Rear Panel & Seat Harnesses

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Rear panel attached at offside. Nearside still to complete once I move the car over a bit.

Harness upper mountings. The mountings are at just the right height to avoid the seat harness slots deflecting the harness which is important for SVA.

More view of the rear panel. I'm not too happy with the way I had to "V" cut around the curve although it looks worse with the black vinyl coating on than it does with the bare aluminium. I have pretty much decided to paint the aluminium anyway so I'm not too concerned. Another option is to fit a trim around the top edge which I think many people do anyway.

Here's another view of the Cobra Roadster 7 seat and Sabelt harnesses. I think they look dead smart! Well chuffed!

More views of the seats. They are very comfy and the harnesses hold you in brilliantly. Just as well because there is not much to stop you falling out otherwise!!

Second pic is showing the aluminium plate fitted to the area just in front of the scuttle where the battery will be fitted

Front suspension is all assembled ready for the engine to be refitted. I'll attach the front section of the side panels once the engine is in and the exhaust position is determined.

In case anyone is interested, these are the products I have been using to attach my panels. Polyflex-15 LM polyurethane structural adhesive (wear gloves btw as it is very hard to remove) and Polygrip rivets. These are very good and when the stem breaks it leaves the rivet sealed. They have a very wide grip range so can be used with different thicknesses of material.

 

April 2004 Update

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I've not been updating the website but I have been busy trying to finish off all the little bits and pieces which are preventing me from painting the chassis and/or getting the engine started. The main problem with starting the engine is with the exhaust silencers as it is too noisy to start it without silencers. I had been debating whether to build or buy but opted in the end to buy a pair of Jetex Turbex silencers from Demon Tweeks. These are 625mm long and 125mm diameter with a 3" pipe bore. The pipe is bigger than I wanted (3" instead of 2") but I'll just step the pipe up from 2" to 3" where it enters the silencer. Hopefully this will help by slowing the exhaust gas down and allowing the silencers to do a more effective job. No I'm not convinced either...

Click images below for high-res and description

A few other things to report:

I've ordered my bodywork kit from GTS Tuning. This will be a seven piece kit comprising the Bonnet, nosecone, scuttle, rear arches and front arches. Unfortunately I will need to cut the first three bits in half and widen them by 4 inches each to fit my chassis which is a shame as the quality of GTS fibreglass bits are said to be second to none! I must also give a mention to Darren George and Mark Bean from GTS who seem to be highly committed, very friendly and happy to give up their evenings to advise on and sell car bits. I called Darren at about 9:30pm the other night to order my GRP bits and caught him in Marks and Spencers getting his dinner! Despite my offer to call back another time he was happy to talk and emailed me later that night with the information I was needing. Top blokes!!

I've also ordered my aluminium sheeting, from Aalco in Cambuslang, which will be used to panel the sides and rear of the car as well as the seatback and tunnel sides and top.

I also received a bunch of bits from MAC#1 Motorsports including a set of 4 point seat harnesses (Sabelt Clubman) in blue with bolted mounts and pushbutton release. These are great value at £80 inc vat for a pair. A fellow builder Paul Gooderman has made me up a set of mountings which should fit through the crosstube in my rollbar and which are threaded with 7/16UNF threads to match the harness bolts. Thanks again Paul!

Other things I got from MAC#1 are a roll of brake pipe £6.99 for 25ft and various pipe clips and spiralwrap etc. I would highly recommend them as they seem very happy to give advice and you don't get the impression that they are trying to get you off the phone as quick as possible as you often do with some other retailers. Their prices are also good and delivery was prompt.

That's all for now, I'll post some more pics once my bodywork parts arrive and once the chassis painting is completed.