From the last post you will have guessed I am not far away from completion. I have had the car out on closed roads to set the brake balance etc and to deal with a misfire issue which was a faulty camshaft sensor. So the car currently looks like this:

 

 I will be booking the IVA in the next week or so so Steve O'Mara may have a few emails as I work through the documentation.

All being well I should be road legal soon!

I just looked at the date of my last post. I am not sure where the time has gone however, some of it has clearly been in the workshop.
One of the jobs I was less keen on doing was the front wheel covers. The brackets which came with the kit don't give a great deal of confidence and reading recent posts on the GKD Owners Club site I am pretty sure I have trouble ahead. I decided to push on without modification and just get the job done. One aspect I did want to ensure was mini-missing the weight of the cover. I bent the bracket  over the tyre using wood spacers. Inside the cover I used 50x25mm alloy extrusion to space the cover away from the tyre. I then made up the wiring loom for the indicator and side repeater. The pictures tell the story:

I have used M8 bolts to hold the cover in place. these go through the cover, space and into the bracket to which I welded a nut. The spacer and cable bases are held in place with Sikaflex.

After fitting the boot floor I needed a break from alloy sheet so moved on to cast iron. The front brake calipers needed to be cleaned up ahead of a rebuild and re fitting. I had seen on You Tube a guide to electrolytic rust removal. Simple really, put the item into water, spoonful of baking soda and wire it up to a battery charger and a day of so later item comes out looking like new. Nothing to it, dead easy and works every time. The reality is it does!!! It worked so well I did mine twice. On the first attempt the caliper came out looking like it went in and just wet. I then set about it with a scrapper and wire brush and all the rust fell away so easy leaving a clean surface ready to paint. I did mine again just to see if I could get a couple of patches of rust which were difficult to get to to come clean.

So, a few pictures to show how it all went:

Once I had done all the parts I painted them with black Hammerite and rebuilt the calipers with new seals and covers. and then assembled them on the uprights. Very happy with the result. 

As for the process it is so simple yet very effective.

Next job to complete was the "boot" floor. I had fiddled around for ages trying to work out how I could get the floor fitted, and still have access to the fuel pumps and filter. In the end I plumped for cutting the supplied floor into three pieces. Two "ends" and a middle removable panel. This helped with the fitting and after a very enjoyable few hours it was done. I sealed the edge of the floor with Sikaflex and made up a seal with Sikaflex for the removable panel to screw down onto.

Not the best set of pictures but it looks like this:

I did say I would add a picture of the instrument cluster with the rubber seal. I am quite pleased with how it covers up my hamfistedness cutting out the aperture.

I mounted a small alloy bracket to the scuttle and with a Tie Strap the cluster stays in place.

I have also added pictures of the reinforcing for the bonnet catches and the rear view mirrors. I wanted to make sure the mirrors were mounted solidly and didn't vibrate. 

I had fitted the binnacle and bulkhead some time ago but left the instrument cluster fitting as I struggled with how I was going to get it to fit into the right place whilst getting a good finish in the opening I needed to cut out. This was my solution. With a small disc cutter I cut out a large part of the area where the cluster would go and then with a file, sanding blocks and the disc cutter I got what at best could be called a good fit. The reality is the opening I had formed was pretty ropey. Although the instrument were all visible it just looked scruffy. I saw some "D" shaped soft rubber door seal on one of the stands at Stoneleigh so I had a length. I split this down the curved section and put it on the binnacle and pushed the instrument cluster against the flat section.This looked much better. With this done I took of the rubber strip, wrapped the cluster in cling film and holding it in place Filled the area around the cluster with expanding foam.. Once dry this gave me a "tube" the cluster would slide in and with the rubber strip back in it makes a reasonable job.

I will add a photo of the front when I can find it...

June 2013 sounds a long time ago and is! So, whats been going on? Well quite a lot. Firstly I managed to fall off a horse and wrecked my right shoulder. Torn tendons, rotator cuff and other soft tissue damage, surgery followed and a hefty recovery period. Whilst of sick I was made redundant so all in all a crap period in my life! However, after accepting the car build was going to be a bit of an issue I relaxed and carried on anyway..... with one arm strapped up it was at best amusing.

So, to pick up somewhere near where I stopped. I completed the radiator install and decided to have the air cleaner in front of the radiator so that it got a good cool charge. So much cutting and fitting I ended up with this:

Over all I am pleased with this set up, Plumbing the hoses etc all went well. All the parts came from JJC Racing who were a great help.