Build Day 80

Build time today 6.0 hours - Total build time 241.0 hours.

Man time today 7.5 hours - Total man time 270.0 hours.

Reached a point where it is sort of complete though there are things to complete or improve.

First task was to jack up the rear so that I could fit the fuel tank earth and get the rear wheels off.

The Earth tank was a little tricky, working upside down in a confined space, it would have been helpful if the guide had said to do this rather than picking it up from the IVA manual. there is a M6 mount point on the bottom passenger corner of the tank so I made up a length of cable with ring connectors and connected one end to this and the other to one of the fixings holding the rear body work support.

With that done I used silicon to fill up any holes between the mud catchers and the bodywork, these prevent (hopefully) ingress from the rear arches down the sides between the body work and the aluminium panels. A messy job that used a fair bit of silicon.

Now to attach the VIN plate, decided to fit to the scuttle approx where the wiper motor is fixed, lined it up with masking tape and riveted in place.

Next the IVA compliant number plate holder. I used rivet nuts into the bodywork and then tried to measure where to drill the holes in the plate to correspond. Eventually got it fastened, I tried to put spacers between the plate and body work but gave up in the end.

The wires from fitting the repeat indicators were still loose so I spent a little time securing them in place.

Now on to the last task for the day, fitting the pedal cover. I realized it needed to be trimmed so cut it to size and fitted it. I used rivet nuts in the chassis and body work to secure and applied a small bead of silicon to stop water ingress.

It was now sort of complete, it was going back to the factory to get a check over, the suspension set-up and an IVA assessment, I know various things that need to be done for the IVA but there is no rear guidance in the manual. Some of the IVA bits I an not sure about.

To finish for the day I added more fuel and tried to run it for a while. The engine seemed to settle down once it started to warm up.