Rear Over-riders

Today was the turn of the rear over-riders. These simply bolt through the rear of the body work and are bolted up from inside the boot. I've been in a bit of a dilemma recently knowing whether to mount things such as the fog and reverse stand-offs and now the over-riders, level, or by eye, trying to keep things looking "right" even if they actually weren't. After a few trial runs using spirit levels, laser levels and various pieces of wood in order to find "level" and use that as a reference point, I gave up and decided that I'd make it look right in comparison to the rest of the car. To that end I suspended a piece of cotton taught between the lens fixing bolts in the rear lights and used that as a reference point to mount the over-riders level compared with the rear lights. As it stands, a spirit level across the rear lights shows them to be pretty close but as I've said before I've no idea whether the floor is level in this part of the garage. Once it's back down off axle stands, if it looks wrong I can always tweak it later.



The first one took a while before I had confidence to wield the drill but once I'd got one side fitted, it was just a case of the same again on the other side using the cotton line as a reference for height and distance from the boot edge as a reference for how far to mount to the side.





I took the lead from Steve and made some angled spacers to fit over the bolts inside the boot to allow the nuts to tighten up squarely in spite of the angle of the bodywork. I've used standard nuts for now but will change these to nylocs once I know they won't be coming off again.

Number plate bar

Today's job was the number plate bar. This fits across the opening in the nose and whilst used to mount the number plate, it also serves to fill this space and keep Mr IVA happy as without this, it's an IVA fail. The bar is made of stainless steel and simply bolts onto the inner wings via a L shape bracket on either side. I also have an "under tray" to bolt in which closes this area from beneath and stiffens the whole thing up.

First, I clamped the bar into position to gauge it's height in the opening and how far it should be set back from the nose. I used masking tape to mark a horizontal line for comparison but in the end just used the radiator core behind it for reference.



Once I was happy it was level (with the radiator as least) I drilled the holes and bolted it in. Finding what's level has always been a challenge with this build as I've not checked my floor is level and even if it was, I'm not convinced a fibreglass body shell would be exactly level or even symmetrical. That said, I haven't found anything that's concerned me and reading what people have faced with other manufacturers, I've been extremely pleased. I did need to space the bar off the inner wings just a little with some washers. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be a little short to pull the inner wings in or to allow for the mounting brackets of the front over-riders where fitted. In any case, it's set where I want it and I can always remove the washers (two each side) or change the mounting points slightly if I need to at a later date.

Fog & Reverse Lights Fitted

New bolts arrived in the post this morning, only a 5 minute job to refit so thought it rude not too ! I used M5 x 50mm button heads. The bolts are long enough inside the boot to make some angled spacers to allow for the curvature of the body in this area. I haven't done this yet, maybe a job for another day as they tighten up quite securely so I'm not sure the spacers are really needed.

Windscreen refitted

The windscreen is now back on for good and I've fitted the escutcheon plates around the bottom of the screen legs and those for the windscreen demist vents. The plates around the bottom of the screen were bent slightly to match the curvature of the body in this area and the holes through the body and the underside of the plates sealed with clear silicone. I've also fitted the demister "funnels" (?) which fit under the vents and direct the air onto the windscreen. These are held with the same bolts which secure the escutcheons so the two are done together. A little tip for anyone approaching this stage, I had trouble getting the bolts to screw into the threaded bolt holes in the "funnels". This was due to a layer of paint which had built up so I ran an M5 tap through them to clear them out which made the job so much easier.

Fog & Reverse Stand-offs

After going great guns fitting the fog and reverse stand-offs, the bolts I'd bought were too short. I've ordered some more so should be able to get these mounted in the next couple of days. I've also fitted the rubber seal for the boot which you can see in this picture. Felt good to finally get rid of that blue masking tape. It must have been there for about 3 years now !



...and the striker plate for the boot catch. This has been fitted before but it should be on for good now. Boot shuts nicely and just squeezes up against the rubber as the catch clicks into place.

Fog & Reverse Lights

Made a start on fitting the rear fog and reverse lights.
GD supply the mounting bracket which is basically a short length of stainless tube with a plate welded on the end for the light to mount onto. The other end has been profiled to fit the body shape in this area. It took me a little bit of trial and error to get them positioned both centrally and level but I think I'm about there. Next step is to drill some holes and modify the lights themselves by replacing the standard fixing bolts which come affixed to the light with some longer bolts which pass through the light fitting, through the mounting and through the body holding it all together by sandwiching the mounting between light and bodywork.