My wife and I have recently had a baby so the last few months have seen little progress, however this weekend they both went away which gave me a chance to reacquaint myself with the car.
It had gathered a lot of dust and grime over time so the first order of the day was to give it a good clean.
Before I could install the front wiring loom I needed to underseal the front wheel arches and nose cone. I bought Hammerite Underbody Seal from Halfords (I have a trade card :-D) and dug out an old paint brush.
Every edge was masked off to avoid having to clean it off afterwards, this took ages but preperation time is seldom wasted. When I opened the tin I thought I must have a duff batch as it was stiff, I expected it to be like a thick paint that would set hard. It turns out, it's supposed to be the consistency of a paste.
The instructions say to apply with a brush up to 2mm thick however I applied it thinner and will go back for a second coat, hopefully this will give me a better finish. It's quite hard work due to the thickness and working mostly upside down but the front wheel arches and nose cone have been done and the rear arches have been masked off ready. If I have enough left after that I may do the rear axle tunnel too.
I also bought a spray can of Hammerite Stone Chip Shield which I used for the lower sills.
The GD manual suggests lining the top of the pedal box up with the lip in the engine bay but I fitted mine about 15mm down, mainly incase my wife ever drives it!
I started by marking a horizontal line with a spirit level where GD recommend then measured down from there. The pedal box was then dissassembled so that I could more easily used the casting to mark the holes. The casting was offered up as far left as possible; making sure enough room was left for the left had nut, and one of lower bolt holes marked.
This first hole was drilled then the casting bolted in place, this allowed any fine tuning of level before the other holes were marked abd drilled. The casting was removed and the remainder of the holes drilled, I didn't have the right size holesaw for the master cylinders so these were cut small and opened out with die grinder.
The pedal box was reassembled and and the brake bias bar installed. I measured between the centres of the master cylinder holes which gave 62mm so the two clevis' were set 62mm apart and equidistant from the pivot. These will be set and locked later, I'm just not quite sure by who!
Starting with the clutch cylinder the pedal box was bolted in place, the brake cylinders followed. The two brake cylinders are different sizes internally (0.70" and 0.75") so it's worth taking note of which one has been put where. To get the right pedal height and clearance from the casting about 6mm was trimmed off the end of each brack cylinder thread. I then adjusted the clutch clevis to give a similar position to the brake pedal.
As I'm going to be using an LS engine I will be using the electronic throttle so a modified GM throttle pedal will be installed horizontally on the other side of the bulkhead. I am waiting for the postman to deliver a turnbuckle to finish this but it will mean taking the pedal box off again to drill the brake pedal arm as there's not enough room to get it off in situ.
The manual suggest placing the clutch and brake reservoirs in the engine bay and running hoses down to the master cylinders but to keep the engine bay uncluttered I'll install mine above the master cylinders. The clutch kit comes with two different reservoir sizes and various mounting options, I've placed the smaller one directly on top of the cylinder. I need to make a bracket to fix the brake reservoir to the bulkhead.
I had my Son down over Easter so it was the perfect time to tackle the pedal box as it needs a second pair of hands (unless you're a descendant of Stretch Armstrong or Gadget Man!).
The first thing to do was cut out the opening for the footwell extension as this will provide additional access. The extension piece was trimmed around the lip which was pre-marked then offered up to the car from inside the engine bay. I drew around it to mark the extremities on fhe body, then measured in the width of the lip (25mm) to mark the cut lines.
I used an air die grinder to cut just inside the line, final filing will be done once the extension is fixed in place. I then marked and drilled 6 holes in the extension and installed M5 rivnuts. These holes were transferred to the body and drilled, the extension will be fitted later with either silicone sealant or a foam/rubber gasket.
After removing the worst of the flash lines all around with a Stanley blade, the rear offside quarter panel was sanded with P400, P800, P1200 and P2000 which left a matt finish. At that point I had no polisher so I didn't want to di any more until that arrived and I proved to myself that it would polish up ok.
The polisher along with some G3 and G10 arrived so I set to it. Most people have said how much mess it makes, but after watching the 'how to' video on the Farecla website I didn't seem to have too much trouble. It basically says to dampen the mop (rather than wet it), apply a small amount of compound to the edge of the mop then spread it over the area to be polished. The key here is to do a small area at a time.
After the G3, the rear quarter panel looked much better so I continued on rubbing down the rest of the flash lines. I used plenty of water and a combination of a cork block and rubber block for the larger flatter areas and a piece of closed cell foam for the small awkwards areas, primarily around the doors.
Once finished with the wet and dry I washed everything down with clean water then out came the polisher and G3 again. I have only polished the areas that were sanded as yet with G3, I will do the whole car again later.
I can't say I particularly enjoyed the process as it is slow and laborious so I tackled it in manageable chunks, interspersed with other more interesting bits. It is very rewarding though to see those lines disappear and the shine return.
There are quite a few gel repairs to be done but that will have to wait for another day...
I managed to grab a couple of hours to have a go at some flash lines tonight. I haven't been looking forward to this at all, but I can't put it off forever. Other people have done an area from start to finish but I've decided to do the whole car 1 stage at a time.
I started by masking off about 5mm either side of the flash lines all round and then carefully 'shaved' the worst of it all off by drawing a Stanley blade backwards at right angles to the flash line. This gets all but the thickness of the tape off.
I removed all the tape and started with the rear offside quarter panel with some P400 wet & dry (I used 3M paper as I've heard that quality and consistency was far superior to other brands) on a rubber sanding block and plenty of water from a spray bottle. I sanded in the direction of the line and was pleasantly surprised to see it come up quite well fairly easily. The rubber block works well over larger flat or slightly convex areas, but I used a small piece of closed cell foam to get in to the tighter corners and around the radius of the cockpit.
Although I can see that this will take some time, I'm more at ease than I was with the process and the results. I'm still not sure about the engine bay seam though, may even fill it and paint it black.
Boot
I though the boot would be as simple as the bonnet, how wrong was I! The body in general is much weaker than at the front and there is a much smaller return to bolt to. The rear struts are also from WDS but are 6mm diameter, 200mm stroke and 450mm length (502mm with the ball joints).
I first started off making an aluminium support bracket 60mm long but this proved to not spread the load enough so I made a longer one. With an 'L' section strengthener, the rain gutter around the boot opening reduces the 20mm lip even more so there is only just enough left to get a nut on the back.
The strengthener was bolted to the lip and the lower ball attached. The upper mount was much the same as the bonnet but the brackets had to be filed and bent to match the curve of the boot lid. The same was repeated for the othet side and the pressures adjusted, although I'm still not 100% happy with how it's turned out so may revisit this at a later date.
Hi I'm not keen on the agricultural operation and look of the GD supplied boot and bonnet stays so I've decided to go for gas struts.
I have used Dales blog as a basis although I got my struts from WDS Ltd, SDS did do stainless ones but they were twice the price.
Bonnet
I decided to use slightly longer struts than the GD stay, this will provide a bit more leverage hence a lower force is required which will hopefully alleviate the concerns of distortion to the bonnet. Atleast that's the theory!
I ordered adjustable struts with ball end fittings (model 850-0819250) which are about 600mm overall length with a 250mm stroke, the full spec can be seen here. I also ordered some 90 degree brackets with integral ball fittings for the top ends.
I started by propping the bonnet up so that the hinges were a few millimetres from touching the body, I then offered up an extended gas strut so it was just off vertical and marked the mounting points. I now had a mark on the underside of the bonnet which was extended around to the top of the bonnet and another on the inner return of the engine which I transferred out to the wing.
Now with the bonnet shut I could transfer these line across and measure between them. As long as this measurement is more than the compressed length of the strut then everything will close fine.
Using some 3mm aluminium angle I created a strengthening plate to sit behind the return edge. Due to the radius of the return this bracket wouldn't sit flush against both the vertical and horizontal edges so I made some spacers too.
With this clamped in place I marked and drilled the pilot holes, then removed and opened all the holes out. Most are 6mm but for the ball end, I had to thin the GRP to recess it slightly as the thread wasn't long enough. This all then bolts in place and the strut can be connected and with the stainless 'L' bracket connected to the other end the holes can be marked and drill on the bonnet rib. I used 2 M4 rivnuts here.
To ensure that the opposite side was mounted in the same place I had to transfer the mounting point centres to the other side, which is easier said than done due to there being nothing to easily measure from. My method was to tape a bit of string and the known point on the completed side then pull it taught across the bonnet. I then measured between the front of the bonnet and the string along the stripes each side then compared the two. I then adjusted, measured and compared until they matched then marked the othet side.
With the mounting points transferred across I installed the second strut using the same method as the first. Gas was released in 1 second squirts from each strut in stages so they were always equal, until they had enough force to keep the bonnet open without the bodywork flexing when trying to close.
The bonnet fitment is much the same as the boot lid (see previous post), only slight easier as it can rest in place and you can do everything from below.
I did temporarily fit the 3 sealing strips around the engine bay return to get the right height. I added a washer to shim the whole bonnet right a bit as I did with the boot.
The first thing I did with the boot lid was to file down the edges to get the worst of flash line off, the edges will need gel coating, sanding and polishing but that's for another day. I did slip a couple of times and scratch the gel, hopefully these will polish out!
I then cleaned out the 8 hinge mounting holes in the boot lid with an M8 tap as also the 2 pivot holes on the underside of the boot ceiling with an M10 tap. I also had to remove a bit of excess fibreglass around these with a file.
The wire for the number plate light is already installed between the skins of the boot and a hole is already made in the right hand hinge mounting which I opened up a bit to be able to hook the cable with some bent welding wire and grab it with some needle nose pliers. This was also repeated at the other end where the light fits.
I have used the billet alloy hinges and they are a thing of beauty. With these there are 2 angle brackets which were bolted to the boot lid with 8 button head bolts, the hinges then bolt to these with an M8 and M6 button head bolts which are used for height adjustment later.
The fixing pack comes with the same brass bushes as provided with the standard hinges but these need cutting down about 10mm to fit the billet hinges. I put the bush through the hinge, marked with a fine point permanent pen and cut just outside of this line. This leaves the bush slightly proud of the hinge.
With the boot and hinges assembled, I then offered it up to the hinge mounting points within the boot space (it's easier with a second pair of hands!). The bushes should be inserted from inside to out so they are between the hinge and mounting hole, then just screw in the M10 bolts.
The hinges can then be adjusted for height by loosening the bolt that goes through the banana slot slightly until you get the desired height and shut line. My lid was sitting slightly to the left so I inserted a washer between the right hand bush and body which brought it more central.
I also fitted the carbon effect number plate light but it looks a bit tacky next to the real carbon stripes. I have a friend who makes composites for F1 who is going to make me a proper carbon cover for the lamp.
