Another one has commenced

Well the back of my right hand is rather lacerated after I fitted the breather mounting block to the 4x4.  After a considerable amount of scratching the head I eventually decided the best place to locate the breathers was high on the passenger side of the engine bulkhead. 
Having decided on the location I needed to remove the strip of rubber seal which fits between the bulkhead and the bonnet.  This gave me access to the small plastic clips (arrows A below) which secures the leaf mesh over the rain gutter between the bulkhead and the windscreen. 

A piece of paper masking tape was position where the mounting block will go.  This both allowed me to mark the holes with a pencil and gave me a very a very small amount of purchase for the drill bit.  The bulkhead wall is on a 45deg angle and drilling a hole through steel at 45deg isn’t easy.  My strategy was to start with a 2mm bit and gradually increase to 5mm.  I placed a rag inside the gutter in order to avoid minimise the potential for shavings of metal from the drill bit dropping into the gutter where they would rust.  You can just see a piece of the rag in the photo below

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not going to use the supplied self-tapping screw to mount the block.  I’ve decide to use stainless steel machine screws, washers and nuts.  To both prevent the edges of the new holes rusting and to avoid the nuts coming loose, I liberally applied Sikaflex to the back of the mounting plate (E), the holes, and the reverse side of the bulkhead wall.  The plastic trim and rubber seal were then refitted (arrow D). 

The last part of this stage was to fit the breather filters

I’ll have to drown the 4x4 to get these filters submerged.   Now I need to whip up the enthusiasm to get under the vehicle and do the difficult stuff!