January 31st 2013 - Boot Box

With a reasonable amount of time available today, I decided to have a go at fitting the boot box.  The roll bar goes through the edge of this, so that had to come off first.  I did think about cutting through the boot box from the front edge to allow easier removal in future, but decided against this as it could look untidy and its not that much effort to remove the roll bar if you take the rear wheels off.

The boot box fitted without the trimming other builders have had to do, so the first job was to put in a couple of 5mm rivet nuts on the rear edge.  These will be needed to hold it in place, so I did them first to hold the box in place while measuring the holes for the roll bar.  It was then a matter of taking the wheels off and drilling a marker hole upwards through the roll bar bolt hole.  This was then enlarged enough to make the mounting point accessible so that the roll bar could be temporarily attached using some longer bolts and its position marked on masking tape.

Roll bar temporarily replaced and position marked

The hold was then cut and filed out carefully as any errors would be very visible.  This created a huge amount of dust.

Hole cut out for roll bar.  Note the amount of dust!

The next task was to make four holes for the seat belts, as the boot box only has cut-outs for the inertia reel belts the kit was ordered with.  Not sure if there's a different boot box for four-point harnesses, but this one will have to do.  Making these holes required lots of measuring, re-measuring and pilot holes to make sure they were in the right place, but at least the chassis mounts have no bottom so a screwdriver could be passed through the pilot hole and mounting to ensure alignment.

The final job (apart from cleaning up all the dust) was to fit the trim panel that fits over top of the rear bulkhead carpet and the front edge of the boot box.  I fitted this (with Velcro) with the (incorrectly placed) cut outs downward as it virtually covers the holes for the inertia reel mountings.

The finished job with dust removed!  Not the biggest of boots, but better than none.

January 19th 2013 - Tunnel Cover Panel & Rear Bulkhead Carpet

Too cold to do much today, but to keep at least some momentum going I fitted the final tunnel cover plate above the handbrake adjuster and propshaft coupling.  The other two panels are fitted using self-tapping screws, but for this one I used rivet nuts and M5 dome headed bolts as it may need to come off for maintenance.  Whilst in that area I couldn't resist fitting the rear bulkhead carpet using double-sided velcro.

January 12th 2013 - Dashboard fitting

Mainly preparatory work over Christmas, and also the arrival of a great new rivet nut tool (how sad to get excited over a new tool!) which was put to use to great effect today to fit the dashboard.  The manual says to use standard nuts, but I figured the space behind the dash will be restricted and the dash is something that may need to come off from time to time.

New Rivet Nut Tool

It was easy to get the rivnuts in to the correct tightness with the new tool with minimal effort - just turn the wheel at the back, then unscrew.  The dash was then put in place, with the dash top trim in place and masking tape placed around the edge of it to indicate the area for drilling the holes so the bolt heads would not be visible.

Rivet nuts in place around the scuttle edge

Dash bolted in place before the top trim panel was added

 The trim panel was then stuck in place using Velcro strips.  I'm tempted to put a bolt in as well to secure it.

Last job of the day was to fit the gearlever gaiter.  I reduced the height of the supplied gaiter slightly, then made holes in it so that the four long pop rivets would hold the whole lot securely in place. It was then simple job to fit what seems like the the 5000th rivet.

Gear lever gaiter cut and positioned so that the lower edge will be sandwiched in place

Finished dash area looks smart.  Major wiring job looming :-)