Welly used the XS manifold for about 10k apparently, at 22psi, and it didn't crack. I won't be running anywhere near that boost, so it should be an issue I'm hoping. Also, as Bill says, there isn't really a decent alternative out there!
So, onto the cage!
well, 2 10 hour days, a **** load of blisters, and 14 (yes - fourteen) cans of paint, 80m of masking tape, and about 50m of 18'' brown paper roll, and the interior has been fully painted, both floorpan, roof, and cage! and I did the seat side mounts too for good measure!
Can't believe how much paint it's taken to get a decent finish.
4 cans of satin black blitzed on the interior, baring in mind I've done inside all the pillars, the roof skin, inside the rear quarters, everywhere. That brings us up to last nights update.
So, starting today:
I went to the paint shop this morning, and bought another 2 cans of satin black, an extra can of white primer, and an extra can of laquer to be safe.
Back to the house, and I finished off painting the interor. an extra two coats in the front footwells to combat wear from shoes, and a decent coat over the inside of the roof skin which was still in primer from the factory. so that's 4 cans of paint gone into it so far.
I gave that a while to dry, and then I started masking up the car:
I couldn't believe how long it took to mask up everything, it was almost 1pm before I had it all masked.
I cage the cage a quick rub with with scotch brite, and then wiped it all down with meths to make sure it was clean.
Then the primer went on, it took 3 500ml cans to get a good even coating over the entire cage. 7 cans of paint down so far!
3 cans did about 2 decent coats over the whole lot, just enough to not look patchy any more
With that done, I moved onto the orange, and applied the first coat
a light dust coat at first, then after 10 mins, a first proper coat:
Such a good feeling to finally see it going into colour! 1 full coat of the cage took 2 400ml cans of base coat to get a decent coverage. 9 cans used now.
1 coat of orange done, I left it to dry for 30 mins. Whilst that was drying, I rubbed down the seat side mounts, and gave them a coat of primer:
I then moved onto a second coat on the cage. No pics of this stage, because it looks the same! another 2 cans, up to 11 cans of paint so far!
WIth that done, I stuck a few coats of orange onto the side mounts whilst the cage was drying, just enough left from the last can to do these:
Then finally onto the laquer, 2 decent coats of laquer over the cage. each coat took a full can, so that's 13 cans of paint to get to this point!
Then finally, one more can of laquer started for the side mounts, didn't use it all, but it brings the paint can total for this work up to a whopping 14 cans!
Left it to dry for a bit, then started taking the masking tape off:
Really happy with how it's starting to look
I really like the contrast inside with the black and orange. I've got one or two bits of overspray that I'll sort at some point:
Looks much smarter with the inside of the roof painted:
Just got the door bars and harness bar to refit, and put the seats back in on the new orange side mounts, and make the sliders work, and she's Ring ready!