Dashboard

Got my dashboard made. This one is temporary for SVA purposes. I made it from 6mm ply, covered with foam and vinyl. Hopefully it will be ok for the SVA test, its not the neatest job in the world, but its not too bad I dont think. All of the switches and instruments are mounted on a bit of 1.5mm ali sheet, behind the steering wheel (which is being changed back to the sierra one for the SVA)

 

Front Wings

Fitted my front wings as well, which has certainly transformed the look of the car. The wings are a bit tight for width on the wheels/tyres, which is probably my fault as I think they are the narrow wings... With the addition of edge trim however they do completely cover the rim amd tyre.

The stays were quite tricky to bend, I bolted them on, and then used several different bits of wood and various clamps to bend them into shape. Having said that, the first one took around 3 hours to get right, and the second one took all of 10 mins. The wing strips are 3 or 4mm clear of the tyre, so more clearance than there looks in the picture.

The wings are glued on with PU adhesive, hopefully they will hold ok, I know a lot of people seem to stick them on and they survive... I roughed the mounting strips up with a coarse file and the bottom of the wings with rough emery paper. They certainly seem stuck fast!

Tunnel Panels

This was a job I wasnt looking forward to. I measured up for the panels and then cut them from 1.5mm ali with a slitting wheel in an angle grinder. They were partially bent in the car and then tranferred to the bench and a block of wood and a big hammer used to finish the job. I then glued vinyl straight to the aluminium panels with impact adhesive. It made them look much better. In total it took 2 days to do the panels and cover them.

The front and rear sections are held down with 2 bolts each side, and the centre section is tucked under the front and rear sections and so has no visable fixings. All I need to do now is fit the gaiters when I have found some suitable trim rings.

Mirrors

Fitted my mirrors with some assistance from Dad. I wanted to try and get the mirrors to sit square when they are adjusted properly, hence they are quite high up on the scuttle. I sat in the drivers seat while the mirrors were roughly positioned in the right place then transferred the bolt positions onto the scuttle and bolted them on with a big aluminium spreader plate behind them. The mirrors are cheap R6 knockoffs from ebay, they are e-marked and a suitable size for SVA.

Bonnet

The bonnet and catches took a day to fit. I made a cardboard template for the exhaust cut away and then just transfered the position onto the bonnet. The air filters were easier to do and the position was drawn directly onto the bonnet. All of the holes were cut using an angle grinder with a 1mm slitting wheel and a high speed rotary tool with a sanding drum fitted to cut the curves and get the complex shape around the exhaust. Cutting the bonnet to length was the biggest challenge. Masking tape was stuck to the scuttle and the original length of the bonnet drawn onto this, then measurements from the line on the tape, to the actual seated position of the bonnet allowed the bonnet to be accurately cut to length, again with an angle grinder.

The catches are available from RS part # 288-8464. I found drilling the closest pair of holes 34mm apart (2mm more than the manufacturers recommended) gave a good pull on the latch, without it being excessively tight.