Another change has been the seat belt mounting bolts. These were the original bolts and they were too long; when they were fully torqued up they actually touched (and were putting pressure on) the forward diff mount.
I reordered shorter bolts to replace them using the unmarked area on the threads to measure the required length. The discoloured portion has been exposed to the elements, the shiny part has been within the seat belt mount nut.
The new fitted bolts have about 4 exposed threads and crucially do not touch the front diff mount.

 

Another upgrade has been the diff to propshaft bolts.

They are still M10 x 1.0 extra fine thread but are now 12.9 cap head screws with extra length (30mm) so a nyloc can be fitted at the rear.

It's "belts and braces" but it makes it feel a little more secure.
 

A pretty poor picture but it shows the progress.

Diff is now installed but needs a little shimming to align it properly.

The previously fitted rubber mounts have been removed and replaced with solid steel spacers, shimmed to the same dimensions.

The old rubber mounts were so distorted, it was worthless replacing them.

The new diff has had all of the rear cover plate bolts replaced. The torx button head screws are just awful to remove and I wanted 100% new fittings.

The front diff mount is also attached and torqued down.


The diff brackets have also been repainted in a couple of coats of POR15 and then top coated in another couple of coats of satin.
Time to start reassembling.
 

To illustrate the improvement, here's the same area (pictured from March 17th) with a couple of coats of POR15. The stuff works and, although quite pricey, is worth it in the end to protect metal that's exposed to the elements. I never have POR15 chip off, just the old powder coat surrounding it.

As mentioned before, I am still tempted to add a coat of the load liner paint to give it even more protection.
 

Several fun evenings of painting later, I think I am finally finished with the 2022 "touch up". There will be more to do; there always is, but at least I have given the major problem areas the care they needed. Anything I notice now goes on the 2023 list.

Still waiting for the new diff mounting hardware, hopefully it should come in time for the weekend.

So, to cut a long story short, I also decided to change the diff, basically to guarantee a season of less-clunky driving.
The cover came off the new diff really easy (which made a change)
It's an open diff with a 3.92 ratio. I'll look at the tables later to see how that changes the overall drive ratio.
It all looks good and seems pretty tight (but not too tight!)
 

What I did notice is the patches of bubbly powder coat. Just scratching at it with the end of a screwdriver makes it fall off in sheets.

I will have to plan in a POR15 session to get it sorted. Problem is, there's bits needing done everywhere you look; as soon as you see one, you notice another.

A good rub down, degrease and coat with POR15 will do the trick. I still have lots of the load-liner paint that I could use as a top coat for some extra protection.

With much wailing and body contortions, I used muscles I'd forgotten I had.

All that just to remove 12 bolts. I must be getting old!

Here is the evidence of a successful mission end.

Now to strip it down and have a look. Initial impressions are that the outer CV is very stiff to move (even compared to the inner one)

The next project was the clunky noise coming from the offside rear. I know that mechanical clunky noises are pretty standard in kit cars, especially bike engined cars, but this was gradually getting worse.

First culprit could be the CV joints, then diff.

Hmmm. I'll take the cheaper option and swap out the CV joints.

Access was its usual PITA. Maybe it's not the car, maybe I'm just struggling to fit in places as I get older :)

I upgraded the headlights to LED today. 
A simple swap out for the original H4 bulbs and they fit fine within the 5.25" headlight bowls.
Picture shows LED on the left, Halogen on the right.
The light is much cooler (colour temperature wise) and the light output is great.
I got them from:

First job: Oil and filter change
Draining the oil is so much easier with the Fumuto valve. 
Snip the lockwire and turn the valve (I looped some lockwire around the lever end so it definitely couldn't turn!) 
Leave for a few days to drain.
The oil filter was its usual difficult self. Access is only possible from a certain angle and it took me a while to remember what that angle was! Once I had a good grip on it, it twisted off OK.
To get better access to the underside of the car, I removed my plastic undertray, which has developed some interesting cracks. Maybe it's time to make an ally one? 
This may be a good idea especially as the fuel tank protector in the rear has cracked all the way across.

Preps for the new season:
  • Oil and filter change
  • Top up all the grease nipples (propshaft and sprocket adapter)
  • Look into the clunky noise coming from the rear
  • Make some steering stops
  • Re-plumb the carb heating system
  • Generally get ready for MOT time

The switch cover for the ignition toggle switch has broken! It appears that it didn't like the outdoors much and the plastic has gone brittle.
Found a reasonable deal on eBay and bought a couple of replacements, one in red and one in translucent green (in the pic).

Does the job OK.

The braided wire in the pic was my phone charger cable I used when I unsuccessfully tried to get to the track day...

Here is the nearly finished item. The arms are all bent properly, the wing is fixed down and the arms are bolted to the original lower frame.
I say it's "nearly" finished as the mounting bolts are too long and they have been  secured with nylocs. I will swap them out for the proper fasteners when they arrive.
Time will tell if this solution works any better than the last one.

The rear upper mount has been replicated on the front. 
As the existing front mount was still in place, the new mount was bent to "double up" the upper mount. 
As can be seen in the picture, the new upper arms will support the wing so much better.

The new upper arm is a lot longer than the old one. It will span the entire width of the wing, thus supporting it a lot better.
A curve has been formed on the end to prevent a stress point on the CF wing.

A 20mm wide strip steel forms the upper support. It has been bent to shape and temporarily bolted in place to enable the proper wing placement.

The top of the mount has been cleaned up and the joint smoothed out a bit.
Two holes are drilled through the lower wing mount. This lower mount is substantial and will serve as the mounting point for my replacement arm.
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