Last week I made the decision to use the complete late main harness from the parts donor. But that meant the current firewall feed-through opening for the harness needed widening from ø43mm to ø62mm This is to accommodate the larger rubber grommet of the later harness. Should have been easy with a hole saw or a step drill. Sadly I couldn’t use these as the centre for the enlarged hole was offset from the original hole. When I explained this to a friend, he advised me not to mess about and handed me this de-burring drill bit set.
Being Saturday, I loaded the tools in the Defender this afternoon, and went to the shed where I braved the cold. Fortunately, the sun was shining brightly and directly through the gate. So despite the outside temperatures being just below zero, the temperatures inside were comfortable enough to work. With all the tools inside the shed I started with moving the sound proofing out of the way and marking the outline of the new hole with a pencil. Sadly the much clearer felt tipped pen decided it didn’t like the cold! Next job was trying out which de-burring bit worked best, after which the fun could begin!
Biggest problem I encountered was the fact that I had to use a normal (battery powered) drill. So the rotation speed was on the low side. Resulting in a de-burring bit which was fighting me all the way. But it lost nevertheless. And well within the hour I had a nice large hole to feed the wiring harness through. It isn’t a perfect circle, but that fact will be completely hidden by the overlap of the rubber grommet! I also added an extra hole underneath (as per the later cars) to feed some extra wires into the engine bay. With a good quality step drill that was a job that only took a few minutes. After which the soundproofing could be put back in place (hairdryer came in handy!). But not before an extra hole was added and the iron filings had been removed.
With that job finally done I can now concentrate on the wiring harnesses. The plan is to have them ready when the warmer weather of spring arrives!
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