IVA fixes: fuel line, number plate

Well, I managed to get into the garage last night and get a few messy jobs done. First thing was the rivnuts for the fuel lines. I was able to drill and set the rivnuts. I've gone for three locations in the end, mainly to cover the 300mm distance requirement. They seem quite secure and I've put a coat of paint on them to finish them, that should be dry by the time I come to bolt on the fixings. I'm going to use some cardboard to make templates for the strips, then cut them out of aluminium. My only doubt now is that the pipes are a bit of a distance away from the chassis, so the clips might need a bit of reinforcement to make them actually do something (rather than just look decorative). Given the old clamps made use of printed braces I suspect I can do the same here. What I definitely need to do today is cut the aluminium strip, it'll be a noisy task and I wouldn't be able to do it in the morning. Then again, I'm also tempted to see if I have some better material as I've only got 1mm aluminium. I may have some steel sheet that is stronger and thinner. It still needs cutting into a strip today though. If I use steel I'll need to paint it, otherwise it'll rust through in no time. 

The number plate also got it's first trial fit. And of course it's slightly too small. It's the rounded edge on the inside, it means there's maybe 5mm less space than there needs to be. And the screw holes are way off target, I'm not sure how that happened. The two underneath the light are maybe 1mm too far apart, that doesn't make that much difference. The bottom ones are a good 10mm too high, so I'd have to make new holes to get them to fit. Again I'm not overly bothered at this stage, those holes will get covered by the plate. The rounded edges work well which was the main task here, and the extra brackets on the outside fitted well and coped with the rounded back end. They were also glued up and left overnight so I'll get those finished today. 

Just thinking about that rounded edge... I could sort that before I mount it, so not leave any doubt that a plate will fit. All I need to do is remove the two rounded ends and replace them with a different profile. I might go grab the plate shortly and see what to do.

With any luck this weekend will have the fuel lines finished and the number plate finished. Then I'll get the clutch cylinder replaced (two bolts and a bleed). Then it'll be trying to get some decent weather to get that last corner sorted for brakes. The Metoffice is saying the mornings look dry, but at least tomorrow morning I need to get to the key cutters for the new keys. I'm thinking early start, takeaway coffee, some form of cooked pig in bread...