16 July 2023
Decided to fit the seats so I could work on the harness fitting and routing. I fitted the offside one loosely to the chassis and then set about the nearside one. I dug out the mounting bars I'd made up some time ago and the bolts to mount the seats. Had a few issues getting the seat installed. I had to take it out and trim the Mazda seat belt mounting from the runners and also enlarge the bolt holes to the chassis to get it in position. I will also trim the offside one as I creates a nice bit of clearance to the transmission tunnel, there's also a tab that is used for the Mazda seat belts; it sticks out and I'm concerned it could rub on the harness. I tested the harness on the nearside seat and as far as holding me in the seat it works but the harness rubs on the headrest uprights. Also on the nearside there isn't enough room under the bodyshell to fit both harness mounts and my spacer. So I decided to move the harness mounts forward of the rear bulkhead. I used some 4mm steel flat bar and cut some lengths, drilled and shaped it so I could move the harness mounting position about 60mm forward. At the moment everything is loosely attached but this looks like it will help with the routing of the harness straps. 17 July 2023 I removed the offside seat and trimmed the runner on that side too. I refined the shape of the harness mounting plates and then cleaned them up and painted them. 25 July 2023 I bolted up the harness mounts and they seem to work well. Trial fitted the handbrake surround and gaiter. The gaiter will need some trimming later on, for now I trimmed enough so it sat correctly. I marked up the position of the mounting holes and drilled and fitted rivnuts to the tunnel cover. I positioned the ring and gaiter in place and marked where I needed to punch holes in the gaiter. Once the holes were punched, I had to resew one of the seams that started to come undone because of the hole punched in it. I did several trial fittings before applying contact adhesive to the gaiter and the underside of the ring. Then I bolted it all in position and left it to dry. Once it is dry I can trim the excess round the outside of the ring. 31 July 2023 Removed the handbrake gaiter surround but found the glue wasn't holding very well. So pulled it off and cleared the glue off then trimmed it back and rebolted it in place without glue. Bolted the fusebox back into place to tidy things up. I also finalised the switch that allows you to disarm the immibiliser when you get in the car. 23 August 2023 Haven't been able to get on with much recently due to summer car shows and meets as well as fixing daily cars for the family. Got out there for an evening and made a start on the door locks. Started by making up a piece of bar to use as the striker which will bolt to the chassis. It's just a length of bar with a 90 degree bend, at the moment it's much larger than it needs to be so I can trim it down once everything is finalised. I plan to put a thread on the end and bolt it through the chassis gusset that ANC added for this purpose. I used the bar to mark a position on the doors and cut out a slot to match the slot in the door lock. It's just roughed out at the moment.
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AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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