(6/12/05)
The seats were the first to get the treatment, well they are the only thing I have of the interior so far so I guess it's fair.First pic showing the seat frame, very sturdy despite what others have said. Lots of nuts and bolts with them so I had to work out myself how to put them together.
Lined up the seat with the frame trying to make it as level as possible but nothing is symmetrical so this was hard.
Only able to to the front two bolts as I need to determine how high (or low) the back has to go when sat in the car. As I don't have a dash, wheel or scuttle, this was indeed difficult. Another job to do later.
(29/04/06)
This is where is gets scary having never worked with expensive stuff like Carbon Fibre but like I've said before, nobody else is going to do it so let's crack on.I previously made up a template dashboard out of some 3mm ply just so I could get the clocks in the right positions as shown. I actually had to make up 2 as the first one was not to my satisfaction. This also enabled me to get the shape of the dash as they are not totally equal both sides and to judge where the wiring was going to go as in lengths of wire etc.
Today's job was to cut it out and shape it.
Firstly to prevent any damage, I put what seems a whole roll of masking tape over it and marked it out. Then I attacked it with a very fine jigsaw, this was soon blunted so get a couple if you attempt this. This gave quite a good finish.
VERY IMPORTANT - Use a mask when cutting Carbon Fibre, it's poisonous.
First pic left shows the dash holes cut out, I then trial fitted the instruments to see how they looked - Sweet!
The bank of switches however needed packing out as the Carbon was too thin for them to fit tightly enough. I finished off the day just lightly rubbing down each edge so I didn't get any splinters etc.
(06/05/06)
A bit more to the Dashboard was done today as I didn't get around to shaping it last time due to lack of blades but first some piping to tidy things up.I called Westfield and asked them for some of the piping they used for my seats and they kindly supplied me with some, talk about matching interior - lol.
I fixed it under the tunnel top with a couple of reasons in mind. a) It matches, b) it covers the sharp edges on the tunnel top (good for Mr SVA), c) because I can!
Simply cut a "V" around the fixing holes and superglued it to the chassis so I can still take the tops off when I want. I didn't finish it all today as under the dashboard was a bit tricky and I needed some more rivnuts so that's for another day.
As for the dashboard,
Managed to shape it roughly to the shape of the scuttle. I had to do this as the full piece of carbon was too awkward to work with. I then taped the rear of the dash and marked it around the FITTED scuttle (it does move slightly when bolted down you see).
The next step was to pack out the area behind the switches so the ratchet type fixings would hold them in place better.
Final pic shows my work for the day. The shape of the dashboard didn't have to be perfect as I intend to fit a crashpad but it's as close as dammit!
(27/05/06)
The Crashpad on this model is necessary in my opinion as the newer models don't have the shaped sunk back dashboard that the older models have so in order to tidy up the edges of the dash, I've fitted the crashpad..... but first, I losely fitted it so I could get the dashboard fixing screws lined up so they couldn't be seen once it's on.
I drilled through the carbon dash and fitted some more rivnuts but this time I used the alloy ones as they crush easier and don't crack the fiberglass. This is fairly important as there isn't a lot of meat on the edge of the dash. Once this was done and I was happy the dash was secure, I fitted the velco to the dashboard and to the back of the crash pad.
A bit of patience needed here as curving it around two directions will inevitebly cause it to crinkle.
Pic left shows the finished article and not only looks good, but hids the dashboard fixing screws if you've measured correctly.
Later in the day, I also fitted the kick pads which run along the cockpit edge (elbow height). So easy, just cut a length of velco, stick to each pad and the bodywork and press to fit. The line up nicely with the crashpad and finish of the edging well.
(04/06/06)
One of the last things for the interior (apart from a good clean out and some SVA stuff) was the rear trim, you know, the one that goes between the back of the seats and the start of the boot box.
As I had the inertia seat belt mounting points removed from my chassis when I ordered it, I thought I may have had a modified bootbox and trim ..... no such luck! So I had to fabricate something to cover the big hole it would have left had I fitted the original one.
The pic left shows the standard trim with a space for the mounting points and my modified one below. This has two kind of blobs which fit nicely into the recesses in the bootbox to make a neat solution.
I simply made a quick template of the recess, transferred it onto a strip of alloy and covered with some spare vinyl .. job done.
This was then fixed on with two strips of velcro for ease of removal at a later date.
