DaveR

Oh yes, it looks SO much better! Just the way the stock one gathers leaves / other miscellaneous debris is enough to drive a man mad... And no worries on the write ups - I like it when stuff goes right! This! - - - Updated - - - Thanks bud.

Today, despite the *ahem* issues I had earlier in the week with my Ridox lip spoiler, I decided to fit my Whifbitz carbon fibre scuttle panel. The stock one came off very easily without having to remove the bonnet, since a. it's quite flexible and b. if it gets 'hurt' a bit, it doesn't really matter (it didn't). After 18 years things had got quite grimey under there: ...so I took the opportunity to give everything a good clean. With that done, I carefully removed all of the rubber seals from the stock part and washed them in some warm water too: The two smaller ones seal the bonnet hinges and the long thin one seals the panel against the windscreen. Risk time! There is a requirement to cut away a portion of the carbon scuttle panel; the part you can see in this picture that protrudes from between the two slits that are roughly perpendicular to the edge - this allows for the bonnet hinge to move freely without fouling the panel and is sealed by the aforementioned rubber parts: Paul (Mr Whifbitz ) said that future stocks will have this part pre-cut, but mine still needed fettling. So, measure twice and cut once an' all that I marked everything up using some masking tape and a permi pen: And got going with the Dremel: To save anyone else who might be reading this and intending on fitting one of these the same to-ing and fro-ing and trial and error that I then went through, what you ACTUALLY need to cut away is quite a bit more material so that the bonnet hinge has sufficient room to move. The final amount I cut is shown in this modified pic: If you compare this with the stock part, you'll see it matches more closely. EDIT: It makes a lot of sense to include a picture of the stock part here really... With that all done, I ran a thin bead of Tiger Seal along the rearmost edge of the underside of the panel and around my freshly cut bonnet hinge slits and glued the rubber seals in place: The long windscreen seal needs stretching slightly to ensure it fits correctly. To fit the panel, once everything was dry of course, I pressed into service a burly friend to hold the bonnet for me while I unfastened one of the hinges to allow me to slip the new panel into position. The new piece isn't flexible enough to go in in the same way the stock one came out (well, it might be, but at £250 or whatever they are, do you REALLY want to take the risk...?) so my advice is either to do what I did or, if you fancy it, remove the bonnet completely. Either way, the piece is a really good fit and slides into place without too much pushing and pulling (and swearing, etc! ) once you have sufficient access. Once it was in place, I re-fastened the hinge bolts (so my mate could relax and have a brew!) and then simply re-attached all of the stock screws and plastic clips (the holes all lined up impressively perfectly, which I was very happy about understandably!) and of course the windscreen wipers. With everything in place (and the bonnet panel gaps checked to make sure the hinge went back in the exact right place), it's time to stand back and admire... Muuuuch better! This close-up shows the amount of material I removed for the bonnet hinges, covered by the stock rubber seal:

Good stuff...

Very nice pics matey.

Iiiiiiiinteresting. Bit of a thread hijack (although arguably relevant ) but what's the standard one, for comparison?

Hello matey. I have an RPS carbon twin plate clutch in my 720bhp V160'd car. Before I say what's relevant for you, I'll get in the fact that it is a very good clutch. Certainly worth the money; as far as I can tell so far after nearly 18 months of frequent, ahem, spirited driving (), bomb-proof; easily capable of handling that power with no slippage; re-buildable if anything does go wrong (not a feature I've needed to make use of so far); rifle bolt quick through the changes under load... So, all good right? NO! For one it really doesn't tick your "no rattles or funny noises" box - even when depressing the clutch you can hear the plates rattling (so loudly one particular female employee working on the gate at Shakespeare County Raceway the other week asked if my car was broken because of the noise...) and when you lift off at speed you can often hear the rasping growl of the clutch over the exhaust note! Personally I love it and think it sounds awesome (because race car, right ) but it's LOUD... I've kinda got used to it now, but honestly this "stock +10%" to the pedal feel is a work of fiction too - it's ok for normal driving but get stuck in traffic for any length of time and TRUST ME you'll know about it. Also the bite point is a. significantly 'higher' than stock and b. about 1/2mm of pedal travel (I'm exaggerating slightly there, but honestly it's narrow!). After a year and a half, I STILL stall the engine at lights if I fail to concentrate - this isn't me being a mutant either because I drive any number of completely different manual vehicles day-to-day at work and have not one problem ever. I often tell me people when they ask the usual "So can I drive you car then?!" that if they can get it going they can drive it, knowing for a fact that they wouldn't! It's quite a useful security feature, actually - you could probably leave your engine running and abandon your car somewhere because any would-be car thief is pretty much guaranteed to stall the thing! So... Yes the clutch is a good one; no it's not ANYWHERE NEAR as user friendly as a stock one. Now from what I hear the triple plate somehow alleviates all this and feels much more like stock, but as I've never driven a car with one of those fitted, I couldn't swear to it. Invest wisely! Hope that's helped...

I'll be watching with interest!

Busy times ahead! Good effort.

If I had the £12k-ish required I'd be on it in a flash. But I don't. So I'm not. Buuuutttt... In my new-found out-of-debt wealth I reckon I can have the money together within the next 12 months (3.4l block, stage 3 head, engine bay smoothed / re-painted... the works!) so it'll happen soonish.

It would need stripping though surely?

It's the staff at TDI who have forwarded the diagram on to me to try and find the info because they don't have it. Clearly they could very easily take my car, strip the diff off and measure everything but we're all keen to avoid that - it would then be another two weeks until the OSG one is delivered during which either I'm without my car and TDI have to store it, immobile and taking up a ramp and / or workshop space OR they have to put it all back together just to take it apart again when the new parts arrive. I don't want that!

Seriously... Anyone?

Blimey!

Mmmmm.... I take it the numbers being touted there are 'American horsepower' figures. Worth a watch though!

Like it!

How have I missed this?! I've just read the thread through - really impressed with all the custom work, matey. You've got some real talent there. I've got to say that this piqued my interest: I'm planning on getting an SRD alloy engine undertray but would love to mate it to something metal underneath the front bumper too (in the vein of the stock plastic c-shaped one but sturdier). I don't have the necessary tools / time / resources / talent to make something like that very well, so I'll be interested to see this if it goes ahead. Uh and you apply for that hobbyist status... I'm glad to see you workspace looks like mine always does part way through a job by the way! p: Anyway. Top work.

Very smart, good buy.

I'm obviously going to have to resort to the tried and trusted 'stick your fingers in your ears and say lalalalalala really loud until they go away' technique here... Thanks matey.

WHAT?! But you can't have enough blue in an engine bay... I'll hand it to you though Paul, she does look more coordinated and 'in-keeping' now. In for a carbon viscous fan shroud by the way...

This is awesome! I know it might be considered criminal, but I'm also a +1 for the Nissan midnight purple...

That's a very smart Supra you've got. (The Ford doesn't really do it for me...) And reference the manual conversion: DO IT! Autoboxes are for the weak...

And the rest...

Sounds interesting. And yes, pics please...

Bore off! Top Gear's awesome! Factual car shows can be REALLY dull, but a bit of irreverance never is!