Tidying up

On Tuesday, Peter came down for a quick pre-IVA check, on his way back from Up North to pick up his supercharger prototype. We spent some time going over the car, and as a result I have a long list of things to do. A lot of it is simple stuff (cover all wires, rubber covers for all exposed sharp edges, etc), but a few tasks were more substantial.

The most significant of these was making a cover for the wiring on the passenger side - conceivably, a passenger might kick the wiring while flailing around in terror, so Peter felt it would be a good idea to make some kind of panel to cover it. Fortunately I had the old rear panel which didn't fit lying around, so I put aside all thoughts of tendonitis and got out the tin snips.

Panel in progress.

Finished panel in place.

Drilling rivet holes for this panel (they come up from underneath) was, to say the least, inconvenient, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. The passenger view of the car is now a lot more tidy.

With the scuttle off, I also took a long hard look at the dash, and decided to take it out and re-fit it a third time, due to the excessive gaps around the BMW clocks. Getting it out wasn't too bad, although it would have been easier if I hadn't got carried away with using so much of the squirty foam. After much effort with a dremel (note: by far the best attachment for adjusting big holes in fibreglass is the little cylinder of sandpaper), I got a fairly decent fit. There are still gaps around the sides, but they're quite small. I painted the inside of the scuttle black to make the gaps a little less obvious, then sealed the clocks in again.

Waiting for the foam to set.

Dash in place. Note the panel covering up the wiring on the passenger side.

Finally I took a look at the side repeaters. After an hour of reading the IVA manual and browsing the internet, I'm still not certain that my placement will pass IVA - it depends if they test for visibility with the steering at full lock, or not. I think this is where Caterham currently put their repeaters, though, so it ought to be OK.

Side repeaters in place on the front cycle wings.