Meg and John build a GTM - March 1999

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February 1999

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The main jobs this month were the FUEL TANK and the HEATER. Both were pigs!!!
The fuel tank has to sit as far back as is possible to allow the rear panel to fit correctly. To do this it is necessary to remove as much of the flange as you dare, front and back, without puncturing the tank!! I also found that it helped to LIGHTLY grind away some of the bumps in the glassfibre on the passenger’s side. In the end the tank went back but was too far away from the filler. This meant that the filler pipe was too short. The solution was to chop it in half an extend it with another rubber coupling tube (see photos). This doesn’t seem much when its written down, but it seemed to take for ever.
Just when I needed something easy, I started the heater. The first problem is that surgery is necessary on the fan unit. The drain spout comes off and a big hole is needed to clear the Hydragas unit (cover up with plastic milk bottle and

Duck tape). Mine also needed material off the top.
The matrix and housing goes in OK but the bolts have to go in at a funny angle to avoid the beam on top of the dash and is difficult to hold in position. It goes in after lots of fiddling. The duct between the fan and the matrix is a real pain ‘cos the Metro is a bit different. I spent a lot of time thinking and then used LOTS of sticky draft excluder tape to seal the fan unit to the duct. Duck tape and tiewraps keep it in position. Believe it or not, I used to run Formula 1 Cars held together with tiewraps and Duck tape!
I made the ducts from the matrix housing to the dash vents from blue insulating

foam and .... Duck tape (see photo).
Its also necessary to position the screen ducts and cut out the vents in the dash. The ducts end about an inch from anything and a bit of lateral thinking is necessary. I used very long self tappers with beer hose spacers to hold them in space. The gap between the ducts and the dash moulding was made up with hollowed out blocks of blue foam.
Other jobs done this month are:
- fitted instruments
- fitted brake pipes (easy: just keep make sure that the nuts are at the end of the pipes before you bend them!!).
- fitted glove box door (a four hour fiddle!!)
- stripped drive shafts to have new gaiters fitted.