Saturday 19th March 2005

Test fitting Seats and Fitment of bonnet pins

It had been a while since we'd managed to do any work on the track car, due to other commitments, and the weather getting in the way, not to mention the fact that the Saabflight garage had been busy. After a trip to have a look at a car trailer to move the car around, we arrived at Saabflight's workshop at around 10am. We had a few jobs to look for the day, and we wanted to discuss a workplan with David Greenwood of Saabflight.
The first job of the day was to test-fit our new Corbeau pro-sport racing seats. These are a Kevlar composite moulded seat with side mountings, and were some of the most comfortable seats we found. The moulded frame allows some flexing, so allowing a tighter fit than a metal framed seat, but with better comfort, and a weight saving as well.
David Greenwood noted that he had had some difficulty fitting the seats in Saabflight's own track car, as these had mountings in the base of the seat, needing a bespoke frame to be made up. However, with the side mounted seats we had, we found that once the holes had been enlarged, the standard Corbeau alloy side mounts exactly fitted the original Saab seat mounting points. For ease of moving the seats to suit different drivers, we removed the central console. This leaves the electric window switches loose, so we'll have to mount them somewhere else. Once we were happy that they would all fit OK, we tested for suitable mountings for our Luke 4 point FIA harnesses. Once we had concluded the plans, we removed the new seats and refitted the old cloth seat and seatbelt, as there was still welding to be done on the sunroof.
The second job for the day was to install a set of bonnet pins. When we replaced the bonnet, we raised the height of the back of the bonnet to allow for a good airflow through the engine bay. However, this will have altered the angle that the bonnet catches work at, possibly making them less strong. None of us want to experience the bonnet flying up on the back straight at Goodwood, so we wanted to make it more secure.
The first task was to remove the headlights and the old bonnet latches, we then drilled up through the slam panel into the first layer of the bonnet with a small drill. With this marked, we lifted the bonnet and drilled right through with a 10mm drill. We then installed the bonnet pin in the slam panel and carefully lowered the bonnet down to see where the hole needed to be enlarged. It was then a trial and error process to file out the hole until it fitted over the pin snugly. The second pin was installed in the same way, and once both holes were in the bonnet, we riveted the supplied plates over the top of the pins. Then with trail and error, we adjusted the height of the pins so that the bonnet shut tight and in line with the wings.
Pleased with our efforts, we then talked through a workplan with David Greenwood, to establish exactly what outstanding items needed to be addressed before the car's first outing at Goodwood on the 19th May