Carpets, handbrake cable and belt mounts

Carpets

The transmission tunnel was cleaned with acetone, then the loom was taped over using racing tape. The carpet was then fed under the cross brace and the screws inserted through the feet on the cross brace to screw into the rivnuts that I had fitted earlier. At this stage I did not tighten down or fit the packing washers. A small cut was then made to allow the gear selector stub to poke through.

Andy at GD had advised me to use spray adhesive, as it would be easier to remove the carpets if they became wet. I did not tell him that Cobra owners did not take their cars out in the rain! However, noting his advice I sprayed the section of the tunnel top from the cross brace to the gear lever and the corresponding part of the carpet with adhesive. Then after a few minutes I carefully brought the two together, making sure they were lined up. The rest of the tunnel top and carpet were then sprayed and after a while, brought together. The carpet below the dash was not glued.

Next the carpet at the sides of the tunnel and the sides of the tunnel itself were sprayed with the adhesive in sections and brought together, smoothing down as I went. The body bolts were not glued over, so that I had access if I need it at a later date (hopefully I won't need this!). The excess carpet down the sides of the transmission tunnel near the rear bulkhead was trimmed off. At this stage, the drivers footwell area was not stuck down (I need to trim around the footwell extension). The gear lever hole was cut out of the carpet using the edge of the gear shift hole as a guide.

Carpet glued to transmission tunnel

The floor carpets were loose laid and the vertical carpet (side and rear bulkhead) was trimmed (ran onto the floor of the car).

Handbrake (park brake)

A 20 mm hole was drilled behind the drivers seat in the rear bulkhead, near to the wheel arch at floor level for the handbrake cable. The hole was slightly larger than really required for the cable, but was made to take the grommet that I used. The GRP around the hole required thinning a little to allow the grommet to be fitted.

Brake cable fed through grommet

The grommet was pushed over the cable, then the cable was fed through the hole in to the cockpit area. The grommet will be sealed in place with silicone at a later date.

More carpet

Now the rear bulkhead carpet was ready to fix. The same technique was used to stick this carpet down. I laid out the carpet and applied adhesive to the centre area of the bulkhead and to one of the outer sides only and to the same area of the carpet. After allowing it to go tacky, this was fixed in place, making sure that the outer pieces lay in the correct places.

Finally the other outer part of the bulkhead carpet was glued in place after it was cut around the handbrake cable.

Rear bulkhead carpet

Lower seatbelt fasteners

I am fitting 4 point harnesses to the car, so 50 mm eye bolts were fitted through 11 mm holes in the floor, but these had to be ground down by 15 mm in length (leave two threads showing for the IVA). The top seat belt mounts will be on the roll over hoops. The holes in the carpets were created by running the drill in the reverse direction to avoid twisting the carpet. The bolts, with washers, were fed through the carpet and retained under the car by stress plates with the nuts welded in place. The plates were located with self tapping screws. This type of fixing are ok for the IVA, but if you are using separate nuts fit spring washers to avoid the risk of working loose.

Seat belt eye bolts, with handbrake cable over the carpet

Stress plates for seat belts under the car