August 22nd

All of a sudden I feel as if I'm on the downhill stretch. This is probably because I've got past the scuttle and what's left seems to be a large collection of small bits and pieces. I fitted the fuel filler today which is quite a nice bit of kit. Unfortunately the fog lamp next door to it is caravan standard.

Then I mounted the spare wheel. This is a really huge lump of kit hanging off the back of the car. It's also a rather expensive alloy which makes for a pricey piece of decoration really. Whatever, I think it's a rather nice wheel. After that it was the rear number plate, which is a quite disgusting piece of caravan-style kit. The plate mounting itself is a rather naff piece of GRP, with a caravan quality number plate light which looks as though it was designed in about 1953. It's so horrible that I'm not going to show you a photo! However, I did wonder why there is a mounting plate for the number plate at all, wouldn't the number plate itself do? (Although somewhere would have to be found for the light.) I'll wait until I have a plate and see if it's worth taking this off again.

After that I did some electrical stuff. I wired up the rear lamps and extended the wiring for the washer pump. I also wired up the water temperature sensor. When I spoke to Westfield last week about this Chris pointed out in passing that the supplied temperature sensor only a single wire and as the Zetec thermostat housing is plastic there would need to be an earth wire added to the body of the sensor. Being in the vicinity of the washer bottle I decided to fit a couple of the mini aluminium panels mentioned before. This was a real fiddle for the one on the right hand side of the car, due to the presence of the carbs and the brake master cylinder. Still, the gap you see in the first photo was replaced with the plate (with some sealant to finish the job) in the second. Now I must get around to doing the mini panels at the back of the car, but they look a little easier to get at. After, that is, getting rid of the small pile of swarf that is obvious in this photo. The problem is, it's easier to see it here because of the flash, in the garage that bit of the bodywork is almost impossible to see inside of.

After that, I thought I would start on the cooling pipework. Ever since I got the engine I've had a large bag of pipes that I haven't been able to do anything with but couldn't because as I have the ducted nose I needed to do the bodywork before being able to mount the radiator. Hence, I've never really looked inside it. Today, after much faffing about, it became obvious that I was missing the top hose and the pipe that connects to it. (They probably come attached in the intended packing.) So, I gave up and retired hurt. Yet another phone call to Westfield is now required. I have developed a list of parts that I need: There are some covers for the front suspension bolt heads that are needed for the SVA. For some unknown reason they don't seem to ship them as standard. The four point harnesses that I am fitting have to be fitted in an odd way. The inboard upper mountings have to go on top of a pillar that is there for the inertia reel belts. Presumably this is at the right height for some SVA requirement. The outboard one needs a small spacer to get it out of the way of the boot box which I don't have. I don't have the bolts that are needed for the bottom harness mountings. The pipework mentioned above. I have decided to order the "kick-strips" which are pieces of trim that go along the top sides of the bodywork. More weight of course... Also, I thought I would enquire about mountings for a front number plate, rather than sticking a number across the nose cose.

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