This weekend we made the first proper, can’t turn back moves. First we drilled holes in the chassis, lots and lots of holes. Then we put in pop-rivets; ok, not so many pop rivets. Bearing in mind this thing cost more than a fancy digital camera, it was quite a first step (when last did you drill a hole in your camera?).
However, before we drilled any holes we decided to finish the side panels. This story is getting old, and it just needed to be finished.
We managed to get both sides finished, including top and bottom folds. They are not likely to win any awards for panel-beating excellence, but they will do the job. I would recommend that anyone thinking of doing the side panels themselves – at least get the top fold done by the machine shop. You can get it folded along the whole length, and then just chop it as you need to.
Once the side panels were finished, we moved on to the brake lines. We had already more or less finalised the shape of the brake line tubing, but they were only held in place with cable-ties. Also the section exiting the tunnel (above the diff) needed improvement. So a bit more bending was done there, to make sure the lines cleared the diff mount point and didn’t have to be forced into the T-piece. Then the first p-clip was folded over the tubing, the position marked with a center-punch, and the hole was drilled. It is quite satisfying to fix it in place with a pop-rivet – until you realise you’ve mistakenly used an 8mm p-clip for the 5mm brake-line…
Because we still have to tighten up all the bolts, and possibly put in mount-points for the T-pieces, we have not put in all the brake-line p-clips. However, all the ones in the transmission tunnel have been fitted.
We then got to work on the fuel lines. To maintain an even flow to the fuel injectors, most cars have two fuel lines – a feed and a return. Ours is no different, so we had to find space for two lines. We decided it would be better to fit one at the top of the tunnel, and the other at the bottom. You really want it out the way as far as possible, so lots of bends were put in it to tuck it behind the support struts. The top fuel line is possibly a bit far over, but hopefully it clears the gearlever and prop-shaft.
Bending fuel line is not easy – although it is similar to brake-line, it is thicker. Thumbs and knees were very sore by the time we were happy with these lines.
We saved the easy part till last – the wiring loom. All this consists of is 7-core trailer wire, which has been covered with flexible split sheathing. We are taking a bit of a risk – if the wiring fails for whatever reason, it will have to be completely removed and refitted. Time will tell if this is a bad decision.
The wiring loom was run along the bottom of the tunnel, on the driver’s side (i.e. the opposite side to the fuel lines). Although the separation won’t do much if there is a fuel and electricity leak, it’s better than wrapping them up together. To attach the loom to the chassis, the 8mm p-clips of recent fuel-line fame were used. With their rubber cover removed they fitted perfectly over the 10mm loom.
During the week D had already drilled almost all the holes in the rest of the panels, so at least that job was done. However, the floor still needed to be drilled. We flipped the chassis over to do this, which is infinitely better than trying to drill the hundreds of holes with your hands above your head. It was also an ideally parallelised task, using two drills; this sped the process up considerably. While the chassis was downside up, we also drilled the holes for the underside panel at the front of the car.
Once the floor was full of holes we flipped the chassis over again and drilled the driver-side transmission tunnel panels. Then we’d both had enough, and called it quits.
B