2nd July 2002
Spent some time looking over the results of the weekends activity in getting the bodywork onto the car. Mostly this involved lots of measuring, shuffling, and thinking about what needs doing next to ensure the alignment is as correct as possible. It's quite tricky/fiddly.
I realise that the front part of the left of the main body section is unable to sit properly because it needs bit cutting out where a (spare?) bracket is attached to the chassis. Also the same is needed where the rear bracket attaches to the chassis.
I also establish that where the top flange is cut away for dash board support bar, needs a little more cutting away to give more room for manouvre.

5th July 2002
Have spent most of this week doing and re-doing the measuring and aligning thing.
I'm getting happier that the alignment and position of things is about right, however theres seems to be some conflict with the bonnet. There are two areas of concern, firstly the return flange appears to prevent the external surface of the nosecone from aligning properly withe bonnet. This should be fairly easy to adjust. Secondly, and most worringly, the nearside mounting block doesn't seem to mate properly between body and bonnet.
Not sure how I'm going to sort this, but haven't had chance to speak to Westfield about it yet as I have been quite busy at work.

6th July 2002
Spoke briefly to Westfield to discuss my problems with the bodywork. Unfortunately, Saturday is not the best day to phone them and speak to someone who knows the technical side thoroughly.
I press on with the final round of measuring and checking, this time taking the wheels off the measure the equality of the rear against the chassis (since the suspension geometry is very unlikely to be equal, and is clearly toeing in lots which is visually deceiving). Also got the tip to check the rear using the spare wheel carrier mounts to see is they are in the right place against the spare 'imprint' in the rear panel.
I make the extra cutouts required on the main body left hand side top flange. (And note that this flange is consistently bigger than the other side)
Next time to have a look at the bonnet mounting block problem. All I can do for now is to ensure that both the male and female parts of the mounts are fully smoothed. I'll have to speak to Westfield on Monday about whether and how much of a problem it might be.
Whilst I'm on, I also smooth off the mounts for the scuttle to ensure they are fitting as best as possible.
Final job for today is to remove the gaffa tape which was used to attach the panels last weekend. This left some nasty stickiness behind, which I then removed with white spirit. However, this left some bad marks on the bodywork, so I ended up washing it down, and then had to T-cut all the bodywork from the scuttle forwards to remove the marks. Won't be using that tape again!

7th July 2002
Spent a short while in the morning taking a few reference pictures for use in discussion with Westfield tomorrow. I noticed that the return flanges on the nosecone are somewhat unequal - not sure whether this is meant to tbe the case. The flanges on the bonnet are slightly unequal also, but not as much.
I also took the time to mark fully where the rivets for the underside of the main body section are going. Once the the top has been rivetted down I will have no way of seeeing where to fit these, and don't want to try to rivet through a rivet.
In the afternoon, I finally got around to sorting out some old jobs which I have been putting off for a while. First up was the handbrake. I took the cable out again completely, and have now re-routed it following a much less tortuous route. Since I have the smaller diff, the cable can easily run straight out of the back of the tunnel, and then curve round and down along the rear of the lower wishbones, and into the caliper.
This is much easier, and I finally manage to wind the adjuster up and down alot (nice, blisters!) to get the quadrant attached to the lever.
Next outstanding job to sort out was the speedo bracket. I'd already worked on this and thought I'd got it sussed, but it turns out I hadn't allowed the sensor to sit close enough to the washer which it will be sensing. So I drilled out the holes into slots to allow me plenty of room for adjustment, and then gave it a lick of paint.
The final fiddly job to sort is the gearchange rod. Now I'd been putting this one off for a while, but the time had finally come to get it sorted. It was chafing against the front reverse box mount, and was generally no where near the quadrant at the front (too low). So a couple of goes in the vice and all was well. I put an extra bend upwards in towards the front so that the rod end comes in line with the quadrant better.
OK it's proving difficult for people to visualise my bodywork problems, so here's a couple of extra pictures which highlight the problem areas.
First one shows the bonnet mounting block not sitting down properly - causing the bonnet to be misaligned diagonally across it (I think) and the obviously larger panel gap between it and the main body section. I think I need to fettle these blocks to make them mate better.
Second one shows the bonnet to nosecone alignment problem. I'm holding them together as best as possible while taking this picture. It looks like I'll need to take a few mm off the bonnet return flange to resolve this.

8th July 2002
Right, I've now spoken to Westfield about my bodywork problems. They've made a few recommendations, most of which I think I've already tried but I spend a little time shuffling bits around again. For the bonnet mounting blocks they agreed with me that I probably just need to fettle them out a bit so that they fit inside each other better. Similarly for the bonnet return flange, where the nosecone alignment is not quite right.
I try fiddling the bodywork around a bit more again, and seem to lose the nicest setting I'd had so far from yesterday. Suitably frustrating - so I look at some other bits.

I fit the speedo sensor since the paint is now dry on the modified bracket. This goes on quite nicely now that I have slotted the mounts, since I can finely adjust it as required to get the recommended 2mm gap between it and the washer on the prop.
I also fit the diff breather, since I think I'm all done (save for fixing down one of the] fuel pipes) at the back here now that I've fitted the handbrake cable and speedo sensor.

9th July 2002
Well, after last nights poor bodywork fiddling I was determined to get it sorted today. So I've taken some more advice from Westfield (which contradicted yesterdays suggestion of having to fettle the mounting blocks), so one last shot then I'm taking the dremel to it!
It's not getting any better, and I use a great idea from someone at work which was to make an outline of the slot and try it over the block. This proved in my mind that the lug and the slot are marginally differently sized enough to make the bonnet not sit down quite enough (it is only of the order of a couple of mm).
I take to the slot in the bonnet with the dremel. I probably shave about 1mm maximum off all around the 'vertical' edges of the slot. Unfortunately a small area of the gelcoat layer cracks as it was obviously quite thin at this spot, but it's certainly no worse than the other side which has a gaping big hole in it ex-factory(see 5th July).
I trial fit the bonnet and it sits down that crucial bit further, proven by the gap between the top corner of the bonnet and the scuttle now lining up nicely.
Another quick shuffle of the bodywork and suddenly everything falls into position! The only outstanding issue now is that between the front edge of the bonnet and the nosecone. I know that this is easily resolved by taking a little off the return edge of the bonnet, so am not overly concerned by this for now.
So that's it, I mark everything up and clamp it all down so it can't go move before I get to put the rivets in. I mark where I _think_ the rivets are best placed in the top of the bodywork next to the rollbar, but I'll check this to see what the factory recommend here.

10th July 2002
Following (more!) advice from Westfield, I summon up the courage and drill and rivet the main body section next to the roll bar. It wasn't quite as scary as I thought it would be as the drilling and rivetting all went pretty easily. I eventually opted to put 3 of the large headed rivets in as it was quite straight forward, and just adds a bit of extra hold in this area.
I then have a look at fixing up under the rear of the car. This turns out to be a bit tricky and doesn't seem to be something that just one pair of hands can do. The lips under the rear of the bodywork have to bend up quite a long way (with an interesting creaking noise) to even think about being able to clamp and then drill/rivet them.
Some extra pics also showing the (hopefully) final(ish) bodywork alignment.

12th July 2002
Now that the bodywork is in a fixed position, I can get on with fixing it all down. The next bit to do is the underside of the rear of the car. I had looked at this briefly the other day, and had since realised that the easiest way to do this is the use the trolley jack to hoik the rear bodywork up until the flanges are level with chassis blocks it is to attach to.
Once I'd tried to ignore the creaks and groans, I marked the rear flange, then drilled and rivetted it. Easy really when you work out how!
Next bit is to fit along the top edge of the front of the sides of the body. Again, the first rivet here dictates how the main body section aligns with the bonnet and the nosecone. So one more check for good luck, then the first rivets go in on each side.
Now that the front sides are in a fixed position (left to right), it is a simple enough job to blast a few rivets in down each side. The body is offset slightly, but it does seem to be quite assymetric, and this gives the nicest balance of alignment I have found. Also the nosecone seems to sit slightly off centre due to one of the front chassis rails appearing stick out slightly more on one side than the other.
Continuing along the top flange of the main body section, back towards the rear of the car, there are some rivnuts pre-fitted in the top chassis rail (two per side). These are used to bolt the scuttle down into position, and so holes have to drilled through the top flange of the body to allow this to happen.
I had previously marked where they are located, so it was quite simple to carefully drill through the GRP.
A final picture showing how the bonnet aligns with the now fixed front of the main body section. Also a couple of pictures showing the datum alignment markings which denote where the scuttle should (will!) sit, and two vertical lines for reference alignment between the upper and lower parts of the bodywork (i.e. sides to scuttle and bonnet).

13th July 2002
Continuing to fix the main body section, the first job for today was to put a couple more rivets along the top flange. One of these I have put just in front of the scuttle position, and another between the two rivnuts. This second rivet is not totally necessary since the rivnuts will hold the body in place here, but I figured I may as well put one in because the only other things holding the top of the main body section are those at the roll bar mounts.
Now that all the top of the sides is fixed, it is time to fix the lower flanges. I had pre-marked and measured where these rivets are to go, to remove the element of guesswork as to where to drill to avoid existing rivets and get into the chassis tube.
This part of very knackering, as it is more marking, drilling, and rivetting, which all has to be done lying on my back on the floor working upwards. After a while, I have it all done and fixed.
The main body section is very rigid now that it is all fixed in position.
Now that the main body is fully fixed in position, I remove all the other body panels including the rear wings. They are not needed again for a while, and are best stored out of the way to avoid any accidental damage during the build.
That's just about all that I have time to work on for today. So I spend a little time tidying the garage and putting some protective sheets over the bodywork to avoid damage to it whilst I am working on the engine.
The next job is the cut the hole for the exhaust manifold, so I cover this area with masking tape in readiness.

14th July 2002
Time to cut the hole for the exhaust manifold today. I had already prepared the area of the side of the body where the hole is to be cut, and taken lots of measurements from the last time the exhaust was trial fitted to the car (29th June).
First part was to cut an approximate minimum hole. The measurements I had previously taken would in theory provide a hole just enough for the pipes at the point where they pass through the body. Obviously it needs to be bigger than this, not least because the manifold is a fair amount bigger at the engine ends which clearly have be passed through the side bodywork.
I marked the measurements on the masking tape on the body, and proceeded to cut the hole. I'd covered as much as possible of the car because I knew full well that this was going to create some serious mess.
Through an iterative process of cutting, sanding, offering the manifold up, measuring, and marking some more, then repeat, I soon had the hole cut to the right size.
I'm fairly happy that the hole is now right. It's probably not the optimum, but it looks neat enough, and any smaller makes life even trickier to actually get the manifold through and hole and attached to the engine (which requires a bit of leverage / free play).
Any oversize of the hole will provide additional cooling around the manifold anyway, which must get rather warm quite close to the GRP...?
Fitting the manifolds to the engine is particularly tricky, and takes a few attempts, and plenty of time and patience. The gap I have to work through is somewhat restricted, and the non uniform welding of the pipes at the collector mean some encouragement is needed to get all the pipes into the exhaust ports on the engine at the same time.
Once the manifold is fitted, it's time to check the alignment of the exhaust against the side of the car, and get a feel for the correct position of the engine on the mounting brackets.
A quick shuffle of the engine finds what seems to be the optimum position in terms of good exhaust alignment, good clearances where the manifold passes through the bodywork aperture, and the softest angles possible for the front prop shaft.
That's consumed most of today, only time left for a damn good clean up to collect up the small piles of blue dust which have accumulated in and around the car from the cutting and sanding of the exhaust aperture. The dremel is a great tool for doing this, but it doesn't half make a mess and spread it around the whole place!

©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4