Tuesday 28 March 2017

Too quiet on the Western Front

The switch for the horn button arrived and it was surprisingly quick to drill a new hole in the aux panel and fit it:


Now all set to fit the panel - firstly,  connected all the wires:


But a problem - the horn and main beam flash buttons have stopped working! Bugger!

However,  looking back at my schematic,  the earth for the horn goes through the wiper switch which I've recently changed,  so I'm hoping it's just a loose connection there or I've wired it up wrong and lost my earth (I was never sure it was wired right). The only problem with the bad wiring theory is that I'm sure the horn worked the last time I turned the ignition on,  which was AFTER I'd done the new wiper switch. So,  hopefully,  I've just knocked a terminal off while mucking about with the aux panel...

I've ordered my seats from Intatrim - a great company to deal with; I've never spoken to anyone so enthusiastic as Rob. I actually felt bad because after all his great suggestions,  I've gone for a very plain look. I got the feeling he was desperately excited to do something complex and funky. I'm on holiday next week and the seats should be ready the week after - pictures to come.


Saturday 25 March 2017

Details, details

It's amazing how slow progress is at this stage - when you're putting an engine in,  or bolting on suspension units,  you feel like you're making big steps. Now,  it takes me 2 hours to get the front tunnel panel on:


Initially,  I was trying to get it on over the carpet on the side panels but I don't think you can ever do that - it comes bent and only enough to fit over the panels neatly. So,  I had to trim off the top inch of carpet to get it on and I may have to do that on the main tunnel piece when I get to that.

I got some foam to lie underneath the boot carpet,  to provide a bit of protection for the fuel tank:


It looks like I'm going to have to put the horn button on the aux panel after all. The steering boss I have has the metal rings that should work with the springs for the horn circuit.  The problem is that the springs won't stay on the rings; there's a small magnet on the end but it just doesn't seem to either be strong enough or maybe I've damaged it at some point in the build. Horn button on order...

The guy from Intatrim was supposed to call me back today to let me know if they had a set of seats ready but he either forget or they aren't open on a Saturday and he forgot it was Friday when I called ☺

Friday 24 March 2017

Are you sitting comfortably?

Well, I'm not! Darn seats are just too big now, with the carpets and the seatbelt bolts narrowing the available space. Much huffing and puffing has not allowed me to get them in - so that's £250 down the drain!

To be honest, it's maybe a good thing - with the seat almost in place and me in the car, my legs almost touch the steering wheel; there's just too much padding and I really need to be lower.

I tried to find some cheap options. One possibility arose for £170 but the reviews were mixed; some said they were fine, others that they were too uncomfortable. With my luck, I'll be in the latter group.

Based on the fact that seats are pretty important in the long-term, I've decided to take it like a man and buy Intatrim Odyssey IIs; £520 for the pair (with harness slots) but they look good in the pictures and I've never read a bad review of them. I'd love to pay another £50 and get some colour on them but I feel bad spending even more cash and also, Intatrim say they may have a black set ready to go (cancelled order from another customer), which means I'll get them much sooner.

Sunday 19 March 2017

Belt and braces

A short session this morning to finish off the boot carpeting.

There is a single,  large piece to go on the inside of the rear panel. I could see that being a nightmare to fit myself so I cut it into 3 pieces - much easier:




I haven't glued in the base piece because I first want to buy a sheet of foam to go above the fuel tank to protect it and raise that section to the same level as the bonded in side pieces. I will not glue it in the section above the diff access plate for obvious reasons and I'm not even sure if I should bother sticking it anywhere else - I'll see.

Unleashed the seatbelts - looking good:


Next up are the seats - going to be tricky as my seats are a bit large...

Saturday 18 March 2017

High old time

I've spent a couple of sessions over the last week fitting the carpets,  with the fumes from the glue almost overpowering at times.

Top tip: buy drip-free contact adhesive - it looks like dried grease and,  unlike the other stuff,  is easily spreadable at all temperatures.

With the non-drip stuff,  it's a much simpler job than the first few pieces I did but it's surprising how many pieces there are - quite time consuming but the results are great and it makes a huge difference to the look; more like a car and less a piece of Meccano.





Just a large piece on the inside of the rear panel still to do.


Saturday 11 March 2017

Wall to wall shag

After bonding the boot panels in,  time for some carpeting work. The glue is a real pain,  needing to be warmed up to get it to flow. Just as annoying is how much I'm going to need of it - I've used about half of one tin on just 2 pieces. At £9 a tin,  it isn't cheap...

Did one boot panel and the main rear panel :


Does look  great,  though...

Also stuck some grip tape on the pedals :



Monday 6 March 2017

Non-light lighting

So,  my rear light clusters weren't quite working right; indicator on,  brake lights flashing and vice-versa. I do recall when wiring up the lights,  trying to work out which side the indicators went on - looks like I got it wrong.

It was a simple matter of turning the base plate of each unit round to fix it - problem was I had to take the wheels off to get to the bolts inside the wheelarch and then 4 bolts per.  side that had to screw out of the rubber mount - bottom line? It took bloody ages! But all working now...

For reference,  a better way of of sorting the lights,  assuming you've got the basic,  rectangular units,  is to look at the bulbs. The indicator bulb only has one filament and should be on the outside of the unit. The other bulb has 2 filaments (and 2 wires going into it),  one filament is 5W for the tail light,  the other is a 21W element for the brake light.

Here endeth the lesson...

Saturday 4 March 2017

Non-stick carpeting

Having said the front of the car was finished,  I just had to plug in the front indicators - surely a job of seconds,  I hear you say?

Two (yes,  2!) hours (yes,  hours!) of swearing later and it's done. Jesus.....

The problem is that you can't plug them in without putting the nose on first but once you've done that,  it's very difficult to get your hands down into the nose to get at the plugs,  especially on the O/S where the throttle body is in the way. In fact,  to do the O/S, I resorted to extending the wires by a foot,  so I could pull it all the way out the nose and connect it up.

The stickers arrived for the aux panel and I labelled the various switches. Also adjusted the handbrake and bent the metal switch arm so that the handbrake light came on correctly.

The rear lights are a bit trickier than I thought - I seem to have somehow got the whole assembly the wrong way round,  so I might have to take them off fully and swap them over - annoying.

I broke out the carpets and tried to do the main rear panel piece but I couldn't get the glue to flow. The tin says to use between 5 and 30 degC and it wasn't that cold in my garage,  about 10 degC,  so not sure why it didn't move. Next time,  I'll put it in front of my fan heater to warm it up.

A concern I've had for a while was the body height - from the back,  the car has not been level. Today,  I adjusted the shocks so that they're about halfway up their travel but I still have a wonky chassis height; 135mm on the O/S and 125mm on the N/S. Maybe the weight of the exhaust? I've asked the question on the GBS forum.

Update: I'm told that the height issue is not unusual and the suspension should eventually settle but will probably need some adjustment.

Friday 3 March 2017

The Moaning of Success

Well,  a bit of whinging in my last post worked wonders - I managed to steal a connector from the horn wire to use on the front indicator so now everything in front of the scuttle is done (except for some IVA covers).

Also,  the new wiper switch went in with minimal fuss:


Not sure if the wiring is right but won't be able to test it for a while. I was also not looking forward to trying to tidy up the dash wiring but a few cable ties through the gauge support brackets and it's looking good:


So,  a strangely successful evening...

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Tortoise and the Hare

Man,  this last stage is taking forever! I seem to be getting so little done in each session and all I am doing is adding to my list of things to do - small things but still...

So,  got the bits to finish off the headlight wiring APART from one,  single,  damn connector for the indicator wires! Aargghhh...

Spent ages trying to neaten up the routing of the wires along the wishbones and into the body. Because I had to extend the wires, I had to use butt connectors which make the wiring look a bit like a snake after a big meal:


I connected up the battery to check the lights still worked,  which they did EXCEPT the rear brake lights and indicators - I've somehow wired them up the wrong way round so brake lights flash when the indicators are on -  doh! A quick fix some time...

I still can't find the stickers I bought a few months ago to label the aux panel switches and I also can't find the grip tape I bought for the pedals! Really annoying me -  I'll have to order them again.

I took the dash off,  hopefully for the last time,  to try tidy up the wiring and to replace the wiper switch. While there,  I made up a wire for my ECU switch and plugged it into pin 35 on the ECU plug.