Wheel arches....Finalised

I think I'm happy with the wheel arch extensions I devised (although I'm sure it's been done before). 40mm carbon strip (1.5mm thick). This is bent around into the arch and secured using a number of stainless M4 bolts and nylock nuts. The arch has been shaped to make it flow with the body work, and finished off with some rubber edging. My only concern at the moment is whether the rubber edging is 'round' enough for IVA. As yet I've not studied this part of the manual, but I need to do this....Back up is to use some far thicker edging.

Anyway, end result looks like this:

Also, as you  can see the wheels now have a brand new set of R888's on them. I ended up goig to Tiger sports cars for the tyres who got them to me nice and quick, and were very reasonable on cost.

progress on exhaust

The first part of the exhaust system is complete.....all that remains is to connect the cat to the inlet of the silencer. I say all...thats the most difficult bit!.

To get all this to work, the rear clam will need some fettling.....but I think it's better to get the exhaust how I want and do the body work later......

Back to the wheels...I've been playing around with some carbon arch extensions, and I'm sure I can get them to work and look good.....Question is, with my idea of using carbon strip and some rubber trim, will the IVA man be ok with it?....answers on a post card please!.

Wheels again, and more on the exhaust.

Back onto the subject of wheels.......

I purchased some rather nice Image split rims and have been working on getting them refurbished. This was an interesting process. The three piece split rims have a central hub, an inner and an outer rim.

I had the outer rims re-polished and the hub stripped back and recoated in black. The end result is the wheels really do look great. On re assembly you need to seal the joints using a High Modulus silicone. I also opted to use all new nuts and bolts throughout.

Fitment wise.....if you use the VW rear callipers it's a tight squeeze, but the split rims do fit with some work. Rims are 7 inch wide with an offset of 29. Tyres will be toyo R888's (185/60/13) allround to start with (maybe going up to a 205 rear when I start upping the power of the engine).

Moving onto the exhaust..........The silencer is a 6 inch x 18inch stainless with a seperate 200cat. Plumbing this lot is going to be a head scratcher, but I think I have a plan...see below for approx placement of the system. Doing it like this will mean the rear clam will need to open forward. Plan is to get the exhaust sorted out then worry about the body work at a later date.

Indicator position

So, if I understand IVA correctly, as my car is over 1400mm across, the minimum spread on the front indicators is 500mm....well that's easy. Also, the height min is 350mm....closer, and it just comes in at 360mm.

I've started to play around a bit with positioning as you can see.....I think I like the first one which aligns the indicator slightly in of the centreline of the headlight.

Bonnet catches

Bonnet Catches - another subject I probably spent far too long thinking about!.

The demo car from Sylva uses some springs on the inside of body work. I liked this idea as they are well concealed........however, when I got the body work lined up, I felt there was a little bit too much 'spring' in the fibreglass to be held by a spring alone. I figured a more secure and direct method may keep the shut lines a little neater. There are plenty of catches around, but of course, IVA is something you must consider, so this meant only a few were actually suitable for the job. I ended going with the 'aerocatch' TYPE arrangement. I say the aerocatch TYPE as my first effort was purchased from China (they looked the same!). these turned out to be aerocatch copies and surprise, surprise...broke after 5 mins (that's £18 down the drain). Lesson learnt, correct and proper Aerocatches promptly ordered....

Drilling the hole was simple enough. The catches come with a template. so it's a matter of  marking the position, drilingl two holes with a holesaw (one 44mm, the other 25mm), then cut the bit out in the middle, a bit of fileing and sanding and you're there.....Note: as with all things fiberglass, it helps to mask the area first  and use a higher drill speed. 

.........and fitted. you can see the square cut out in the front clam, this forms two functions a). allows the red anodised pin free entry to the catch, and b). I wasn't happy with the pin going direct into the fibreglass, so strengthened it with some ally on the top and bottom.

The nice thing about the aerocatches is you can set them up so you need to push down on the bonnet with a fair amount of pressure to locate the pin, this in turn keeps the shut lines looking good. They are also very tactile and have a pleasing action (ok, this is getting a bit weird now!).

The alignment work is by no means finished, and the body work needs to come back off to finish the wiring. Other things to do include reinforcing the area where the clam is attached to the pivots.

Another success story was the holes for the front lights. Common practise is to chain drill (the hole is approx 125mm dia), but I hate chain drilling (not sure why). I purchased (for £2.99) a hole cutter from ebay. this was the type with the two outriggers with a cutting blade at each end. The items are recommended for use in a pillar drill, but I figured I could get this to work with a steady hand and my mains powered drill. It was admittedly very scarey, if something goes wrong you could trash the clam. However, it didn't go wrong and I was left with two well finished holes of the correct size....Will try and post some pics of this later.