Hammering the Snagging list!!

Right then - time to fit the last of the carpets, the harnesses and the seats. Having drilled the holes for the harness eyebolts in the floor the next job was to drill the holes for the seat runners. There are witness marks on the floor of the body for these holes - I drilled these one at a time checking the next hole lined up before drilling. Eventually all the holes were drilled: The next step was to lay the carpet in place and cut holes with a punch for the various bolts:The harness eyebolts were bolted up first:Now it was time to fit the passenger seat. There are 5mm spacers to fit under the runners at the back and 25mm ones at the front:Access to get all these on the bolts and the bolts through the holes in the floor is a bit limited and a little patience is required.

With the passenger seat in place it was time to turn my attention to the drivers seat, this being complicated by the handbrake taking up nearly too much room!. Whilst cutting the carpet for the bolt holes you will also need to remove the bit of carpet that sits under the handbrake bracket to ensure the handbrake is mounted firmly:Before bolting the handbrake into place I fitted the leather gaiter which is held in place with an escutcheon plate which is fixed after the handbrake is bolted up. Shame it will all be hidden by the seat!With both the seats in I fitted the harnesses and the footwell carpets. And that's the cockpit done - apart from a gearknob and fitting the steering wheel.

End result:Time to consult the list for tomorrow.

A bit more progress

Having now got a gearstick it would have been rude not to fit it:

And having done that meant I could fit the escutcheon and gaiter:

The escutcheon fixings are tapped into the transmission tunnel section of the body effectively fixing the leather trim panel in place. All I need now is a knob!

I've also got the harnesses and eye bolts so the next step was to drill the holes in the floor for the eye bolts using the spreader plates as templates:

More mess to clean up!

The plan for tomorrow is to start fitting the seats - I expect this to be a bit of a faff and can't quite face it tonight!

Fuel Filler Revisited

Time to revisit the fuel filler. After using TFE hoses between the tank / filter / pump / bulkhead to avoid the smell of petrol guess what?....... my boot smells of petrol! It is more of an aroma than a smell but nonetheless it has started to annoy me.

After several days sniffing / venting / sniffing again it I have narrowed it down to the flexible filler pipe. This is a flouroelastomer lined silicone hose. It is fuel proof but not necessarily impermeable to fuel vapour. The impermeability of the hose is a function of the concentration of the flouroelestomer applied to the inside of the hose and the general method of application and by the sound sof it some variation in impermeability should be expected.

There are some hoses that are more vapour proof but these tend to have a spiral wire reinforcement - this can make it difficult to get a good seal. GD normally fit a vent pipe to the tank. I didn't as I had a Vented Cap. However upon investigation the vent in the Aston filler cap need a fair bit of pressure to open the rubber flap. This is OK for preventing the tank becomming pressurised due to heat or preventing a vacuum as fuel is used up, but it will allow fumes to build up inside the filler hose.

So time to fit the vent like I should have done in the first place! The vent is a simple affair with a 1/8 NPTF fitting tapped into the filler neck:This fitting incorporates a compression fitting to take a length of brake pipe:This runs down the inside of the boot and out through the boot floor via a couple of grommets and some sikaflex:

The filler hose was re-fitted with plenty of blue hylomar and the carpets stuck back down. Only problem now is that the boot smells of evo-stik at the minute... which is remarkably like petrol!!

So time will tell...... fingers crossed.

I've added some more jobs to the snagging list!! nothing major, mainly some SVA compliance checks that I need reminding to do.

Still Snagging

Now here's another top tip - don't stick bonnet rubber round virtually the entire opening as I did!. Although it is squashy - the more of it you put on, the less the bonnet will squash it - leaving the shut line proud. You need to do it in three lengths like this:Which funnily enough is the way GD do it!! - Shame it took three hours to get glue from the previous attempt off!

The next faffing about task was to fit the mirrors. First off, the bracket for the mirror fits over one of the screen mounting screws. These screws - whilst countersunk - have a domed top that stands proud of the screen stanchion:So the first job is to remove them and file them down so the bracket will sit flush. Next you will need to cut down some M5 button head bolts to around 6.5-7mm - so that they will not foul the screen frame. Then you need to remove the glass in order to remove the supplied bracket from the ball joint and replace with the GD supplied item. Put the glass back in and fit the whole thing to the stanchion. As the fixing bolts are now quite short I added a couple of drops of thread lock:Did the same for the nearside and now we have a full compliment of mirrors:Next I painted the drivers footwell compartment drain outlet with the Liquid Rubber stuff and re-fitted the wheel. Whilst fitting the wheel I noticed how shiny the body was - even after collecting dust for a couple of months:I need to collect my remaining bits from GD to make much more progress but one last thing I did was to prepare the gear stick gaiter and escutcheon:It is not fixed yet - I just attached the leather to the trim ring to make fixing easier:Simply done with some double sided carpet tape.

More Snagging

Some more jobs crossed off the list today:

Fitted the door hinge escutcheons: Adjusted the bonnet and fitted the bonnet rubber:Fixed the hydraulic pressure hoses: Fitted the drivers footwell compartment drain - Here's how its done after forgetting to take photos last time. Take your 10mm 90 deg fitting and file down one end - make cuts in the other end and open out to form a flange - snip off the bottom tabs so it will lie flush with the floor: Mark out the level of the floor and drill a hole:Spread some sikaflex on the tabs and push into place - adding some more on the back when in position:Seal round the front with some more sikaflex:All that remains now is to paint over it with some of the liquid rubber underseal once the sikaflex has gone off.

And finally I fitted the seat runners to the other seat:Nearly there:

Door Cards

Time to fit the last of the leather panels - this time the door cards. The door cards are held in place with metal clips which fit into 7mm holes drilled in the inner door skin:Problem is.... how to mark the holes accurately? I worked out a method which I reckoned would work OK.

First job was to offer the panel up unto place (with the door shut) get it lined up and mark where the door handle stub is on the leather (there is already a hole in the panel). Then use a punch to make a hole in the leather for the handle stub.

Next open the door and stick masking tape on the door in the area of the clips. Fit the clip on the top edge nearest the hinge. Use a Jumbo Black Marker to "colour in" the point of the clip. Offer the panel up, press the panel and hey presto - a handy little line to drill a hole in the centre of:Once you've drilled the hole this can become an alignment point by half inserting the clip. I repeated the process for the other two clips along the top edge one at a time. Once the top row is done you can "hang" the panel on these clips and do the remaining four in one go. End result - seven accurately drilled holes in the door:

And seven clips in the door card:The you just offer the panel up, press gently in the area of the clips and they snap into place easily and gives a very secure fixing. Fit the handle and tighten the fixing screw - Job done:The it is just a simple matter to repeat for the other door!You can see there is an area of inner skin showing all around the door card - this is what the door rubber seals on to. The passenger seat is not fixed in place - it is just a handy place to put it out of the way!

So three hours sees only one job off the snagging list!

More Snagging

Only had an hour in the garage tonight - long enough to get 4 more jobs crossed off.

First up was to fit the final fixings to the ends of the leather bulkhead panel - quite discreet:

Then I remembered to fit the steering column grommet - bugger wouldn't stay put - so a few drops of superglue to the rescue:

Finished off by tightening all the nuts on the bonnet scoop fixings and sorted out the spare wire that was in theory for an electrical oil temperature gauge but not needed as I am now using a mechanical gauge. I left the wire neatly tied up just in case!

More Leather and Starting Snagging

Finished installing the leather panels today. Before inserting the "hidden fixing" blts in the rear panel it is best to cut a slot in them. This means you can "hold" them with a screwdriver whilst tightening the nuts up in the boot:Here's the completed panels with the exception of the gearstick trim ring (and a fixing at each end of the "wings" of the back panel:I should be picking up the wheels and harness and some other bits 'n bobs from GD next week. I need the harness eyebolts before finishing the carpeting and fitting the seats. So in the meantime time to cross some more things off the snagging list:

Fitted the temperature sender grommets (Little awkward devils!!)

Cleaned up and re-fitted the Engine bay cover plate

Fitted the rear view mirror

I've taken some time out to double check what I still need and to order a few missing items!!

Tunnel Leather

I've now made a completion / snagging list and to be honest it is a bit daunting. So no time like the present to knock a few more things off the list.

Having got an off cut of stainless steel plate it was time to start fitting the tunnel leather. First job is to get the Dremel out (again!) and cut out for the gearstick:

The tunnel leather will be fixed in three places: 1) Held down at the back by the bulkhead panel. 2) Held down at the middle by the gearstick trim ring. 3)Held down at the front by two stainless brackets under the dash:

Make yourself a little bracket - slit the leather and insert one leg of the bracket under the leather and foam but above the fibreglass panel. Hold the whole lot down and drill the tunnel side and insert a stainless self tapper. Job Done!

However, the dreaded SVA requirements has me worrying if the edge of the bracket constitutes a contactable sharp edge??

*** EDIT ***

For the sake of two small bits of edge trim:

Hopefully that's a re-test fee avoided!