Now that all the instruments are connected, I'd love to get the engine running. But, as I haven't got an exhaust yet - Quantum's supplier has been affected by staff illness - I'll carry on with the bodywork. Next piece to go on is the nosecone. The nosecone has round holes for the shock absorbers to pass through, although most Xtremes I have seen have had the bottom of these holes cut out to form oval slots. This allows the nosecone to be dropped over the shock absorbers, without having to remove them. Quantum's latest demonstrator has the original round holes and uses CV joint gaiters to cover the fixings between the top wishbone and shock absorber. This looks much neater and is the method I intend to use, although it will make the fitting and removal of the nosecone a more difficult job - access to the inner shock absorber bolts, especially the offside one, is rather restricted when the nosecone is on.
As with the scuttle, I first offered up the bare panel to the chassis. It was a good fit, so I carefully drilled the four mounting holes, using the scribe marks for positioning. These holes lined up perfectly with the four in the chassis - impressive stuff. I then enlarged the pre-cut pilot holes for the headlamps and their looms and filed out the holes for the oval indicator stalk ends. These plastic indicator lamps are not of the highest quality - there's no kind of gasket or seal between the lenses and bodies to stop water ingress. I'll probably replace them with chromed metal-bodied ones after SVA. Very neat, waterproof, four-way connectors were then connected to the headlamp wiring (I nearly started fitting them before passing the headlamp looms through the holes in the nosecone!) to match up with the ones on the main loom. The front indicators were simply connected using individual crimp-on bullet connectors - I'll fit some waterproof connectors like those on the headlamp looms when I change the indicators. With all the lights mounted, I refitted the nosecone, made all the connections, tested it all and everything worked! In case I need to access the radiator or cooling fan when I first start the engine, I then removed the completed nosecone and took it back upstairs. This will also prevent it getting knocked or scratched during the rest of the build.
Not knowing exactly where the exhaust would go, I could only half prepare the bonnet. More foam rubber was stuck on the chassis, to cushion the bonnet, then the four brackets that hold the wire part of the Dzus fasteners were bolted to the chassis. These brackets were then drilled to take the wires, which were held in with 1/8" pop rivets. I then measured the position of the fasteners, relevant to the bonnet, scuttle and chassis and marked out the mounting hole positions on the bonnet, to take the main part of the Dzus fasteners. As I'm getting more confident with fibreglass, I carefully used a cone-shaped hole cutter to make these 17mm holes. This worked well and was certainly much quicker than drilling and filing. The fasteners were fixed to the bonnet with more 1/8" pop rivets, using washers on the inside to spread the load on the fibreglass. The large holes for the exhaust and air filter will have to wait until after I've run the engine.
