We have received the official certificate !
The M3 body has entered the next phase. The welding work on the cage has been done. Today we have compiled our photo file and everything has been sent to Custom Cages to obtain our certification. The welding samples (on which tensile tests are done) had already been sent a while ago.
1000x thanks to Carl who sometimes had to wrestle himself into very uncomfortable corners to weld everything down to the last detail! Even though some places seemed unreachable at first sight, he always managed to find a creative solution to expertly tie the tubes together.
We encountered this creature in our shop… Probably just someone who wanted to avoid burns..
It took a while for another update, but we’re very busy at the moment.
Luckily work on the M3 progressed steadily.
The rear triangles sourced by Heli Racing are ready and waiting to be built in. To get an idea of the final result we already mounted a brake disk and caliper.
Despite the extreme conditions in the R-Box workshop, we were able to finalize the tube construction around the rear axle. The heat gun had to make over time but despite the smell and noise we really could appreciate the yellow demon this time.
The cage completely ready now and at this point our welding guy can start.
Only a few tubes are missing but these will be mounted at a later stage.
We need to do some measurements first at the diff side and more over they are very easy to access.
It’s 11th of january, almost midnight. The start for a long shopping weekend in the UK. Luc , Bart and myself leave for Calais together with our long shopping list.
There is still a lot of grinding and milling to do despite the fact that all tubes are bent and laser cut at the factory. Especially the junctions where multiple tubes are connected to each other consume a lot of time and patience. The only way to do this is using a pneumatic grinding tool and check bit by bit until it fits perfectly.
Slowly but surely it starts to look as a cage.
After 1 Saturday of puzzling the first tubes were installed…
In the meantime Carl nested himself in the trunk for a few hours, armed with a welding torch and a few pillows to ensure some comfort.
As a result, the suspension supports are in place now. Overall it gives a solid impression, so we are happy. On the exterior side (wheel guard) we have welded a small plate to drain water and mud. All with all this took some time, but now we can continue on the roll cage.
Our aim is to finish this before the New Year.
Because the springs in our rear suspension are positioned over the shock absorbers, we needed to strengthen the original shock absorbers supports. We also used this opportunity to raise them about 7cm in height.
By doing this we have a longer suspension travel.
