[Mick O'Malley]

This morning, whilst down in the cave, I heard my house 'phone ringing but didn't get there in time. A 1471 revealed a Chippenham number. Hmmm, could it possibly be? I called back - Merlin Motorsport . "We're very sorry sir, but the batch of ally hubs yours came from is faulty, and we will replace them, transfer your UNF studs, and press in your bearings all FOC." The voice on the line was a young one so the above mentioned jobsworth clearly didn't want to grovel, unless he will when I return the duff hubs. I quickly 'phoned Maynard who thankfully hadn't got around to modifying them. Phew, as their machining charge is 80 quid an hour + VAT!

On to the Phaeton. In January I had offered up the engine cross member and decided to mount it under the frame rails, but this meant cutting and shutting the gearbox cross member. Not an elegant solution. On Sunday I had a good think about ways around this and decided that the channel under each end of the engine cross member would sit nicely over stubby lengths of 1.5" box sitting on the frame rails.



Yesterday I cut the lengths of box and this morning cable tied them in position on top of these rails (the middle of the cross member has to align with the white mark).



I then craned the engine into the frame, after bolting the cross member to its mounting rubbers and lowered away - rubbish photo' alert!



After the last few centimetres of lowering the engine sat very nicely in position.



I now need to decide whether to have the stubby bits of box welded to the frame or to the cross member, and how to secure the other side of whichever I plump for. That will only leave gearbox mountings to be fabricated before welding can be organised. Woo Hoo!

Regards, Mick