Lower / Aux dash panel

Today I started the lower dash panel. It was preformed and just needed to decide what switches I wanted and where I wanted them. Ive gone for the Fog light, horn and 12V charger, I might add the start stop button at some point in the future so have left the 12V socket intentionally low.

I started by marking where I wanted what and then drilled the holes out.

I filed them so they were all smooth and then removed the protective plastic to give the following finish....

Next up was to cover the whole thing in a carbon effect, green vinyl id bought.

Final job on the front of the panel was fitting the switches. I really like the effect Ive managed here and may cover the whole of the top tunnel in the same material.

Final job was to connect up the loom for the switches, was one plug off on my first attempt which wasnt too bad, but have it correct now.

Wife having a drive

As its now a handful to push about, my wife sits in the drivers seat and gets pushed to and from the garage every time I get it out to work on it. Here are my two beauties...

Seatbelt

As I had the seat out to put the carpet in, I added the seatbelt before putting the seat back. Easy to do using the fitting kit included. Another small part that makes a big difference. 

Carpets started

The I started putting some of the carpets in today (When the temperature was finally above freezing!) I have the full 21 piece laser cut set and its quite straight forwards to work out what goes where. After dry fitting, I covered the back of the carpet with impact adhesive and then quickly placed the carpet where it was going. I then spent a few minutes massaging the carpet to ensure it was stuck before moving on.

Bonnet

Final job was to get the bonnet out of the spare room. It is just seated on for now but really makes a difference - and gives the wife more room in the spare room.

Then I got in trouble because id used all the parts (apart from the carpets) I got for Xmas in just 3 hours - oops. 

Rear combination lights

Next job for the day was fitting the rear combination lights using the fitting kit id got for Xmas.  Firstly I lined the lights up checking they were within the limits set by IVA. I then marked through all 4 corner holes and the centre and began drilling - slowly. When all 5 holes were drilled to 6.5mm, I started reaming out the centre hole so it could take the rubber grommet needed to prevent the wires rubbing through. 

The centre hole was too fat to take the grommet so using a drum sander, I sanded the GRP slowly until it was thin enough to fit. 

I then bolted the light on and repeated on the other side - Lovely job. 

Battery Tray

Next job was the battery tray.  A really straight forwards job. Line it up, drill the holes and rivet. I have lined mine up so no rivets are into any chassis rails so I can remove the battery panel if I ever need to. 

Before riveting, I passed the battery strap under the tray. Kind of wish id got it the other way around so the branding can be seen on the strap when the battery is in place, but may drill the rivets out and change it at some point. 

First post of 2017

A very kind Santa brought me a number of parts for Xmas which I started adding yesterday.

I got:
Wiper motor
Wiper connectors
Wiper arms and blades
Battery leads and connectors
Full 21 piece carpet set
Battery tray and strap
Rear light fitting kit

I started with the wipers. They were fairly obvious how they went together. I started by reversing the cam inside the wiper motor, then drilled the holes for the mounting bracket inside the scuttle. I then bent the metal sheath to the required curvature before cutting it to size. Connected it all up and now I just need power to test it.

A few jobs

I missed this post from Nov, but I had a day outside and did a few little jobs. I got the dash finalised and can now add and remove it while the scuttle is in place.

I then finished the boot off. Apart from carpets the boot is now complete.

And finally added some IVA trim to the front setup.

I may have done some other bits but can't remember and thats all the pictures I took.