Bumper To Bumper - A Bumper Christmas Update!

It’s nearly Christmas again... Was it really this time of year 4 years ago that I started all of this? *gulp* :-)

Ah well - The light is at the end of the tunnel now, and I can see an IVA test being booked in the new year.

Since the last update, I’ve done quite a lot. I’ve made up all the closure panels that turn the rear tub into an actual boot space, bought some seats, wrapped the long stretches of the wiring loom up in loom tape and secured it properly and upholstered all the panels and dash to match the seats - and a few other bits I’ll get on to later on.

Anyway - the closure panels are all made out of aluminium sheet. The main ‘rear’ panel is made out of 3mm Aluminium, and was a right pain to work with - i could form the slight curves required for this ok, but the side panels where just to much to get a nice natural bend to it. So after sweating buckets over them, I threw them away and did them in 1.5mm aluminium.

The hatch into the boot was cut from the same panel formed to create the back, and is held on with some polished stainless steel hinges I found from a yacht chandler online somewhere. The lock is from Europa, as is the trim rings around the slots in the top of the panel to allow the seat belt harness through.

The door is prevented from falling inward into the boot by some 6mm Aluminium jambs either side of the aperture and the lock plate at the top made from the same material. They're just bolted on with some countersunk set screws.

My seats are from a company called Interior Seating - we looked at them at Stoneliegh this year, and once Mrs GOO had seen them, all bets where off regarding any other option. I have to say though, she has impeccable taste as a) they look fab in the car and b) she married me. :-)

The seats are mounted via 4 bolts each, which pass through the chair rails, a set of strengthening bars and the floor itself. The bars stop the relatively thin floor panel from flexing too much when someone sits in the seat by spreading the load to the sides of the floor pan.

The arrival of the seats also brought matching vinyl, so I could crack on and cover the boot panels and the dash.

All of the panels including the dash where covered in self adhesive foam before the vinyl was stretched over it and glued in place with contact adhesive. This gives them a nice cushioned feel, and the clocks appear to be sunk into the dash now. All the boot panels are held in place with stainless button head set screws which screw into rivnuts set into the tub.

You may remember that I was planning on fitting a shift light to the car, as I allowed for an indicator light on the dash for this purpose. I had planned on ‘rolling my own’, constructing my own circuit for it - but after a lot of head scratching and trawling of eBay, I managed to get a second hand Omex shift light box dirt cheap - so I’ve fit that instead.

Its screwed onto the backside of the dash using a simple aluminium bracket, and it’s wired up with more mulit way connectors. It takes a feed from the coil in exactly the same way as the Tacho does (in fact the box is connected to the back of the tacho, rather than all the way back to the coil), and by means of two buttons you set up the number of cylinders and the activation threshold. Easy peasy!

So - more blinkenlights for the Gooster: