Rear Nudge Bar and Boot Lock Pt.2

Yesterdays job was to fit the rear nudge bar and complete the lock fitting.

AK use self tappers on the boot handle as its easier but I had decided to use m4 countersunk bolts instead, which meant I needed a larger access hole than I had planned in the boot. Easily sorted and a few minutes later I had the latch and handle secured with the excess handle bar trimmed down.

A few tips for the job:

1. Make sure you can fit the latch mechanism flush with the most inner part of the boot skin as alignment to the boot floor part of the catch is very difficult if you don't.
2. You need to mount the boot floor part of the catch right up against the boot lip in order to get a good smooth fitting onto the handle. drilled the hole close and then used the tightening of the bolts to pull it into place.

This meant I had to get the lines right on the boot lid again as after fitting the lock and latch it was sitting a bit high. A combination of lowering the u-shaped catch and a bit more sanding of the lip of the boot got me to a place where I was comfortable with the lines again.




The nudge bar was next and I was pleased to say that the AK markers for the holes were pretty accurate just about 1cm out from the height I decided to mount it at. The chrome on the nudge bar is 16mm so I decided to drill holes at 22mm so I could put rubber grommets in to the body work and then slot the nudge bar into that, locking into place inside the boot with the 8mm threaded bar purchased from brasscraft when I bought the bars.













The length of the bars required varies. I started of with 4 lengths, 2 x 25cm and 2 x 20 cm and then trimmed them down to the required size as I fitted the overriders.

Getting alignment of the bars is ideally a two man job, but after that you can easily manage this on your own.

One thing I had noticed is that stopping and starting on the build makes me forget things. I had purchased a load of stainless nuts from Brasscraft for fitting the nudge bars and after searching fro half an hour I gave in and went to buy some more from Screwfix. Cue first annoyance - Brasscraft were selling them at, if I recall correctly 50p each. Screwfix sold a bag of 100 for £14.

Cue second annoyance.....no sooner had I got home, opened the bag and used some of the nuts. I looked on the shelf and in plain sight was the other piece of threaded bar, which I had screwed the nuts onto for safe keeping!!!

I took the opportunity whilst in the garage to quickly drill the holes for the roll bar escutcheon plates; a job which has been on the waiting list for a while. This allows the rear end of the car to look almost complete and actually my "rear end" list is down to just a few small(ish) jobs.

1. Make and fit battery tray
2. Add earth from chassis and earth bar to battery terminal
3. Make and fit bracket to mount fog/reverse lights on nudge bar
4. Lockwire the rear calipers (because I forgot during chassis build)
5. Fit some silent coat in the boot
6. Cable tie to loom in the boot into place
7. Fit a differential plate to protect the fuel lines