Q91CMV - Dutton Legerra ZS Series 2

[Adrian Southgate]

So, MOT sorted by the skin of its teeth, loads to do before tomorrow morning, panic has set it due to a little mishap with the pedal box...

How many of you fitted metal spreader plates between the pedal box and the bulkhead? Here is something for those of you with pinto engines to think about.

I didn't see this coming 8 years ago when I re built it... The holes are supposed to be there... the crack around the edge is not.

Seems the proximity to the manifold has weakened the fibreglass of the tub a little

Well a lot actually :)

A metal spreader plate on the inside would have eased the load on the area and this may not have been quite so severe. This is going to be a fun evening..

[Adrian Southgate]

@ James - If you just cut off the bottom lip then only the lower 3 inches would be affected. The two vertical bars can be black anyway as they are recessed so it would only affect the outer extremity of the bumper.

[Adrian Southgate]

The front bar is dead straight end to end and doesn't touch the plastic. That drop would just be the front edge and would then slope up so the inner part is still at the same height, by that time the air is 'in' the car and forced into the void in front of the radiator by ducting.

@ Daryl - I'll try that in photoshop later, got the sierra issue to sort out first.

[James Doulton]

Isn't there a beam running across the front at the top of the bumper? That would make it difficult to take a bit out of the bumper, so you'd probably have to go for the bottom of the bonnet instead.

I tried lowering the front on mine (in Paintshop Pro) and it does look good and would make a big increase to the air inlet but I can't actually do it because I'd never match the paint. All I could do is change the whole bumper to a different colour. I can only think of black but even that is pretty naff.

[Dave Adams]

lowering the front edge of the bumper is something I have thought about, I even thought about just the centre part like the Subaru's

[Adrian Southgate]

I've dropped the front lower edge so it is exactly the same height as the sill (but only in photoshop) 

I will test the bottom mod on the white one as I have a spare original white bumper (but it's tatty... they both are)

If that isn't enough then i'll do the top edge as well.

[James Doulton]

No, that looks good, slightly meaner looking perhaps. So have you dropped the bottom further still? I can see that you have opened a bit of a gap between the bonnet and the bumper. I like it.

[Adrian Southgate]

Back in the land of rain and cloud now, loads of work to do but as nowt to be done at this time of night I did a bit of 'bodywork' on the computer... much cheaper than cutting the car up...

These mods to the front bumper would considerably increase airflow into the front of the body. Does this alter the front too much?

[Adrian Southgate]

Been shopping today. Got a set of these.

These, along with the ARB mounting mods should hopefully straighten out my somewhat erratic front end once and for all. Now i just need to change all the rear bushes for poly ones.

[Adrian Southgate]

I haven't finished buffing yet so a bit pointless cleaning the wheels.

Bitchy but not bitches.

[Adrian Southgate]

Windows get covered in 'stuff' when buffing and it allows the warm air to circulate inside the car even when the doors are closed. I'm also giving the frames a scrub as the ally was a bit spotty. The other wheels are in the unit but I need to try these so it doesn't hit the shocks. Until I can sort out the camber issue thats a problem with the 7 inch wide Dotz rims. The spokes on these are painted (for now) but I may strip and polish the whole rim as the centre caps and the spokes don't quite match up, 5mm thick discs wasn't an option. I did ask for polished discs but got brushed. As the whole wheel will be polished they should all match in after machining.