the diff bolts. The next day myself and my Dad moved the Sierra into the main garage, jacked and propped it up and we took out the diff (very hard), the half-shalfts, the rear drums, prop-shaft and the handbrake and cable, the front brakes and uprights. To be honest most of it looks in decent enough condition which is good news. The next morning we went into a wee auto-parts shop in the Moy run by Leslie Wilson where we were able to get 200 rivets (aluminium, wide-flange, 4.8mm) for the alloy floor and we were also able to order some stainless steel rivets of the same width – it's my intention to use mainly aluminium and then steel every 3 or 4 rivets for extra strength. Today Dad took out the steering column, and I removed the steering rack, and that basically is all we need from the Maroon Dream! Bill Adair has the MK Indy kit and extras in Castlederg for collection, with the exception fo the chassis (they're making a change to chassis in about the mountings apparently), he reckons that it would be wise to get the latest revision. I'm gonna head down Monday morning and pick up the stuff, with the chassis expected late next week. I've been in touch with NIChrome in Glengormley and I'm dropping the front wishbones down to them on Monday for a quote. Unfortunately I didn't bring the digital camera home with me on Tuesday (D'oh!) but I will bring it up north on Sunday, when I'll take some snaps of the now wheeless donor. 19 Sept 2003 So far I have a deposit on an engine (a 1999 carbourettor model), I have sourced a likely donor vehicle (£25 Ford Sierra 1.6) and I have talked to Bill Adair, MK's agent in Northern Ireland about getting a kit. And I've been doing a serious amount of dreaming. I get released from work on the 30th of September, so I can't really start too much yet, but as soon as I get pics of the donor car and engine I'll stick them up. Currently in the gallery I'm putting up some pictures I took at a Northern Ireland Kit Car Club's Open Day in Carrickfergus Castle |
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Alister Jackson | No Rights Reserved |
