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I tested rubbing down and polishing an offcut from the engine bay panels to see how much difference it would make, as they are already fairly shiny. Its makes it quite a lot better, and as they are fairly flat they should be quick enough to get rubbed down.
I started rubbing down the top of the bonnet with the compound, but noticed that there were still some scratches left in from the paper. So, with a new bit of 1500 paper I went over one of the corners again and then back over with the compound, which got rid of these scratches, so I made a start on re-doing the whole of the bonnet with 1500 again.
2/2/2003
Checked the wishbone clearance on the rhs engine bay grp panel, and
this one will hit the wishbone as well. Considering it is fitted as
far in as it will go, its yet another part of the kit that doesn't fit
right, though the strange thing is that its actually in the kit in the
first place when more important things like the bulkhead to separate
the engine bay and passenger compartment isn't included. So, a hole
approx 1" square was chopped out to clear the wishbone, which as for
the other side will be covered with something flexible..
As the fuse boxes will be a bit awkward to reach through the hole in the dash, removing the covers will be even more difficult. As these are tough to remove anyway, I scraped and chopped bits off the covers and fuse holders to make this a bit easier. They aren't so loose they'll fall off if you breathe on them, but are much easier to remove now.
The lower edge of the lhs engine bay panel was rubbed down and polished before riveting the alloy angle sections in place. With all this assembled, I then worked out the fitting of the top edge to the bodywork. This is similar to the right side, but it will be bolted in place rather than riveted. One bolt fits through the bodywork at the front under the bonnet, but the others needed small alloy clips fitting to the body first.
3/2/2003
More rubbing down of the bonnet with 1500 to get rid of the last few
big scratches.
4/2/2003
Finished rubbing down the bonnet, and rubbed down the rhs engine bay
grp panel.
5/2/2003
Rubbed down the rhs engine bay panel with compound.
6/2/2003
Started rubbing down the bonnet with compound again. There are still
some scratches left in, and the compound does leave some tiny
scratches itself, but its much better than last time.
8/2/2003
Picked up the air filter which has finally arrived. It is an odd size,
so I didn't expect it to be in stock, but its still around a month
which is a long time. Also picked up some more nuts and bolts that are
needed for the airbox and various other bits, and sorted them out so
that I know how many spare there are.
Made a start on fitting the air filter. Working with cardboard to start with, figured out the size of the collar to make for the filter and hose to join together, and the mountings for this to attach it to the chassis. To keep it out of the engine bay, its going to be sticking out sideways behind the wheel.
9/2/2003
Finished off the cardboard template, and made an alloy tube for the
filter, along with a couple of steel mounting bars which attach to the
front bulkhead panel and the top side chassis rail. It took a long
time to do, with lots of fitting and refitting to get it all right.
Painted over the areas under the wheelarches where the paint had been rubbed off so that the bits of rubber sheet could be fitted.
Started working on a cardboard template of the lhs grp engine bay panel, as this needs a bit chopped out of the rear to fit round the air filter.
11/2/2003
Finished cutting the cardboard to shape, and started on the grp. I
didn't want to take too much off in one go, so started off leaving a
bit spare which was eventually trimmed back until it fitted.
12/2/2003
Finished off trimming the grp, and made a cardboard template for an
alloy shield to protect the filter from anything flung from the
wheel. A bit of alloy the right size was found and cut to shape.
13/2/2003
Some more rubbing down of the bonnet with compound.
14/2/2003
Finished rubbing down the bonnet with compound.
15/2/2003
Finished making the alloy sheild for the air filter, drilled the
mounting holes in the grp engine bay panel, and rubbed down the panel
with compound.
17/2/2003
Rubbed down the passenger door with paper, going through the very thin
gelcoat in one place.
18/2/2003
Rubbed down the passenger door with compound.
22/2/2003
After spotting recently that the rear bolts in the front lower
wishbones didn't quite go all the way through the nyloc, they were
replaced with slightly longer bolts that were trimmed to fit into the
gap. The problem is that there is a vertical chassis rail in the way,
which means that to get 2 threads out of the nyloc, a shortened nut
has to be used and there isn't space for a washer. Apparently Sixes
are also like this, so its just a problem carried over from that
chassis rather than a new one specific to this car. The picture below
shows what its like.
The spaces for the bolts were measured, two new bolts were cut to the right length to just give clearance to the veritcal chassis rail, and the back faces of the nylocs were filed down to leave enough space for 2 threads to poke through. The old bolts were then carefully removed (making sure not to hit the brake pipes which run nearby), and the new bolts and nylocs replaced. The spring platforms on the dampers were moved to their lowest setting to reduce the pressure on the wishbone, and it needed wiggling about a bit, but we managed to get them fitted relatively easily. The bolt for the right side was fractionally too long and just touched the chassis, so it had to be removed and filed down a bit to fit.
Of course, it would have been much easier if I'd noticed when the front suspension was assembled originally...
23/2/2003
One of the many things missing from the kit is something to fill the
gap between the dash and the horizontal chassis rail that runs the
width of the car. This rail has to be padded as its right above your
knees, so whatever fills the gap has to either go around the padding,
or go behind it.
I decided that the easiest thing to try first was a wide bit of carpet, attached under the dash, which then loops round the chassis rail and is clamped to the back of it.
Some newspaper was stuck together to try and make a template first, but this didn't work very well as its too flexible, so we just decided to go ahead with the carpet, as there is plenty of it spare.
So, we cut up some bits of extruded alloy that was lying around to use as a clamp on the underside of the dash, drilled screw holes in the alloy and dash, and cut up some bits of wood for the screws to fit into. A large rectangle of green carpet was also cut roughly to shape, and fitted to the dash with self tapping screws.
As the steering column gets in the way, the carpet can't be attached to the short right section of the dash until after it is in the car so that it can be wrapped round the steering.
After some fiddling around to make it fit a bit better, the carpet was trimmed around the edges and around the steering column until it fitted. It has ended up looking much better than expected, though it will be a bit difference when the rest of the carped has been fitted.
24/2/2003
Rubbed down the driver's door with 800 grade paper.
25/2/2003
Rubbed down the driver's door with 1200 and 1500 paper, then compound.
26/2/2003
Rubbed down the top and left side of the windscreen surround.
27/2/2003
Rubbed down the right side of the windscreen surround, around the
driver's door, and around the right roll hoop.
Total hours this month -
52.5
Total build hours -
1662.0
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