Bit more tunneling and brakes

With the new CV boots on the GT6 it was time to set up the rear brakes, with the manual brake adjusters taken up to just before the brake shoes bit. Wishing I had done it when the body was separated, I set to replacing both handbrake cables, the rear one having stretched two inches, removing any scope for adjustment.
I replaced the rear brake cable on my old Spitfire a few years ago and find that to be a right pig of a job, but the GT6, having the cable guides on the body instead of the chassis, was a lot easier to do as you can get your hand through the opening in the body for the top of the differential to help guide the cable through. After threading it through the rest of the guides, it was covered in grease and worked back and forth a few times to help spread it along the guides.

Further forward, I bit the bullet and got to completing the gearbox tunnel. It was a job I was dreading, as I knew it would involve a lot of fitting and re-fitting if I was going to have any chance of it fitting properly.

First fit:


Clamped down ready for first welding:


Partially welded:


Copleted-ish and painted:


Inside coved with reflective sound deadening:


Meanwhile the 2000 saloon has been receiving a bit of attention as a few weeks ago I noticed a bit of slack in the steering of my MkI 2000, but recently it got worse and instead of it being a track rod end, as I thought it might be, it turned out that the slack is due to the coupling adaptor at the bottom of the top steering column.
So I striped out the steering columns, after removing the upper pinch bolt, the upper column sipped round in the joint all too easily. I thought the column was going to be a pain to get out, having had to remove the one in my GT6 a few times, but the saloon was a lot easier, once I had the indicator unit out.
The evidence was clear to see:


Fortunately, I had a spare steering column from the spares front end, which came with the car, so that was fitted in place, along with the intermediate shaft. The whole lot is much better and tighter now, just as well as the MOT is due in a few weeks and then after that, 2000 miles of the RBRR.