19th August 2002
Apologies for the lack of action over the weekend - I went to my parents house, as it was a friends wedding on Saturday (congrats to James & Lou), and Shelsley Walsh on Sunday. The bonus was that I was able to call in to the Westfield factory on Saturday morning to collect some parts, which included the missing cables, but not the dash (!).
So the mystery of the length of cables for the solenoid is now solved - I was actually missing the one which connects the solenoid to the battery, the one I was using for this is actually for solenoid to starter. So having all the rightful ones now, I spend the evening routing these cables. I finally finish the wiring off, and tie wrap it all down in it's final and fixed positions.

20th August 2002
Nothing visual today, but another minor milestone. Now that the wiring is all sorted, it's time to re-start the engine and make sure it is all still working properly.
Firstly I mix the coolant. I bought some pre-mixed anti-freeze mixture, to which I added the appropriate amount of Water Wetter. This is an additive which improves the cooling efficiency by reducing the surface tension of the water part of the coolant mix.
Next step is to bleed the cooling system. Fortunately, Craig comes round to steal more bits/tools from me, so I rope him into helping me. Using the breather from the top of radiator, and some lung power, the system seems quite easy to get bled - there don't seem to be any air locks, but time will tell.
Once this is done (and I remember to connect up the ignition switch), then the engine starts first time. I allow it to run up to temperature for a while, and the replacement water temperature sender seems to be working, to 80c. At this point there is temperature across the radiator, but I don't let it get fully hot as I haven't tested the radiator fan yet.
Final task is to do this, and shorting the connector for the rad fan switch in the radiator proves that the fan works. I'll let the engine run up until it switches itself next time its running.

21st August 2002
Now that the wiring is done (until I get the dash), and the the engine is restarted, my next target is to turn the wheels using the engine. To do this I need to connect up the front propshaft to the output flange on the gearbox, connect up the gear change mechanism to the gear selector on the engine, attach and bleed the clutch, and put oil into the diff and reverse gearbox.
I start with the oil, as this seems like a simple job. I have been recommended to use RedLine Superlightwieght Shockproof gear oil in the diff, it's not cheap, but it's not like it gets changed very often so hopefully it's worth it. I discover that this oil looks just like custard!
The diff is filled through the filler plug in the rear of the casing, until the oil flows out - i.e. this is the fill level. This is quickly and easily done.
Next is the reverse gearbox. Again I have been recommended a RedLine oil here, but this time it is Heavyweight Shockproof, and this time the oil looks just like blood! Someone at RedLine has a sense of humour or something! (Actually I believe it is like this to aid diagnosis of any leakage)
The reverse box has two plugs in the right hand side. The lower of these is the drain plug, and the upper the fill plug. Again it is a simple matter of filling until it overflows, but this takes ages this time because I have to use a real small bore pipe as the plug hole is quite small. I have since found out that a large syringe is probably a better way to do this.
I then connect up the reverse selector lever to the selector on the gearbox. The selection seems to be seized, but I discover that it will go (although is a little stiff) if I turn the front prop a little by hand.

22nd August 2002
Somehow the oil filling seemed to take far too long yesterday, so today I continue with the drivetrain preparation.
First task is to connect up the front flange of the front propshaft to the output flange on the engine. I discover a lack of M8 spring washers to be able to get them all locktited up now, but can do half of them, the others I'll have to come back to. It's all pretty easy though, especially with the chopped off ball-ended allen key tools I made previously for the torque wrench.
(And I remembered to take some, remarkably good, pictures today!)
Next job is to attach the clutch flexible hose to the clutch slave cylinder. This is routed around under the front prop (hence it had to be fitted first), and simply screws into the top of the slave cylinder.
This will need bleeding before I can run the engine, but that's a job for tomorrow.

Finally I now fit and adjust the remainder of the gear change mechanism. I've already fitted this as far as the quadrant at the front of the tunnel. Now that the prop and clutch are attached, I can attach the lever to the gear selector on the engine, and the drop link from the quadrant to the selector lever.
This is the second lever I have, and it goes straight on, so I think there must have been something a bit wonky with the other as it didn't want to go on at all. The lever slides onto a spline on the selector and is clamped onto it using a bolt.
The drop link can then be adjusted so that the gear lever in the car is positioned correctly so that it is vertical when the gear selection mechanism is at rest (if that makes sense). So now I can finally change gear from in the car - though this is stubborn without the engine running, presumably because of layshafts and other complex stuff.

24th August 2002
Having borrowed a bleed valve from Jim (basically a tube which you attach to the bleed nipple with a one way valve on the other end to help prevent air come back up the tube), and gone to collect some brake/clutch fluid, I spend a while attempting to bleed the clutch.
Attempt is the key word here, as I am not very successful. I have managed to get some fluid into the through the system, but as I pump it through with the pedal, once the pressure builds up, the fluid just leaks out of the joint seal with the nipple. It doesn't seem to be able to force the air out of the tube past the one way valve.

So I decide to think about how to progress the clutch, and have a look at the aeroscreen fitting. The first thing to do here is to fit the perspex part to the top of the GRP part. The GRP part is quite flexible, so this starts from the outside two fixing points, then the centre, then the middle two.
Also I need to determine the centre line of the scuttle. There is not simple way to this, so I take a few points to get it roughly right. A small aluminium bracket fixes between the centre point of the aeroscreen and the centre of the scuttle.
Hmmm, I am missing the counter sunk bolts which attach the perspex top to GRP part, and that means I can't find the centre point accurately, which in turn means I can't get anything like the right points (which are already pretty vague) for the studs which are bonded into the GRP part of the screen and attach through the scuttle top.
I'm not confident that I'm getting this right, so I'll speak to Westfield before continuing.
It's getting a bit frustrating today. Next job to have a look at is the exhaust mount. I bought the stuff this morning to makes something similar to the one which Ed made for his (see his here), as it seems like a nice simple solution and I'm not overly keen on the Westfield method of bolting a bracket to the bodywork to support the exhaust.
First thing to do is to create the hole in the side bodywork where the captive nut is located on the inside of the chassis
The bolt will now screw squarely into the captive nut. So now I can cut the angle section aluminium to the width of the rubber bobbin. Fortunately it's just about the right size for bobbin to fit on once the bolt has been fitted through in the other direction, so I drill it for both the bolt and the bobbin. Once this is done I can measure and cut the steel tube (why didn't I get aluminium?) and the bolt to allow the angle section to sit just away from the bodywork.
Now it's a simple job to just screw the bolt through the captive nut. The outer sleeve tube will then tighten against the outside edge of the chassis, and at the other end it will tighten the angle aluminium between the sleeve and the bolt head. The bobbin is then attached to the angle using a nut.
The exhaust will be attached to the mount, ideally, using a large P-clip which will wrap around the entire exhaust can and then bolt onto the top of the rubber bobbin.

26th August 2002
Having failed dismally to do anything to the car yesterday, my salvation from a life of guilt comes in the form of Bank Holiday Monday.
I decide it's time to have a go at the rear wheels arches today, the first part of which is to cut the holes required for the rear lights. I have the new style rear lights which are round and have a carbon effect surround. The back end of the lamp units needs to stick through into the wheel arch, where they will connect to the chassis loom.
So I clamp the arch into position, then spend quite a while trying to make sure that I get the surrounds straight before cutting. This takes quite a while, but soon I have the first one done - it's best to start off with a smaller hole and keep fettling it further with these things, hence the time consumption.
Here's a heap of pictures of the process... (I got distracted doing the first one and forgot to take lots of pictures, hence the change from right to left arch!)
Now that the arches have been cut I have decided to paint the inside of them. This is done using a "liquid rubber" type of paint, and is done because the exterior surface of the wing can suffer from "star cracks" in the gelcoat where stones are flicked up by the tyre.
This is tremendously strange stuff to paint, but goes on fairly easily and I manage not to make too much mess!
Next I have a look at the seat mounts. I had a brief look at them before, but have since realised that I had the brackets the wrong way around! I decide to follow the recommendation to mount the brackets on a piece of wood. This will allow the seat to be adjusted to give the desired amount of rake and height adjustment, before being drilled through to mount the blade seat mounts to the seats themselves.
The pictures below show the construction of the seat "jig". It's clear that this will make life much easier, especially as I have to do the job twice!

27th August 2002
After speaking to Westfield and rummaging through some boxes, I found the small plastic screws and nuts which are used to attach the perspex top part of the aeroscreen to the GRP part.
Fitting this is fairly straight forward, as long as you take into account the fact that the GRP part can be flexed to fit the perspex part. Just drill through the flange in the appropriate positions, and fix the top part onto the bottom. This now gives the screen it's shape and can now be aligned on the top of the scuttle.

Drilling the scuttle for the captive studs in the aeroscreen appears to contain a strong element of approximatation (also known as guess-a-drill!). I offer the screen up to the scuttle, and it looks a bit hairy, but I can't continue with this until I get hold of some appropriate U-section rubber piping to run around the bottom edge of the screen.
Had a quick look at the drivers footwell pedal cover, and masked and marked it up ready to be cut to fit. This panel will allow easy access to the pedal area in the drivers footwell, and will need to be attached such that it can be fairly easily removed - I expect rivnuts will be best for this.

28th August 2002
Didn't spend particularly long working on the car this evening, but did take an hour or so to cut the footwell pedal cover. To do this I sliced a strip off in all directions using the cutting disc on the dremel, then used the sanding barrel to trim it tidily to the correct fit.

29th August 2002
I received some parts from Westfield in the form of a dashboard (at last!), the U-section rubber trim for the bottom of the aeroscreen, and my harness belts.
So I start straight away working on the dash. It is a foam padded dashboard which is pre-cut for the gauges and switches which I have on my car. So I spend a little time doing the easiest bits of fitting the gauges and switches - although the smaller round holes have not had the vinyl pre-cut (for some reason?), so I'll have to sort these out myself.

30th August 2002
Yet another Friday off today to try to keep up momentum (which has been slipping slightly) on progress - the problem is that the finishing off type of jobs tend to be fairly fiddly and time consuming, which seems to make it seem like there's isn't much progress.
Anyway, first thing is to continue working on the dash which I started last night. Firstly, I need to cut the vinyl for the smaller holes for the switches and warning lamps. This is decidedly tricky, especially where the switches must pass through the dash from the rear (indicator, horn, and main beam switches), since this requires th vinyl to be attached back through the hole before the switch can be pushed through.
The warning lights which push through from the front are fairly straight forward, although I am missing any green ones for the indicator and neutral lights.

Once these are sorted, I apply the dash wiring loom to the dash. This is relatively simple task as I had previously identified and labelled all the connectors. It's quite messy, but this is all hidden, and the loom pretty much holds itself in position.
There are a bunch of unused wires in here, which would normally power and switch the heater fan, and windscreen bits and bobs. For now these are taped onto the back of the dash - though ideally I would like to strip them out of the loom at some point in the future.
Doing the dash has taken quite alot of time out of the day, but I spend some time pottering around with some other small tasks.
Firstly, I fit the flylead for my battery conditioner. Having started and run the engine a few times, this takes quite a bit of power out of the battery without putting any back in, so I'm keen to get the conditioner back on it soon as taking the battery out of the car is something I don't really want to do (as it involves removing the oil tank!).
This lead has an inline fuse and is permanently fitted to the car to allow the conditioner to simply be plugged straight in. I've attached the connector to the chassis rail behind the nearside front suspension. The supplied lead isn't really that long, and doesn't have a weather-proof connector, so I might change this at some point in the future.
Next I finally decide to fit the air horns. Now that all the wiring is finished I don't need the easy access to the battery area, although I will still need to get at the terminals to connect and disconnect the battery (until I fit the master switch post-SVA).
I attach the compressor, the horns, then connect up the air tubes from the compressor via Y piece to the horns, and finally the wires. I'm rather happy with the way the installation of these has worked out - my first proper bit of self-fabrication!

31st August 2002
Got distracted with other things today, so actually didn't get into the garage until late afternoon - that's no way to meet SVA date deadlines is it?!?
Which reminds me, that I haven't mentioned that on here. I have an SVA date of Monday 9th September, but am going to postpone this after the weekend, as there is no way it will be ready - the only way it might be done would be if I spent the rest of the remaining time full-time on the car, not likely to happen!

However, I did finally pluck up the courage to have a go at fixing the aeroscreen down onto the scuttle. Drilling the holes for this is a bit hit or miss, but I measured and offered it up repetitively for a while, then decided where to start drilling.
To cut the long story short, it is a nightmare, and I ended up drilling holes and then finding that as I pushed the screen through them, the other holes all moved. I'm sure you get the picture - it's a big floppy piece of plastic with some captive studs which need to pass through the scuttle at an angle, so tricky.
Eventually I get it fitting through the holes, which have ended up quite large and slot-like. I'm not overly chuffed with this, but the holes are all hidden so I'll learn to ignore them, and there are still some reasonable gaps where the leading edge of the screen meets the scuttle.

©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4