That burnout would've been a point n laughs for the BJ staff hehe 😜😜

The steering rack was a easy rebuild after the parts were cleaned up, I didn't bother cleaning the inside of the housing , only the outer parts that might have caught some swarf but seemed pretty good . With the broken guide I showed, I found one on thinkyverse and to be printed in tpu, Lucky I have a roll of that stuff and gave it a try and printed with full infill for strength, it fitted in perfect and the rack glides along smoothly. So I checked if tpu is grease proof and it is so that's perfect for the job the rack only needs a sanding and paint but that'll be done with the swaybar and wcxm .

The wcxm looks a bit used, well it is and came from MST as a clearance sale a few years ago . The steering rack is stock height and so are the inner track arms holes. With the steering mounts, the nuts were a bit rusty and I didn't know the threads size or pitch and nothing went in without a fight. No problem as they were just pressed in so I bashed them out and will replace with M8 nuts or bolts, I think bolts will be better , will see..

Mounts for Pinto..


Back to the 3D printing , here are the bonnet support blocks that sit on the welded guard seam these are mk2

And mk1 hybrid MK2 van


Going to the anodisers tomorrow to collect 2 buckets of parts, most for the the rally pack and some for my car which I had updated done stuff

Here's a trick I learnt from knocking out the old threads as they were press fit inserted nuts, so I thought to lathe the nuts on the edge to reduce the shank so they are a solid fit. This is on the wcxm steering threads .

So they fit centrally like this..


While the welds were drying I paint strippered the wcxm and the brake booster gantry , gave them a full rust treatment and sanding but didn't paint the XM as I needed to do some more work on it just to tidy it up more etc. also painted the rack,, Sway Bar engine mounts and just the front face of the pedals just to reduce distractions. Plus fitting the other two pedal rubbers from a Focus ST , so most of the front end bolt ups are almost ready to bolt up.


Just saying the painting was all done with that mini gun again, it's great for these small jobs

I am thinking of painting the XM in Ford engine block blue just so it's seen , tomorrow will know ..

Thanks Mark, yes the fun is looking for those silly bits that have gone missing or thrown out. As you know this was a virtual shell but some things I have misplaced, most of the time is me running about the garage hunting for parts. I am in the same boat as you with the brake gantry, whether to use it or just bolt the mc to the bulkhead, which poses another 'wait until' time as I'm thinking of using (wait for it) Focus MK2 front and rear calipers which means I'll need to run a remote booster (vh44) or try the Laser one and see

Smally update, this was a quick respray of the wcxm,. I chose this tool table blue well actually it's a mistint for a VW polo GTI I got cheap and was originally going to be the colour of my Anglia like nearly 20yrs ago, the paint still works fine and puts on a good shine.
Again I used the mini gun, it's so handy for these small jobs.
Once it's dry I'll assemble what I can to it , LCAs, rack maybe Swaybar just so I know I have it and the bolts to attach it all.. engine mounts are black for a bit of contrast.


Things like struts will also get this blue but the anti dive will be black.

Yeah MarkA, I wasn't expecting it to work as good as it does. A long time back I bought a nolathane one and the rack seemed to drag instead of gliding with slight resistance as designed. The TPU glides and doesn't have much side flex at all, so for now I do recommend printing one .

Marty, please post close ups of the rack mounts once you have them finalised.
Surprised you had issues with rubber bushes?
 

Here yarr MarkA a few pics

I must be a bit slow Marty.
What is the purpose of the nut (besides possibly locking) on the top face of the rack clamp?