Now that I have the various panels for the engine bay powdercoated, it was time to start installing them. It took four hours today (and really I can’t figure out why), but I got the passenger footbox installed. Read the rest of the post for pictures…
First things first… Our first picture today is a warning to those who are building a car — sweep up the pins from all your rivets. Yikes!
I was walking and wondering why it felt like I had a rock in my shoe. Its a good thing I didn’t step down real hard! That would’ve stung!
It was nothing a pair of pliers couldn’t fix. Unfortunately now these shoes have a hole in the sole, which I’m quite certain I’ll forget next time its raining.
Initially I dropped in the passenger side F panel and the oval patch to cover the radiator hose opening. These are not permanently installed because I believe they need to come out to install the hood hinge, but this keeps them out of the way.
The next thing to be installed was the firewall. I hadn’t drilled all the rivet holes in the steel yet, but that went fairly quickly. The panel was predrilled for probably 80-100 rivets. I did a zig-zag pattern of them as you can see from the photo. I ran out of rivets from FFMetal, though, so I have to hit Lowes and pick up some more. Its mostly in, though.
The passenger footbox went in without much drama. It took some experimentation to get it all in place with the silicone. I had to use some clecos temporarily. I got it mostly riveted in and discovered, though, that I’d put the side panel in wrong and didn’t tuck it behind the body mount. Thankfully I had enough give in it to get cutters in there and just trimmed it back a bit.
I also realized that last summer I’d never drilled and mounted the passenger footbox floor. There were a couple of temporary holes and it was held on with three clecos that I couldn’t see from above. That took a bit of a delay while I drilled and mounted the floor.
The drivers footbox is a bit more complicated — the bottom and side panels I can install, but I have to leave the top ones out. I riveted and siliconed the front panel, and positioned and clecoed in most of the rest of the panels to ensure I had them fit and positioned correctly.
Tomorrow I’ll get the panels I can install now riveted.
Whoops, that sucks… I’m not sure how to fix it at this point. I riveted the floor in before the drivers footbox, which I’d already installed. Now I’m left deciding if I want to drill out the rivets and redo them, or try to bend the flange and make do. The other side went in poorly at best as well, so I may stretch it as best I can. Carpet will cover it.
In general I think the powdercoating has come out pretty well. I think I’ve worked out my engine plans and will hopefully get that ordered on Monday. Its so nice to be making progress again.