Fitting Scuttle

Hi

Back to work today, both me and Lynne, not much done in the way of the car the last few days but I have today to myself so I got stuck in. Spent the last few days out buying Christmas presents and I am writing this on my Birthday and Christmas present to myself, a lovely new 27" Apple iMac, very nice.

I have managed to get some work in, on Monday I fitted the shelf and finished of fitting the stereo amplifier and speaker system, I decided to split the system as I was going to wire up the 4 speakers to both the radio and amplifier but decided to fit the rear speakers to the amp and the 2 small speakers to the radio.

You can see one of the speakers sticking down at the top of the photo, it is hidden when sitting in the car and is only seen when you stick your head under the dash.

The shelf cleaned up nice and screwed in easy enough once I managed to locate the hole behind the carpet. The stereo amp is bolted to the shelf and is wired in to the radio supply, I have stuck the auxiliary power supply on the underside of the shelf with the switches facing front so as I can hide any wires from Sat Nav etc away behind it.

I fit the new power socket to the side of the console with a backing piece made from perspex behind it to give some rigidity to the console.

I still have to get the aerial sorted, the one I have is a little long but I shall see what it looks like when the hood is on, it is still not working properly as the reception is very crackly until I touch it and the reception clears, could be another earth problem as most other things seem to have been.

Fitting the scuttle has been a bit of a struggle and that was down to the windscreen wiper arm, the original scuttle had a cut above where the rod came through so as to lever it in position. I had to strip it down and feed the drive through the scuttle and behind the dash, reassemble in position then fit the drives through their holes. 

Once through the holes I fit the new chrome covers, very nice.

The scuttle fit in position and the fan air intake fit through the cutout hole.

I could now start screwing everything in position and I started with the fuse box.

Once screwed down I touched the paint up a little.

The battery box came next, until this was in I could not finish bolting the shelf in position as the back screws are attached to the box so once in I lined up the holes and finished the shelf I then drilled through and screwed down the battery box.

The water seal surround for the fan intake had to be both screwed and siliconed in.

This is positioned in front of the air intake so as any rain water comes in to the back of the surround and flows around it so the sealant has to be both underneath and on top of the surround.

The windscreen wiper motor went on and before connecting to the arm I plugged it in and tested, it went round so it went on.

I had disconnected the drive arm when I removed it and this had to be reconnected before bolting it down.

Once bolted down I fitted grommets on both the wire and drive holes.

Thats the main components of the scuttle screwed and bolted down.

The air inlet is also sealed to the scuttle so as none of the rain water can escape other than down the water chute which unfortunately I can't find. I know I had it last month but its hiding from me, I have plenty of U section so I have cut another.

I drilled, sealed and screwed in position.

The new water chute is drying now and I shall fit tomorrow.

You can see how far forward the fan intake is so as to prevent rain water being sucked into the fan.

I shall start polishing the scuttle tomorrow before the bonnet goes on.

I also tested the engine today, its been around 3 months since it has ran, it took a few turns to get the fuel through but it fired on around the fifth turn and first time when I tried it before finishing for the day, still sounds great.

See ya Paul