#38
With the exhaust finished I turned my attention to the bodywork now.. We do intend on getting fibreglass panels at some point in the future but for now we are just modifying the standard steel panels.
I started with the bonnet.. Fitting Aerocatches which we purchased from
Nimbus Motorsport .. Always scary cutting into the standard panels for the first time. I used the templates and aligned them with the contours of the bonnet and moved them closer to the center of the bonnet, the normal on here seems to be to use the holes above the lights which is quite far apart and then causes the center of the bonnet to lift, which i didn't want to happen.
There are so many ways to fit them, but I used the following method which was achievable with the tools I have.
Template taped on.. I used a hole saw in a drill to drill the large diameter..
Then I used a 4mm drill bit to drill the outline
Then used to metal shears to cut the center out and a dremel to clean up the edges.
I then drilled the mount holes marked up on the template.
I then used a piece of paper which i cut to the corner edge profile of the bonnet and marked the hole position so I could transfer it over to the other side and repeat the process.
I then decided to cut the inner skin from the bonnet to save those grams..
I had to paint the inner skin to match the engine bay colour and get rid of the gastly paint work left over.
All painted and bonnet mounted up.
I then had to make some mount plates to mount the bonnet pins. As i said I placed the catches more in the center than usual so required some plates with I wanted to mount to the original holes the slam panel bolted too. I started by cutting out multiple templates to get the correct position, once that was finalised I printed out the templates and made some plates out of 4mm aluminium tooling plate..
Which I then tapped and threaded the mount pins into.. Locking off with a nut on the underside.
I then cut the mount pins and fitted the other side.
I then turned my attention to the rear boot. and followed a similar process. This time using the original boot rubber stop mount holes. Which i slotted slightly to move the aerocatches further inboard than the std hole allowed... Few pics of the process below..
With the boot done I then masked off around the seals and painted the inner surface to match the interior..
Next step was to fit the boot.. I started by blanking off the Number plate light recess.. Carbon? well..... just because haha
I then cut a slot for the rear Tow strap and mounted that to the chassis.
Then fitted the boot emblem which I had bought with an anthracite colour as the original one had been completely covered in carbon, which had a lot of defects.
@Jenbo then did some great work to remove all the double sided sticky tape off the boot.. I had spent a lot of time trying to remove it but couldn't budge it!.. so awesome job by him.
I then blanked off the front wings like I had done on the boot.
Then onto the front tow strap and cleaning the grilles.
I then trial fitted the bumper to see how everything fit.
Next up was removing the inner door skins.. progress so far..