Rear fog light re-route wiring

 This one was irritating me...

I am not sure if the wiring route I took was wrong, the wiring had got snagged behind the rear panel or something completely unrelated however the rear fog lamp wiring does not reach the spade connectors in the fog lamp.

Only option was to carefully drill a new hole in the rear panel (being fully conscious there is a fuel tank at behind it) and poke the wire through the new hole. The new position for the hole actually produced more slack in the wiring so re-routing the wire did not ultimately prove to be too difficult and thus dismissed the initial idea the wiring had got snagged when the rear panel went on as it was free and easy to relocate to the new hole...

The fog lamp (as is the reversing lamp) are modified versions having been adjusted at the rear for the angle of the rear panel so they sit vertical to the panel when fitted. You can do this yourself but GBS stock the modified ones done expertly and finish with some trim - job sorted!

Speedo Sensor

 This is fiddly! Fat fingers are not helpful for this.

Its also helpful the handbrake cable is moved out of the way whilst you do this.

the speedo bracket was fitted relatively early doors in the build. If you avid readers will recollect the hole the sensor goes through was elongated to provide for movement up and down relative to where the driveshaft bolt passes the sensor head.

The distance between the driveshaft bolt and the sensor is between 1 and 2mm above the bolt heads so make a trust template to that depth and place it on top of the bolt. Pass the sensor through the bracket and here is the fiddly bit. It is held in place with a nut top and bottom between the bracket... the bottom nut is extremely faffy to get in place without losing it down the drive-train tunnel.

Once the bottom nut is on you can adjust accordingly with the template to guise the sensor to the right depth by turn the top nut accordingly.

Exhaust

Been waiting on a stock of exhausts to come into Kitspares so it was good to receive this new exhaust through the post earlier in the week, together with the exhaust mounting bracket.

Apart from some exhaust paste (thanks Halfords!) before you can fit the exhaust to the manifold you will have to saw two slits into the manifold pipes approx 4cm long. This will enable the manifold to contract when you slide the exhaust onto the end of it.

Once you have the exhaust in position you can mark where the exhaust bracket fits relative to the exhaust outlet, take it all apart and then.... realise you will have to also take out the passenger seat to drill the holes!

Initial pilot holes from underneath then opened out from above. The bracket fits into place with Nyloc nut and bolts. remember to apply the nut from underneath in the unlikely event it comes off the bolt will still remain in holding the bracket on!

Put the passenger seat back in, re-fix the seat belt - what a faff, something else to add to the growing list of "Don't get too far ahead without seeing whats coming down the line to fit" list.

Apply the exhaust paste, push the exhaust onto the manifold and clamp in with the exhaust clamp wiping away any excess paste. Apply the exhaust spring to the bracket, exhaust outlet and hey presto one exhaust fitted.

Looking more like a car now!

Wiper motor

 Although I'm not fitting a windscreen until after the car has been IVA'd I need to understand where the wiper mechanism fits relative to the space needed for the ECU. In all likelihood this will come out again before it gets IVA'd but at least it will be a straight forward refit when I come to do the windscreen.

All the bits are courtesy of GBS via their kitspares dept, first thing you will need to do is reverse the mechanism where the wipers park. GBS do a very helpful fact sheet to do this which I wont go into huge detail here suffice to say its a straight forward enough task once you've managed to remove the c-clips.

Back to the installation and another bit you will have to trim down to size is the threaded shaft which extends from the mechanism and the metal sheath which goes over it.

What I did not realise when I did this initially cut down of the sheath and threaded shaft is the sheath has to be cut into several bits to accommodate the wiper boss which goes through the bulkhead and onto which the wipers fit. Reflecting back this was obvious as clearly the boss would not work if it is fitted over the sheath! 

So shaft and sheath trim to size its simply a case of bolting the mechanism to the bulkhead and securing the wiper bosses to the threaded shaft. The Clamp which holds the mechanism in place on the bulkhead is a tight fit and whilst it learns to take the shape of the mechanism it will take some coercing with the nut bolt to stay in place. It gets there eventually but I discovered some new dexterity I needed to apply to the mechanism, Clamp and nut/bolt!

Exhaust exit from bonnet

Still focused around the bonnet area of the build, attention turned to the aperture which needs cutting in the bonnet for the exhaust manifold to come through.

First thing was to fit the manifold into position using the stock ford gasket and bolts sourced from GBS (Note the stock OEM bolts are too long for the GBS manifold). Simple job end result thus:

now that was in position I could start taking some measurements and datums for where the exhaust exits the bonnet relative to the chassis. I used a piece of paper to mark and make a template which in turn I transposed that onto the side of the bonnet. 

Clearly marked it was a case of taking a drill bit and drilling alot of holes around the perimeter of the the cutting and then using a junior hacksaw blade sawing through each hole to cut out the unwanted piece of metal.

Once removed it was a case of taking a metal file and cleaning up the outline and making a nice smooth finish. Apply some edging strip and one aperture cut int he bonnet to provide an exit for the exhaust manifold.

NB - the eagle eyed readers among you will note the bonnet has suddenly been wrapped in this sequence of photos! I adopted the carbon fibre look for the bonnet and when doing it forgot to take the photos, so only the finished article to note in the pictures. 

Front Grille

Quick job installing  the front grill onto the nosecone.

Held in place with a couple of nyloc nuts, washers and bolts on either side.

Careful bit is positioning the grill centrally on the nosecone, this is quite critical as you can end up with the hole for the bolt being right on the edge of the fibreglass.... yep the left hand one is right on the edge however. I don't think it looks too bad fitted just not 100% happy, I may apply some black to the recess the grille sits in to hide the slightly offset position the grille looks.