Interior panelling
This month sees some of the interior panels being made and fitted. I bought a 1000 x 2000 x 1.5mm sheet of Aluminium from a local engineering company (thanks Phil). This should be enough for the paneling I need to do, no mistakes allowed though! I started with the rear bulkhead as it seemed the simplest panel to cut to shape. Once the basic shape had been cut using hand nibblers the top and bottom edges were bent to match the shape of the chassis. I marked out, drilled and de-burred the holes for the rivets at 40mm intervals. The panel was temporarily fitted to the chassis with a couple of rivets so I could drill the holes in the chassis. The panel was the removed and permanently fitted with a bead of sealant along all the chassis tubes and lots of 'hand popped' rivets. The end result is quite satisfying even if I do say so myself.
Feeling supremely confident I moved onto making the panels for the transmission tunnel. These are more complex shape and also have an uneven bend where the tunnel changes shape for the gearbox. As before the panels were cut to shape, drilled and temporarily fitted for drilling the chassis. I have not permanently fitted them yet as I will need access to the tunnel for fitting the wiring loom, brake & fuel pipes and the propshaft.
