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.

Exhaust Clamp

Prior to the second engine run I tried renewing the joint between the collector and the silencer with high temperature silicon sealant.  Unfortunately, this did not hold either.  So I bought an exhaust clamp from ebay, which I think is normally fitted to motorbike silencers.  I avoided the normal chunky u-bolt type clamp as this looks a bit clumsy and has more sharp edges to cause radius issues at IVA test time.

To make the join I first cut a 30mm slot on each side of the end of the silencer pipe.  Then aided with some more silicon sealant I clamped the collector and silencer together.  All seems good, but I'll only know when I next run the engine.  Fingers crossed.

Engine Start

I finally ran out of excuses not to start the engine.  So with a full tank of fuel and a fire extinguisher ready it was time to turn the key.  Unfortunately the battery died before it properly fired.  There is not enough power in the small race battery for extended cranking, so an hour's top up battery charge was needed.

Attempt number two, and she started straight away!  Here is the video:

I had hoped for a longer recording, capturing me driving very slowly backwards and forwards, but the video camera battery died prematurely too!

You can see smoke coming off the exhaust headers.  This cleared after a minute or so.  The engine was run until the fan cut in, at about 84oC, on the lower setting.  I'll try it again later on the higher setting.

There a couple of issues to sort out:

1.  The alternator (new from Tiger) is not charging.  I'll need to investigate this one.
2.  The high temperature silicon sealant holding the silencer to the collector partly melted and exhaust gases were seen escaping.  Hopefully it is just settling into its rest position and a re-application should keep a good seal.

Overall though I am really pleased.  Now I can get on with finishing the bonnet fitment (joyless task) and then concentrate on fitting the interior trim and seats.

Dashboard

I am using the black GRP dashboard provided by Tiger.  Some people have fixed this on with screws, others with adhesive.  I wanted the clean looks (without screws), but without the permanence of adhesive.  I decided in the end to use regular clear silicon sealant.  My thinking is that it will hold the dashboard firmly, but can be removed later, if needed.  Perhaps by using a very thin long blade.  That technique may damage the dashboard, who knows.  Hopefully I won't need to find out.

I am mounting the digital dash (nearly) flush into the dashboard itself.  A template was cut for the hole required in the dashboard.

Hole cut in dashboard prior to sticking the dashboard to the body shell.

 Same size hole made in the body shell behind the dashboard.

A bracket to hold the digital dash at the right 'depth' was fabricated out of aluminium strip.  This was glued to the back of the dashboard using two healthy blobs of epoxy resin.  Seem to have held very well.

The dashboard had to be filed a bit to get the correct profile to match the scuttle.  I then took a few more millimetres off all round.  This allows a little space around the edge that I will glue some rubber trim on to for IVA.  I've tested a short length, made from the round part of P-trim, and it looks quite smart.

A second bracket was made to brace the lower part of the dashboard - to stop it flapping around.  Once the digital dashboard was mounted the switches were installed for the headlights, etc. Powered up and everything still worked!

Exhaust Fitted

Bracket made up to mount the silencer, painted with Hammerite and bolted through one of the steel chassis plates.

To fit the exhaust I used a high temperature silicon sealant (PRO SEAL RTV Silicone Instant Gasket RED 85g Hi-Temp) - it is flexible so won't crumble like exhaust paste and clog the catalyst.  Also it is supposed to be safe for use on lamda sensors.

Next to do is installation of the lamda sensor.

Throttle Bodies

The throttle bodies are mounted by applying silicone gasket to the inlet manifold and then bolting the manifold to the engine head.  The first attempt went well, then I thought I'd double check behind the butterfly valves only to find some of the gasket had squeezed into the airways - this would not help the engine run its best, so the whole lot had to come off, the silicon clean off, new silicon applied and the assembly remounted.  This also included removing the alternator and refitting.  What a pain.  Fingers crossed it is all okay now.