A great company to use

Right – I’ve been getting the chassis prepped and around this time I’m also been getting other jobs done, namely getting the gearbox and diffs checked. I’ve found three great companies in Yorkshire that have helped me and I thought I’d share here.

Gearboxes

I went googling for gearboxes in Leeds and found Stephen Brear. They don’t have a website I can find, so I’ve linked to their Facebook Page. From the first call, they were very friendly and flexible about when I was going to drop my gearbox off. Over I go and pull in to their not inconsiderable yard. They were also very well referenced from what I could find – mainly I think they work for the trade.

Out comes Stephen (I think) and he brings a label to attach to my gearbox with my details on (very reassuring). I complimented him on the professionalism of his approach and he said “we do this for all the straight cut gearboxes … all the race stuff goes in the big safe“. Talk about feeling important.

We then discussed timing and he advised they could do it as a spare time job if I wasn’t in a rush, but call if I suddenly needed the car and they would rush it through. Following on from that, I get a call a week later informing me it’s sorted – no issues apart from a sloppy input shaft bearing that won’t matter when the gearbox input shaft is in the flywheel.. Then he rounded it off with “see you this friday … all in £40 – we’ll buy the team fish and chips with it on Friday”. Bargain.

Differentials

I also asked Brears if they handled diffs, and got a resounding No. Not in a bad way, but in a we know what we do well, and that’s what we do sort of way. They recommended Transaxle Services in Halifax. Again a company without a website, but a great guy to call. Super helpful. I dropped it off yesterday (in a secure drop off spot – I couldn’t get there during office hours) and called in today to see if it was there and had been collected.

Better than that, I got a really enthusiastic conversation about the slightly greater backlash in my diff than necessary, and the fact that it shouldn’t be a problem on the road, but should definitely be sorted for circuit use.

I’ll be done in a week, and i was reassured it wouldn’t be a major job – fantastic service.

Powder Coating

The chassis needed blasting and coating, and having taken a recommendation I went for CAS Coatings in Bradford. What a top bunch of guys. I dropped the chassis off behind their workshop which is in an old yorkshire mill. Once I’d done that and found my upstairs to the office, I got a very friendly and professional welcome. These guys are very busy and seem to move quickly wherever they go. We talked colours and requirements. I knew the  chassis was too big for their blasting facilities, so it needed to be outsourced. I was expecting at least a week’s wait. No chance – 3 days later it’s blasted and I get a call to come over and put the release tape on the parts I want to not have coated where I’m going to be bonding CF structural parts in place.

I got there and the chassis was laid out for me. They even checked the tape to be sure I was using the right stuff. It took an hour to tape up and then off I went. 2 days later it’s coated. I haven’t been able to collect it yet but the price was brilliant.

Candy Blue, no less.

The joys of being old?

what a fantastic start to the day – I had to get a crank in the post to SBD Motorsport to get it machined for a keyway, and got to the post office for 8:50. Sure enough at 9am, the nice lady took me through some posting and insurance options and off I went. It took a few minutes. Looking over my shoulder, the queue was massive behind myself (to the door).

I wish I’d made her take me through all 20 options before I chose the first one.

Next week I may do the same thing again, but post a parcel to myself.

I could enjoy becoming an old gimmer.

So, why am I doing this?

This post should also possibly be titled:

extra organs when i need them

  • a potted history of Fury ownership,
  • hillclimbing
  • chopping off a finger end
  • hill climbing and crashing
  • rebuilding
  • mothballing
  • kids
  • what the hell happened to my powdercoat?

To introduce my car to you, I originally nailed my Fury together and put it on the road about nine years ago, when it was Fisher Sportscars, no less.

It wasn’t an easy build, mainly down to the not so great instruction manual; the lack of quality photo resources; my expectation that things would just fit and a level of caution that meant I wanted to take it carefully. This was compounded by working away and having two kids who also took up time. It happens to us all.

Over the course of the years, I’ve found that the powder coat has started to peel off in many places, some in odd places, some in expected places, and some places not quite so accessible to an enterprising gentleman with a tin of Hammerite and a liking for solvent fumes. Generally I’ve bodged over the rust but the time has come to fix this once and for all and return the chassis to as-new condition.

As well as the car shedding it’s powder coat like a dog scratching fleas, there have been other things that have affected the condition of the car such as and crashing it at Harewood. I did this at a while ago and used it as an excuse to make some modifications. These repairs, the mods and future opportunities for modification will be described as you go through the blog. Some will be video, and some will be old fashioned words and pictures.

Wind the clock forward three years from the crash and my road car went back to the lease company (270 BHP Saab convertible). This meant having to get a new family box. Things took a positive turn when H (my wife) suggested rather than take on a new lease car, why don’t I spend the money refurbing my Fury and get a more sensible family car. Who would turn down an opportunity like that?

So, the cunning plan is a full chassis-off strip, re-powder coating, weld, build, fabricate, strengthen, engine swap, rebuild and a few choice modifications on the way. And to add some new bits.

Welcome on board.

sage words

So, just before xmas, I introduced my long-suffering wife (H) to the notion of blogging the strip-down and rebuild, and the fact that I was going to accompany it with a video-diary.

Her rapid-fire response was:

Ahhh great – another way for the build to take longer, in all the time you don’t have.

I’m happy with that.