Remember these little guys? In case you missed the post, check it out.

I enlarged the holes in the floor to 7/8″…

…then machined these tubes or “slugs” to drop in the holes. The purpose of the slugs is to prevent the head of the bolt from crushing the top layer of fiberglass as the bolt is tightened. I machined them so that they sit on top of the bottom layer of the floor and just under the top layer, so that when the bolt is tightened it will compress the floor just a bit before bottoming out on the slug.

Here is the finished product - we were wondering whether to paint them, but I think they look pretty sharp the way they are. They are only about 1/8″ off the floor, so they shouldn’t catch feet.

I rummaged around the shop, sure I had some rubber sheets or something to use as a seal for the pedal to slide through. After I was all rummaged out, I grabbed the liner out of the bottom of one of the toolbox drawers and decided to sacrifice a corner. It’s not rubber - more like a closed-cell foam, but it will do.

For the outer ring, I’m using our part #3018W. Originally, this is the washer that we include in our Mustang II strut rod bracket kits. We have found a bunch of uses for them though.

I want to drill four holes at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. I’d trump fixtures over measuring any day of the week, and this is no exception. I dropped the washer in a hole template which has perpendicular reference marks and marked my holes.

To attach the ring to the firewall, I’m using 8-32 knife inserts. These are really handy because they let you use a machine screw into fiberglass.

I’ve painted the washer now, and should have it all ready to install soon. The drawer liner seal will be sandwiched between the washer and the firewall.

Masking tape makes it easy to mark dimensions with a pen.

This is the little fixture I came up with to draw a line parallel with the tube. I have the spreader bar clamped to my bench, nestled up against a section of 1.5″ x 1.5″ tubing which is just hanging over the edge of the bench. I used a square and set the ruler so that the mark on the tube (which I made while the spreader bar was still on the car) was at an inch line. Doesn’t matter what number. I could then move the square along the tube and make marks at the number, then connect the dots. Voila! (That’s french for “eh!”)

Here’s a picture of my setup.

I used a cutoff disc to slot the spreader bar.

I cut the bottom off a Bob Drake stainless license plate frame…

…and tig welded it to the stainless spreader bar.

You can see where this is going…

I sectioned the piece that I cut off the bottom of the Bob Drake frame, and welded it to the spreader bar at the bottom of the license plate.

Now I have a short license plate that doesn’t interrupt any body lines. I still have to make a final decision on a light…