New Tunnel Top

One of the things that I did during the Winter months, whilst the car was off the road, was to update the interior.  I remove the carpet from the rear bulkhead and the footwells.  This left a lot of spray glue on the aluminium panels.  Soaking the residue with white spirits worked well.

The carpet and vinyl tunnel cover was also discarded - I'd always intended to have more of a stripped out racer look anyway.  Problem was, the tunnel top was all bent in where the driver and passengers had leaned on it with their elbows.  It was only around 0.6 or 0.8mm in thickness.  Nice and light, but not up to the job in its particular location.

I used the old tunnel top as a template to fabricate a new one out of 2mm aluminium.  1.5mm would probably have been sufficient, oh well.  I made three separate panels to facilitate removal in sections.

The old gear knob got damaged beyond repair during its removal.  So, I took the opportunity to get the nice Rally Design black acrylic gear knob.  This is much better, as instead of being tightened on with grub screws, this one properly screws on to the 10mm x 1.5m threaded end of the Rally Design quick shift lever.  Even though I shortened and angled my quick shift lever, I did maintain the threaded end.  This turned out to be a very worthwhile move.