Nose Job

The goal this week was to get the nose mounted on the car. There are more steps involved than you'd think, as we have to be careful that everything lines up before we start trimming fiberglass from the nose and doors.

The first step was to get the body in just the right place. We drilled holes and mounted the taillights, sans bulbs and red lens covers. These hold the rear of the body in place as well. We had to squeeze washers between the chassis mounting plates and the body so we could tighten the bolts on the brake lights.

Next we turned our attention to the sides of the car. We needed three bolts on each side. They are hidden by the exhaust when it is installed later. These were difficult to drill and attach due to really tight spaces involved.

The hood is mounted and hinged using a clever bracket system. We attached the brackets to the hood, once again using lighting to help with the attachment. In this case, the fog light mounting bolt is one of two used to attach each bracket to the nose. The hinge system is adjustable in all three axes so that we can get the fit just right. For now, we were just happy to see it installed and be able to hinge upward.

We decided on a new rule: NO CLOSING THE GARAGE DOOR WITH THE HOOD OPEN! I think you can see why...

Our next goal is to carefully mark and cut the hood so that it joins the body where it is supposed to. This is a nail-biting step for us. If we remove too much we're going to have to figure out how to add it back on. Once we've cut it, we have some more adjusting to do before we can add the various posts and latches that hold it still at highway speeds.