The seat belts have turned up and thankfully they are substantially smaller than the donor cars. I boxed them back up and stashed them away until I need them later on in the build.
Back into the garage and it’s time to play with something new fibre reinforced bonding compound. I gave a friend Mark a call to give me a hand to line up the roll cage. Whilst waiting for Mark to turn up I set about checking the other fixing plate locations. The trailing arm and dif nose mount are fine but the rear sub-frame needed some work with the Dremel to get the holes to line up I manage to get the driver’s side no problem but the passenger side was a different problem. I managed to get them lined up laterally but longitudally one of the holes was about 12mm out and they are only 14mm diameter holes. I dug the bolts out of the box and offered the rear sub frame in place. The drivers side was no problem but the passenger side I was unable to get the sub frame bolts go in more than a couple of inches. After that the bolts fouled on the bushes. Closer inspection revealed that the Predrilled holes were not square to the tub. Bugger! This will take a fair amount of fettling and the dremel won’t be any good because it won’t extend deep enough into the tub. I put the heel bar tight in each the hole and held a square against it. It wasn’t just one hole it was both and they leant into one another like the verticals on a trapesoid.
Back into the garage and it’s time to play with something new fibre reinforced bonding compound. I gave a friend Mark a call to give me a hand to line up the roll cage. Whilst waiting for Mark to turn up I set about checking the other fixing plate locations. The trailing arm and dif nose mount are fine but the rear sub-frame needed some work with the Dremel to get the holes to line up I manage to get the driver’s side no problem but the passenger side was a different problem. I managed to get them lined up laterally but longitudally one of the holes was about 12mm out and they are only 14mm diameter holes. I dug the bolts out of the box and offered the rear sub frame in place. The drivers side was no problem but the passenger side I was unable to get the sub frame bolts go in more than a couple of inches. After that the bolts fouled on the bushes. Closer inspection revealed that the Predrilled holes were not square to the tub. Bugger! This will take a fair amount of fettling and the dremel won’t be any good because it won’t extend deep enough into the tub. I put the heel bar tight in each the hole and held a square against it. It wasn’t just one hole it was both and they leant into one another like the verticals on a trapesoid.
Mark turned up and I switched back to the roll bar. After a bit of discussion we clamped a metal bar across the back of the door frames (as shown in the photo) and tried to get the roll bar equidistant from the clamped bar. Then marked the round the feet positions. Now because the layup isn’t a smooth surface trying to get it aligned right and set in a position whilst the bonding sets was going to be a problem. I decided to drill two holes on the rear feet to hold the roll bar in position we required whilst the floor pads cured. Previously I had followed Bens instructions and covered the feet with the metal reflective tape. Then I made up a batch on compound and laid it on the marked out floor pad areas and mounted the roll bar fixing the two rear pad bolts in hold it place to. I then cut away the excess compound.
45minutes later the compound was hard, and the heat generated from the reaction between resin and hardener had dissipated. We unbolted the two rear pad bolts and after marking the fixing hole centres with a firm shove released the roll bar from the grip of the bonding compound. I drilled the holes on the foot pads and then mounted the roll bar and to check the hole alignment. AH! There is a problem. According to the Nut and bolt assembly all the fixings are 10mm. But the floor plates of the roll bar are 8mm holes. Not a major problem, I acquired a step cutter bit from the car show. A great tool when you are drilling holes in plate metal. I ran the bit through each hole, problem solved.
I mounted the roll bar again and dropped in a couple of M10 bolts into each foot just to check the alignment. No problem. Mixed another batch of compound and repeated the previous procedure. I used a little less hardener this time because the curing on the first batch was a bit fast. I left it for a couple of hours but eventually it was hard. I removed the floor bolts and marked the rear hole centres and with a couple of good shoves released the roll bar and drilled the M10 holes.
I tidied up the waste on the edges with the Dremel, dropped in the all the bolts and located the underside plates. The Dremel came into its own again just to clean a couple of the drilled holes so the bolts all lined up with the holes in the plates.
I tightened the nuts up so the plates were flush with the tub and marked up where the bolts would need cutting back so they won’t foul the fuel tank. However the Nyloc nut wiped the mark away so I had to count the threads. It was getting late so we called it a night.
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