Today I sallied forth & made the front panel for the exhaust fairing. Like the rear section it's made from the old boot floor from my girlfriend's Tiger which being 0.5mm aluminium had given up the ghost after carrying spares, petrol, jump leads & all sorts of other essentials on innumerable road trips.
So, starting with a paper pattern, I rough cut the sheet & rolled it to more or less match the sill (over my knee if you must know).
There was then a lot of to-ing & fro-ing, matching the shape & dressing a flare into the rear edge to match(ish) the exhaust can & stiffen the panel a little, also to make sure it covered up the holes in the body punched by a badly located exhaust clamp. Once I was happy, I drilled a number of 3/32" holes & jig-pinned it in place.
I polished it up a bit, though not too much, the rest of the car has many many stone chips, so the "patina" of the second-hand sheet is a good thing, after that it was just a case of opening the holes up to 1/8" & riveting it on - it doesn't need to be removeable like the rear one as the silencer comes out backwards. This is as far away as I can get in the garage, when I get a dry day I'll move it outside.
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