Wheel Arch Access Modification

[cp81]

With the lock down, has focused me on addressing a number of jobs. I thought it fair to share, as people on here have been very helpful with advice and ideas.

Well I have a late mark one, in which a previous owner had converted the front lights to the late mark three style / Griff lights.



Just over two years ago I took the body of the chassis, as a on going restoration project, to which I found the front arches had been hacked open and covered with rubber and few screws...





At the time of getting the body back onto the chassis as was borrowing a garage ramps, I just fibre glassed over the holes as best as I could...





These were sealed with under seal before body went back on. Some time later I had to access the side lights, reaching through front grille was right pain, so I came across these boat inspection hatches, that come in various sizes of 4" up to 8, I went with 4" off eBay for £10.40 off eBay.

With the car already jacked up, as doing other jobs in lock down, I proceeded to fit the inspection hatches. First I cover the areas with masking tape and marked out the cut outs.



Then using a small drill, drilled loads of holes around the marking and then cut out with my dremel tool to give a nice opening.



After a trial fit to see all ok...



I then removed the hatch, using PU sealer, sealed it into place as well as using screws to fix.



Now have lot better access to my front bulbs...



Hope you find this useful or give you ideas for improvements to your car, here are the hatches I used:

.

[phillpot]

Neat ..... but it's been done before

one of a few old threads on the subject ..... clicky

[magpies]

great idea cp

problem is most new(ish) members can't be bothered to search and rely on old(er) members to do it for them - phillpot for example

That is not a moan against Mike, that IS a moan against the others

[ITVRI]

I always enjoy seeing these step by step posts with pictures. I have been thinking about doing this mod for years and it looks like from your recent posts you’re been making good use of your time over the past month.
In hindsight would you have used a larger hatch or do you think 100mm is about right?

[SILICONEKID 357HP]

Will they catch the tyres ?

[cp81]

Sorry for late reply, other jobs on car have taken more time.

Darren, no the wheels don’t touch. It sticks about 4mm above arch, with steering lock on full I can still get my hand in between wheel and access panel. Tried to taken pics to show:





At the moment I am fitting chassis protection and more concerned of these classing with wheels...

Warick, I went with 4” as didn’t want to be cutting too much out my arches, with experience now I might have gone the next size up.

Oh my wheels and tyres are standard too.

[mk1fan]

You could go up in size but they will stick into the arch further. The access panels are flat and the wheel arch is curved.

A way round this would be to cut out a larger area and bond in a flat recess, then fit the access panel. More work but better access.

I need to do this method on Tamy (Tamora) as the arches are a bit tighter and her boots are 225/40 on the front.

Incidentally, these access panels are great on a V6 S for accessing the engine mounts.