This should have been a straight forward 30-minute task, but it ended up taking quite a bit longer. The manual doesn’t have you mount the handle to the supplied bracket aluminum until you run the cables. In reality, it is much easier to mount the handle first, then run the cables. It also took a while to figure out how to use the bracket, as it is not pictured in the manual and they do not tell you where to  mount it or how to use it.  I ended up mounting it in the corner by the door hinge, putting it well out of the way of everything. To use the bracket you need to bend the ‘tabs’ back, and then press the handle onto them. Once the cables were ran, it took a while to figure out how to clamp them out of the way without the hood latches being pulled open too much by the tightened cables.

I finally decided to tackle installing the mesh for the hood cutouts. These took a while as a lot of patience is required to get the  mesh cut and bent just right for a nice secure, flush fit. Once they were cut and formed I was ready to install them. Lots of silicone, tape, and random supports propped up to put pressure on the mesh and 12 hours of curing and they were done.  I’m pleased.

The guy that does the powdercoating for me finished the louvers and some other things today so I went and picked those up and set to installing them. Rear end jacked up, tires removed, louvers fit into place, contact points marked for adhesive, fun times.  Since I had a half container of 3M 8115 Panel Bonding Adhesive left I went and rented the applicator gun from the local auto store and used that to adhere the louvers against the body. 24 hours to cure, so they should be solid as a rock tomorrow afternoon.

The hood mesh looks good so far. Still have to adhere the bottom portion of the ‘mouth’ mesh with silicone.

I wasn’t in the mood to do much tonight so I just formed the small mesh pieces for the lower ducts on the hood and siliconed them into place. After that I decided to do the top of the hood mouth mesh as well. When that is dry and secure I will secure the bottom of the mesh.

I also received the replacement turn signal stalk from Fparts today. No burned wires in it – good sign! They forgot to send the mounting bolts along, but I taped it into place and gave it a quick test. Turn signals work! Previously, the right side turn signals would work half the time, and when they did they were often slower than the left side. Now they work perfect, and I’m glad that issue is resolved.

Moving on, I attacked the nose aluminum install. The manual is great in that it doesn’t mention these 2 pieces at all! The half-oval curved piece fits into the underside of the nose, and the funky U shaped piece fits upside down over the top of the hood’s ‘mouth’ and attaches to the flat curved nose aluminum piece just described.

The U shaped piece does not fit as is – I cut 1.75″ off the entire back of the piece – sides and top – and slid it up from underneath. This took some patience and trial and error, but it went in. I only had to notch it out a little bit with the Dremel for the radiator bolts. The large curved underside piece had to be cut pretty extensively on the back end so it could clear the radiator/condenser walls when the hood was opened.

Once everything was fit in I drilled out everything and clecko’d it together. The nose underside has to be powdercoated yet, then I will rivet it all together.

After that, I found the window switch mounts that go in the console trim plate, so I cut out the holes in the center console for those switch plates.

Lots of stuff done today, so I will break everything up into a couple posts.

Started off getting the front body closeout panels installed. These little panels mount at the bottom-front of the doors to seal off the body from air flow. The pieces don’t fit very well, and are meant to slide behind the footbox aluminum. Oops, I already riveted those into place. No matter, though. I trimmed the closeout panels to fit better and riveted them in place. The driver’s side panel was modified a bit to close the body gap better. Both panels were sealed with silicone to fill in any gaps, etc. Ideally, you should install these with the doors off – pretty tricky to drill and rivet them into place with the doors mounted. I used a remote drill Dremel attachment to snake the 1/8″ bit in there.

With the body close-out panels in place I went back to check on how my louver mesh was looking. This turned out very nice – I trimmed the excess screen down now that everything was dry and stuck into place so that it looks cleaner.

I also assembled the side duct louvers made by Shane @ VRaptor Speedworks. Shane also made the AC blow relocation plenum that I used. These will be powdercoated and then adhered to the inside of the body with the 3M Panel Bonding Adhesive.

Finally, before moving onto bigger things, I installed the headlight covers that screw onto the headlight covers I installed previously. These allow access to the headlights, but keep them sealed off otherwise.