(Author: ikom Monday July 11, 2005,
Jul,11,2005Jul,11,2005
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Monday July 11, 2005
I am out of the house at 7:45AM and on my way to once again use the bend brake at my favorite store.
I stop in at the parts area of the dealership to pick up some more lamps for my son's burnt out taillight on my way to the bend brake place.
I bend the footrest with some difficulty since this is heavy gauge aluminum and it is not easy to bend on a manual bend brake. I finally get the alloy to bend to approximate the bend angles that I have in mind and return home.
I test fit the bent alloy footrest in the car, mark up the location of the rivet holes for the aluminum piano hinge and the wear (heel plate) portion and ask my son to rivet the hinge onto the footrest while I go into the house to make myself some tea.
We install two Rivnuts in the alloy floor and use stainless 8/32nd machine screws to secure the hinge and footrest into the car.
The footrest is then equipped with Industrial strength VELCRO so that it will stay tight against the front bulkhead until access to storage (probably for a fire extinguisher) is required behind it.
Next step is to bring out the Cockpit body section and to test fit it onto the chassis and side pods. I am again worried that this piece will not mate with the registration points established by the factory pre-fit since it has been in storage for over a year.
We carry it carefully to the driveway, rest it on a large sheet of cardboard temporarily while we remove the bracing that I had constructed for storing it and attempt to fit it on the chassis.
We locate the rear threaded pins but the front dash portion will not budge. We quickly discover that the speaker brackets will not allow the hoses to clear the body section.
We remove the speaker brackets and it appears that the cockpit will clear everything else - I however, do not want to seat the cockpit until the dash has been drilled for switchgear and displays. I remember how difficult it was to remove this section initially from the chassis, especially the curved portion of the dash bottom edge which curls under the chassis member.
I am disappointed that the effort and time needed to fabricate the speaker brackets was wasted. I will have to email the factory and ask if they have some advice for me.
