1/11/2004
2hrs
I didn't have a 1/2" UNF Tap set, so I took the
Boot / Bonnet keep plates to John Hopkins to drill and tap. John, an
experienced engineer and restorer of classic Lotus cars , drilled and tapped
them
in a couple of hours. All that was left for met to do was to paint
them.
6/11/2004
3hrs
During the week I painted the keep plates. A couple
of coats of etching primer and a couple of coats of Black Hammerite
Smooth I also marked the boot aperture to give rim of 15mm. With the
paint dry I cut the boot aperture with a pad saw , rounding the corner at
the top of the boot opening with a sanding drum, fitted to the Dremel.
A trial fit of the boot lid showed I needed to trim some more off. The build
manual gives 12mm - 15mm. I found a hacksaw blade exactly 12mm wide. The
blade being flexible meant that I could use it to mark the width of
the rim by laying it against boot lid recess, following the contour of the
rim and marking the edge with a pencil to get exactly 12mm. This time,
because I only had a small amount of material to take off I used a cutting
wheel fitted to the Dremel. changing over to the sanding drum to shape the
corners. The boot lid still does not fit properly at ht bottom but I will
wait until I have the hinges and the wing support stays fitted before I trim
any more off the rim.
7/11/2004
5hrs
There are two 100mm x 25mm access holes to be cut in to
the boot lid for the keep plates. At first glance, my boot lid was not
deep enough to accommodate 25mm wide holes. 20 mm at the most. I
marked the approximate position on masking tape stuck to the boot lid. I
drilled through the corners of the access holes taking care not to damage
the outer or inner skin of the boot lid. I did this carefully well
inside the line I had marked because I was not sure of how much space or
what I was going to find between the skins. I cut out the access hoes
with a cutting wheel fitted to the Dremel. Once I could see inside, I
could see how to trim and shape the hole. I opted for 10mm x 20mm as giving
sufficient access to fit the keep plates.
I had realised I had a problem with the front wing stays early last week. I
would need to bend them slightly to get the best fit between the edge of the
wing and the chassis. Yesterday I realised most of my problem was caused
because I had used a piece of 6mm steel strip, instead of 3mm steel strip as
recommended. I did not have any 3mm strip but found a piece of 4mm
strip which should do. Today I made 2 new stays and with some gentle
heat from a blow lamp managed to bend them to shape. I it is not much of a
bend just enough to get good alignment between the inside edge of the wing
and the under edge of the chassis
8/11/2004
2hrs
I heated and bent the drivers side front, rear wing stay.
Since the bend is quite small it is fairly easy to heat them with a blow
lamp and whack them in to shape with a lump hammer. I marked the
underside of the chassis about 30 mm in front of the chassis bung and
on the centre line of the chassis rail. I drilled a 6.5mm hole and
loosely secured the wing stay with a 3/4" x 1/4 UNF bolt nyloc nut and two
penny washers, I next positioned the wing stay on to the inside of the
lower edge of the rear wing, as far to the rear as I could. This
places the wing stay at an angle to the chassis but makes sure you get
maximum adjustment and best alignment when the bracket is tightened up. I
secured the wing stay to the wing with a 3/4" x 1/4" UNF bolt, nyloc nut and
2 penny washers.
I tightened the bolt in the chassis so that it was just pinching the bracket
and the same on the other end that is bolted to the wing. Pushing
inwards until the wing followed the line of the door I tightened the
chassis bolt to hold the wing in that position and then tightened up
the wing / stay bolt. The procedure was repeated for the drivers side. To assist
with the alignment I had loosened the securing bolts attaching the wing to
the "B" post.. these were tightened up again, once the stays were secure and
the wing aligned. It is surprising how much the front edge of the wing is
pulled back at the bottom, increasing the gap behind the door once the stays
are fitted and aligned. I think I'm OK, as far as the final finished gap is
concerned. But as an after thought it would be wise to make the doors
a tighter fit when initially trimming the doors after securing the wings to
the "B" post To make sure the finished gap is not too large.
17/11/2004
5hrs
Last Sunday I got back to working on fitting the boot
lid. I made the bodywork support bracket that fits to the boot hinge
bridge. I used a piece of 80mm x 4mm x 25mm angle iron, slotting
the securing holes to give the required adjustment. I also repainted the
boot hinge bridge where I had accidentally marked it during the trimming of
the lip of the boot aperture. Today with paintwork dry and
hardened I refitted the boor hinge bridge so that I could measure where the
support bracket should be fixed to give me maximum adjustment. I took the
bridge off to finalise the position of the support plate more accurately.
Then drilled 2 x 6.5mm holes to secure it with ¼" X ¾" UNF bolts and
nyloc nuts. I refitted the boot lid hinge bridge the bodywork so that
it was touching the underside of the bodywork but not forcing the natural
shape of the body work. . I fitted the boot lid hinges. It took
a little time to work out that the hinge brackets fit to the rear of the
bridge and the arms of the hinges pass through the bridge. The hinges are
secured with M6 set screws spring and plain washers. The boot
lid was still a tight fit but I did not want to trim any more off because I
think that when the drives side rear wing is pulled outwards in to position
then it will open up the gap and that will be the best time to do any final
trimming. So I spaced the rear of the bodywork away from the chassis with
some penny washers. This provided a ball park fit. I held the boot lid
in place with duck tape. From underneath I pushed the hinges up to the boo
lid and marked the holes with a pencil. I removed the boot lid
and drilled the securing holes. I fitted the keep plates to the boot
lid. This is a bit fiddly but not difficult to do. They have to be
fitted through the slots cut in the boot lid earlier. I had used 8mm steel
which was a tightish fit, but gentle persuasion with a drift and a hammer
eased the plates in place. It also meant that they did not move when
offering the hinges up to the boot lid to secure them. I trial
fitted the securing bolts to align the keep plates. I refitted the boot lid
and this time I tightened up the hinge securing bolts. Despite being
careful, during the tightening of one of the rear bolts the bolt must have
touched the underside of the fibreglass resulting in a small star crack in
the outer skin. Annoying, and a pain but it can be fixed during the
finishing process. With the boot lid in place I took stack of the fit.
The top of ht boot lid is too low and the longitudinal profile of the
boot and the body on the RHS is not good. The hinges are as high as they
will go so I decided to call the factory to check I had not done anything
wrong. I spoke to Chris Bowyer and It seems I had got everything
fitted correctly but the factory fit some shims under the hinges to lift the
boot lid to match the contour of the body. I had overlooked these in
the parts to be made list in section 2 of the build manual. This explains a lot . It is why the securing bolts
are too long and caused the star mark in the bodywork. and why the boot lid
is below the line of the boot recess in the rear body. I'll make some
shims tomorrow.
21/11/2004
5 hrs
In between doing software installations at work, yesterday and today, I managed to fit some time in on the car. I removed the boot lid and one of the hinge arms. Using the arm as a template I made 2 x 3mm aluminium shims. I refitted the boot lid this time with the shims in place. The boot lid was still below the level of the body but better. Using s steel rule against the top of the boor lid I measured the difference between the top of the boot lid and the top of the body to be about 2mm. I removed the boot lid again and made 2 x 2mm aluminium shims. I refitted the boot lid with the additional shims in place ( a total of 5mm between each hinge and the boot lid). This time the boot lid was a pretty good fit. Close enough to be left for the time being and looked at again when finishing the bodywork. I started to look at the fitting the bonnet just to get the process and procedure clear. While I was doing that I made 2 x 3mm aluminium shims to pack up the bonnet hinges.
25/11/2004
6hrs
Over the
last 2 days I have been working on fitting the bonnet. To find out where the
cut-out for the clutch master cylinder was needed to be made. I put masking
tape on the inside of the bonnet and some engineer's blue on the banjo
connection on top of the cylinder. I carefully fitted the bonnet and removed
it again. the transfer of the engineer's blue marked the position. I
worked out by measuring the cylinder relative to the banjo connection to get
the approximate dimensions of the cut-out. I checked these measurements by
calling Chris bowyer at the factory to get the approximate dimensions off a
fished car. 120mm wide x 100mm deep was close to the measure I had
marked on the underside of the bonnet. I drilled the corners
with a 10mm drill to radius them, I cut the hole out of the underside
of the bonnet using a cutting wheel in the Dremmel, well inside the
dimensions preferring ot be on the small side and opening it out, than too
large to start with. Opening the hole out was a process of trial and
error and fitting and removing the bonnet. I finally settled on a "D" shape
approx 120mm x 110 mm to get the best clearance fitted the bonnet hinges to
the bulkhead. I refitted the bonnet to check the position of the
hinges. with the bonnet pushed as far back as it would go and
centralized I was concerned about the gap between the back of the bonnet and
the scuttle also the position of the hinges relative to the back of the
bonnet. I called Chris to check I had got the bonnet positioned
correctly. During the discussion Chris advised that it might be
necessary to trim the back of the bonnet at an angle to match the scuttle,
also the shims I had made were not necessary, to slot the hinge holes in the
bonnet length ways ( opposite direction to the slots in the hinges.
finally too drill and self tap the keep plates to hold them in place during
fixing. Armed with this knowledge I put masking tape on the underside
of the bonnet, where the hinges will fit and refitted the bonnet.
Making sure the bonnet was in the correct position and symmetrical I
marked the position of the hinges and the mounting holes. This is a bit
tricky but can be done by reaching through the gap between the scuttle and
the bulkhead. I removed the bonnet again and one of the hinges and using it
as a template, aligned with the marks I had made under the bonnet finally
positioned the hinges in the bonnet.
27/11/2004
3hrs
There are
an extra set of holes in the centre of the bonnet hinges which are marked
optional use in the build manual. The holes are useful as easily accessible
retaining points for the bonnet keep plates. I transferred the
position of the holes to the keep plates and drilled them with a 5mm
drill. I then inserted two self tapping screws to cut a thread to
secure the keep plates once they were in position. Using the hinge as
a template I transferred the holes to the underside of the bonnet. During
fitting and refitting of the bonnet to test the hinge positioning I marked
and modified the clutch master cylinder cut out so that the pipe work did
not foul the bonnet. This was a matter of marking the position of the
pipe with a pencil and then shaping the cut out until there was sufficient
clearance.
4hrs
The holes
for the hinge positions had already been marked on the bonnet. I drilled the
centre of each hole with a 6mm drill and slotted the holes with a file I
carefully marked the centres of the central holes and drilled them out. I
slid the keep plates in position and secured them through the central holes
with self tapping screws. Make sure the heads of the screws will pass
through the holes in the hinges. The holes in the keep plates did not
line up exactly with the slots in the bonnet. So I took the keep plates out
and modified the slots slightly so that when I refitted the keep plates the
holes lined up. I fitted the bonnet to the car and immediately ran in
a problem that working single handed it was almost impossible to align the
bonnet and secure the hinges. I made several attempts including fitting the
hinges to the bulkhead first, and when that did not work fitting the hinges
to the bonnet first. I ended up the day with the bonnet half on and secured
but the alignment looking bad. I stopped to ponder the problem and determine
if the bonnet and hinges were in the right position. Once I have
decided what to do I'll make the necessary adjustments and get some help
fitting the bonnet.
29/11/2004
2hrs
There is not much to write home about today, just time
consuming. I removed the bonnet and the hinges again. I repositioned
the hinges to give me more fore and aft adjustment Using the hinges as a
template I marked the extreme position to move the bonnet rearwards. then
slotted the holes to give me that much adjustment. I also bevelled the
rear under edge of the bonnet to match the angel of the scuttle. So the the
bonnet would sit closer to the scuttle and also lower to reduce the gap at
the rear of the bonnet. All this with repeated trial fittings just
took time but the end product is a better fit but it will still need to be
checked with the hinges refitted and adjusted again during the final fitting
stage.
30/11/2004
3hrs
Finally
the bonnet is fitted. I still have some work to do to see if I can improve
the fit. It showed what a rest from a task can do. I struggled on
Sunday evening to get the bolts to screw in to the keep plates in the bonnet
lid, but following the work I did with the slots yesterday It was much
easier to engage the top two bolts by reaching through the scuttle space.
once these bolts were secure I raised the bonnet, propping it open so that I
could screw up the remaining bolts. I removed the self tapping screw that
were securing the keep plates because these were restricting the adjustment.
I tightened the bolts securing the hinges to the bulkhead. The bonnet is
central but there is still a gap at the rear outer edges next to the
scuttle. I'll take another look at this tomorrow
Total hours to date =885 hrs.
