Started work on fitting the rear arches which includes cutting away part of the inner and outer guard and making an infill panel to weld in. First cardboard template.
 
 

Don't think the corn flakes panel will last too long so, 

The rear corner needs something to attach the fiberglass securely to so made this curved piece over a block of wood to weld to the large panel.

 

Rolled the panel and put a small bead along it to keep the shape before welding the two sections together.


 
I'm pretty happy with the fit however concerned about the inaccessible void that will be left between the original guard and the Cologne arch. I decided to put a 25mm access grommet in the lower corners will make it possible to spray fish oil in when it is completed.
 
Couldn't just have a hole, it had to be recessed! 
A few washers and shims welded together worked well, just need to order a larger step drill to open the hole out for the grommet to fit into.



 

Very neat !

Small progress,
Aligning LH rear arch and making infill inner arch same as the other side.
 
I won't be using the old 1600 diff assembly so made a jig using it (to fit the brackets to the doner housing), before removing the brackets.
 
Stripped the incoming Falcon Borg-Warner diff of it's factory brackets and shaped the Capri ones to fit.
 
As the Falcon housing is about 1550mm wide it will need shortening to suit my application. I have it sitting in position however need to get some wheels sorted to work out how much I want to shorten it by.

 

I will just make up some steelies for now out of Falcon BA centres and bare 16"x 8"  ROH rims. Eventually I plan to get some nice custom alloy wheels made but can't justify the expense yet.
Picked up a couple of old wheels yesterday to remove the centres,

and the new blank rims arrived.
 
I don't have equipment to machine the centre so will send them off later this week to a wheel manufacturer to have them machined and welded with a 0 offset.
 

Looking forward to seeing some paint on this with the arches.

Yes it’s a beautiful thing

Thanks guys, although body paint will be a long time coming i'm afraid.
Got my rear wheels back and my brother painted them for me.
 
 With the tyres on measured, measured and measured again.

And measured a few more times, cut the borg warner housing and had my cousin who has a jig for the job, weld it back together.
I have now tacked on the brackets using previously made frame so the housing can be assembled in the car to check the pinion angle when sitting at ride height.

 
 

Other priorities over the December/January period prevent much progress on projects however, now the year is moving along I can add some updates.
Finally had the custom axles made and fitted them to the the shortened Borg Warner housing, must have got my measurements right, phew.

Time for fitting the V6 Duratec in the hole.

The engine sits back in the bay nicely with clearance between the starter and steering however that creates other problems that will need to be overcome such as reduced space for the alternator and other ancillaries.
Of course the Jag or Ford sump variants for this engine are no where near compatible so the Jag one is being modified.

I have purchased an old round column mill and fixed it up, this has been handy to machine down the existing sump and in making a support to bolt the sump to while it is being welded to prevent it warping. 



The sump will be built up off what is left of the original, now machined and blasted to clean off any gunk, then bolted to the support frame for fabrication.

The final shape tacked together ready for my brother to finish welding, he's much better at aluminium welding than I am especially when welding cast to plate aluminium.