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2/1/2003
Cut the handbrake recess bit of the top tunnel carpet section to
length, and then trimmed the edge. Bolted the windscreen support bars
in place to get them out of the way, and decided on the size of air
filter to use. Also made some minor mods to the end of the airbox
template where the hose will attach to increase the clearance to the
corner of the bulkhead panels.
3/1/2003
Checked the fit of the new cloth gators, and they seem to be fine,
more than flexible enough to take the full movement of the
levers.
Made a new reverse stop from a shanked bolt with the head cut off as I was never really happy with the original one which was a bolt with the threads filed off one side.
Made the airbox backplate from ally based on the template. The trumpet bolt holes, 4 main holes and the 2 fuel reservoir breather holes were drilled and filed out to shape, and the front half of the lower edge folded towards the engine to increase clearance to the chassis rail.
4/1/2003
Ordered the air filter, a universal fit K&N round tapered, with an
89mm nozzle. Cut out and shaped the main section of the airbox, and
both end plates.
5/1/2003
Drilled and filed out the inlet hole in the rear end plate, and made
the nozzle for the hole using the same method as for the heater
hoses. Some thin extruded alloy channel (I think from some old uPVC
double glazing) was then cut up to provide clamps for the edges of the
box onto the backplate, with a bit of angle section used to extend the
top as I didn't have a big enough piece of alloy sheet left.
7/1/2003
Shaped the main airbox section to a smooth U curve so that it matched
the end plates. Worked out the clips needed to hold the ends on, and
marked them out on a bit of scrap alloy sheet.
11/1/2003
Worked out the position of the bolt and rivet holes for the edges of
the airbox and the nozzle. Drilled out the holes in the top of the
airbox, the alloy strips, the nozzle, the endplates and the clips. The
clamping edges of the end plates were then folded to the correct
angle, and the 14 end plate clips were all cut up.
12/1/2003
Marked and drilled the rivet holes for the clips in the end plates,
and then fitted them along with the nozzle. Fitted the alloy angle
clamp to the top of the airbox. The end caps were then fitted to the
main airbox section, drilling and riveting each hole at a time so that
it ended up the right shape with the smallest gaps possible. Drilled
the bolt holes in the backplate, and cut and folded the lower edge of
the box to match the backplate.
14/1/2003
Finished rubbing down the boot lid with 1200 grade paper, then went
over it all again with 1500 grade. There didn't seem to be much change
between 800 and 1200, but now its starting to look shiny and the
reflections of the lights have edges now.
15/1/2003
Made a start on the boot lid with the Farecla G3 compound. This is
much harder work than the paper, but the end result is a lot better as
almost all the scratches are gone. Got the front and a bit of the top
done.
17/1/2003
Rubbed down more of the boot - finished off the middle and left side
of the top.
18/1/2003
Cut up and drilled some more thick alloy strip to use as a clamp on
the lower edge of the airbox, and drilled bolt holes in the box and
backplate. Sealed up the inside joins between the main section and the
end plates, and around the outside of the nozzle to hopefully make it
airtight.
With the dash fitted, spent a while trying to work out what to do with the fuses and relays. Ended up deciding to fit a bracket to the heater to mount the fuses on, and to attach the relays to the lower rear edge of the dash, with an access hole in the front of the dash. Made a start on making the fuse bracket.
19/1/2003
Finished making the bits for the fuse bracket, and fitted it to the
heater. Worked out the position for the relays and drilled mounting
holes in the dash. Then decided how big a hole to cut in the front of
the dash, and removed a rectangle from the recess on the left side big
enough to fit a hand through. This bit of the dash needs covering
anyway, so having a hole here isn't a problem, the cover will just
need to be easily removed.
Also started scraping down the edges of the bonnet to remove some of the mold lines which are the same as the ones around the rear lights - they aren't so much flashlines as grooves around the edge, so thankfully the gelcoat seems thick enough to remove the grooves.
20/1/2003
Finished rubbing down the top of the boot lid, and made a start on the
back.
21/1/2003
Finished scraping down the edges of the bonnet to remove the grooves,
and made sure that the edges still met the radius requirements. Then
made a start on looking at how to fit the rhs top engine bay grp
panel. It was never a good fit, and now with the alloy bulkhead in
place the end of it needs chopping off anyway.
22/1/2003
Checked the fit of the bonnet in its hole, as I don't think its been
put in since the bulkhead panels were fitted. Its ended up a bit
tighter than before, either due to all the bolt heads for the front
bonnet pins and the latches and supports for the middle of the
bodywork, or its just that the bit in front of the windscreen has
moved a bit.
So, I ended up scraping some grp off the lower front edge of the bonnet, and grinding out the recesses for the bolt heads. It made it a bit better, but its still far too tight a fit so I have to figure out which bit is causing the problem, which isn't easy.
23/1/2003
Finished rubbing down the boot lid. In artificial light it looks fine,
but in daylight the lines from rubbing show up so the whole thing
needs gently going over again with the Farecla to try and remove these
scratches, then a polish to get it really shiny.
25/1/2003
Finished scraping and grinding more bits off the bonnet to make it fit
again, and now it easily drops into place rather than having to be
forced, though its not so loose that it will rattle.
More work on the rhs engine bay grp panel. The rear was gradually cut back so that it could be fitted without hitting the alloy bulkhead, and a bit of the front was trimmed to miss the upper wishbone. As the U brackets and welds for the wishbones stick up above the main top chassis rail, a bit had to be ground out from under the panel to make it sit almost flush with the chassis.
26/1/2003
Worked out where to drill the mounting holes for the rhs engine bay
panel. As it is so small, there is only around 1cm overlap to the
chassis, and nowhere near enough overlap with the bodywork. So, rivet
holes were drilled on the chassis edge, and alloy clips were made to
join the bodywork and the panel. There was space to get one rivet
through the body and into the panel, but only right at the front where
the bodywork dips down to allow the bonnet to rotate (if its hinged
anyway). The clips were fitted to the body, but the panel was left out
so that I still have decent access to the engine bay, and it needs
rubbing down and polishing as well.
With the airbox in place, I made a start on fitting the lhs panel. It turns out that it only needs extending by around 3cm at the front to clear the airbox, and around 1cm at the back, though as the airbox is very close to the top chassis rail, the panel must be fitted to the side of tha chassis to keep the clearance under the carbs as large as possible.
28/1/2003
Started rubbing down the edges of the bonnet where they had been
scraped to remove the grooves and to radius them.
29/1/2003
Finished rubbing down the edges of the bonnet with 800 grade paper.
30/1/2003
Finished rubbing down the bonnet with 1200 and 1500 paper.
31/1/2003
Stuck at home due to the heavy snow yesterday and overnight, so I was
forced to work on the car. The alloy extension for the lhs engine bay
grp panel was made, using a bit of thicker than normal alloy sheet
which was bent into a right angle, with one side to fit against the
side of the top chassis rail, and the other to fit onto the edge of
the grp.
It was too cold to be handing bits of metal for too long, so I then started rubbing down some of the front bodywork around the headlights, front indicators, and the main front section above the radiator. Where the headlight lumps blend into the wings the grp was very messy, so a fair bit had to be scraped off here to try and smooth it out.
I then polished the sides of the bonnet with the Farecla compound, and started on the top.
Total hours this month -
70.5
Total build hours -
1609.5
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