Boot 3

More boot action. Got holes cut for the battery isolator and interior light. I haven't got a battery tray yet so its just loosely fitted for the look of the thing. I'll stuff the carpet behind the panel to tidy up at the end too. The rubber strip I bought is a bit too thick for the edge so I only did the bottom edge, hence the lovely grey sealant still visible around the top. I'll see what I can do, it fits on either the doors or the boot lid so its not a waste.

Currently the interior light is a rocker type on/off which you can reach when you open the boot, I haven't made provision for a switch anywhere and probably wont bother.

Boot 2

Another productive hour in the garage this evening, I decided to stop faffing around thinking about the best place to put the rear loom and just man up and drill some holes. The result was that the rear loom is now nailed down on the nearside from where it exits the top of the battery shelf, splitting off for the fuel sender and boot numberplate light, then down into the little cubby hole behind the wheel. Another split off for the fuel pump which will end up here, then to the nearside rear light cluster. The route is a bit wobbly as I was drilling freestyle but again carpet will cover all.

The loom then goes across the back of the car tucked under the boot lip return. There's convoluted tubing to go over the wires, its just loosely in to check wire lengths are sufficient.

Boot

Bit more boot tidying today, formed one little panel from ali to cover up one of the chassis rails at the back. The Dax supplied fibreglass ones don't fit so I (badly) painted this up and riveted/wurth it in. I blame the bad painting on the hammerite smoothrite I used, its just not what it used to be. I'll carpet over this eventually anyway and I may even close off that entire side compartment for tools or something later on. I also glooped a bit more silicone sealant around the place as well while I was at at it.

I then made a start on the closure panel to cover the battery shelf with a bit of marine plywood. A few rivnuts in the fibreglass behind will hold it, then next job is to cut holes for the battery isolator and the boot light. You'll notice my first attempt at cutting slot for the rear loom is in completely the wrong place, wonderful carpet will hide all!

Fuel Tank

The fuel tank saga, I had a tank made to my own drawing with a side outlet as the Dax tank outlet goes straight into the diff. Also the Dax tank is £400 and I had my tank made for £285. Unfortunately my drawing was wrong and the tank was 50mm too long as I based it on a standard chassis not the De Dion (whoops!).

It almost fit, so close to fitting that you could be forgiven for bodging it, but we are fighting a constant battle against the bodge monster so the tank has gone off for modification. Pics below show "big" tank looking a bit rubbish hanging out the back.

ooh shiny!

 Hmm.

Eek! Don't fancy a rear end smash... Not much room for mounting straps. The wood isnt part of the mounting solution by the way, its on a hydraulic jack as part of the trial fitting. I so badly wanted to make it fit but I saw the light in the end and its currently being made good. Even with the modification its still cheaper than the Dax tank, and the outlet is somewhere sensible for my boot mounted filter and pump.

Battery Shelf

With the general aim of getting the battery connected and start getting the wiring nailed down, I made a start on the battery shelf area. There are two fibreglass sections that cover off each of the seatbelt towers. I assume they are not meant to fit because they are so laughably the wrong size. The battery  positive cable will go through the right hand one, and the negative cable the left one to fit to a brass bolt in the seatbelt tower. The whole lot will then get covered by a big sheet of carpeted plywood into which I'll mount my boot light and battery isolator switch.

Here's the right hand one fitted, with sections of aluminium fabricated to make it fill the space. The new battery cable is a bit stubborn to get in place so its just all dangling in mid air for now!

Here's the left-hand one waiting to go in, my fabrication skills are still lacking but slowly getting better. I intend to gloop some sealant on when its all in to keep the battery area and the boot nice and dry as the other side of these panels is just about the diff/cv joints.

Updated: next evening - I drilled and tapped for an M10 brass bolt to take the battery negative to chassis on the seatbelt tower and cut appropriate holes for said battery wire and the rear loom to pass through. I removed the powder coat around the bolt and applied some Corban corrosion shield. All grommeted up nicely.

Below - finished and ready for a final whip round with some silicone sealant then off to the Internet for a battery tray. One point to note I now have no access to the top of the spring/damper units as those panels are riveted in. I did think of various ways to make them removable with rivnuts etc but I can always cut an access hole in the fibreglass at a later date if I need to get to the spring mounting bolts.

 All of that lot will be covered by a nice bit of carpet covered marine ply so it doesn't matter it looks a bit rough.

Radiator

I've decided the radiator mounting method is a bit of a bodge so its going to an engineering company to get the mounting posts welded back on underneath, and some tabs for fan mounting while they are at it. Also I'm getting them to remove the filler neck and blank it off.