Roll Hoops 2

Having sound proofed the rear bulkhead inside the boot I could now move on to finishing the roll hoops.

The legs pass through the carpet that sits on top of the rear deck and tank so this needs marking and cutting fairly accurately - I've seen a few cars where the final fit of things like this really let the car down so I want mine looking right.

The first task was to identify which bit of carpet actually goes where. I decided to empty the box out and lay it all out where I thought it would go (a bit like Ryan did with his build)

Once I had identified the correct piece, I was really disappointed to notice that the carpet was badly marked and the pile was virtually cut through in a few places. Trying to make up my mind whether to reject the piece, which would delay the build, I positioned the carpet in situ and the damaged area is right where the legs go so I was erring towards putting up with problem. I decided before making a final decision I would try a trick that I was shown years ago that gets indentations out of household carpets where furniture has flattened the pile. This is to put several ice cubes directly onto the affected area and for some strange reason this then lift the pile back in to place. Well... I tried it and it worked perfectly and you would never know there had been a problem!!

Again following Ryan's method I marked around the tops of the holes in the boot floor using chalk and pressed the carpet into place - this left a mark on the underside of the carpet which would effectively be where the hoops pass through.

I then took the centre point of the hole positions, and pierced through the carpet. I then stood the legs on the top side of the carpet and marked around them to give the maximum diameter. The next step was to cut a star shape in the carpet that would be pushed through the holes in the boot floor with the legs.

The legs were filled with expanding foam (damn that was a messy job) which GD recommend you do to stop any resonance transmitting from the chassis through the hoops. A warning to other builders, this stuff really does expand quickly and gets everywhere. Make sure you put your fixing bolts back in place or the threads will be covered up and need re-tapping. Keep it off your skin too or it leaves marks for days!!