I modified all 4 front wishbones to take inboard rose joints.  When I have decided the location of the inboard pickup point (by string computer) I can very quickly mock the front wishbones and have my matey Steve weld them up for me.

With the engine mounts sourced it was time to figure out where they would tie into the chassis.  I chose the right hand lower mount first as it looked like it would land conveniently on a chassis rail.  I was worried about bolting the bracket to the 2”x1” tube so I carefully marked out the mounting holes on the tube and machined 2 threaded bosses which were welded into the chassis tube.  The mounts used odd proprietary bolts with an in built locating washer so I machined some stepped buttons to accurately secure the mount against any lateral movement.

My wife and I took some very accurate measurements of the rear wheel and upright assembly.  I then transferred the measurements to CAD and produced the 0.5 scale silhouette ready for the “String Computer”.  If you’re not familiar with this concept its a method of cheaply modelling suspension geometry using a board and string line.  Its outlined a couple of Alan Staniforths books on car design and builds.  This will then allow me to site the inboard pickup points for the rear suspension and then ultimately build the rear wishbones.  I’ll take an identical approach on the front suspension and modify the wishbones from my old project accordingly.

Not posted for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't done anything.  As mentioned before I decided finally on a suitable track width which allowed me to mock up the wheelbase at an approximate ratio of 1.6:1.  The car is quite wide so at 1.6:1 I’m looking at a wheelbase of 2.9m.  I’m going to look at some other wheelbases of cars I’ve driven to see how this compares.

I visited Ian (a Volvo breaker) to try and find some of the OEM engine mounts used on the Volvo T5 engine.  After a rummage around in his shed I left with a bunch of engines mounts and the gear stick assembly and control cables for the M56 gearbox.  The control cables are too short for my application so I will need to either modify the mounting brackets for the cables and try and fudge a solution or, preferably, buy new longer control cables and use the assembly as intended.  It turned out the front engine mount I bought from Ian was the wrong type so I will have to try and source the correct one.  It would appear they used a few different types on the 5 cylinder white block engine.