Badges

I had hoped to go to the Kit Car show at Newark today but the weather wasn't brilliant and as I still haven't got a roof for my car or a tonneau cover, I didn't want to risk it. I took the opportunity instead to tick another small job off the list and fit the badges that Andy kindly gave me when I went for my suspension set up.

These are simply held in place by double sided tape, sometimes called number plate tape. Basically the same stuff you buy in patches to stick your number plates on but this comes on a roll.

The badges themselves are laser cut stainless steel.

 

Boot Carpet

One little job I never got round to completing last year was fitting the carpet into the boot. I think after all the faffing about I had fitting the roll hoops, the thought of taking them out again to fit the carpet was not top of my "fun things to do at the weekend" list.
However, time to bite the bullet and get on with it !
One of my concerns was cutting the holes for the roll hoop legs and getting the hole lined up for the petrol tank filler neck as this was a lot closer to the boot opening and any mistake here would be difficult not to notice. The filler neck is also slightly slanted to one side so any mark made as an impression onto the bottom of the carpet would need to be offset so the whole made lined up with the bottom of the neck rather than the top.

I decided to try and make a reference point for the bottom of the filler neck in relation to the roll bars by using pieces of paper with the relevant size wholes cut in them and a slit made to the edge for easy removal. I placed them into position and then taped them together to make a "map" of the holes which needed to be cut, hopefully with good reference to each other.

I then decided to go the whole hog and "map" out the whole boot floor with the theory being that as long as I could get three pretty reliable marks on the underside of the carpet where the wholes should be cut, I should be able to use these as reference points to mark out all of the others.

 

 

One I'd removed the paper "map" from the boot I went about the arduous task of removing the roll bars, although I must admit I'm getting pretty good at it now, and laid the carpet in position. Then using a piece of chalk from underneath, I did my best to mark through the holes in the boot floor onto the underside of the carpet. Unfortunately I couldn't use a previous method I'd tried of first marking the edge of the holes with chalk and pushing the carpet down onto them as I'd now placed flat rubber doughnuts over the holes to take up the space between the roll hoop legs and the holes I'd cut and provide a watertight seal to stop water coming up into the boot from beneath.

Anyway I managed to get a few good marks and when removing the carpet and laying my "map" over the underside (after remembering to turn it over), everything seemed to line up pretty well.

I sat in the sun with a cup of tea in hand pondering my methodology and whether I'd missed anything or hadn't thought it through properly. It all seemed sound so the time came to cut the holes and see if it would fit.

Quite happy with that !

I've still got a little finishing off to do but the difficult bit is over.

 

Back to the Mothership

After 5 years using a picture of someone else car parked outside the GD workshop for inspiration, it was very satisfying to take the following photo:-

With around 600 miles on the clock, I took the car into GD to have the suspension alignment checked in preparation for the trackday I've booked at the end of June. Andy was very complementary on the build and after a few tweeks of the tracking front and rear and a rough guess at the damper settings, Andy took me for a spin around a local private road to see how it felt on the move. With Andy's experience of these cars and his knowledge of the road I don't suppose this was anything special to him but to me, it was a ride I'll never forget ! Going through sweeping left and right hand bends, accelerating and braking whilst calmly giving me a running commentary on the cars handling I was left completely in awe of the performance and capability of this car, my car, the one I built myself, at home, in my garage... ! Totally and utterly amazing !

I'll apologise in advance but I feel a bit of a speech coming on, I'd like to thank Andy and Meena for their help and support over the years, my Dad for giving me the confidence to have a go and my Wife and family for their patience and understanding, the endless cups of tea and constantly explaining to people on the phone that I was in the garage. Oh dear, I seem to have come over all soppy, never mind, a quick blast around the block will cure that ! ...... cue tyrannical laughter .....