Michel and I got to work some more on the car today, and although we didn't get the job completely finished, we went a long way towards making it appear done!
First things first, Michel slapped an Accuair sticker on his toolbox, to go with the Ridetech ones he put on there a few weeks ago.
We worked exclusively on the trunk today, and in case you don't remember (or haven't looked), here's where we left off.
Michel took the bull by the horns and started working on the tank bracket. Here is the first iteration of it, showing the non-visible side then the visible side, then a quick test fit in the car.
Here's Michel being all nonchalant with the grinder, and throwing down some welds.
In the meantime, I got cracking on fitting the trunk side panels back in place, cutting holes in them to clear the heads of the compressors. It's a long and tedious process, starting with a black sharpie circle on the backside. Then, little by little, cutting away a small piece, then test fitting, checking where to cut next, removing, flipping the panel around, trying not to forget where to cut, cutting, and reinstalling, and repeating until satisfied.
We had come up with an aesthetic upgrade for the tank bracket that Michel worked on in the meantime. We decided to angle the sides in towards the top, making a cleaner appearance. Then, one more test fit in the car. The long tabs on the bracket are necessary because the left side of the bracket is above the spare tire, where it can't be attached to anything. So they go forward, and bolt into the floorpan using the same inserts we had previously used for the ride height sensors. The last pic is the insert tool that Michel had fabricated back when we were doing the sensors. It was getting pretty beat up, but a little grease got us through it.
Once the side panels were done, we were able to test-fit the floor carpet. We figured the simplest way to keep it functional was to cut out the areas where the tank brackets bolted to the floor. This way, the carpet is completely removeable, and the spare tire can still be accessed. Putting the carpet back in is simple too, because we decided to put some spacers under the tabs of the tank bracket. This had the added benefit of making the whole tank bracket look like it's floating above the carpet once it's all put together! Pretty cool!
Michel hit the bracket with some hammered-finish paint that was kicking around on a shelf. I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do in the way of painting the tank and bracket yet, so this will do for now. In the second pic you can see the stacked washers that I mentioned above. Betwheen the tank and the bracket there's an old rubber propane hose that was slit lengthwise and fitted over the bracket. Really simple, but looks pretty good, and protects the tank and maybe even damps some vibrations.
So we got so close, but we called it quits before we could tackle the front trunk panel. It's a tight fit, and we were both too tired to be doing delicate work. So this is where we stopped. You can also see that we drilled holes in the side panels to pass the braided compressor lines through. The left panel took a couple of tries to get the hole in the right spot.
Next time, we'll finish the trunk panel, and find a better solution for the air line that goes from the tank to the manifold. We discovered today that the water trap wasn't doing its job because the water was all in the tank. But in the meantime, I'm happy that the trunk is useable again.
Later.
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