Friday 23 November 2012

Oil Cooler & Boot Hinges

It would appear that Mr Huddart doesn't like Oil Coolers! In fact he went so far as to say he wouldn't warranty the engine if I used one as the oil never gets up to temperature and the oil bypasses the filter until it gets to 85 degrees. Fair one then!

As I dont want a gaping hole where the cooler should be i decided to fit one and then take Dave Brookes' advice and simply run the hose off one side, round the back of the rad and back onto the other side!

A quick sqiuzz on Ebay and a brand new 13 Row cooler came up and is mine for £25 - happy days...



As far as mounting it is concerned I didn't like the idea of simply bolting it straight onto the fibreglass in the mouth of the car so I have used a couple of lengths of alloy tubing (found this on an old light fitting!) and some threaded rod to give some support to the mounting flanges. A piece of steel flat bar will go under the body and the whole thing will bolt down onto this.....




Also fitted the first piece of brightwork, the boot hinges. Drilling holes into the bodywork and gelcoat is a nerve racking task! To get the holes aligned properly i fitted the boot lid rubber and then spent about 30 mins measuring from various points to get the absolute centre of the car. The build manual states the hinges should be 8 inches either side of the centre line so I ran a piece of string down the centre of the body and then double doble checked the measurements before sticking down some masking tape and taking the plunge. The hinges look great....sigh of relief!


It looks like the boot lid hasn't been stored correctly in the past so one side of the bottom lip is further into the boot aperture than the other. It isn't that obvious but I know its there and its annoying!



Im hoping that once i get the latching mech in it will pull it out otherwise im going to have to put a spacer in between the rubber and the bottom of the lid and hope that the force of the boot being closed will pull the distortion out.... This something that i have seen on other blogs so im not too worried.

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