Screen Test

As mentioned at the end of the last update, I had received my aero screens off my mate Paul who had gone a different route with his car. I have had to fabricate one additional end bracket but other than that it was time to start fitting them. 

I had a read of the build guide for the fitment process along with studying many many pictures online, looking for a specific fitting orientation. I decided that the majority of cars with these screens fitted all are slightly different in terms of fitting positions and finished look. So I was going to fit mine how I thought looked best and is pretty much the same as advised with the build guide. 

First step was to mark out the centre line of the body and make a mark 6” back from the bonnet shut line. This then gives me an indication for the front of the centre bracket position. The centre bracket itself is the flat V shaped piece in the image above, it needs to be bent in a 90 degree for each arm to support each inner screen fixing. This isn’t particularly easy without the correct tools. The first bend is easy enough in the bench vice but the second leg bend is not so easy because it then can’t be held in the vice without destroying the first 90 bend. I solved the problem by using a small length of scrap box section that was clamped down to the work bench and with the bracket then clamped between that and the bench gave me a firm enough fixing to bend the second leg up against. This worked out pretty well considering and whilst it’s not a perfect symmetrical bend, it is only out by about 2mm so it is hardly noticeable and the screens have a fair amount of tolerance for the fitting position. 

Before I went any further I went bin diving and retrieved a cereal box which is perfect cardboard for making the template for the additional bracket that I needed. This was quickly marked and cut ready to fabricate the second bracket, which allowed me to bend and fit the first bracket to finish one side of the screens. This bracket is advised to be fitted 8” forward of the cockpit flange, however after lots and lots of playing around I couldn’t get anything that was likely to fit or look good. I ended up using the centre bolt hole as my measurement point and made this 7.5” forward of the cockpit flange. This combined with the two bends in the screen frame mounting brackets allows the whole screen to sit at the same angle as the front centre bracket and is roughly 4mm off the curvature of the body tub. All very well fitting one, but the skill is getting the second screen to fit the same using the same dimensions….. roughly. 

So now it was time to start cutting out cock shapes from scrap alloy… I intended to get the shape first then spend as long as it takes bringing it up to a polished finish. The initial shape was cut out using the angle grinder and a flap wheel after to fine tune the shape. Then using some double sided tape I stuck it down to the bench top and set about with some 240 grit wet and dry in my orbital sander. After that I moved up to 600, then 800, then 1200 and finally 2000. This gave me a fairly good uniform finish but no mirror as such, so I then used a small white mop and cutting compound in my combi drill, spraying water every so often as so not to burn the finish. 

After a couple of passes it was looking fairly respectable in comparison to the original bracket. I gave it a final buff with generic Autosol compound and was happy enough to call that a win. I just had to flip it over and do the other side also following the same process and making it as shiny as possible. Once I was happy with the bracket I followed the same process as the other side for fitting the second screen. This has worked out fairly well as when checking and comparing the measurements from offside to nearside I am only out by about 2mm or so… which for a fibreglass kit car is pretty bloody good. More importantly the screens both look uniform, symmetrical and are firm enough to be practical. I will be leaving the lexan protective wrap on the screens to reduce any risk of scratching them before the car is finished, but overall I’m fairly happy with how they have turned out. They make the car look totally different to how it has been sat for months and visually make the whole car look much fatter in my opinion. I have put a little video below of how the car now looks with the screens on. And with the seat shells resting in place I was able to sit in and get a much better feel for driving position and visibility. In fact I was surprised that my eye level was roughly at the top of the aero screen, but that will change slightly as I need to fix the seat shells and trim them, so that will push me up a touch. Still the majority of my face will be below the top of the screen which I did not expect at all.