I was hoping to take it to the upcoming track day at Castle Coombe as I never really got to use it after I built it.  

Yep, one hell of a thread resurrection! I was the high bidder on the historics auction, (provisional winner) however the auction house then wanted way over the top guide price… I tried having a conversation with the person listing the car, however it was just a member of historics team with no knowledge of the car. the car has covered less than 2 miles since selling, all those years ago.   A time old story, had to sell when moving house, with the usual regret. would be great to get it back, though I do remember the camshaft was a pain to use in traffic.

Sintered bronze. Yes thes are porous and impregnated with oil. Soak in warm oil to re-charge (as it were)

Can relate….. Hang on in there though, there’s always a “development” phase - no small achieve to get to where you are  Clutches are tricky things. Basically simple but devil is in the detail. How sure are you that everything is concentric? No joy in that for me. I find them scary! Chris had one custom made for his conversion and it vibrated horribly even at low speed. Tried balancing it on the car with Jubilee clips with limited success and eventually realised that one UJ was tight on one axis. Bit of circlip fettling and problem solved. They do tend to vibrate much worse when unloaded.

Damn…., this is looking complex  May the Force be with you!

13 years later! That's quite a revival. No idea about owner I'm afraid - the TSSC or similar groups on Facebook might have clues, if you can put up with 90% nonsense comments from people answering questions you didn't ask.  Obvious question - did you message the seller on eBay? The listing says it closed yesterday

Bag complete connected up the five vac points to a sort of manifold with a single line to the knock out pot and vac pump to see how it all pulled down and get the bag manipulated tight into all the mould corners. My biggest vac job yet and it took a good 10 minutes to sook all the air out and start seeing a vacuum on the gauge Remarkably though it did eventually pull down but wouldn't hold as there was a leak. Very small leak as it took maybe 10-15 mins to come back up to ambient pressure. So my plan of sealing the flange joints with wax nearly worked. However need things to be essentially leaktight. The most likely source was through one or more of the flange bolts and then through a pinhole round to the bag. So it was a case of sealing up the 41 bolts with bagging tape. Both sides. Rather tedious and got a bit sore on the fingers. However did the job and the vacuum now holding. Based on my estimate of the weight of carbon used and the quantity of resin that will be required to wet out the peel ply and infusion mesh I have calculated that I will about 6.3kg of resin, of which about 2.4kg is 'lost' in the peel ply and infusion mesh. On that basis my calculations suggest that this part of the bonnet without wheelarches, etc will weigh about 8kg. Will be interesting to see how close to that it comes out. Unfortunately I didn't have as much of the vacuum tubing as I thought I did and there wasn't enough for the three resin feed lines. So the actual infusion is on hold until Amazon deliver more PVC vac tube... One other 'interesting' point is just how much is consumed in the process. The 2.4kg of epoxy resin lost in the peel play and infusion mesh costs about £40. Add in the vacuum bagging, bagging tape, peel ply, infusion mesh, semi-permiable tapes, etc and the total cost of consumables comes to about £90 .

Back from (a rather damp) Spain and got out to the garage to push things on. Completed the peel ply. And then laid in the infusion mesh. Getting the peel ply and especially the infusion mesh tight in around the 'topography' at the front of the bonnet is more than a little fiddly. Used the normal stiff nylon mesh over the main areas. It's relatively easy to handle but can't cope with tight corners. For the flanges and around the grille and lights it was the knitted nylon mesh. That conforms much more easily but it's very springy and doesn't take the securing tape very well. Also shows the resin feed lines going in. Recommendation is a maximum of about 500mm travel from the feed lines to ensure a reasonable speed of resin infusion so a run around the front flange and three lines into the main body of the mould. There are also three resin feed connections as this is another resin rate restriction. Next up are the vacuum connections. It's a complicated shape and I'm not 100% certain how the flow will work so gone belt and braces with the vacuum. In addition to the usual single port at the opposite side to the resin inlet I am using MTI micropourous vacuum lines round the wheelarches and rear edges of the mould. This stuff is a bit like Goretex, it's permiable to air but not the resin so once the resin reaches the hose it stops getting drawn in. But any areas either site of that point will keep drawing the resin until it reaches the hose, thereby avoiding dry spots and allowing the vacuum line to run much closer to the resin feed. Also using two microporous vac strips across the area with the core as this is another place where it is possible to get 'dry' areas. Then on with the bag. Bloody enormous bit of plastic 2.5m x 3.5m to cope with the complex shapes so lots of pleats around the edge.

The one I took out of my Spitfire was sloppy on the input shaft, but tight if turned around and fitted the other way. So I concluded it was worn. Can't recall if I replaced it or just left it the other way round. Incidentally what is that oilite material they're made of? Is it just that it's porous and can be impregnated with oil?

haha oops... I don't speak french, you see Clive