Windscreen

Hi

It's been awhile but it would appear that when your wife is on holiday then so are you, still I have progressed a little; after taking 2 steps back.

It had been my plan to fit the scuttle with the wiper motor, battery and everything screwed down so that I could then fit the bonnet and sit in the car, reach over and shuffle it into the correct position then easily tighten, I had done this before when checking the the scuttle was ok after making it. All went to plan and the scuttle looked great.

All polished and shiny ready for the bonnet which I duly fitted, life was good, the wiper drives fitted nicely and screwed down with a tight seal.

Time to fit the windscreen, or so I thought. This is where is where poor planing makes p"** poor performance.

I prepared the underside of the windscreen mounts by sanding off the high spots in the casting and stuck on sealing tape to prevent the rough surface from contacting the paint.

It fit into position lovely, the side bolts went in easily and I slotted in the centre bolts which Is when I realised that there was just no way I could get underneath to get the nuts onto the bolts. I tried everything I could think of but my fingers could not reach.

I guess this was when I realised that Lynne had the right idea and be on holiday, so car cover on and I went away for a good cry.

When I eventually got it together and started stripping everything apart things got even worse as I managed to knock the corner of the bonnet and damage the paint which will, I have been informed, require a whole re-spray of the bonnet for the match.

To cut a sad story short, it all came apart again and how the hell do you remove dried on silicone sealant. 

The windscreen again went into position with the centre bolts in and tightened down.

I started to fit everything back together again when the next problem came to light which was a stripped thread on one of the windscreen drive wheel boxes, this had originally been damaged during the removal and must have been just holding on when I refitted it. So possibly it was a good thing this happened now when I could strip things down as it may have went sometime in the future and have been a lot worse. (Forever the optimist)

These are a Lucas item, No 72891D 2wb with a 32 tooth cog and 64mm spindle to the top of the spline which as luck would have it is exactly the same one as sold by SVC, slightly different in that there is a turned section on the original drive which is filled with a rubber sheath which is not on the SVC box. Can't see this as a problem and I ain't got a choice. 

The windscreen is tightened in the centre but I have left the side bolts just nipped as there is still some movement required when I set up the door seals and for the fitting of the hood.

I had only one door fitted so today's job was fitting the other, with the passenger door I had left the hinges on the door and offered the door to the car, this worked but took a friend (Ben) to help because of the weight. Only Lynne to help today so change of plan, which turned out was the easier method.

I first fit the hinges to the car and lightly nipped up to allow some play and then offered the door up to the hinges and fit the door onto the lock, it was then a simple matter of bolting on from the inside.

There is quite a gap between the door quarter light and the windscreen.

I can get a bit more play on the windscreen and a little more forward movement on the door but I recon this was the same from build, probably how both doors rusted in the same place where the quarter light meets the windscreen.

I had bought a length of new seal and have fitted with the top edge left a little long so as to trim when the soft top is on.

Its starting to look pretty good, shame about under the bonnet but I shall scrap off the silicone and refit, I shall have it re-painted if necessary.

I have brought the hood down from the loft to have a look at the condition of the frame and shall read the fitting instructions that Ray sent.

Hopefully it will just need a little cleaning and a little paint.

Well, Happy New Year.

See ya Paul

Fitting Scuttle

Hi

Back to work today, both me and Lynne, not much done in the way of the car the last few days but I have today to myself so I got stuck in. Spent the last few days out buying Christmas presents and I am writing this on my Birthday and Christmas present to myself, a lovely new 27" Apple iMac, very nice.

I have managed to get some work in, on Monday I fitted the shelf and finished of fitting the stereo amplifier and speaker system, I decided to split the system as I was going to wire up the 4 speakers to both the radio and amplifier but decided to fit the rear speakers to the amp and the 2 small speakers to the radio.

You can see one of the speakers sticking down at the top of the photo, it is hidden when sitting in the car and is only seen when you stick your head under the dash.

The shelf cleaned up nice and screwed in easy enough once I managed to locate the hole behind the carpet. The stereo amp is bolted to the shelf and is wired in to the radio supply, I have stuck the auxiliary power supply on the underside of the shelf with the switches facing front so as I can hide any wires from Sat Nav etc away behind it.

I fit the new power socket to the side of the console with a backing piece made from perspex behind it to give some rigidity to the console.

I still have to get the aerial sorted, the one I have is a little long but I shall see what it looks like when the hood is on, it is still not working properly as the reception is very crackly until I touch it and the reception clears, could be another earth problem as most other things seem to have been.

Fitting the scuttle has been a bit of a struggle and that was down to the windscreen wiper arm, the original scuttle had a cut above where the rod came through so as to lever it in position. I had to strip it down and feed the drive through the scuttle and behind the dash, reassemble in position then fit the drives through their holes. 

Once through the holes I fit the new chrome covers, very nice.

The scuttle fit in position and the fan air intake fit through the cutout hole.

I could now start screwing everything in position and I started with the fuse box.

Once screwed down I touched the paint up a little.

The battery box came next, until this was in I could not finish bolting the shelf in position as the back screws are attached to the box so once in I lined up the holes and finished the shelf I then drilled through and screwed down the battery box.

The water seal surround for the fan intake had to be both screwed and siliconed in.

This is positioned in front of the air intake so as any rain water comes in to the back of the surround and flows around it so the sealant has to be both underneath and on top of the surround.

The windscreen wiper motor went on and before connecting to the arm I plugged it in and tested, it went round so it went on.

I had disconnected the drive arm when I removed it and this had to be reconnected before bolting it down.

Once bolted down I fitted grommets on both the wire and drive holes.

Thats the main components of the scuttle screwed and bolted down.

The air inlet is also sealed to the scuttle so as none of the rain water can escape other than down the water chute which unfortunately I can't find. I know I had it last month but its hiding from me, I have plenty of U section so I have cut another.

I drilled, sealed and screwed in position.

The new water chute is drying now and I shall fit tomorrow.

You can see how far forward the fan intake is so as to prevent rain water being sucked into the fan.

I shall start polishing the scuttle tomorrow before the bonnet goes on.

I also tested the engine today, its been around 3 months since it has ran, it took a few turns to get the fuel through but it fired on around the fifth turn and first time when I tried it before finishing for the day, still sounds great.

See ya Paul

Fitting Center Console

Hi

For some reason I thought that fitting the console would be a doddle, how wrong could I be, all day on that damn thing and have just finished.

It started nice and easy, I thought I'd fit the top brackets for the luggage rack and see what the new cover looks like.

I have not restored the rack yet and there are a few rust spots on it, I shall see about having it re-powder coated. Every thing fit nice and the wheel went on great.

I never realised just how much of the number plate and lights were obscured by the spare wheel I'm surprised the MOT lets it through.

The cover looks fantastic, black mohair with the Winged Panther embroidered in silver.

The console fit took a good 5 hours to get finished and a lot of the problems were of my own making and the others caused just by the very tightness and inaccessibility of the space. 

I started by fitting the control wire back onto the vent opening on the fan, these are wires that slide inside an outer casing, one is connected to the control valve for the heater and the other to the vent, the opposite ends are connected to the sliding mech on the console.

They are kept on very tightly with special clips.

I had left the water valve wire in place and only had to fit the vent wire.

Once this was on I connected the air hoses to the vent under the dash, unfortunately I had fitted the bracket to secure the dash in such a way as I could not fit the hose, so it was under the dash to drill out the rivets then re-secure after the hose was in place.

The opposite hose was no problem to fit and went straight on.

Fitting the console proved a little more difficult as I had also fitted the other 2 dash securing brackets in the wrong place and had to drill these out which is where a good part of the day went.

The console went in relatively easy after that, unfortunately I realised that the carpet was around 10mm out of center and made the console look out of align due to the piping, so I had to unfasten the heater and move it side ways to expose the bottom bracket and cut a little out of the carpet and shunted the carpet along the few mil required. The heater had to be put back which was relatively straight forward. 

Next was the new fixing holes, I had drilled new holes in the bottom of the console and marked these onto the carpet, I drilled and tapped these to 5mm and screwed the console down.

I had removed the sliding mech as it was impossible to fit the wires in position.

Having removed the slider made wiring up the console a whole lot easier as it was a little difficult to access, I bolted the start relay to one of the hold down bolts and connected the switch to the start button, the fan and fog light wiring was no problem and just plugged in.

I have tidied  the wiring up a bit but it still looks a mess, I am no way nearly finished yet as the power supply to the multi adapter has to be fitted and the stereo wiring sorted, the dash brackets also need re-fitting plus 110 other jobs under the dash.

Christmas shopping tomorrow so not a lot will get done then.

see ya Paul

Carpets and Heater

Hi

Got home Tuesday evening, I was due home on Wednesday but the ship was sailing for port that day so the relieving crew came a day early and we were boated of to Ostend Belgium then Eurostar to London. 

While away I have made a few purchases, the radio I bought looks great and is what I wanted fitted in the dash, unfortunately the sound quality isn't great due to it being mono. To fix this I have bought a stereo amplifier and a new set of stereo speakers.

It was a relatively cheap amplifier at £15 from China and came with a small set of speakers that I shall fit somewhere under the dash and plug either my mp3 player into it or buy another Pure Highway DAB radio and fit that. I had another look on eBay for stereo speakers and found a slim set that would (I thought) fit great in the back of the car. 

I tried everything on Wednesday and the sound quality is great, I made up a bracket arrangement that allowed the speakers to fit right at the rear of the car and fit them in place.

All of the wiring was already in position so it was just a matter of connecting, I shall fit the amplifier under the shelf in the passenger section and will find somewhere for the small set of speakers.

I have also painted the luggage rack and spare wheel brackets and fitted these.

The main part I have been waiting for arrived last night and that was the center carpet section, Ray made a great job of the alteration and has put the altered section under the center console so you won't ever know it had been altered.

As the side sections were already in place I started by fitting the rear carpet, Because this area will take a lot of hammering from luggage I had another go at the carpet hidden stud fixings and after stabbing myself another half dozen times I got them to work. I also used some impact adhesive along the dropped edge and clamped into position.

I also added a little glue to the side sections and clamped them up.

The center carpet fit perfectly and I fitted more of the hidden stud fixings down the side of the tunnel to connect to.

I stretched the carpet centrally over the tunnel as much as I could then clamped into place to hold it there.

The seat belt anchors where perfectly positioned to clamp the bottom of the carpet into position so these went on next.

I worked my way along one side fitting the carpet to the stud fasteners until one side was fully fastened and the excess on the side trimmed.

I was now able fit the stud fixings to the other side and stretch the carpet into position. Still having difficulty with some of the fasteners but practice is all I need.

It did not take long to finish and mostly the studs are on.

The gear stick cover took a little time, mostly as I knew that any mistakes and I would be calling Ray for another center section.

I want the rubber part of the cover to be in contact with the metal of the tunnel and not sitting on the carpet so as to wick up any water, so I fitted the rubber first and marked the holes and cut out little sections of the carpet and screwed the rubber in position. Once it was aligned by the screws I cut around it so as the rubber sits neatly in the hole.

The chrome section of the cover plate is larger than the rubber and will fit cleanly on the carpet and clamp it down.

And thankfully that is what happened.

Now time for the heater.

The bracket that the heater sits on had to be exposed, so a few careful cuts.

The heater bottom sits on the bracket and the top section is bolted onto the 2 bolts attached to the crossbar, the hoses have to be connected as the heater is raised into position on the bracket and this proved to be a bit of a problem but I managed it after a few attempts. The wiring plugged straight in and I gave it a test and it worked straight of on both speeds.

After fitting this I gave the foot well carpets a try out.

The last piece of carpet to go in was the cover for the fuel pipe, I have tie wrapped this in position for the moment and will figure out how it fits properly later.
Tomorrows job is to sort out all of the wiring for the center console and get that fitted, one problem I found when locating the console holes when fitting the carpet is that one of the threaded riv nuts is turning, not much I can do about it so I shall squirt some silicone in the hole and drill and tap another.

Another problem I realised I had caused was with the start button wiring, I had wired it to the Yellow/Black and Red which worked great except it should have been Yellow/black and Black. The problem was that the first way it was wired by-passed the start switch so in effect you did not need the key, you would not have any indicators but you would have a running engine, all changed now and you need two clicks to allow it to activate.

see ya Paul