Friday 2 March 2012

Scuttle & Engine Bay

I left the last blog entry considering whether the Sierra alternator would fit, fair to say that there was not a hope in hell! I have since purchased a nice 40amp Nippon Denso which is tiny. Other ancillaries have gone in better, the bestek ignition and weber carb are in. The viscous fan has also been removed to provide a bit more room of hoses and airflow.
Once the ancillaries had been progressed as much as possible I focussed on the radiator & fan, both went in quite easily. The ideal would have been to have the fan suck air through the radiator but due to the chassis supports this would not be possible.
Following this I thought I'd make a start on the scuttle, I was only going to prep the panels but quite soon I had the battery tray riveted in and the scuttle clamped up!
Once clamped into place I decided I might as well fix up with some self tappers so that it would hold its shape a like more consistently. The following weekend these got replaced with rivets. The GBS GRP dash fits but will need a trim around the steering column however the finished scuttle looks like this:
I have plenty more to complete in the engine bay which I hope to do over the next few weeks, once all done then I'll be fitting the nose and the car should really take shape. As a sneak preview (and to hide everything not complete under the bonnet) here is a pic;