This weekend I tackled the number plate and the illumination thereof. I bought these really neat little LED lamps and painted them red. Then lined up everything and drilled the holes, set the rivnuts and....
Then it was time to get adventurous with a small file and sort out the Lambda sensor which could not be installed without cutting away some of the exhaust guard. Very stressful handiwork!
My next problem lies in routing the sensor cable - I dont want to route it along the body to the exhaust header port, that will need putting small holes in the body for P clips. The other alternative is routing it along the exhaust pipe - neat but liable to melt the cable! Or straight up the body to the scuttle - ugly!!!
I am thinking of cutting a neat hole in the body with a chassis punch and putting in a weatherproof grommet, leaving the outside run to 3-4 inches at most. I found that DEI make a neat flexible heat shield tube for just such eventualities and I may just give them a call.
Today I fitted the headers and the pre-assemble muffler. The headers took a bit of manipulation but luckily I had done this once before so I knew the procedure front and back. First fit the two outer headers, then the siamese centre pipes. I sourced another manifold gasket because Lord alone knows what happened to the last one. I also had to work around the throttle cables.
Next was the collector pipe which is a cute 4 into 1. I was clever enough to just loosen the manifold bolts enough to give me some wobble room. With the aid of a large wooden mallet that went on with minimum fuss. You'll see some springs there I had to buy because the OEM items are keeping the manifold gasket company somewhere.
Nothing daunted I proceeded to fit the muffler and connector pipe, these were a perfect fit and matched the body mount to the millimeter!!! Unfortunately one of the M8X1.0 Metric fine nuts that goes with the rubber vibration mount has gone astray with the gasket etc etc.
I then loosely fitted the red exhaust guards, and discovered that the front guard is going to need a bit of modification because the Lambda sensor that fits into it fouls the guard.
I think this is going to be a little cracker of a car when she is done!!!
