Thanks Matt - There are days...well weeks and sometimes months where I wonder about all of this. It does feel like I'm moving, but it also feels slow - but to keep the quality at the best that I can do is going to take time - I'm really not that fast - I spend far too much time agonizing about things.

We left off with the following done:

I had fabricated these diagonal parts to further strengthen the K member.



Clearance is just what I was after - so I'm happy (a rare emotion in the last month).



But I ended the episode by saying that I wasn't going to pull the frame to weld it all up until I was done with the details. You'll always miss a few details in a build, but I do try to get things wrapped up in a more orderly fashion these days. So there were/are a million things to address.

The first was to actually get this frame perfectly centred. Now, when it went in before, the outriggers to the A pillar were keeping the frame from squaring perfectly. It was 1/16" but it would have kept me up at night. So I had to hack the end of them off. Recall, I made these parts - you can jack the car on them - but they should have been installed once the main rails were squared not before - my bad.

Here's the before.



And after - dead on 12.5":



Now the outriggers are a little short (the plasma will do that). So I fabricated these extensions because I don't believe in gobby nasty MIG welds. They fit up inside the outrigger and slide out to the sill.



Then this happened...



My "Made in the USA" Quincy QT-54 - 50,000 hour compressor pump took an epic dump. FFS - I can't work without air. It filled the garage with an oily mess that landed on top of my already dusty nightmare.

So I had to ditch that junk (probably 2000 hours on the pump by the way - so about 48,000 short of the promise. The pump is made in China - go figure).

This meant a weekend was killed cleaning stuff and getting the new Rolair Chinook K28 (made in Italy - you can tell by the care taken with the paint - LOL) industrial pump.



Somewhere in all of this, the ARB brackets got welded.



Then when waiting for parts and the snow to melt, I started finishing off the details - like where is the plumbing going. That meant I had to find my spare bell housing, hydro throw out bearing, adapter and trans snout. The lines have to go somewhere. Then there was waiting for the brake lines to come in.

The All Star off the shelf brackets to hold these lines didn't fit the damn clips - seriously - I tried folks. Takes time to build your own brackets. but here they are.



I've also designed my own line clamps - doesn't take 5 minutes.



Had to do them for every possible line combination that I think I'll have under this car. That one fits along the rear seat pan.



These are just the prototypes - so not 3D printed with a lot of care or resolution.



You get the idea. Next, I wanted to epoxy fill the leaf motif. Worked pretty well.





The leaf is from the original "Made in Canada" Volvo badge. You'll be seeing it again on this build.

So today I put my garage back together and am just getting ready to pull that frame and weld it up.

Mic drop update?

I also developed a little merch - if anyone is interested.



[url="https://teespring.com/en-GB/throttle-stop-garage-volvo-can?tsmac=store&tsmic=throttle-stop-garage#pid=46&cid=2745&sid=front"]https://teespring.com/en-GB/throttle-stop-garage-volvo-can?tsmac=store&tsmic=throttle-stop-garage#pid=46&cid=2745&sid=front[/url]

Great work as always Craig!

Quick suggestion for those brake line brackets: If you can weld some flats to the bracket that secures the hex in situ when the spring clip is installed it makes it very slick for tightening/loosening the fitting down the road...

Small point - but has been appreciated on cars I've worked on and was a nice detail.

Rabin

Never thought of that Rabin - great tip. I'll get that done before they get installed this weekend.

I'm starting to hate making brackets. Like really dislike the work. I took the time to ensure that I added some tabs to each bracket to hold the brake lines so I don't have to have two wrenches to tighten the lines.

Then I had to build brackets for the brake tee's. Yup - couldn't find M12 ISO bubble flare tees with mounting tabs. So I had to make them. And it got out of hand. I know it's not worth reporting all this stuff - but you either hack this stuff together and say screw the details or you do every detail and it seems to take forever. I know there is a moment that things start moving faster, but this is not that moment. I'm spending a lot of time attending to details. Like when I put the bell housing away, I had to cut a stainless Allen head cap screw to the right length, get a good thread start put on the fastener, clear the hole in the bell housing, pack it all up and put it away.

I've done this on every build I've ever done and I can report that while it seems like I'm moving at a snails pace, I drive these cars out of the garage and assembling them is a treat. It doesn't mean that it doesn't test my patience. I'd rather drive my cars than do what I'm doing, but it's a philosophy.

So for this update - a single photo. I present, the frame. Out for the second to last time. The next time it comes out, the mock up engine and transmission will come out and I'll finish it all in one push. I need to get the intake, radiator, and exhaust done. Now if I could find a CNC machine shop that wasn't flakey as frig to make an exhaust flange I'd be over the moon.

Three hours to get this done - three more hours to clear the garage so it could happen. Working in a phone booth sucks.

Sometimes you're the windshield...sometimes you're the bug.

The welding is done - two days of bouncing from side to side and flipping the frame over and over to keep the distortion to a minimum and it's finally done.



Had the usual fight trying to get everything welded and looking good. TIG on the flat with parts is one thing...TIG for frames when you're always out of position is another beast entirely.

Brake tab going nowhere now.



More frame details.





What a PITA this was to weld up. The steering brackets were so hard to get welded. Got things a little hot - didn't care. The LCA holes are still all in line!




That's it for now. Still more to come on this frame before it's done.

Long weekend of getting the frame finished up. Many, many hours of getting the mill scale cleaned off the frame rails.



Then a final fit up of the transmission mount. This took a lot longer than I expected as everything starts to tighten up when you stop working with clecos and fit ups that can shift a bit.



These extensions are now welded on and ground and sanded.



The transmission mount seemed to have a bit too much flex - so after a few hours or so of messing around, it's fixed.



Then it was on to welding up the rest of the steering bracket. Complete PITA to weld these corners. A little work with the die grinder and they're in fine shape.



Next up is getting the foot pedal plate welded in place. Then I have to grind the inside of the rails...I hate mill scale.

So after last weekend, I had the frame sandblasted. It solved most of the problems with cleaning the nooks and crannies that are hard to get to but leaves a pretty rough finish. So another 8 hours of sanding and I've got then entire frame sanded again and prepared for epoxy primer tomorrow.



The idea with the blasting was that even if I can't get at the area to smooth out the finish - it's still got a clean steel finish to bond to and all the little areas on this frame it made things easier. It would have been nice if the sandblast guys cared about their work a little more as they missed quite a bit inside the open channel at the rear of the frame - but at least they got it done.



So now I have to get the holes threaded for the brake like clamps, clean it and then get the PPG epoxy hammer on.

Sweet! Can't wait for this chapter to be done and on to the next one!

Well, let's hope I can wrap this chapter up with as little trouble as I can muster.

LOL. The frame was a tough birth, but here it is.

Took most of a sleepless night to work out that it was actually pretty simple to mount the frame for priming.



Sometimes the obvious takes a little time to become clear.

With all the angles and tubes, it was never going to be easy to paint. But I gave it my best.

I broke out my new Anset Iwata W-400 for this effort. The primer is the PPG that I've been using. Love this stuff - my bank account doesn't - but it's only money.



Sunday is the best day to paint in the alley in my city - no one moves because they're all in church.



It was a paint to get this thing painted - but only a few runs and you can't see them or I will fix them before we do this all again.



Some effort expended to get the insides done nicely.



Pretty stoked with the result.







Lovely day for a change - we switch from winter to summer pretty quickly...but I had to rush the frame inside before it rained.

The frame can cure in the garage for the week - safe and sound. Next - trying home brew powder coating.



Until next time.