Bodywork and wiring

It's been another busy weekend on the car, but for once there's not much to show for it; the car looks much the same as it did on Friday. Mostly I've been doing bodywork, fettling the nosecone to fit, and drilling the last two panels. Unfortunately I received these two after I'd attached the front suspension, which is a shame, as I need to remove the suspension to get the drill in to the front part of the panel. Hence, it took me an hour tonight to drill one panel. I'm leaving the other one until tomorrow.

After making holes in the nosecone, I was able to attach the headlight bracket. This took an awful lot of measuring, adjusting, marking, offering up, etc, but on the plus side once I'd drilled it, it ended up in exactly the right place to fit the holes I'd made in the nose cone, which was not entirely expected. And with that on, we were able to trial fit the lights, which look great:

Emily attaches what she likes to call "an eye".

The headlights in place.

Wiring progresses slowly; the front loom is basically done, although I haven't yet attached the engine loom. After much hassle trying to fit the engine loom in front of the battery, I eventually chopped off the big plastic box containing all the wires, and rewrapped it in electrical tape. Now it's a quarter of the size, so it fits neatly between engine and battery, giving me a nice tidy engine bay. Hopefully the wires won't melt... I might add some sort of heat shield here.

Wires wrapped and fitted behind the battery.

Figuring out which pin, and attaching connectors to all the wires will probably take a while. On the plus side, the quality of the GKD loom is really good, with all the plugs easy to attach and neatly labeled.

Other miscelanea: the rear panel is off again, so that it can be dropped off for painting. The tank is plumbed in, barring the filler cap which doesn't fit, although it will need to come out again to fit the rear lights. Some further fettling will be required to get the filler to attach properly. And Jason has kindly offered to swap my 328 dash for his spare M3 dash, which means that I'll get an oil temperature guage in the dash. This will be handy for track use.

I've also ordered an air filter, and started looking at steering wheel options. I'll probably go for the same size as the Elise (320mm diameter), but quick-release (for security, and getting in and out). Still looking for a Z3M gearstick (to shorten the gearstick throw).

I've noticed that the ignition barrel is a bit dodgy, and sometimes spins. Apparently this is a common fault, but basically means I might need to replace the barrel, which sounds like a huge pain. I'll leave that as plan B for now, and make sure I know how to hotwire it in case I ever get stuck, unable to start it.

Finally, I've made my mind up about engine bay cooling: there will be no bonnet scoop (I'm aiming for a very traditional looking Seven), but I am going to have small (15mm) vents at the rear of the engine bay to aid airflow:

Not very traditional looking, but I think they'll be reasonably subtle. They could be adjusted to be much bigger, anything from about 0-50mm, but this looks about right to me.