Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

Remade the steering column support tonite, basically welded on two pieces of angle iron and then cut the strap. This allows removal of the column without taking out that very top single bolt that would be nearly impossible to access after the car is built. I owe Terry thanks for that little tip.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3463/...72bd5a9c_b.jpg

then I rewelded on the mounting strap to the cowl bar which holds up the dash. Previous owner removed it for a wooden dash, I wanted the custom dash that came with car.

here is cowl strap back on.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/...09243ffe_b.jpg

past two days got 8 hours on build, balance of hours is 424. Spent no money so still got 2550.00 in budget.

Looking ahead to the roll bar. Bear with me as I have a discussion with myself, and maybe someone can give me some feed back.

I do not think I want a large roll bar, I think the car is rather small in size and so a smaller bar would seem to also fit my theme with the car. Under the hood will be no chrome at all. Most everything will be painted, in black and silver. Maybe valve covers, intake, and air filter will be satin aluminum. The dash gages are all black with white and red lettering, trim around gages are semi gloss black. Dash might be painted but leaning toward covering with vinyl or maybe black textured paint like the MG;s had.

The car is not going to be a fire breathing dragon, just a nice sounding and running cruiser. Therefore I do not need the cosmetic stuff to support the fire breathing dragon attitude for the car.

This leads me to thinking about a smaller diameter roll bar, about 1 3/4 inch, maybe two, maybe 1.5 inch. I was thinking solid steel single bar that would cover both passengers. and I am thinking black or if stainless steel then keeping it satin finish on the stainless. Then under the roll bar I am thinking of installing a wind screen, similar to the one on my wifes bmw. with the top down it sure cuts down on the turbulence for the passengers. I think I want the roll bar just a couple inches shorter than the top of the windshield, and maybe more.

I also am thinking of some sort of quick disconnect for the roll bar. I have this fiberglass top from a 67 MG roadester laying around. I can modify this to fit the car. would not use glass in back window, and not using side curtains, just a top to keep the hot sun off when driving in summer conditions.

Just doing some thinking ahead, if anyone has insights please offer, or better yet if you have some pictures to either convince me to either do it or not do it that would be appreciated.

Later and Happy Motoring. Ray