Apocalypse in progress

Well,  the world has gone to crap in a bucket in the last week,  what with the EU referendum and the England football team losing in  horrendous style in Euro 2016. The former disaster means our house move is looking unlikely (we've had 1 viewing in the last week) - I've been too hacked off to do much on the car.

Finally dragged myself out of the doldrums to do some odds and ends. Just to add to my woes,  a small,  pink puddle of coolant had appeared under the car. Turned out to be a Jubilee clip that had given up on life,  I think because I over-tightened it at some point. Replaced it,  making sure I didn't go nuts when tightening.

Fitted the horn and front chassis earth:

I added several support structures for the coolant pipes which basically consist of jubilee clip brackets and cable ties.  May sound basic but the pipes all feel nice and secure now.

Somehow,  I ordered one warning light wrong and I didn't notice when fitting it - Doh! So waiting for that to arrive... also,  the speedo I ordered months ago is missing it's wires. GBS are trying to get that for me from the original supplier. These 2 issues are preventing me finishing the dash wiring - I've done most of it.

Dash wiring 1

Sorry for the dull title - couldn't think of anything better...

Every time I think I've understood the necessary wiring,  something else throws me. While I try get an answer from GBS and Simon,  I started on some of the wires I was fairly confident about - in this case,  the wiring for the smaller dials:

That's the earth's,  live feeds and dial illumination wires - quite neat,  I think, and quite fun to do.

Dashed if I do, Dashed if I don't.

Very exciting,  the dash is done. This is the holey version:

And then with the dials,  switches and warning lights all in place:

I really wanted to put the rocker switches down the right-hand edge in individually and vertical but I wasn't sure if I could do all the holes without messing at least one up,  so a simple panel neatens it up. I'm not a fan of the huge hazard button but it was the only one that didn't seem to need a separate flasher relay. 

Bit wonky in places,  not exactly a harmonious design but,  hey,  this is a kit car. If I'd  wanted perfectly aligned dials and stylish,  no expense-spared layout, I'd buy an MX5. Personally,  I think it's great... and I've emptied so many boxes!

Not wired up yet,  obviously:

That's the next job on the list...

Prancing Horse

As promised,  engine news - decided to upgrade to a better known brand:

That less well known,  4-pot,  2L Ferrari engine.

OK,  I admit,  it's not really a Ferrari engine (you may have guessed) - couple of stencils and red spray paint - pretty good,  I think.

Between coats,  I added a couple of supporting brackets for some of the coolant pipes and finally added the earth wire for the temp coolant sensor.

Proof of Life

Just to assure my loyal fans (!) that I'm still alive,  a quick update...

In terms of physical work on the car,  attached the ignition wiring plug:

... and sorted out a couple of earth wires.

Because of the possible house move,  I'm holding off on any major work on the car (I could be doing the rear wheel arches,  front nearside suspension etc) because if the move goes ahead,  I'll have the luxury of a double garage which will make those stages much easier.

I have spent many hours on the wiring planning - I'm on about v32 of my schematic! Huge thanks must go to Simon at GBS who stupidly gave me his personal email address and has thus been bombarded daily with questions. Never mind a beer,  I'm going to owe him a brewery by the time I'm finished.

I wish I could have afforded to buy the GBS looms which would have made this whole process plug-and-play but at least this way I'm learning a lot about car electrics, although it's taking ages.

I still need to finalise the location of all the switches on my dash before I can even start wiring and,  more importantly,  cut the holes needed.

Oh yes,  and there is an exciting twist in the engine department in the offing...hopefully to be unveiled next time.

Diversion ahead

Well,  I have done a little work over the last week, finishing the holes for the warning lights on the dash.

I've then spent a few hours trying to sort out the wiring design for the all the dash instruments - Jeez,  that opened a can of worms. I assumed that as I was just swapping column switches for rocker switches,  it would be simple but,  oh no! It has actually been quite fun but it is properly complicated. I have a wiring schematic of epic proportions which I will add to his blog but I'm just going to try get it checked by GBS first. The wiring for the hazard switch is looking particularly onerous...

However,  there may be a delay in proceedings as we're considering moving house and have spent the last week bidding on a house with,  get this,  a DOUBLE GARAGE!! So,  the next week or 2 is working on our house to get it ready for buyers. It all may fall through but I'm very excited...

Baptism

Time to anoint my car - OK,  I mean add coolant. I bought some pre-mixed water and anti-freeze which,  handily,  is pink so should make any leaks more obvious on the white paper I put down:

Gingerly poured in all 5 litres - immediate leak at the bottom of the header tank because I had forgotten to tighten the clip there - Doh! Small leak further down - clip tightened and it stopped. Added a couple more litres of water (run out of pre-mixed stuff) and looks OK so far. I won't have any water in the pipe from the top of the radiator to the thermostat - that will have to wait until the engine is started and I get some heat into it to open the stat - but the theory is looking OK as no other leaks at present. Will check it tomorrow...

I also drilled the holes in the dash for the 2 main dials. I took a risk and used the 76mm hole saw to make the required 80mm hole - fortunately it worked well and it just needed a small amount of sanding to get the dials in.

I started on the holes for the warning lights but these need to be 14mm wide and my largest drill bit is 10mm. I couldn't think of a safe way of extending the holes (I don't have any sanding drum that small) so I've ordered a conical drill bit to do the job with. I also used a scrap bit of fibreglass to practice doing a square hole for the rocker switches I'm going to need for lights,  hazards etc. Took quite a while on do one and it wasn't very neat - need to have a think about a better way of doing them (I need 5).

My plan was also to put those down the right-hand edge of the dash but there isn't a lot of space there - I'll need to trim pieces out of the metal back plate that the dash rests on. Need to think about whether to continue down this route or try putting them elsewhere...

Also bought and fitted the battery,  which is fairly major - hints at Frankensteins monster coming to life soon?