Build Day 57

Build time today 7.0 hours - Total build time 157.0 hours.

Man time today 7.0 hours - Total man time 179.5 hours.

First task for the day was to remove the radiator as suggested by Oli, I think this will make fitting the bonnet easier when I come to it, I then took the plunge and inserted a couple of rivets into the side panels securing them in place, I then secured the rear section to the bracket installed the day before. I still wanted to adjust the side panels a little to make them line up with the bonnet so did not insert any more rivets.

I next decided to install the heater and windscreen wipers, I thought this would be much easier with the scuttle off. I had already done some preparation for the heater so that just bolted in place. The wipers were more tricky though, one of the supplied pipes was too long, I could have cut it down but did not have the tools to spread the end so decided to take it to the factory. there is also an Allen key that is used to secure part of the wiper spigot (think that is the correct term) that is a strange size and I could not find an Allen key to fit correctly, this was not too much of an issue at the moment as these were only being loosely assembled, they would need to be finished when the screen is in place.

I managed to get the parts fitted without one section and put the scuttle back in place. I trimmed the pipes in the engine bay ready for attachment and fitted the overflow header tank. Fitting the pipe to the main connector on the header taken was quite difficult as it had a larger bore than most of the other pipes and therefore the pipe needed to expand a lot more.  Plenty of patients and hot water later and it was pushed in place. The bracket was fixed to the scuttle but not attached to the tank so that the scuttle could be removed once the wiper part was sorted.

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I next decided to have a go at fitting the RAC roll bar, this involves drilling up through the chassis mounting plates from bellow putting the bar in place and marking where the roll bar fix plates go and cutting a hole in the body work to allow them to sit on the chassis plate. Sounds easy written down like this but drilling holes in the body always make me nervous and the amount of dust created was incredible. 

Once done though I could see the mounting points for the outer harness points and used these and some string to mark a line across the body work.  I did not go any further with drilling holes though as it was far from clear where they were needed and the best method to drill them. They need to be accurate as there are no additional covers to hide any mistakes, as I planed to visit the factory I though I could get some measurements and advice at the same time.  

I finished the day by marking the placement for the fuel filler cap, did not drill it though as I think I will need to double check again probably twice before daring.