Replacing the Front Uprights and Trial Fitting the Coolant pipes

Well after the conclusion of the "The Big Tidy" and having been given firm "promises" by both Pace and Hi-Spec that both the dry sump and clappers will be delivered in the next 10 days, it's time to crack on with the car again!
So with my tools easily locatable and some extra space in the Garage as the Blue Genesis is still away, I set off to try and get all the outstanding jobs on the offside of the car sorted out.
First up on the list was replacing the front upright with the new one from Tim Pell. So here's a shot of the front suspension before the work started. The upright is mounted using 1\2 inch bolts, which pass through a spherical bearing at the top and bottom of the upright. The top bolt passes right through to the centre of the upright and is secured by a Nyloc nut. The lower threaded mounting is secured in the aluminium casting and is retained by a Nyloc. Both ends have conical spacers and I needed to take care not to mix these up.
The pipe work in the background is a trial fitting of the front coolant pipes.
Removal was fairly straightforward even though the top bolt had had all it's corners rounded off, and then the old upright was on the bench. The picture shows the old upright on the left and the new one on the right with the hub already swapped over.

This picture illustrates one of the main reasons why I wasn't too bothered about having to replace the uprights. If you double click the pic and look at the lower calliper mounting point on the old upright, you'll see that the brake calliper bolt hole has virtually no material around it. I'm not sure that I'd want to bet my life on that thin sliver of material.... for the want of a nail etc.
You can also see that the new uprights have radial mountings for the brake callipers which should, if I've measured them correctly fit the Hi-Spec Ultralight 4s (if and when they arrive.)

Transferring the hub over was a very simple operation although the main hub bolt was tighter than a very tight thing. Good job my workbench weighs about 1\2 a ton or I would have pulled it over trying to shift this bolt. While the hub was out of the uprights I MIG welded the back of the conversion studs to help ensure that they didn't work loose. The only other modification required for the upright was to drill out the top mounting hole to 1\2 inch. Tim's new racers must use an M10 bolt\rose joint assembly as the new upright and steering arm had a 10mm hole in the top. I was a little concerned about getting the right alignment for this new hole so I mounted the upright in a vice and set it up in the drill press with a 10mm drill in the chuck. I adjusted the upright until the 10mm drill ran smoothly through the existing hole and then swapped in a 1\2 inch drill and enlarged the hole.
Reassembling the upright to the suspension was a quick operation, and all in all from start to finish the job only took about an 90 mins. A process that was certainly helped by the fact that I could lay my hand on every tool the moment it was required. I really must keep this tidyness thing up. Three jobs are outstanding on this upright
The upper rose joint 1\2 inch bolt needs replacing
The hub nut needs re tightening when the car is on it's wheels, and I might even consider fitting a lock tab
The hub nut requires a sleeve to help ensure it's in the centre of the hub.

The second job on this side of the car was to complete the coolant installation. This took a fair bit longer, to do as there is much trial fitting and faffing around to be done. I also had to fabricate and weld a mounting tag on the front subframe to hold a P clip for mounting the aluminium cooling tube that I had previously made.
I had to drill and tap the air bleed reservoir on the top of the tube and mount some P clips on the front chassis with self tapping screws, but after a couple of hours work the installation looks like this.

The coolant tube needs to connect with the a straight run of pipe at the side of the car. I elected to do this with rubber hose as the angles and bends are quite complex. Unfortunately at this stage my camera batteries went flat so I don't have any pictures. I'll update the site when I've had a chance to take some snaps of my handiwork.