Lack of postings is not an indication of lack of progress. One of the major jobs I wanted to do was to rebuild the drivers footwell. This had been 'mangled' and would not pass scruitineering. The job to extract it all was protracted, because of the limited space, and most of the panels being fixed by cap head m5 x25mm screws. Arms not being long enough to get to both ends! Eventually, all was removed, and the area cleaned up. The rebuild was a test in some areas. The flat panels of floor, & engine bay were reasonably simple, being flat, with right angle folds; the real challenge was the transmission tunnel/clutch bell housing. This ended up dictating a remake of some panels to get the balance of clearances for drivers feet & pedal, and clutch bell-housing. Various cardboard templates were tried, and directed the flat areas. The fun bit was the 'blister' around the clutch mechanism. After some delicate stretching and compressing of the sheet metal, a suitable component was produced, and riveted into place
Next job was to sort out all the 'thro' bulkhead items, rationalising the various cables and hoses.
The capillary to the Temp Gauge was found to have split the gland nut, and then the pipe fractured. This required the removal of the thermostat/filler housing to create a blanking plug for the sender. The opportunity was also taken to re-route the top hose, so it wasn't nearly lying on the exhaust manifold. Another major item was the main power line which went from the battery box in the passenger seat position, along the floor, up to the dashboard, through, and back down to chassis. I managed to remove about 6' of cable by rerouteing at floor level, through an unused gearbox access panel. This helps with voltage drop when starting.
The bulkheads extra holes were sealed with glass-fibre & silicon sealant.
A cover for the pedal box was also fabricated from Alu sheet, to seal the great big hole over where my feet would be.
Following discussions with Robin Wallace - MSA Scrutineer, various modifications were required. The secondary hoop on the roll bar needed removing, which required some serious hacksawing & grinding - proper metalworking. Robin was also concerned on the run of the seatbelt shoulder straps, so that there was a straight line from the mounting to my shoulders, and not being interrupted by the seat. I achieved this by remounting the seat straight to the floor. This removed the dreaded wooden blocks, and presented a better driving position.
This also allowed me to use the original lap belt mounting points, which are welded to the chassis, rather than bolted through with nuts & washers.
The drivers floor was then remade using 2 sheets of 1mm alu alloy, glued and riveted together. The original sheet was 1.3mm (16swg), but had been damaged by the brackets for the side intrusion bar being pushed up into the cockpit. I'm not replacing the bar at this time, but the brackets would need relocating to pick-up on chassis rails.
It was now a mad rush to get things ready for Forrestburn 28th/29th Aug. Sort out the fuel leak by trimming off the perished portions of the hose, clean & paint around cockpit etc. A electrical temp gauge had to be rapidly fitted. In the process of checking things were still working, it seemed like the rev limiter pack was 'squashing' the spark. Disconnection of the unit allowed immediate starting. The final bit was loading the car and all the other stuff for the 1st time. Finally finished at 11pm !. See the next post for the 'eventful' event :-)
