Sunday 29 January 2017

Shrouded in mystery

Well,  my column shroud is turning into a (relative) masterpiece. Obviously,  for anyone with a modicum of skill,  it's a pile of junk but for a rank amateur like myself,  it's awesome! The U-shaped bracket is brilliant - very sturdy and supports the whole structure nicely. I've improved it a lot since yesterday by re-bending the metal lower piece so that it fits inside the plastic top part:


Looks OK in place and will be much better once vinyl  covered:


Added the mesh pieces to the other front wheel arch:




Saturday 28 January 2017

Gunk tortillas

Well,  the ice age returned this week - just too cold to be out in the garage in the evening,  even with my little heater doing its best. So had to wait for some daytime...

With the front wheel arches now lightly glued on,  time to improve that. I bought some light metal mesh:


Molded it to the right shape:



... And then smothered with gunk:



Used some very dodgy Heath-Robinson style methods of holding the mesh in place while it dries. Man,  that gunk is messy - you just have to vaguely touch a surface and it sticks - half the work is trying to keep it off places it's not supposed to be.

I've only managed to do one arch today,  so the other next time.

UPDATE: sadly, this was not sufficient, resulting in a front wing ejection event. See later posts for an improved method.

Continued with probably the most 'creative' (ie. no idea what I'm doing) task of the build - a steering column shroud.

I've bought the top half of a Fiesta shroud (couldn't find a Sierra one) for £3 and,  amazingly it fits my steering boss quite well. However,  that still leaves the bottom half to make from scratch and work out how to support the whole contraption.

This is vaguely what I have so far:



The black plastic is the piece I bought,  the bottom half is what I've made. The smaller U-shaped strip is intended to be a bracket - there are 4 holes on the side of the column where this will bolt in and my lower metal piece will bolt onto that.

The plastic piece is not quite long enough to cover the column,  so I've made a smaller flap which just slots in to the back of the plastic piece:


The whole thing will eventually be covered in vinyl,  so holes and gaps will be covered up.

I still need to find a decent way of fixing that plastic top half to the metal bottom piece but looking promising so far.

Sunday 22 January 2017

Harlequin wires

To complete the wiring for the front side indicators,  I ran out of black heatshrink so I had to resort to the smaller, multicoloured pack I had left - quite a pretty  result,  I thought:


Shame I covered them with a boring black sleeve...

Next step was to get those front arches on - paper on the tyres to stop any gunk getting on them,  bit of sandpaper to roughen up the powder coat for the gunk to get a decent hold and then the infamous stuff itself:


The arches have a notch in them for the arch support to sit in,  which I assume ensures they are in the right place for IVA,  so no complicated measuring needed. Not sure if there is a proper way of making them sit right - I just went by eye and put a tin of paint on top to hold it in place while it sets.

Once it's dry,  I've bought some light metal mesh which I'll layer lots of gunk on and then bend the mesh round the supports - should ensure it all stays in place.

Started to try design a steering column shroud. I've got half of a Sierra shroud but I'm not sure whether to use it - it sticks out too far. Started on making my own but it's a tricky shape and not sure how best to attach it to the column,  although there are a few options.

Sunday 15 January 2017

Batten down the hatches

A tricky job were the bonnet catches; apart from the fact you don't want it blowing off at speed,  it's also a large sheet of metal on the front of the car and it needs to look like it fits.

I tried to make a template so I could just drill straight into the sides and bonnet but I wasn't sure how much to allow for the small gap between bonnet and side panel. So I decided to fit the main latch piece and then the smaller keeper piece on the bonnet -  in theory,  that would allow better placement of the 2 pieces.

Well,  as mentioned before,  my drilling abilities are sorely lacking so this whole process took me a while and required a bit of filing to get holes to match:


... But eventually all done and I even managed to get 2 of them straight!


That last pic is deceptive; the rear catch is straight and the front one slightly crooked but not as bad as it looks,  honest! The bonnet seems to be on nice and firmly,  although it's not pulled tight over the scuttle - not sure if I should have made sure of that? However,  I think the slight gaps at each side may help with engine cooling,  acting as rear vents?

My list of bits left is getting shorter:


... but I'm worried I might not be done by May,  in time for Stoneleigh.

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Underneath the Arches

Well,  I expected the rear arches to be a 5 minute job to bolt on but not so - despite all my best measurements,  I can never seem to drill a hole through 2 things and have them match up a week later! So an hour of tiny widening of holes and finally,  both arches are on:


Not perfectly level and not perpendicular to the road,  although I don't think either matter for IVA.

Next up were the side indicators in the front wheel arches - first,  marked up:


Drilled slowly through with a cone drill:


Looking good:


Bit of filing to extend the hole and in it goes:


Bit of gunk on either side to keep it in place:



Sunday 8 January 2017

All the trimmings

The tadpole trim finally arrived from GBS (strangely,  I couldn't find it anywhere else) so I could make a start on the trim around the rear wheel arches.

This took much longer than I expected; first I had to cut triangles out to allow it to make a smooth bend around the arch:


I marked regular points and then scored the rubber with a Stanley knife, finally cutting along the scores with a small plier-type cutter. Only near the end did I realise that the knife was able to score almost through the rubber and I could just tear the pieces out! That would have speeded up the process no end and saved the blister on my hand from the cutter.

Sticking the trim on using the infamous gunk was also a slow process; did a short section at a time,  clamping at the start and then at points along the arch:


While they dried,  I fitted the passenger tunnel panel; gunk and rivets:


So many little bits to do; stuck some rubber on the top chassis rails for the bonnet to sit on,  trimmed the tabs off the scuttle,  riveted the VIN plate onto the pedal box lid and put IVA trim on the nose cone.

I wanted to make a start on  the front wheel arches but I couldn't work out which way round they go (they're the 'sports'  arches which aren't symmetrical). Asked a question on the GBS forum...