4 October 2021
Took the GRP dash panel off and used some of the dash offcuts to make pieces to fill the gaps at each end. Secured them in place with self-tapping and cut out the matting. Mixed up some resin and roughly pasted the mat in place. Once it is dry and the sections are held in position I will remove the screws and tidy it up before applying more layers of mat and resin. 5 October 2021 Removed the self tapping screws from the dash and added more layers of GRP. When it was dry, I trimmed and sanded the GRP to get it roughly to shape and remove high spots. Applied a few additional bits of mat and resin. While the GRP was drying I inserted the last few riv-nuts for the gearbox tunnel and checked the fitting. I looked at the positions for the ECU, battery and fusebox. I'm mounting the battery in a cage against the passenger firewall, suspended from the bulkhead supports. The gel battery I'm using can be mounted in any orientation so I am mounting it with the terminals on it's side. I cut some lengths of flat steel bar to bolt to the underside of the bulkhead, I drilled and bolted them in place. I offered up the cage and marked and drilled holes to bolt the cage to the steel bar. I elongated two holes to give me room to insert the battery to the cage when it is in place. Still have to finalise the fitting and then paint the steel bar. I am thinking about cutting off the retaining lip on the cage and adding a retaining strap that could be bolted to the cage, just to make access easier in the future. 8 October 2021 I've painted the cage supports to match the chassis and bolted them in place with the battery cage. I added some draught excluder inside the cage to stop the battery and the cage from rattling. I'm going to mount the ECU to the left of the battery on the firewall, I decided to glue a piece of wood to the inside of the firewall that I could screw the ECU on to, rather than drilling through the firewall. Found a suitable piece and painted it with primer and grey top coat. Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry I got back to the dash and finished sanding down the GRP I had added. It still needs a few low spots filling with some filler, but the shape is there. I drilled and mounted the riv-nuts to the new section of GRP and did a test fit with the aluminium part. I decided to fit all the hardware to the dash to make sure everything still fitted with the dash in position. I needed to trim back a bit of GRP to allow the mounting brackets for the speedometer to fit. I cut some pieces of wood to support the ends of the dash and screwed and glued them to the GRP. I need to figure out a way of securing the wood block to the chassis rail. My initial plan was to drill a hole through the chassis rail underneath and run a wood screw up and into the wood, but this will be hard to access with a screwdriver so I'm looking for another way. I've refitted the body and the dash to recheck it all still fits (which it does) and to look at options for the fusebox location. It's going to be somewhere in the centre of the car but I want to still have good access to it. I'm still planning to cover the GRP dash panel in vinyl and want to anodise the aluminium panel but I want to finish like the fusebox position and the rest of the wiring first.
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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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