16 January
I put the body on and started to make templates for the pieces that would rivet to the angles and bridge the gap between the scuttle and the body. I took the dash out as it was much easier to do this from the cockpit side. After a lot of trimming and checking I had 3 pieces I was happoy with. Not sure why, but the body seems to be sitting on the dash slightly so the body is not coming down to the brackets like it used to, so that will need resolving. 21 January 2023 Bolted the body in position on the brackets so it was positioned as it should be and roughly aligned side to side. I then cut out some aluminium sheet, using the cardboard templates as a guide. I temporarily attached them to the angles so I could trim them accurately and after some fuirther trimming it seems to fit. I'll need to find a rubber trim to on the top edge to seal to the body and stop the aluminium wearing the fibreglass. With sub zero temperatures I didn't stay in the garage long. Came inside to warm up and order some edge trims. 29 January 2023 Tried one of the trims I bought on the suttle panels and with a minor bit of shaping, they fitted really well. I refitted the dashboard to see where the body might be touching the dashboard but it looks fine. So I moved on to the rear bulkhead panel, which needed a bit of trimming to make room for a trim strip on the top. I think the top edge of the panel needs to be pulled forward near the middle of the car to keep a consistent gap. I looked at how the harness needs to bolt to the chassis and where I needed to cut a hole for it. I marked up the panels and then cut one of them, I've got a hole that the harness plates can bolt to the chassis, but it's a bit tight and I will need to add some trim on the edge of the hole. I would also like the top of the panel to be a bit further forward to be closer to the edge of the bodyshell, which will affect the size of the hole.
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7 January 2023
Had a nother go at fitting the air filter with the shortened pipe but it's still not working for me. It fits, but is very close to rubbing on the body and in use I expect it will knock on the body. Need to find a better position for the filter. Finished off adding loom covering for the immobiliser wires and the USB charger. I've been thinking more and more about the body to sill fixings I want to use. I've ordered some flat bar aluminium some countersunk rivnuts, bolts and some flat glazing rubber. I plan to mount the rivnuts on the aluminium sills plan, between the sills and the body some 1mm rubber strip. The flat bar will be glued to the outside of the bodyshell and then drilled through to the rivnuts, the bolts will go through the body, rubber and into the rivnuts. 9 January 2023 Back to the air filter mounting. I tried various positions for the air filter while the body was on to see what the options were. I settled on a having it in front of the radiator at the top corner. Luckily in the kit of parts I bought was another rigid pipe That would work, the only problem was that it didn't have a braket on it. I made one out of a small bit of steel angle. I cut a slot in one end that would bolt to the chassis using the mounting I had put in before. The rigid pipe was made of aluminium so I decided the easiest way to join them would be with epoxy, the loading is relatively light so it should be fine. I ground down part of the tube to give me something flatish to glue to, and after several tests fit trimmed the angle iron to the length I needed. I grit blasted the angle iron to clean it up and then used Araldite to glue them together. The epoxy will be tidied up and then the whole thing will be painted. Thinking about other jobs to do before I can fix the body down I wanted to checck the seat belt fitting as that will be easier to do without the body in the way. I ordered some long (4 1/2”) 7/16s bolts for the top mount. I did some trials and they seem ok with the belts running bettwen the headrest posts, one of the belts just touches one of the headrest posts. Checked on the forum to see what other people experienced when doing the IVA. I did some test fitting of the rear bulkhead upper panels with the body in place. I first trimmed them lightly so I could get them to line up with the holes I had drilled before (a long time ago). Once they were sitting correctly I ran a marker pen around the inner edge of the cokpit to mark the edge on the panels. Then I trimmed aproximately 10mm above that line. This left me with a nice gap above the panel that doesn't show as I intend to fit a small edge seal on top of the rear bulkhead. The panels as the come from ANC overlap in the middle but I want them to butt against each other an not overlap. Some careful marking and cutting will be needed to do this. But that is for another day. 14 January 2023 Applied more primer and top coat to the air filter tube during the week in preparation for fitting today. Tried to fit it and promptly snapped off the bracket! Back to the drawing board. I decided to modify the bracket and cut a slit in it so I could strap it to the tube with a large jubilee clip. However I had to clean up the tube and bracket to remove the epoxy and repaint it. Marked up and drilled the holes to secure the top rear bulkhead panels. I've decided to overlap the panels, they will be covered in carpet or vinyl so the join won't be visible. Also made a start on make a panel to seal between the body and the bulkhead, I've some aluminium angle to length, It will get rivet to the top of the bulkhead and I'll cut some aluminium panel to shape to close the gap between the body and the angle, it will be sealed with a rubber seal on top. 15 January 2022 Fitted the revised air filter arrangment, which fits nicely in the nose of the car, it should get lots of cold air but not lots of spray. I drilled the aluminium angle so it could be held in place on the scuttle while I made a template for the panel to fit on them. Time to look back over 2022. On the outside there's not much too see other than the driving lamps, front and side indicators. Underneath the wiring is 99% done, the exhaust is fitted, there's a minor leak to fix on one of the joints. The dashboard is pretty much finished, Trying to think of all the jobs I should do before I start getting the body fully bolted down. 22 December 2022
I couple of hours in the garage so I made up a bracket to support the air filter on the upright next to the radiator. I put in a rivnut to allow me to bolt the bracket on and bolted the filter tube to it. I ran the flexi hose in and cut it to the correct length then did a test fit which looked OK. I took it apart and primed and painted the bracket. While I was waiting for the paint to dry I cleaned up the top of the scuttle and then added Tiger Seal and pop rivet my scuttle panels in place. I cleaned up the excess Tiger Seal. Then I lowered the body down, the air filter tube cleared the bottom of the body nicely but once the body was in position, there was not quite enough room to get the filter on the end. I think if I cut a 20-30mm off the end it should give me enough clearance. The filter will be tucked up by the secondary lights but not directly behind the grill so it's not visible from the front. 30 December 2022 Lifted the body off and removed the air filter and marked where I needed to trim the pipe. Cut it off with an angle grinder and then smoothed it off with a sander. There is a hole in the side of the pipe which was designed to hold a sensor in the original fitment but I don't need it. I had applied some tape temporarily but wanted to fix it permanently. I misxed up some GRP filler applied some tape on the outside and then applied the GRP on the inside and left it to dry. I made a start on making up the loom to power the USB charge point I added a connector to the wires on the port and a longer piece to connect to it. 2 January 2023 Happy New Year! First day in the garage in 2023 and I drilled out a larger hole in the glovebox so I could fit the connector through. I wrapped the loom and fed it in to the area behind the fusebox. I mounted the dash panel so I could check the electrics, I needed to remake the immobiliser connection as it had come loose. I tested the immobiliser and spent some time thinking about where to fit the aerial. I found a location that is convenient which wil be hidden behind some trim. During the testing I found an issue with the multiplug connectors on the dash I had created when extended the indicator wiring. I had to remove the pins and reterminate them that took longer than it should as I struggled to extract the pins. I then had to remount the dash panel and retest again. It all seems to work correctly. |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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