10-15-11

The '97 and '98 car are now repaired from the last outing.  The broken weld on Blue's half shaft was not one of my recent repairs so I believe I have re-welded every joint on those half shafts.  Hopefully no more half shaft failures.  Glad that the current team has long since abandoned making half shafts the way we used to do it.  Money's rear suspension is also repaired.  I had already made the replacement parts last year when the opposite side failed, I was just to lazy to do the repair at that time.

 

I am making a little more progress on the '99.  I have mocked-up the clutch position (see pics).  Since space is so tight in this cock-pit,  the intent is for this car to have a CO2 shifter and the clutch will be lever operated with the right hand behind the steering wheel.  The manual clutch will only be used for starting and stopping, I hope to employ a CO2 clutch for downshifts similar to the system the current UC team uses.

The mold for the seat is also moving forward, though is has been a bit of a struggle.  Below are some pictures of the progress of the mold.  The central spine of the mold is in the car and the beginnings of the elbow pockets are on the table next to the chassis.

It has been a little tough for me building the mold straight away instead of building a plug first and then the mold.  This method should be a big savings in time and materials.