Build Day 61

Build time today 7.0 hours - Total build time 172.0 hours.

Man time today 9.0 hours - Total man time 197.5 hours.

Decided to tackle the windscreen today, a quick read through the guide and I realized the mirrors need to be fitted at this point also. I had only carbon wrapped one mirror so the first job was to carbon wrap the other mirror. This went better than the last one, I think I am starting to get the hang of it. It still helps to have lots of hands though so I ended up with the mirror in my work bench and the hair dryer balanced on a block of wood. The results seem to be OK and generally enhance the look of the mirrors (I think).

Now on to the windscreen. I must admit I did not think I would need wood work tools. But the advice in the guide is to make a stay 1007 mm long. To do this I used a piece of wood I already had and cut a notch 1007mm along that fitted snugly over the windscreen. The process was not as difficult as I expected, I followed the guide took my time and checked and double checked before drilling any holes. (I found out afterwards that it is advisable to use silicon sealant under the windscreen to prevent water ingress.) With the windscreen in place it really does look like a car.
With the screen in place I had another look at the wipers and fitting the fillet pice that covers the bottom front edge of the windscreen. I could not get this to sit well and after much trial and error decided to get some updated advice from the factory.

Next job was to get the body work fully fitted, I had secured across the top edge but it was still loose along the bottom. Not a difficult job but time consuming to mark up, drill and rivet the bottom edge of the body work.

Now on to the exhaust, a job my son had been looking forward to. Nothing in the guide about the exhaust manifold. I had some Allen headed bolts but there were no washers with them and the a couple of studs were still in place that were used to hold the gasket in place when delivered.
I suspected that washers could be needed and possibly nutlock, the studs were tight and seemed to need a special tool to remove, the heads are like torque drive bits (the end that inserts into the screw)
I decided to put the studs in finger tight and check with Westfield.
(a normal and spring washer should be used, the studs can be used or removed and no nutlock is needed).
With the manifold in place it was onto the exhaust, this comprises the main silencer unit a bent pipe and the silencer cover, plus a mounting bracket. The bracket requires a hole to be drilled through the body work from the inside and then the hole expanded to allow a spacer to be inserted that would sit against the chassis. Getting the exhaust to slid onto the manifold took a while eventually we managed to slide it on with the aid of some copper grease. The natural position for the silencer was then against the body work and it need to be pulled away to allow it into the correct position. getting the clamp that holds the silencer and tail pipe in place was difficult to insert, I ended up dis-assembling the mounting bracket so that I could put the half circle clip in the work bench to squeeze it closed so that it would fit into the mount. It then slid together and was not too difficult to get tightened up.

Finished the day looking at the roll bar and harness mountings again, I managed to carefully enlarge one of the holes to allow the spacer to fit through and sit against the chassis. I then spent some time considering how to best tackle cutting the holes for the roll bar braces. These fit to the top corners of the roll bar and the bottom corners of the chassis and require more holes to be cut. Looking at one of the cars in the factory (the drift car) the hole they had cut was rather large, much larger than I want.
I somehow need to get a line to run parallel to the line of the brace that will run just in side the boot hole. I think I have a solution. Using a couple of spare bolts (4" I think) and some spacers made from copper pipe, I should be able to get a string line that will run parallel.