Build Day Twenty - Rear Wings, Carbon Stone Guards and Boot Carpet

Woke up quite early this morning for a couple of reasons... Firstly to watch the F1 qualifying which was good, but I'm still undecided as to the sound of the new V6 turbos.  Secondly, I had a busy day ahead of me.

Whilst watching the F1 qualifying TNT arrived with my pack of bits from Derek.

Bits from Derek included fasteners for the radiator and cooling, new carbon sill protector as they're not symmetrically aligned currently so need to refit one, new brake calliper and shorter stone chip guard for the passenger side rear wing.

A quick trip to Costa for a motivational coffee and then it was time to crack on...

I wanted to finish off the brake callipers, so fitted that.  Aside from handbrake cables, filling the brakes with fluid and bleeding them the brakes are done - I think!

Drivers side rear calliper fitted and copper brake line bent into position.

Next onto the carbon stone chip protectors and rear wings - which was something I'd really been looking forward to.  Firstly I warmed up the rubber trim to make it easily pliable around the inside of the wheel arch.

Warming rubber trip using fan heater prior to shaping and cutting.

Rubber trim cut and shaped around the wheel arch, I then used the Dremel to open up the holes for the watts link arms after offering them up to their locations to see how much they needed fettling. The instructions suggest it's ok to open them up to the edge of the wing, but I wanted to keep them as holes.

Using the Dremel to open up the watts link arm locator holes.

I then attached the wheel arch and rubber trim to the bodywork to ensure I'd get an accurate idea of how tight in I could fit the stone chip guards.

Wing attached with rubber held in place with masking tape that I removed later.

As the carbon wings are based on the older mould from the K-Series engined car the passenger side wing has a different leading edge to the GRP variants.  I'd originally been supplied with two symmetrical carbon stone chip guards which would've been different sizes when fitted, so I decided to triple check I had the right ones.  Mounted both wings and stone chip guards, and they were correct.

Both wings fitted for measuring up, along with the carbon stone protectors.

I offered up the stone chip guards and marked through the holes using a permanent marker, double checked the locations, then covered the markings with some masking tape to ensure the wing wouldn't crack whilst drilling the holes for the rivets.  I also used a drill bit for drilling metal as it was a little less sharp than a wood (or other) drill and I thought this would help in ensuring the wings wouldn't crack - seemed to work well.

Carbon rear wing marked with holes for stone chip guards, masked and being drilled.

Once the holes were drilled I fully fitted the wing and made sure the rubber trim was sitting proud enough to fit the stone chip guards underneath.

First rear wing fitted.

I cut and fitted the specific trim for the stone chip guards, and then offered it up to the holes I'd drilled and the fit was good.  A fair bit of jiggling with the trim and a number of rivets later the stone chip guard was fitted, and seeing the car with the wing on really made the car look much wider.

First carbon stone chip guard fitted.

Richard from the North Herts Meet popped over to have a nose, and around the same time Derek and Mick turned up too, also for a nose... Was good to talk to them for a while and to take a bit of a break, but it put me back an hour or so.

Once they'd left I got back to work and fitted the drivers side wing and stone chip guard.  I somehow made a very slight error on the rivets, so drilled a few of them out and re-fitted them, but I'm now five short, so I'll have to get (CC) Derek to send me some more on Monday.

Now that the rear wings were fitted it was onto fitting the boot carpet sides and rear.  The contact adhesive I'm using is very strong if somewhat stringy, so I masked up the areas to be covered before spraying.  Plenty of contact adhesive applied to the rear of the carpets and inside of the boot panels, and then fitting.  The fitting was a little more tricky than expected as the shapes of carpet were a bit awkward, but I got there in the end.

Boot sections masked to avoid overspray of contact adhesive.

Once the carpets were in I was getting tired and my back was getting a little sore, so I thought I'd do a quick job and fit the aero fuel filler cap.  Shame the fuel pump will be installed at the factory, as I'm getting closer to finishing and would love to fire my creation up.

Carpeted boot and aero fuel filler cap fitted.

All in all a very satisfying day with a lot of visual progress.  Another full day ahead of me tomorrow - up early for the F1... Hope it's a good race, even if it's not I'm keen to see how the fuel strategies and race unfold.  Then rear lights and boot cover which once fitted means the rear will be complete, or at least I think it will be.  I should also be able to complete the interior carpeting, fit the tunnel cover, tighten the harnesses and time permitting fit the exhaust manifold too.