Being someone who is somewhat averse to speaking on the phone, I finally choked up the balls to call Ed Wards at Ward Engineering on Friday to enquire as to the price of the bits I need to completely refurbish the front & rear hub carriers, hubs and handbrake mechanism – ignoring the brake callipers, discs and pads for the moment as at least once that lot is done I can put some wheels on the chassis and treat it as more than an obstacle in the garage to be stepped over!

Anyway it was a brief but very helpful conversation that resulted in an emailed list of costs being sent over at 8.45am on Monday morning – not bad when I’d only sent my email address over at 5.15pm on the Friday!

All in all it looks like somewhere around £700 to get everything refurbished and all new handbrake components; the killer here being the handbrake cables at a somewhat eyewatering £185 the pair! That’s not Wards being expensive, either, they’re even more expensive direct from Jaguar and, I suspect, Jaguar are the only supplier of them.

 

Let this be a lesson to any Dax DeDion builders reading out there – do not hacksaw through the handbrake cables to get the rear end off your donor car!

I repeat – do not hacksaw through the handbrake cables to get the rear end off your donor car!

 

Anyway, with that little public service announcement over, all I need to do is find the cash for at least the first part to be ordered – that is four refurbished hubs & carriers and a full set of new ball joints for the front end.