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!

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.