Boot Cover

Something I had been putting off since the build finished was fitting the boot cover. Having looked at a few others and how good a job they had done I figured I could not replicate it. That and the fact that the absence of the boot cover did not impact my driving it, I just never bothered.

Heading out for a drive last Sunday, before I had even got out of the driveway, the smell of raw fuel indicated something was amiss. Backing further out onto the road, the pool of fuel on the driveway and the trail leading to the car confirmed this. Jumping out and getting under I could see fuel coming out under slight pressure. Switch off, clean up and put away.

During the week I stripped out the boot to have a look at the cause, and once I started it could see the hose clamp on the return to the tank from the regulator had failed. 30 second fix to pop the clamp off and fit a new one and then test. Solved. I figured I would put the car back together and go out over the Easter weekend.

So waking up Friday to a wet Easter weekend, I headed out to the garage to put the car back together, but figured I should have a look at fitting the boot cover given I had so much of the car apart. It turned out to be fairly straight forward, only taking about 2 hours to fit, although I had a few issues with the press stud pins and had to source some longer ones. Glued the front flap to the cabin bulkhead while the seats and harnesses were out then refitted the interior. Looks OK although I am not keen to open it for fear of more press stud failures.

Seats

Are in. Will probably need to remove them to fit my road legal harnesses (if they arrive before rego!)

Interior - Part 3

The carbon fibre centre panel is a tricky piece to fit. It holds an auxiliary power port and the wiper washer button. It would normally hold the heater controls, but I have chosen not to fit a heater. I have also chosen to use this panel to mount the original Focus cluster on, which I will explain later in this post. First task was to enlarge the holes to hold the switches and ports. This was done with a stepper bit and a sanding wheel in the Dremel. 


With that done, I turned to the mounting bracket for the original Focus. This is an idea borrowed from a fellow Birkin builder Maurice. The mount is a right angle aluminum bracket, bolted to the top of the carbon fibre panel. From here, two stainless steel bolts go through the front of the bracket, and secure the Focus cluster through the bottom.

An aluminum bracket is passed through the top of the Focus cluster, and it runs down the front and back of the cluster, and is clipped under the bottom. Then a wide piece of aluminum is fitted over the back of this bracket and secured to the bolts from the front. This makes the mount very solid and the cluster is held tightly in place. The circle on the left at the back is the warning chime speaker, which has been "modified" to lower the volume of the warning chimes. Because the front of the cluster has all the original LED warning lights, I have covered this with rubber, which is secured by the middle aluminum bracket and the two cable ties. The rubber sheeting also acts as a damper against vibration. The LEDs need to be covered otherwise I will get unwanted light from under the dash, and it will also bleed through gaps in the dash switches at night.

With the Focus cluster mounted, the next step was to mount the carbon fibre panel in the car with the cluster on top. Here is where I have stolen another idea from another fellow Birkin builder Andrew. I riveted two 90 degree brackets on the frame, and put rivnuts in those to receive screws through the carbon fibre panel. I used a trick Andrew posted on his build diary to line these two up so I could drill the holes through the carbon fibre. This worked a treat and very soon I had the panel secure in place, and the Focus cluster wired. This step has taken a long while to do and has been fairly fiddly, but I am pretty happy with the result. Its tidy and looks professional, not that you can see it from the cockpit!

Final position from above. I will probably reroute the cables back into the tunnel and bring them up through the carbon fibre panel into the cluster.

This what it looks like from the cockpit and behind. I will paint the bolt heads black.

This is what it looks like from the passenger foot well, before the scuttle goes on.

Interior - Part 2

After I loosened it (someone used Loctite initially!), Steve was able to remove the gear knob so that gear shift shroud could be fitted onto the tunnel. The gear knob was refitted, sans Loctite :) This now just leaves the carbon fibre centre panel to fit over the gap above the tunnel. You can see where the tunnel is bowed a little downwards, so I have riveted in a black strip of 3mm aluminum to hold the front of the tunnel straight.

I was also able to fit the interior side panels which need to go in before the scuttle is fitted, as the scuttle has right angle brackets under the dash that secure it and hold the side panels in simultaneously.

Interior - Part 1

As I am starting to wrap up, I am able to finish a few things off. In order to get the scuttle on, I need the Focus cluster mounted, which needs the carbon fibre panel mounted, which needs the transmission tunnel mounted!

Since I got all the transmission tunnel carpets in over the weekend, Monday night I was able to fit the transmission tunnel, and the handbrake boot....gear lever shroud will need to wait as I can't get the shift lever knob to budge ;)

The transmission tunnel was surprisingly easy....and I was ably assisted by my oldest son (who was going to help me build the car......).

With the tunnel in, I was also able to fit the rear bulkhead lining, but only using the top mounts. I have yet to drill and secure the panel at the bottom. This only leaves the seat belts to go back in, the seats, the main carpets and the carbon fibre centre panel to finish off the interior.