Mud Flaps

Often when out on a run down country lanes I find that I end up having to drive the car through puddles or being caught in a heavy rain shower.  With the positioning of the front cycle wings there is quite a bit of space for the water to spray up towards the side of the car, the occupants and even the interior of the car.  It was time to do something about it.

I bought 3mm thickness rally car mud flap material.  There was 4mm available, but I thought that would be too heavy.  Fortunately one piece of material cut in two was the perfect size for each side of the car.  A couple of 4.8mm rivets were used on each mud flap to hold them in place.  I positioned the mud flaps about 65mm above the ground so as to prevent them being caught under the wheel when reversing up a bump.  This could tear the cycle wing off the car.

I've been out for a test drive, up to motorway speed.  The mud flaps seem quite stable and didn't fly off!  I now just need to find out if they actually stop the spray of water from the road.

Stone Guards

Like most (all) Sevens, my Tiger Avon was starting to get a lot of stone chip damage on the fronts of the rear arches.  A lot of this comes from stones that are thrown up by the front wheels.  Some people fit mud-flaps to the front cycle wings, but I don't really like the look of these - too much like a rally car.

I decided to follow the crowd and add stone guards to the front of the rear wings.  These also help prevent damage when getting in/out of the car.  To make these I used cardboard templates to transfer the dimensions to the 1mm aluminium sheet.  The shapes were then cut out using a guillotine (lovely straight edges that can't be achieved with tin snips or a jigsaw).

The aluminium was then shaped to the curvature of the arches by gently bending around a cylindrical plastic kitchen bin.  Holes were drilled for the rivets and then 2 or 3 coats of spray etch primer were added.

Thinking that most paints would chip off I decided to try using an automotive stone chip paint.  Black Hycote Stone Guard spray paint to be exact.  One 400ml can was enough to do about 2-3 coats.  The formula of this paint contains particles of rubber.

Once dry the stone guards were riveted in place using black head pop rivets.  I've been out for a spirited drive down some country lanes and the paint seems to be holding up very well - no chips yet.  Let's see how they handle some high speed motorway driving.

Fitting the Boot Lid

The Mark 2 Avon body tub comes with a boot.  This is a welcome improvement on the original design.  As part of the body work kit the boot lid is provided.  However, this requires quite a bit of manual work to fit it.

As supplied the boot lid has quite an uneven edge - I assume where it has been cut out of the mould.  First up was to trim the edge down to an even 20mm depth.

The lid still seemed to catch slightly when fitted in the boot.  I thought about trimming more off (as it is at a shallow angle it would have made the overall dimensions smaller).  In the end I decided not to trim any more and see how I got on - I've cut too much off things before!

Next I cut slots for 25mm chrome hinges.  I used a small drill and a needle file to create the slots so that one half of the hinge would sit flat on the inside surface of the lid top.

  

Grip Fill used to 'glue' the hinges into the lid.  The other half riveted to the body tub.

Cam lock bought of eBay fitted.  Dog leg added to locking arm to ensure the arm cleared the lip of the boot lid.

Blu tak used to gauge where the locking arm strikes the rear inside of the boot cavity.  Of course all the while making sure the boot lid was flush with the upper surface of the rear body tub.  A slot was cut for the locking arm.  Later on I'll make a aluminium surround to finish it off better and protect the rough fibreglass edges.

Tiger advised me to add some 'stops' inside the boot to stop the boot lid going in too far, e.g. if somebody leaned on it.  At this point I found the the boot lid would not quite sit flat.  When locked one corner was raised a few milometers.  If this was pressed down the other corner would pop up!  I needed something to hold the corners down.  I came up with the idea of magnetic cupboard fasteners screwed into the corners.  These double up as 'stops' and also hold the corners down.  After a few days the boot lid settled a lot anyway and the magnetic part is almost not needed.

The other half of the magnetic set up was glued to the inside of the boot lid lip using epoxy resin.

Finished boot.  I may add a third, central, hinge at a later date to add a bit more support.  The lid opens nicely  and the lock locates relatively easily.  When I find some I may add a small piece of black automotive carpet to the floor of the boot.  Will stop things sliding around and look better.

Front Lighting

The IVA test requires that the front indicators are no more than 400mm from the outside edges of the car.  On the Avon this would be measured in from the rear wheel arches (being the widest part of the car).  The rear arches are 1750mm in width so the indicators need to be no less than 950mm (1750 - 800) between their outside edges.  As with most sevens the indicators needed extending on stalks.

I found a plastic waste overflow pipe at B&Q which is the perfect fit to hold the motorcycle indicator units.

To create a fixing to the nose cone of the car I used a 22mm copper pipe blanking cap with a M8 bolt.  An 8mm bolt was used as this is the same as the indicator unit bolt.  The centre of the bolt was drilled out to allow the wires to pass through.  A length of rubber sleeve was used inside the bolt to prevent chafing on the edge of the hole.

As well as using glue a couple of 3.2mm rivets were used to lock the bolt in place and prevent it spinning when tightening the nut.  Finally, prior to fitting, a quick coat of black paint was used to cover the copper and rivets.

To allow more clearance on the cycle wings I've changed from the 5 3/4"  light units to the smaller 4" Dominator motorcycle units.  Being smaller they should reduce drag (a little) and boost the top speed (a little).

The wires needed extending and protective sleeving added.  The colour scheme for the wires was very bizarre.  I had to trace each one to the bulb holders to work out what was going on.  After the bullet connectors were attached I labelled each one to prevent future confusion.

Being a motorcycle light the Dominator has a flat beam pattern, with no kick-up to the left.  This is fine for the IVA test, but to help it pass the MoT the light unit is best rotated a few degrees to give the required kick-up.  To do this a second locating cut-out was filed, to the right of the original one.  This causes the whole light unit to be rotated anti-clockwise when viewed from the front of the car.

Front indicators and headlights mounted and wire in.  I'll replace the bullet connectors with soldered connections after the IVA test.  I've ordered some proper two pin connectors from Ebay for the front indicators.  This will make it easier to detach prior to removing the nose cone.

I had some black card handy in the garage so I thought I'd use it to check the beam patterns.  Here is the dipped beam.  Hot spot in the centre and kick-up to the left.  Hopefully good enough to please Mr (or Mrs) MoT tester.

And here is the full beam.

These are small light units and are mounted quite low.  As such their beam will be masked partly by the front cycle wings.  This should not be too much of an inconvenience as they will really only be used to get home around dusk.  I don't plan to be making too many long distance trips at night.

Interior Trim

Originally I was going to go for the 'stripped out racer' look, but in the end I changed my mind and bought the interior trim set from Tiger.  This consists of a centre tunnel cover, carpet for the rear bulkhead, full length fitted floor mats, gaiters, aluminium and vinyl for the outer cockpit sides and carpet panels for the forward tunnel sides.

As I have the Rally Design gear remote I needed the hole in the tunnel cover for the gear lever to be further forward than normal.  I posted Tiger a paper template and they made up the tunnel cover to fit.

First job was to cut the aluminium side panels to size.  Once one was trimmed correctly it could be used as a template for the other side.  A piece of vinyl was cut and attached using contact adhesive.

The end result has turned out quite professional and looks really good in the car.  The panels themselves were fitted using black pop rivets.  A little silicon sealant was added on the runs between the rivets.  The idea here is to try and minimise any vibration of the panel when the engine is running.

With the carpet glued, using spray carpet adhesive, to the rear bulkhead and all other trim items in place, the cockpit starts to look really nice.  I need to get an angle welded in the gear lever (to clear the dashboard) before I fit the gear lever gaiter.

Next will be fitting of the seats and harnesses.

Fitting the Main Body Tub

Before the main body tub will sit down on the chassis a hole needs cutting for the steering column and the unused Sierra pedal box mounting brackets need to be cut off.  Some Hammerite was applied to the bare metal to prevent rusting later.

The lower part of the dash (only used during lay up of the fibreglass) needed to be trimmed off. The front edge of the front body sides were trimmed equal and vertical.  The body would now sit down on the chassis.  It is a very tight fit.  It seemed easiest to 'hook' the body under the rear chassis and then pull it down forwards.  There was a lot of creaking from the fibreglass, but it seems I got away with it, without any permanent damage.  Large head rivets were then added under the chassis rear and sides, as well as the top rails under the bonnet.

Couldn't resist cutting a hole for the shiny aero fuel filler and trialing the steering wheel.

Aluminium panelling (nearly) completed

All alluminium panels have now been cut to size, drilled and attached with Sikaflex and rivets. The only exceptions are the upper sides of the upper rear quarter panels, the transmission tunnel top, transmission tunnel passenger side as well as the battery tray. These will be attached later, only after access is no longer needed, e.g. to mount the gearbox, bodywork, etc.

The aluminium was cut using standard, new (sharp) tin snips, filed where necessary and then deburred using the pen style deburring tool. Rivets were spaced at 75mm intervals, or less where the distance was divided to provide an even spacing less than 75mm. Sikaflex sealant was used relatively sparingly, making sure the drilled holes were covered, prior to rivetting.

After fitting the panels I ran a bead of Sikaflex along the joints that needed it. Masking tape was applied about 5mm each side of the joint, a thin bead of Sikaflex was run along the joint, before smoothing out with a very sticky finger and finally removing the masking tape.

Overall I am quite pleased with the finish. There are few bits where I would do it differently if I were to do it again, but isn't that's always the way.

Floor panels completed

Floor panels fixed with Sikaflex sealant and riveted into place. Chassis turned back the right way up ready to fit the remainder of the alumnium panels.