Stoneleigh, the Wiper Motor and the Rear Panel (part 1)

In my last post I mentioned that I bought an engine.  The day after getting it home, I had to go and hire an engine hoist to get it out of the car.  It took about 5 minutes.  It is amazing how easy things are when you have the right tools for the job!  I also managd to find a type company that would fit the tyres to the wheel and balance them.  The main tyre companies won't fit tyres for you that you haven't bought from them.  As you can see in the picture below, the new wheels look really nice.

Sunday was spent at the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh.  It was a glorious day and apart from the entrance fee and some lunch, I managed to keep my wallet firmly in my pocket!

Bank holiday Monday and another glorious day.  First I had to remove the brake callipers as I realised they were both for the nearside meaning that when fitted to the offside, the calliper was upside down.  I will need to take them back to the factory next time I go for parts so they can be exchanged for a correctly matched and 'handed' set.  I also decided it would be good to get the car down on to its wheels and get it out of the garage so I would have some room to work.

The initial intention was just to move the car out so I could sweep the garage floor and have a tidy up, but I ended up having a go at the rear panel.  This is the panel that probably causes the most amount of worry amongst builders so I did approach it with a certain amount of apprehension.  First task was to de-burr all the aluminium where it had been laser cut.  This was the same process as for other panels earlier in the build.  It takes about an hour or so with some fine files to clean it all up and then the next process is to bend over all the tabs.  Again this is the same process as I used with the rear crescent in-fill panels.  I used a small piece of right angle strip which I clamped to the bench and then bent up each tab against it.  You have to do them one by one so it is not a quick job.

This is the finished panel with all the tabs bent over.

Next job was to fit the large U shaped panel that forms the shape of the top of the rear panel.  I am lucky as on the later kits, this is all ready drilled with the holes for the rear frame stays so make this bit easier to fit.  This is dry fitted to the inside edge of the panel and this is then used to make the shape of the rear panel.

Once this is done the panel is put on the floor and there is nothing left to do but put the bend in it.  You could go and have a cup of tea first, but you still have to make the bends!  The advice I was given was to hold what is going to be the side of the panel on the floor and then lift the rest of the panel up to form the bend.  Here you can see the bend on the panel.

Once there was an approximate shape in place, I thought I would trial fit it to the car.  This is where I hit problems.  When the panel was fitted to the rear stays, the sides would not fit over the side infill panels as they should.

I decided not to force the issue at this stage and have fired off an e-mail to the factory with some images to get their help.  I'll add part 2 when I know more about how this should all fit.

This left me some time so I decided to fit the wiper assembly to the scuttle.  This is a fairly straight forward task.  The only thing that you have to do is to put a bend in the tube that holds the spring type mechanism that makes the wipers work.  You also have to cut this to fit between the two wiper boxes and also after them.  These need to be flared so they don't move.

This is the finished install from the inside of the scuttle.

And this is from the other side.

It is all starting to take shape now and I really feel some good progress has been made.