css3menu.com

menu html5 by Css3Menu.com

December 2008

Lights

After the crash (see previous update) and the decision had been made to change the bodywork I started to look at the lights on the back first. To be honest I haven't been overly happy with the multiple light units fitted to the car as they are a pain to change bulbs on and do any maintenance.

However a lot of the aftermarket lights these days are the Lexus style LED lamps which in my personal opinion look a bit chavy and not suitable for the type of car a Tiger is. It took several weeks of searching but eventually I came up with a set from Stafford Vehicle components these look similar to the 'trailer' type lamps that a lot of '7' type cars have but are actually modern LED units. As can be seen from the pictures below they are quite bright in use.

Off tail Indicator Brake
Slightly Rusty

Bodywork

Some people might wonder if the bodywork was actually in that bad a condition prior to replacement, well the back tub had numerous cracks / splits in it and the nosecar features a couple of large star cracks as can be seen in the pictures below.

Rear Tub front edge of rear arch Nose cone Detail of nose cone

Fuel Tank

Now anyone who has fitted the rear tub to a Cat will know how much of a pain it is to line up the fibreglass to the fuel filler neck for some reason on both the rear tubs I have previously fitted it hasn't looked really 'right'. So I am not going to have a fuel filler on the new bodywork (I have made the engine ultra efficient so it doesn't need petrol!). Well not quite instead the fuel filler will be located under the rear tonneau out of sight and allowin the rear shell to remain unmarked. The tank modification can be seen in the pictures below. There was one small snag though - the original fuel cap is a rather large affair and too big to go under the cover without a problem - however it turns out that the inner section (comprising key, lock and gasket) is seperate from the outer plastic and works fine without it so I just popped the outer off.

New Fuel Filler Fuel Tank Installed Modified Fuel Cap

New Wheels

Well they had to be custom made (as normally they are only in black) but my new Pro-Race 1.2 wheels are now here with a set of Toyo T1R tyres fitted. The finish is slightly unusual being 'Glitter Silver' this results in them having a slightly pearlescent finish but they do look good - as soon as the mounting are installed in the rear wing they are going on the car!

Shiny Wheels

Rear Tub

The rear tub has now been fitted to the car and is just in need of the front tie mounts to be attached before it is 100% secure. Work is started on the rear light clusters to ensure they are lined up correct. A word of advise the reference point for the rear lights is the ground - don't take them off the fibreglass as they tend to look wrong when measured correctly. Despite the complex hidden fixings in the mountings provided at SVC I am going to do a simple drill through the plastic and screw it to the wing with some rubber edging to take up the slight variation between the flat housing and the curve of the wing (I figure this is a lot easier than trying to file it to shape). Unfortunately I just got to the point of drilling the holes when it started to get dark and as the battery which runs the garage lights is being charged as a write this all work has had to stop for the moment.

Rear Tub

After the light was restored work gathered pace and all the light clusters are installed and wired along with the fog lamp (now on a bracket not on the rear tub pointing at the sky this time.... The LED indictor require the addition of a high power resistor 10R 15W to make the relay believe that a bulb is attached. This is wired into the indicator feed and then to earth - do not wire it in series with the lights or they will be rather dim as no power will get through. Finally whilst doing the work at the back of the car I tidied up all the wiring and removed a lot of slack from the loom.

The new rear wheels have now been fitted and apart from a bit of filing required on the centre caps for the wheels all went on without a problem (the centre caps kept popping off due to the driveshaft bolts being in the way)

Front Grille

One of the minor problems with buying a new nose for the car was that the Mk2 nose has a larger grille aperture than the original MK1 version. This isn't a major problem as Tiger can supply a nice powdercoated version in black. But I didn't want black - I wanted Silver / Aluminium! This was going to be easily rectified with a can of spray.

Then I had an idea - could I put the car name into the grille, a spare 'Tiger' sticker was sourced from Laura to be used as a stencil. Now some people were sceptical about this idea to say the least but as I pointed out if it goes wrong I will spray the grille completely silver and be done with it. However as can be seen from the pictures below I think the result was fairly good.

Before Paint After Paint

Front Wings

The front wing brackets had to be moved as the new wider wheels wouldn't fit without some work. This proved easy to do with the addition of a M8 nut between the front hub and the bracket which pushed the bracket enough to let the wheel fit without fouling. I had though I could get away without any spacers on the bracket to the wings - however if I had done so I wouldn't have been able to remove the wheel so an ali extrusion has been used as a spacer to allow wheel changes. The wings have had the edging trim fitted to them as the previous set used, I had done this originally for SVA purposes and kept it on as it is easier to change trim than replace wings if you misjudge putting the car in the garage. The wings will be bonded to the stays with Tiger Seal and a single M8 bolt top and bottom for extra security.

Detail of bracket mod Front Wing Brackets

Pictures to date (21st December)

All Lights Installed Rear Wheel Installed Front Wheel (wing not secured yet) View of Car (and yes it is sitting on odd wheels as a new one is propping up the garage door!

Nose Cone

The new nose cone has now been fitted apart from remaking the wires to the indicators there isn't really much to say - except that it only took 20 minutes to fit. Once fitted and with the indicators secured, the next jon was the grille which only took about 10 minutes to fit with a couple of cable ties. The number plate at the front is also seured with ties as well.

Final Assembly

The good bit as the car is now complete and drivable again (albeit rather dirty and in need of a polish...

The first of the refitting jobs was to reinstall the fasteners for the rear tonneau. This was simple enough altough I did leave a bit of slack compared to the original fittings in order to make it easier to remove the cover for filling with fuel.

Now came the job that could have caused a major problem - remounting the boot box. There had always been a chance that the bootbox would not go in with the modified fuel filler and something would have had to be altered - however it fitted first time and is a lot more secure in there than before!

The old holes from the side panel screws were filled with car body filler and the side panels were refitted back to the car.

So now the car is driveable - however it still needs the front ties for the wheelarches and for me to sort out the spare wheel mounting (as I am keeping a 14" rim as a spare then a suitable cover needs to be sourced so it doesn't look odd) and the (rather poor as the light was fading pictures show it complete).

Car view 1 Car View 2