Westfield Megabusa Build Diary

29 Dec 2007
Handbrake, transmission tunnel panels, and gear shift linkage

Just a couple of hours spent on the car today. We fitted the handbrake lever which requires the drilling of two large holes in the two cross-members in the transmission tunnel, and then just needed bolting down.

We looked at the diagram for ages trying to work out which bracket the handbrake cable is supposed to pass through, and then gave up. (A later phone call to Westfield revealed that the bracket is in fact missing from our chassis and they are sending us a bolt-in section to correct this).

The chassis was still covered in swarf from day 1 of the build, and we were about to fit the transmission tunnel panels which also required sealing. They had already been drilled from day 1 of the build, so we decided now was a good time to vacuum out the swarf.

Once this had been done, we sealed and riveted the centre panels.

With the panels in place, we could drill through them and into the gear shift bracket. The manual says this bracket should not protrude above the transmission tunnel, so we did it level with it thinking this would be best. (It turns out this was still too high as the rod later fouled the top of the chassis by the fuse box. We have had to order a new bracket as we couldn't re-drill the original.)

We fixed the quadrant to the chassis next to the clutch fluid reservoir and then finished up there.

Laurence

The handbrake fitted into place. There should be a 3rd cross-member by the yellow blob on the cable, but it's missing from our chassis :( Kriss getting involved with the vacuum. That's a lot of concentration for a simple domestic task. Panels fitted (very dark - sorry)
Transmission tunnel panel Transmission tunnel panel The handbrake. Despite all of the work so far on the Westfield, it's still not as sexy as the Noble!
The gear shift bracket. This sits too high so we have ordered another one which ideally should sit around a centimetre lower. The quadrant that the rod from the gear shift bracket attaches to.