More Dash and planning remaining jobs

Right then, good progress made with the dash. The return was sanded down so its nice and smooth and the cardboard cut to size. The dash depth is almost true, maybe 2 inches deeper than it needs to be. This is the cockpit lip during sanding:

The dash will then sit forward of this at the extreme left and right ends, with an ali plate made (and covered in vinyl) to fill the gap. Might sound odd now but when its done it will make sense. The standard dash follows the curve of the cockpit lip and is angled, which I don't want, I prefer the look of a classic vertical flat dash.

Anyway, bunch of other stuff was done - some mega loom tidying for a start, and the indicators now work. I've got some oval stick-on indicators for the side repeaters which look pretty awful to be honest but they will do until I find something better. I might end up using a lucas lamp but side repeaters use the smaller 501 capless bulbs and I will need an LED version. The column switch was wired up just to check it works so thats ready to have the loom spur cut to length and a connector added. 

Other jobs related to the dash area - I think I've worked out where the heater matrix is going. Its absolutely tiny. 2.2kW from T7 designs. It just has one 63mm outlet so I got a 63 to 2x38mm splitter/reducer from CBS to then take the ducting to the windscreen demist vents. The heater will go right at the very back of the passenger footwell. I plan to install it initially with no ducting for fresh air, it will just recirculate whats in the cockpit. The washer bottle will go on the other side of the footwell so I will position that to allow addition of a duct for fresh air if I decide I need it at a later date. The only reason I'm not fixing the heater and the washer bottle down now is becuase I'm a little wary of the headers/exhaust in that region and want to see how much space there is before drilling holes. Similarly I've got a solenoid controlled heater bypass valve off a ford puma for £12 which will need locating in that region somewhere but I'll wait for now.

Long wordy post this, not many photos as we've been busy actually doing stuff rather than standing around taking photos!

First Power On

Momentus occasion, I turned the car on from the ignition from the first time. I didn't realise until later that there was no switched live so it wasn't actually on, but we'll get to that later. Headlights and tail lights are on permanent live, so they were the first things to get working.

They are actually brake lights, not tail lights. Easily sorted but didn't realise for ages, as the brake circuit appeared not to work. I fiddled around for a bit and popped a few fuses, due to the unbelievably crap bulb holders. I bought some bulb holders from Auto Electrical Supplies (AES) which were £7 or so each and it was worth it, as they actually work. The old ones had the wires badly soldered on the back of the bulb contact, and the wires appeared to have about 3 strands of copper in them. The new ones are much better and take bullet terminals, although I soldered the wires in.

I put these in and the brake lights still didn't work. The path from switched live, through the fuse then through the brake light switch was fine, then I realised I had used the most rubbish connectors on earth for the main power to the loom. They are a type where male/female are the same and they snap together so you can have as many as you like. They are rubbish. I cut them off and went through a connector block instead, hey presto, brake lights!

I ran the wire for the brake light switch to the master cylinder through the bulkhead on the drivers side, then realised that I should also have a brake fluid level warning wire somewhere. Annoyingly its on the engine spur, which comes through the passenger side of the bulkhead, so I have to choose if I want an unsightly cable running along the bulkhead, or remove all the loom to re-route the wire. I think I may do what I did with the forward loom and hide it under the bonnet lip with countersunk screws.

All in, this job took about 3 hours for troubleshooting, then installing the new bulb holders. The plan to be finished by Christmas is looking less likely.....

Loom 4

The garage has been silent for a week or so and that gave me time to think about the mess of wires around the fuse box. I found some spare bracketry and came up with this:

Ignore the wonky brackets on the fuse box, it was later adjusted. I can now get to the terminals at the back of the fuse box for future troubleshooting. The wiring is now slightly tidier and I got some proper fabric loom tape which is over everything then pvc tubing over the top. Lovely.

Only problem now is the hole in the firewall where the fuse box used to be in the engine bay. Well, I say firewall, I mean 3mm thick fibreglass. My plan is to etch the names of everyone who has helped build the car onto a stainless steel plate then rivet it over the hole.

 Also, a windscreen wiper motor has appeared out of nowhere.

Luckily, I had a massively over-thick and oversized aluminium right angle lying around which is perfect for mounting the wiper motor on. It only just fits at the jaunty angle required to minimise the bend in the wire that goes to the wheel box. The wire will eventually be covered in some copper tube to protect it.

Windscreen

The eagle eyed reader will have noticed in "Boot Shiny Bits 3" that just peeking into the left hand edge of the photo there is a windscreen. What a mammoth task that was. There are some holes cut in the body, according to the manual "pre cut at the factory to ensure accuracy". That one had us laughing for a while, honestly the manual is a work of comedy genius.

There's some bracketry under the dash to put the legs of the windscreen frame on but they don't really line up very well. I made a template as per dax instructions to get the angle of the windscreen right and had to enlarge the holes in the body to get everything to fit. Went ok in the end though.

Boot Shiny Bits 3

I was starting to get a bit fed up with the block of wood as a boot stay so I dug around in the bin of spare parts and found the boot stays. A few rivets, a bit of Wurth adhesive and half an hour later and the boot now stays open of its own accord!