I still haven't fitted the bonnet properly, but before I can do that I need
to put some trim between the bonnet and the nose cone and scuttle. This gives something a bit bungy for the bonnet
to sit on and makes a slightly neater edge. The problem was, how to attach it? I thought about it and settled on
Würthing it into position, although I feel sure it's going to come loose at some point. Still I attached everything,
and held it in place with lots of bits of masking tape.
When this is set I'll be able to set the bonnet down properly.
It was time to look at the trim slightly, so I started on the carpets. As I mentioned before, they
don't fit very well. Hence, this took ages to do but I ended up with a car that looked rather more finished than
it did before. Along the way I mounted the gear lever bezel and gaiter using yet more rivnuts into the GRP of the
tunnel moulding. I'm a bit concerned that if something is wrong with, for example, the speedo sensor then there's
going to be a heck of a lot of dismantling to do. A rather debilitating thought...
You can see the fitted gear lever in the photo here. Also, there's the pocket in the side carpets, which are the best reason for buying the Dax carpets.
I had to do a fair bit of patching around with the carpets, as they really don't fit well. Worst of all the panels that go on the shoulder panels are not stuck down at all well. I'll have to take them off and try re-attaching with some different sort of adhesive. (I did all of this with spray adhesive from Woolies.)
Finally, I attached the kick strips. As I had to cut the top off the side panels these
are rather important for holding the side panels in position. Hence, they're held on with some M5 stainless bolts
into rivnuts in the top chassis rail. Still, they look pretty good now...
With SVA looming I need to press on at every opportunity. So, I had another
go at the bonnet this evening.
First of all I chopped a very large hole in the top of it for the air filter to stick out of. It's not as neat as I would like at the moment, but I should be able to clean it up a little with some clip on trim soon. I also added the air filter to the carb, although I need to take it off to fit it properly.
It all looks rather shiny, although in the photo here it's still all masked up for the cutting out.
After that I set about adding the bonnet clips. Having fitted one of these it's obvious that I need to trim the bottom of the bonnet slightly to make it fit a bit more snugly. However, that isn't too difficult but I left it for tomorrow...
A bit more this evening on fitting the bonnet. I've now got all the catches attached and
it's just about completely trimmed to fit. A bit more fettling should finish it.
On a different note, I finally heard from Greengauges today. They say they've upped the size of the illumination lamp in the small instruments, but they can't do anything about the bigger ones. They do, at least, agree that there's something wrong with them though.
Today was the original SVA date, and it's clear that I wouldn't have made it! I made a new
list of things to do, down to a fairly fine-grained level. There's rather a lot of things on there.
Hence, I pushed on this evening. First of all I made the bonnet fit a bit better. It could do with more work, but I think it's best to leave it alone while I do everything else.
Next, I fitted the air cleaner properly, along with the connection for the engine breather recirculation. I need to find a bit of pipe to connect these with.
Finally, I velcroed the floor carpet down under the driver's seat. This bit of carpet fits the worst, but is mostly obscured by the seat so perhaps it'll be all right. I need to re-attached the shoulder pieces as well and I cleaned them up this evening, although I'm a bit concerned that I might have over-loosened some of the glue that is needed to hold them together.
BTW, this photo has a curious shadow on it, this isn't there in real life.
I got the instruments back from Greengauges today, curiously in a box that said it contained baked beans. There was a little bay of illumination lamps in there, of the same power as some of the ones that I'd already tried. Still, at least they're trying. Given the continuing problems with the illumination of the larger instruments I won't be rushing to try and pay them some money yet, although I probably will do soon.
Although I haven't got the bonnet catch covers from Dax (see the to-do list), Richard said I could borrow his. You can see how Richard's getting on with his Rush here.
It's getting very close to SVA, so I'm going to try and have a real blitz this
weekend to see if I can't get the car a lot closer to being done.
I fixed a couple of problems with the trim on the dash coming unstuck, and remounted the instruments back in the dash, using the new lamps that Greengauges supplied. I didn't put the dash back in the car as I want to do a couple of other things first, specifically:
- Adjust the handbrake
- Put some trim on things in case there's any problem with sharp edges under the scuttle
- Check how far the car goes for a revolution of the wheels and set the speedo.
Finally I finished off some of the carpet bits. I attached the passenger side floor carpet and refitted
the shoulder pieces. I hope they stay fixed this time. If they don't I'll have to hold them down with some sort
of mechanical fixing, such as a socking great rivet.
With this done I could put the seats in and see what they look like. The seat backs have got some velcro strips on them, and it would seem sensible to attach these to the bulkhead carpet. I'm not exactly sure how to do this yet though.
in case you've got to this frame directly and can't get out, go here.