Dash and Electrics

Hi

Home again, actually got home last Thursday evening after my first trip working on the wind farms and boy are those babies big, anyway I had a few days working on the car then off on holiday. Had a nice time in the Lake district at Bowness on Lake Windermere and stopped at a lovely country hotel called Fayrer Garden House Hotel, bit of a mouthful but very nice and great food.

Shame it rained most days but that was made up for when Lynne got bit by a goose while feeding them, she didn't half scream and I'm still laughing now. Lovely bruise.

I have spent my time working on the electrics, I finished the wiring to the box that I was working on before I went away. I have logged each wire where it goes and what it does in the log book for future reference and have colour coded each wire with shrink wrap to make identification easy.

May look a bit of a mess but its quite well worked out, the headlights for both looms are the top wires, the middle wires are for the side indicators and the bottom set of wires are for the sidelights and front indicators. The looms are tucked away out of sight and tie wrapped so the only part you see are the wires leading into the box. 

All of the side lights work.

The dipped headlights and the main beams all work as they should.

But I still have a problem with the indicators, the drivers side works well but not the pass side so I still have a bit of figuring out to do there. I have solved one problem and that was the issue of the fuse blowing every time I tried the passenger side indicators, this problem went away when I wired up the rear lighting. The rear lighting was relatively simple and I just used bullet connectors for this. the wiring diagram came in very handy and I had them all wired up in a couple of hours. The rear drivers indicator works well but the same problem occurs with the passenger side rear indicator, hopefully my electrician will be able to figure something out. 

One of the things I have tried was fitting the dash and plugging in the main wiring loom.

My thought was that maybe the circuit would not be complete without the dash flasher repeater being in the circuit but no joy there either, in fact it created more work as after a couple of flashes the new indicator repeater packed in. It was quite expensive at around £10 but after a test with my power tester then the meter on it I pronounced it dead, the led must have blown. 

I had spent quite enough on the new warning light display so I thought no more, out with the old indicator block and see what I could do with it. I decided to use the whole of the front section of the display as originaly most of it is hidden behind the dash and you only see the warning lights, so first job was to separate the bracket section.

I sanded everything smooth and rounded the corners before giving it a couple of coats of satin black.

I removed the new/old display, marked of the hole and cut out the oblong section.

Test run before spraying.

A bit of auto tape on the back and it looked like the original.

I noticed a small problem when I had the dash plugged in and that was that I had wired up the new volt meter gauge to the clock power supply, not the best idea as the clock has permanent power so that had to change.

I wired up the voltmeter, all of the warning lights and worked out the wiring for the new underside light so it can work from the new door switches. After tiding up all of the wiring it looked quite neat.

So hopefully; the dash is truly finished, apart from the radio.

I also had a bit of a problem with one of the pistons on the drivers side caliper, I had overhauled these over a year ago and one of them has started to leak. I had noticed this before I went on holiday so I ordered a new set of seals and stripped it down. There are 2 pistons per caliper and only one was leaking, I have noticed some very fine scratches on the piston and they were in a pretty bad state when I removed them so hopefully this second set of new seals will do the job, if not then its a new piston, if I can find one separate from a set of four.

Another job was the wheel caps. 

Mine where in a very bad condition, I probably could have restored them but I decided on a new set, not quite as simple as just buying a new set as they are not made anymore. 

Fortunately Bruno sells a set of caps and Val at the club sells a set of stick on logos.

As you can see, mine are a little worse for wear. 

Now that you have the new caps your troubles are still not over as the rear set requires a little modification, not a lot, just a little sanding.

The front set fits nicely into the hole although they are a little slack and could be easily removed or lost while driving so I removed the wheels and hot glued them in from behind.

The rear wheel have drum brakes and so have less room to fit the caps in place.

When fitted like this they do not sit fully in place.

But a sheet of sandpaper and 5 minutes work will take of the required amount.

These will still need a little glueing from behind but the fit is a lot better.

The caps also have a dip in the middle which does not allow the logos to fully stick apart from around the edges, a bit of hot glue in the middle solved this.

Another job I have finished is the gear stick surround, this is the section that the rubber gaiter is fitted to, I had damaged the original on removal so I made a new one in stainless.

I have siliconed the underside to prevent any water getting through and onto the carpet.

While away I ordered some sample sets of edge trimming seal for the door windscreen interface, I got samples from 3 different companies and compared them all.

Quite a few to choose from, an the nearest match was from a company called Monkeydub car parts on ebay, I bought a metre of their Medium 2 car door rubber .

Another purchase was some more veneer for the door caps, unfortunately now it has arrived I realise I didn't order enough so will have to get some more. I stuck with the Maple wood but could not find any red burl maple of sufficient length so I have gone for Birds Eye maple, it is much lighter than the red but once the lacquer is on the color will darken out and the birds eyes will come through nicely.

The main problem I have is getting it to bend around the tight curves of the cappings, I have searched the web and come up with a recipe for homemade veneer softener. This is a mixture of Glycerine, water, PVA glue and denatured alcohol, still haven't figured out what this is, I read in one place it is surgical spirit in another it was methylated spirits??? anyone know.

Whatever I shall try both, I have already bought the glycerine.

Now for the good news and what I have been waiting for to progress the final stage.

My interior has arrived and it looks fantastic.

I bought it all through Ray at R.S Sewing Solutions  and boy is he good, I was a little unsure of the door card design so Ray gave me a hand and I give him my thanks as its better than I could have come up with.

Both the Black Panther and the wing logo have been embroidered into the vinyl, he has also fitted all of the buttons in the back so I just need to push on the door and job done.

The wool carpet is matching with cream piping.

This is only part of it, he also throws in a free gear stick cover and the handbrake cover is sewn into the carpet.

The sunvisors have matching vinyl.

Unfortunately the chrome section of the sunvisors are not in the best of condition so I may be looking at new one's.

The mohair looks fantastic, I haven't opened the hood yet but the spare wheel cover is great, I had the wing logo embroidered in this as well.

I have gone for the black hood with beige interior and with any luck I may get it fitted this time home as I have around 2 1/2 weeks left but no rush, the main job is cutting and fitting the underlay and carpet for the centre section then I can fit the heater, dash and center console. So to progress the job I have removed the bonnet and scuttle for access, maybe get a bit more done tomorrow.

See ya Paul