The IVA requirements state that no part of the fuel system can be in the passenger compartment and the fuel tanks must be the other side of a (sealed) bulkhead.  In the GT40 the fuel fillers are on the scuttle just front of the A pillars and the filler hoses pass down in those front corners to the tanks.

This in my chassis is open and needs closing off.

Now many years back I had a consideration of that area and considered it somewhat lacking. The roll cage (which as I’m sure I’ve mentioned previously) I’d already decided not to fit on the road *but* if I did fit it then it sat on a simple unbraced flange.

A big off landing on the roof I could see just folding that plate.

So after some contemplation I welded in a flange all the way round, as well as closing off the front bit.

I also welded a piece over half of the “hole” to the tank area and put in a weld nut to earth the tanks to (the tanks also have a welded on “nut” to attach a strap to), that’s what the bolt sticking up is in, I put it in when I painted it to keep paint out of the threads to give good connectivity.

Here is it from the other side (and also the other side).

This also means that an access hatch can easily be created and bolted on

So anyway, way back in 2015 I made the closer panel for the right side.

I wasn’t totally happy with it, due to the design of the panel it made the folds awkward, I couldn’t use the sheet folder because of the multiple flanges and partly for that reason I put off the left side. Cracking on with getting stuff done however so I had a big think about the left and decided to do it in three pieces. This makes it trickier to seal (although everything is being sealed with both PU adhesive/sealer as well as aluminium tape) but much easier to make.

If I was to do it again from scratch I would extend the plate I welded in underneath, leave a flange on it and add a plate to the top (with a flange) so that the closer plate simply became a two fold affair.