Split lip

 When I took the nose off to fit the new throttle cable, I noticed it was in quite a state underneath :

Having seen a FB post of someone who had fitted a splitter (for aesthetic reasons), I realised that a splitter stretching the full size of the nose might look good and prevent further damage. 

Now, the other guy had paid someone to make his splitter but that's not for miserly me. The tricky bit was the rolled edge that a splitter really needed. I'd never done something like that but after watching a YT video, how hard could it be? 

Actually, it wasn't too bad; took me a few hours of gentle hammering using my vice and various metal bits as an anvil and it was done. Don't get me wrong, look closely and it's rubbish but from a distance, perfectly acceptable:

Then a few coats of primer, black paint and lacquer:

Bolted to the nose and it looks ok:

Quite proud of my new blacksmith skills. 

Went out for a drive to test out the new throttle and, as I predicted, at slow speeds, its a bit jerkier BUT the rest of the time, it's awesome - Zedster feels so much faster, I guess because I'm effectively revving harder than before? 

Decided to brave Rykas cafe at Box Hill (I was hungry), a well known biker hangout - don't think anyone noticed me 😏

 

Return of the Loud Pedal

 So GBS delivered the cable and shortened throttle kit in quick time. The new pedal is identical except for the location of the fulcrum:

Fitting the new cable was relatively painless but the throttle kit was annoying. It should have been easy really but little things ruined it. I had to take the damn thing off and on again about 5 times; the hole at the top needed to be drilled out bigger to fit the cleavis GBS supplied (why isn't it the right size?), the throttle stop bolt was impossible for my chunky fingers to get in once the pedal was in; the extra hole needed couldn't be drilled with the pedal in etc, etc. 

However, once it was finally done, it is superb; really solid and a huge improvement on the old one (along with the extra plate I added to the pedal box) :

The one weakness in the supplied throttle cable is the way GBS expect you to just wrap the cable around the square edge of the clasp that goes in the top of the pedal. It was that bad design which caused my first throttle cable to snap after just 4k miles. At some point in the past, I bought a set of metal cable bits, which included a U-shaped channeled piece which allows the cable to loop round in a neat, unstressed way (difficult to explain - hopefully the pics below make it clear) :

I'm so pleased with this job; a massive improvement over previous attempts and hopefully it will last much longer. 

I used the Emerald software to recalibrate the TPS positions (although iit shouldn't have changed) and a quick test start proved it all worked well. 

Strangely, I have had a burst of creative ideas recently. The underneath of the nose is scratched to pieces, so I've bought a new sheet of ally and I'm going to make a small splitter; really just a sheet sticking out the front an inch or 2, sprayed black and with a slightly rolled edge. Apart from looking good, it should prevent any further damage to the underside of the nose.

I've also started planning how to make a glove box in the free space of my dash and I bought this cheap unit which is just stuck on the bulkhead between the seats:

It may fall off in a week but if not, it helps to keep odds and ends rolling around the passenger footwell.

Spring is on its way and Zedster is looking gooood... 

Snap to it

 With another sunny but cold day beckoning, I popped out for a short run with my son in his car. All going well until - PING - there goes my throttle cable again!

Luckily, I was able to roll to a convenient layby where my son then watched some quality Heath Robinson jiggery-pokery to lash up a new cable using a bicycle brake cable I keep for just this sort of emergency. I managed to limp home and I've ordered a new cable from GBS.

I have also decided to buy their short throw throttle conversion kit - basically, a new pedal with the fulcrum a few inches lower than the standard pedal. This means a shorter movement of the pedal for the same effect, which actually doesn't sound great to me because I imagine at slow speeds, that might be quite jerky?

However, the advantage of this kit is that it includes a solid steel bracket with built-in throttle stops in both directions. So the pedal should be firmer (mine has always been a bit wobbly) but, more importantly, I won't be stressing the cable as much when I go for full throttle, which is probably what has contributed to it's short life.

In a way, I'm quite glad this has happened - I've always worried about the strength of my throttle setup; this has given me an excuse to improve it. There is a YT video from GBS showing how to install this kit and I noticed that they have also strengthened the pedal box using an extra plate, which makes a lot of sense. With my existing setup, you can see the walls of the pedal box bending every time the throttle is moved, so I'll be adding that same plate.

Before the cable went, my son caught me on his dashcam attempting some feeble power slide - it felt much more impressive from my point-of-view (and you may well agree with my son's comment on the video):

Winter cobwebs

 With the cold weather still upon us, I felt like a drive would do me good, so I arranged to meet up with a couple from the SKCC club, for breakfast at the Chalet Cafe. This place is turning into my goto destination; a choice of fun roads to get there, a big menu and always interesting vehicles in the car park.

Today was no exception - half the US WW2 5th cavalry unit turned up:

... as well as the Smart car club:

... and an old classic:

Me and the Elises's:

Nice, slippery drive and cleared the cobwebs - I even washed Zedster; it's becoming a habit. 

RIP John Gillingwater

 I cringe now at the title of my last post - 30 minutes after I created it, my father-in-law died 😔. From an initial cancer symptom in May, terminal diagnosis in October and to end on Xmas eve, of all days, it has been a horrendous and sudden shock to the family. 

The last few weeks have been miserable - my poor wife is distraught and her mum is even worse (they were married for 54 years). The funeral was a week ago but things are still rough.

To make matters worse, my poor son had a minor car accident in his beloved car that he's spent a fortune on. But because the car was only cheap to buy, the insurers wrote it off straight away. The accident damaged ALL the doors (he was hit on one side and pushed into another car on the other) and broke one front wishbone - repairs would cost much more than the £2.3k he paid for it. He'd just spent £1500 on 4 new wheels and tyres as well...

And to put the cherry on this shit-cake, I got an infected cyst that needed sorting - it's been drained but now needs a couple more painful sessions to get cleared up. 

Sorry to be so maudlin - I'm sure there are people having a worse time but this is easily the lowest point of my life.

In memory of John Gillingwater (1943 - 2021), a man who deserved far longer on this earth. 

Gates of Heaven

My gear lever has always been a noisy so-and-so; not a gearbox problem, just the play in the GBS quickshift mechanism so it vibrates at almost all speeds.

Combined this with watching a video of an old Ferrari with its metal gate for the gearshift and I decided to try make my own. 

To start, a cardboard template cut a little at a time to get the basic H-shape:

I bought an 8mm thick ally plate and transferred the shape from the cardboard template onto it. The cardboard template wasn't the most accurate; I re-drew the shape on paper and made some minor adjustments in the dimensions. Not very scientific; look at the lever, see where it isn't quite right on the cardboard, subtract a few mm. 

I don't have the equipment needed to make this look even vaguely decent so I took the plate and measurements to a local metalwork shop. He did charge me a fortune (£200) but the result was AWESOME:

Some sandpaper to clean out the letters and a few coats of primer, paint, lacquer:

The next part was pretty crucial; getting holes drilled in my tunnel top in the right place. Much agonising later and it was done:

It looks great, I think but does it work? Ish... the lever slots in fine and in 1st, 2nd and 5th, the rattle is gone. However, 4th and especially 3rd is worse than it was before; now a full-on metal-on-metal rattle. Doh! But I think some strategically placed neoprene underneath the gate will do the trick - we'll see.

Otherwise, I love the look and adds something different from the norm.

Keeping it Cleaner

While watching a repeat of Wheeler Dealers, the guy on there was talking about the oil scavenging system on a Volvo. He was explaining what it did (redirected fumes from the top of the engine back into the inlet manifold, so that it reburnt the fumes/oil, making the exhaust emissions cleaner) and he dismissively mentioned how older cars might just vent these fumes and oil to air - and guess what Zedster does? Yup, this is my setup:

I have never liked this setup, mainly because it does add an oil mist to my engine bay, as you can see in that pic. So, a bit of shopping found a nice, shiny oil catch tank for £30 and, with a new filter, it was pretty quick to fit, looks good and should keep the bay a bit cleaner:

Its got a sight glass on the side so will be interesting to see how long it takes to fill up, if ever.