Pedal reinforcement

Not much to add for this week, despite wanting to get into the garage a lot more it never really works out like that! Still, after Monday's bombshell of an unmaintainable design the last few days have been quite clear on what was required...

This is my pedal box now, with 3mm plate for the front and back of the seam. The welded nut side will go inside the car and just be glued in place. It doesn't need to be welded as it literally just needs to be held in position for when I tighten the bolts up.

The other plate is fully welded on to the pedal box, that goes in from the engine bay then it's bolted through to the inside. It is admittedly a bit tight, the joys of hot twisting metal while it's being welded has made sure there is no movement when it bolts together. It also feels significantly stronger, which kind of makes sense as I've tripled the thickness of metal!!.

The only thing I need to take care of is the top right screw hole in the picture. I think with the depth of metal plus the welded seem I've encroached on to the positioning for the clutch master cylinder. I will need to smooth it flat so things will bolt together, then touch up the paint. I'll do that tonight then it'll be ready to put back together tomorrow.

As for tomorrow... I'm back to wiring I think. Now I have my side indicators installed the wiring can be joined up, bound up and clipped up. Er, clipped in. I can get the end terminal on as well. I also need to service the engine, I sit here at my desk and I keep kicking the box of service items that I've got to fit. Getting the engine ready to start will help the engine and my legroom. 

(five minutes later...)

I've just had a look at what I wrote and realised I might have an issue with gluing the plate in place. There is a good reason why the previous fixings were nuts and bolts, it's because the pedals themselves need to fit through the opening. If I fix the plate in place that is a much smaller gap to deal with, possibly too small to fit the pedals through. So I think I need to leave it as a floating plate. It's no less strong but it will fit easier. What I do want to do is look at access from the top, and at the same time I can check the access for the gas pedal. There is a side gap that allows access, but as always I tried to be clever and fold the surrounding metal to give it more strength. That fold is now a perfect cutting edge for my forearm. I might need to fold it all the way under to have it work better.