THOSE who have been keeping a close eye on the Carnage project car inventory will know we currently have two VE Valiant wagon shells.

The first is our orange Lockdown Wagon restoration project that we’ve been cutting rust out of for a while now, while the second is a white shell we purchased along with a bunch of spare parts to help get the orange one on the road.

One of the parts we couldn’t keep was the front crossmember. So Scotty had to get creative and make a temporary replacement with wheels so we can move it around the workshop as needed.

Scotty used a bunch of Hare & Forbes gear to get this done, and we can’t thank the company enough for being a big supporter of the show. All of our welding and cutting tools are from Hare & Forbes too, and all got a proper workout in this episode, including Scotty’s new favourite bit of gear – an auto-darkening welding helmet with respiratory system. While it’s designed to protect your lungs, the main benefit is the cooling air circulating through, which was super-convenient during the 30-plus-degree days while we were building this thing.

Scotty made sure not to under-engineer the new frame, using 50x50mm box tubing for the main frame pieces and 40x40mm box tubing for enough supports to keep even the Trump administration stable.

After lots of cutting, welding and measuring, he had a pretty solid rolling frame. Now we can play musical chairs with the cars in the Carnage workshop without needing to jack up the front of the old Val, making our lives much easier.