Into Paint

While we were in Spain, Robbie and the guys at Saluki Motorsport fabrication shop had been busy. The rest of the panels arrived just as we were leaving, and the front-end fabrication is now complete. Here are some pix, which I shamelessly nicked off Saluki's Facebook gallery.

So last Thursday we dragged it onto the trailer for the run round the corner to Nanjgel workshop, where it is now being prepped for paint. As luck would have it, they are down to one painter at the moment so it will be a couple of weeks before they can finish the Beast in its new livery - Fiji Blue exterior and white everywhere else, over a black chassis. All the removable hardware such as the front bumper, brackets, toolbox holder, sandladder rack and tank cradle have today been sandblasted and are in Bin Shabib for powder-coating in white.

After some agonising about losing the stock speedo (the whole original dashboard is history, remember), I've ordered a GPS speedo from Ebay. This has the advantage of not needing a sensor from the propshaft, and it will give true speed regardless of wheelspin. Yes, I could have lived without it, but I like to know how fast I'm going.

Another item on the shoping list is a blower. No, not a supercharger, I mean a fan. No, not a motorsports groupie (though that's not a bad idea...), I mean something to stir up the air inside the cab. Yes, I know, I've already got one of those and it's called a co-driver. I mean one of these. This is because we've also said goodbye to the original interior fan which lived behind the dashboard. Unless the Beast is actually moving, there's no air circulation without a fan. I forsee needing to install a fan speed control, because word is that these axial-flow fans are a tad noisy at full chat - and no-one likes a noisy tad.

What else? Oh yes, lights. We need a full set of rear LED lights (stop/tail/turn) for the back end of the wings, as well as stop and tail lights for behind the cab (to make the FIA happy). And maybe we really ought to replace the headlights as well - the roll didn't exactly improve them. One of them is a jigsaw of shattered glass, which Richard skilfully re-assembled using superglue. Maybe I'll keep that on a plinth, as an example of modern auto-art.

Later this week I can regale you with photos of white powder-coated shiny bits. Until then!