General fit out

So, spurred on by the impending IVA changes there has been considerable progress!

I've refitted the windscreen and roll hoops - hopefully for the last time.
One thing to note is that when the interior door/side finishers are fitted, you can't get to the screen pillar bolts - certainly not easily. If this ever has to come out there's a good chance of having to remove and refit the finishers and redo the carpeting - so keep some spare.
Before fitting the screen I attached the centre stay I got from Brasscraft. This simply hooks over the top rail of the screen, attaches with a small bracket at the bottom with two small grub-screws then you can tension it with a nut under the bracket. One problem I had was once the screen was fitted, the assembly became slack and needed the small nut tightening. I challenge you to have a spanner that can get to it! I ended up making a special tool out of some scrap steel sheet.
One other thing to consider is the  bracket offers two holes that can be used to fix to the body. I fitted a couple of slotted screws and nylocks to hold this in place . Its difficult to drill the holes with the windscreen in place so I managed to drill them from below. Its well worth fixing the bracket to teh body as it increases the solidity of the screen a lot.

For the roll hoops the biggest issue I had was with the escutcheons.i elected to drill through the body and fix them with raised-slotted stainless steel screws with nylock nuts. In hindsight this would have been easier with self tappers. The other thing to consider is the orientation of the 4 holes relative to the body. I arranged mine in a leading diamond pattern - i.e. with the diagonal in the direction of the car. This caused some problems in getting a screwdriver in due to the curvature of the rear hoop leg and made it really hard to fit the retaining nut on the front of the two forward legs as its in the small space in the body roll. So my advice would be use self tappers and orientate the hole pattern two either side of each hoop leg.


For both the screen and the roll hoops I've sealed them from underneath with silicon to prevent leaks.

I've also fitted the rear view mirror I got from S&J Motors. I think theirs looks best as some others have agricultural looking joints. It also comes with a soft surround that works for the IVA.





Now once I'd got these fitted its was time to try out the swanky new cover we got at the Classic Car show at the NEC. It was a bit dear but the missus picked it so all her fault!

So the next thing I did was plumb the car ready for a fire extinguisher system. I've read a few horror stories recently where some guys have been caught out with electrical or engine fires so having spent a load of money already it seemed a good investment to spend another £200 or so on a fitted system. After some research I bought a 4 litre SPA system from Merlin Motorsports. Its a AAAF water/foam based system that fits in the boot ( between to roll hoops) and is manually operated with a toggle handle and cable. There are automatic versions but too risky for me - I like to be in control! The key actions at this stage of the build were to run the pipework from the boot to the engine bay and to fit the nozzles. Ive run the pipework from the boot via the offside wheel arch then through the sill then up behind the dash. From there I've aimed one nozzle at the fuse box then two nozzles through the firewall into the engine bay - one each side of the engine. I'm not fitting the release handle or cylinder this side of the IVA as I doubt the T-handle will pass the radius test.

One of the fire extinguisher nozzles in engine bay

Extinguisher nozzle aimed at fuse box. 

Next up was finishing the heater.

Heat shield fitted

Now after the last engine run I noticed there was some leakage from the heater hose and as I'm using an internally mounted heater from T7, this means any leakage drips onto the tunnel and potentially into the interior. So I removed the heater and found a crack in one of the hoses I'd fitted - easy fix. To deal with the potential for future leaks I mage a drip tray out of aluminium angle and sikaflex to seal it, then drilled some drain holes in the top of the tunnel in case of future issue.

While I was at it I fitted a heat shield on the front of the heater matrix to protect the instruments and cabling from direct contact with the hot matrix. The heat shield is perforated and spaced from the matrix to allow decent airflow.

Drip tray and drain

So then onto the job I've been putting off - the carpets!

The build manual suggests a fitting order and I'd say it'd definitely the way to do it. i borrowed another idea from Andy Menzies and cut some 6mm MDF to fit on the floor rails to eliminate the bumps in the carpet you would get. These were treated with varnish to help when ( not if!) I get rained on in future.

Once done the first bit is the rear cover. I must have measured this about 6 times before I was brave enough to cut it as its about £200 quids worth.In the end I made a paper template to use as a cutting pattern and all was well. To fit it I used acetone to de-grease both the fibreglass and the material then used the supplied contact adhesive on both surfaces and waiting until its nearly dry before offering up. Now this glue is pretty powerful stuff - both for sticking and for causing hallucinations! reminded me of my old Airfix days! So you have to place it perfectly as there's no adjustment. Now I recon that those guys who chose to fully carpet the rear valance must have one heck of a game doing this as its a big piece to manage.

Showing MDF spacers and rear cover

So once done I cut and fitted the bits of carpet that finish the rear valance and all starting to come together.

One of the awkward bits was fitting the tunnel cover. My missus had elected to pay extra and have this leather topped - I have to admit it does improve the finished look.

The technique I came up with was to glue and fit one side initially the stretch it over the tunnel, trim to size then glue and fit on the other. If you try to do it all in one pass - its likely to be a sticky mess.

fixing second side of tunnel cover

Once all carpets in I have to say it really moves the whole job to another level and I couldt help but do a test fit of the seats and dash!

So to make it even better I fitted the gear lever gaiter and trim ring I got from S&J motors. This is fixed with self tappers. The gear knob was £10 from E-bay.

 Next job was to finally fit the handbrake lever. Now I'd always had a problem with getting the handbrake warning light to operate correctly. What was happening was that when the handbrake was applied, If you fold the lever down, the handbrake warning light went out - which is not correct.
To prevent this i fitted a small bracket ( the silver bit in the picture below) This stops the lever from going too far down so it doesn't depress the switch and has the added benefit that the handle is held just above the carper - making it easier to grab.

showing handbrake lever stop (silver bit at front)

Next up was the seat-belts. I went for Willans Short Tails ( suitable for Westfields) and I'm very happy with them. AK provide some neat finisher covers for the top mount.

Panic Stations

Well it appears our friends in the government are planning to wipe out a large swathe of the UK kit car industry by changing the rules for emissions testing. As it stands, your engine is assessed for emissions based on its original data of manufacture. This allows us to use a period-relevant engine when building our cars, thus avoiding fuel injection and catalytic converters. The government proposal is to require all kit cars presented to IVA to be assessed to current emissions regulations. Now it might be possible to get a carburetor engine through the current Euro5 regulations, but only by adding catalytic converters at some additional cost. When Euro6 comes out - its a bridge too far for carburetors. It seems the government are 'consulting' on this proposal but it looks like a done deal from what I'm reading. Hopefully the kit car community, manufacturers and supply chain will rally round and lobby to prevent this from becoming law. In terms of emissions, I'd bet our carburetor motors are a fraction of 1% of the total and I recon my neighbors bonfire is a worse culprit than me!

Anyhow I guess I'm one of the lucky ones as I'm nearing completion and there's a good chance I can get to IVA under current rules  - as long as I get my finger out!

Rebuild after paint

Now for the part I've been looking forward to - refitting all the shiny bits for hopefully the last time!

I've started at the front with the overriders and lights and fitted the nose cone vents. I know these are individual taste but my missus thinks they are great!

Fitting the vents is quite straightforward using body filler and holding them in place until the filler goes off. Then apply more filler underneath to ensure they stay put.

One thing that other builders have said - and they are right - is the fear factor of working on the car after paint. No more leaving tools on the wings!

Dashboard

Fitting the dials, switches and lamps took a surprising amount of time but the good news was I could do this in the dining room rather than in a cold garage!

Some of the holes in the fibreglass came up too small to tuck the leather through with the switches but this was fixed by carefully opening up the holes with the Dremmel. Its not too scary to do as the padding separates the leather from the fibreglass.

Here's my first attempt at wiring everything up. Not as neat as some I've seen and even though its going to be hidden its on my list for rework.

Paint

It’s back, and a great job done by Option 1 Sportscars.

We are very pleased with choice of colour, Aston Martin Diavolo Red which has some depth to it and works well with the curves. This is a change from our original thinking of a candy colour but we were persuaded to avoid the three stage complex colours as you could be looking at a total respray if a repair needed. Based on the result this looks like good advice.

Door alignment

I'd previously fitted the door catches as per the manual which requires the doors to be aligned with the body then fitting the door catches to the door with spacers to simulate the thickness of the door card. The recommendation is the thickness of the untrimmed door card plus 5mm. This assumes you are fixing the trimmed door card behind the catch and not cutting the trim around the catch.

To work out where to fit the striker and striker plate I clipped the striker into the door catch, then with the door aligned, marked he striker location and striker plate. Its then a case of cutting some wooden blocks to support the striker plate - then using lots of P38 filler to hold it all in place. Then leave it all to set for a good 24 hours.

Striker, striker plate and tube spacer. Note the striker plate is
proud of the door flange.

I also used some 1/2" steel tube as a spacer between the striker head and the striker plate to improve the rigidity.

So I followed this to the letter and ended up with a great door fit and nice action between the catch and striker.

Striker plate filed down flush.

Next thing was to fit the internal door frame finisher and this is where I found a difference on each side of the car. On the drivers side - no problems. On the passenger side, the striker plate ended up proud of the body lip - which meant I had to file it down to get it anywhere near flush. I used a power file for this  - a lot safer than a grinder.   What this meant was where I could fit the full fibreglass finisher on the drivers side - I had to trim the passenger side so that it finished below the striker plate - else when carpeted it would be sticking out too far.

Passenger side internal finisher - trimmed at top

Next up was to fit the fully trimmed door cards - and this is where the problems started. Basically the thickness of the door card combined with the AK supplied seal meant that the door would not shut correctly and bowed out at the bottom.

The problem was that I'd made the door cards too deep (top to bottom) so the only route forward was to trim the bottom of the cards so that the door seal presses more on the door rather than the card. Now this is easier than it sounds once the card has been trimmed. The leather covering  - which is glued down - has to be carefully peeled back which then allows the bottom edge of the card to be sanded down. Then followed multiple test fits, more sanding , more test fits until I reached a point where the door would fit flush. I used the  power file to ease the operation and beveled the card edge  to try and get some sort of seal between the card and the seal. I then  used leather adhesive to re-fix the leather trim. Lots of hours went into this but its so important to get this right.
In hindsight its better that I had made the cards too big than the other way round!.

Showing the passenger side latch and cut-down inner finisher.

Finished door card

Door seal fitting

The next issue I had concerned the drivers side door latch. The lever is simply an interference fit onto the short shaft that acts as the fulcrum. As the door lock was a bit stiff - and the lever will tend to twist when force is applied -  I managed to dislodge the lever from the fulcrum. I'm thinking this needs to be pretty robust in real life and was toying with returning it to S&J Motors for a replacement.  In the end and to avoid delays I fitted a flat head bolt a couple of thin washers and a nylock to hold it all in place. This meant drilling a clearance hole into the door card and the door skin itself (you don't need these with the standard lock as the rear face is flat.).

In my opinion the result is a lot more robust and I plan to modify the passenger side to match.

Standard latch assembly with pressed-on lever

Modified lever assembly with location bolt.

Off to the body shop

This post is out of sync with the work I've been doing to get the car ready for painting but today's the day its away to the body shop for final preparation and paint.

We've chosen to go with Option1 Sportscars in Bromsgrove. This follows a fair bit of research and weighing up the pro's and cons of the various companies.

In the end we got down to a choice between Option1 and AK's next door neighbours who, granted, do a great job on AK's demo and customer cars.

Andy Menzies picked Option1 for his car and was kind enough to show us round his stunning motor. This was enough to convince me that these guys were a good choice and know what they are doing with composite bodywork. The clincher was they are only 30 minutes away. Frank, the owner, came round one Sunday morning to look over the car and confirm the telephone quote previously given and explained the process they go through to prepare and paint.

So off it goes and I can look to tidy the garage ready for the return!

All undressed ready for the paint shop