Rear wheel arch - LHS

Before fitting the rear arches I had to do a lot of fine trimming around the locating blocks to make arches fit flush to the body.

Then I clamped up and drilled loads of holes using the right angle drill:



I fixed using nuts/bolts used to fix number plates. This was recommended so if anything unfortunate happends the theoory is the bolts will break before it rips chunks out of the main bodywork. I added a couple of extras on the upper rear section as there was a bit of a gap:


Very pleased with the fit now:

Front nose - fouls the radiator outlet

Having got the nose from my fathers, I tried to see how it would fit. The main problem is the outlet to the header tank from the top side of the radiator fouls the inside of the nose. I see 3 options:
a) to pull the existing hose tight to makes a really tight bend (that will put a lot of pressure on the platic outlet which I don't think would be very good)
b) get a 90 degree connector (this would be the simplest)
c) block off the side outlet and fit a new outlet to the top where there is plenty of clearence. This approach has beeen done by the FM guys on their new build. Don't know how to securely fix it though. Will need to some investigation.

Body goes on

We put the main body back on the car together with the scuttle and the bonnet. With a bit of adjustment it all lined up quite nicely. I had to do a bit of trimming of the underside lip of the bonnet to make it align to the scuttle and sit flay on the main body:


I'll need to collect the nose from storage at my father to check that lines up before starting to rivet the body in place.

Lots of picture before body goes on...

Before the body went on for the last time, I though it was a good idea to take lots of photos from all round the engine. That way I might have a chance in finding/identifying things after access gets very restricted.

I also riveted lots of cable tie mounting points for the wiring and coolant.

RHS photos:










LHS photos:

Fitting scuttle - trimming

Father Christmas was very nice this year and gave me a Dremel which definitely is the tool of the day when you are trimming the bodywork:


Like the manual says you have to cut quite a lot away to make the scuttle fit around the bottom of the dashboard hoop:




The main body hangs over the inside of the chassis. The scuttle determines the width but I tried to move the whole thing from side to side to get as central as possible:




The result was the dashboard hood at it top point was right up against the inside of the scuttle on the RHS:


and quite a bit has to be cut away for the steering column:

Main body fitting - fettling

There wasn't much I needed to do to the main body to make it all fit. Westfield had already cut the appropriate areas to make it fit around the dashboard hoop:


A bit had to be shave off the rear of the LHS scuttle locating block as it fouled the dash hoop:

Holes had to be cut/enlarged to fit around the rivnuts where the scuttle fixes to the chassis, before:

and after:

a little had to be cut off the back of the cockpit as it fouled the seat backrest panel:

Electrics - fitting some relays & fuse box

Some of the electrical components have to be mounted under the dash. There was a relay bracket which had 3 mounting slots but only held 2 relays. Then there was another relay on its own. So I mounted all 3 on the same bracket and bolted to the steering column mounting bracket (the relay on its own is the lower on the picture - the one with the yellow connector):



There was also a small fuse box (the main fuse box fits in the engine bay) which I fitted to the chassis just to the right of the steering column using a couple of rivnuts. I should have put the rivnuts very close to the edge of the chassis rail as it is very difficult to remove the cover.

Exhaust - hole in bodywork

I had to cut a hole through the bodywork for the exhaust. The question was how to get it exactly in the right place. I took a hint from the FM site and made a cardboard template that fitted to the chassis:


With the bodywork back on the chassis, I marked a circle through the template, found the centre and drilled a pilot hole:


Then applied lots of masking tape to the outside to protect the surface as I drilled:


Then finally I cut the hole using a hole saw:


When the body was replaced on the chassis and the exhaust fitted it was perfectly centre in the hole:

Washer bottle

I fitted the bottom bracket I had made for the washer bottle. In hindsight I would have riveted it rather than use bolts:

Driver's side panel riveting

Having done all the adjustment of the pedals and just about to start working on the bodywork it was time to fit the final of the outer aluminium panels. I'd left it off to allow easy access to the driver's footwell.

Steering column - some pictures

I didn't take any pictures of the final steering column before temporarily placing the main body shell on the car, so now having taken the shell off again I was able to take some pictures. Here is how it all looks:

New year - the build continues

No progress over the last couple of months. Business travel, Christmas/New Year, a ski holiday and sub-zero temperatures in the garage have all meant no work.

My friend Mike came up for the weekend so with the fan heater running constantly and fully wrapped up we spent a productive couple of days while the snow fell outside.