More Bodywork - Nearing the end Now

I have put countless hours in to the car recently, it's still a long way from finished but progress is clear. I can't believe how much fibre glass bridging compound I have used - 4KG and counting. Most of that was to rebuild the sawn off bits of the bonnet and to strengthen it so it doesn't flex. I used 6mm round steel rod securely bedded in to the stuff to make  sure it was all good and solid. This has meant a slight change in plan in that I can no longer cut out the side vents as I had originally planned as there are now strengthening bars in the way, bit of a bummer but I would prefer it to be rigid.

I tested out the sub woofer and amp, that didn't go to plan either, I had originally intended to use the high level inputs to save me having to run a wire down the car but then I realised any time I changed the fader or balance I would have to change the sub output and to do that I would need to go in the boot. I decided to bite the bullet and run a coax cable from the sub out of the stereo to the boot area. I had to run the aerial cables anyway so I did the two jobs while I was at it.

The amp I found on ebay looks like it was originally part of a sub woofer with built in amp, I need to cut a hole in my speaker box to mount it in, I also need to run some beefy power cables to it that will handle peaks of about 100 amps, at 350 watts with the alternator providing 14.5v you are looking at just under 25 amps, That needs some pretty thick cabling and as short a run to the battery as possible. The speaker wires need to be pretty hefty too.

First I need to work out how to make the parcel shelf a lot more rigid and to stop the thing rubbing on the window surround, it's really messing the sound up as it is. I have some ideas but will be taking a break to do some domestic stuff before I get back on to it.

Update - another few days spent rubbing down, filling, reconstructing and generally messing about, it's looking much closer every day now, I am nearly at the point of being happy with the bodywork. It will need some final fettling before getting sprayed, the doors still need a fair bit doing before going back on the car.

I have purchased some 18mm thick MDF to reinforce the rear parcel shelf so the sub woofer sounds and works better,got to make a template first as it's a it of an awkward shape.