Tunnel Top Cover and Sensor Holder

Today I worked on the balcony instead of underground. It was a cold but nice day. First I spend some time marking where I needed to cut the tunnel top for the handbrake lever. Then I transposed to aluminium the card template I made to hold the speed sensor.

Cut the sensor holder and deburred the piece, all using my "dremmel" (actually Einhell) with a cutting disk and a grinding stone.

Then I did the same with the the tunnel top cover. It took a bit longer since the ally is a lot thicker than the sheet I bought for assorted parts crafting.

Unfortunately, time was not enough to drill the holes for the bolts that will hold the tunnel top down (with rivnuts) neither to drill the speedo holder to be hanged to the prop-catcher. I still have to mark on the tunnel top where to cut for the gear lever (forgot about that last week), so next weekend will see me with cutting disk and driller again.

Working on the Tunnel

Slid the dash over the bulkhead, keeping all wires connected. This allowed me to drill the last hole needed on the tunnel to fix the electrical wire.

Then I spent some time creating a cardboard template for a part to fabricate in aluminium. It will hold to the inverted "U" prop-catcher on the front and the speed sensor will be held into it.

The following step was to mark the top rear aluminium sheet that covers the tunnel to be drilled. This will allow putting it over the handbrake lever. In retrospective, forgot to mark for the gear shift lever, so it will require a second fitting test.
Also checked that the side tunnel covering sheets were perfect for fitting.
The top front sheet needs a lot of measuring and cutting. Part because of the way I passed the wiring loom under the dash, part because I need to cut a hole for the MNR Reverse Box lever and finally because the sheet was cut for RHD and my LHD requires a cut on the opposite side (the sheet is not symmetrical, can't just flip it over).

Final minutes spent on the engine bay, re-routing some wires to make the bay look more tidy and preparing to drill there for the loom p-clips. I hope this task will provide a better looking engine bay, currently looks more of a rats nest than a racing car.

Drilling Stuff

Couple of hours and was motivated to drill and fit the middle and rear prop-catchers. Turns out when I was preparing things that the holes on the pieces are not exactly where they should, one is a millimetre or two too big and would foul the ally plate that covers the tunnel... Spent a bit of time looking at the parts and trying to figure out what I should do.
Decision comes that I will not fit the middle catcher and the rear one may be redesigned and redone as an inverted U like the one on the front. I'm still unsure. Steve at Aries thinks there is no need for catchers, other users I know haven't fitted one and I'm afraid of being driven based on horror stories. Not all chassis have the same configuration on the tunnel, regarding structure placement, and it actually may be moot wit this specific design.

Needed to get something done for motivation. With a sanding tip on the drill, "relocated" a bit one of the holes on the floor for the passenger seat. It is now correctly placed and the seat can be secured with all four bolts.

Last task was to drill a few holes on the inner beam of the tunnel to hold the p-clips that secure the electrical loom. All done bar two that required me to take off the dash. It was already lunch time so this had to be left for another day.