Electrics

Hi

I have managed to get some more hours in but when your wife takes time of work before you go away its better for your health to spend some time with her. Few nice days out and back off again tomorrow.

HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool marina

The jobs have been small ones as most of the big work is done and I am basically waiting for the interior trim which Ray of RS Sewing solutions has helped me design and is currently ordering the carpet and mohair, the door cards have been sent to the embroiderer and hopefully everything should be ready for my return.

A few of the jobs have been small, like fitting the windscreen water washers.

And the air inlet.

The air inlet cleaned up nice but unfortunately I had mislaid a couple of the clips and anyway they were a bit of a nightmare to remove so getting to fit when the bonnet is on would be a lot worse. You can get plastic plugs, these are like a rawlplug that you fit into the holes from the top and then just push the intake pins into. But I didn't have any so I stuck it in place.

Its a three piece intake, the air funnel, gauze and chrome work, I cleaned and polished before hot glued the funnel and gauze to the underside of the chrome work then with foam double sided tape I stuck it to the bonnet, then screwed the underside plate in position.

Still needs a few more screws but in my box of 200 none fit, need a better box.

I was lucky on Friday to have my friend Ben turn up and he got recruited into door fitting, I can only fit the passenger side door otherwise I would never be able to get in to do any work without removing from the garage, O for a double garage.

Not the easiest of jobs and it took a lot of fiddling to get it mostly correct, the bottom does not come out fully no matter what I did and you can see the red paint line from the sill. I will remove the door next time home and elongate the hinge holes on the body to give the extra few mil I require, till then its out of Lynne's way. 

One other thing happened when fitting and that was the door opener arm broke, when I fitted it I thought it was a touch too long and there was no more movement on the door mech so I had to bend it a touch, a touch too much it seems.

You can see the extra length, a spot of weld will fix.

The main job this week has been the electrics and there is a bit of a problem which my electrician thinks is a short in the indicator system as they only work when the hazard is pressed down and the drivers side works ok but the fuse keeps blowing when I change over to the passenger side. This may disappear when fully connected but will have to wait until I return home and he assures me it will be no problem tracing it so until then I have been busy wiring everything up to the wiring diagram.

One thing I have found out is that no matter what else you do during a restoration; is to keep the battery disconnected when you have exposed connections. My first job on the car was to remove the battery then as soon as the engine was in I replaced it not thinking about the multitude of wires touching each other and random parts of the car. Anyway I have replaced all of the blown fuses and any exposed wires either got taped or covered with the female connector end.

I had wired up the drivers side using the new waterproof connections I had bought and I didn't like the way they fit, too bulky and far too fiddly, so I ripped them out. I next fit with Lucas bullet connectors as per the original fit and didn't like these,again to bulky and as I did not have the correct crimping tool I had to solder each end on which burnt the wires, so I ripped them out. I next used crimp bullet connectors and didn't like them, so I ripped them out.

I have spent a small fortune on connections and they all look a mess, they may be hidden under the car and no one will see them but I will know that a crap job had been done so I have reverted to what I know how to do and that is engine room method. I have worked in the engine room on ships for the last 36 years and all electrical cables are kept in sealed waterproof cabinets, they are all colour coded and numbered, and all are securely connected to connector blocks using either crimp pins or something of that nature. So that is what I have done.

I have bought a secure waterproof electrical box, cable glands, crimp pins and connector blocks, for the wiring I have bought twin core cable for everything but the headlights and 3 core 15amp for the headlights. Each light has its own cable colour code and written down what it is and does and all run under the car as a bundle to the box.

You can make out the cables in black running along the wing support and from the headlight, much neater and waterproof then brought inside the engine bay.

I have unclipped the loom from the front of the car and brought it back to the fuse box.

The electrical box has been drilled for the cable glands which unfortunately I never bought enough of and will have to get more on Monday.

I thought there would be enough room under the bonnet for two boxes but I was wrong, I wanted a box either side but will have to settle for both wiring looms in one box. I shall fit more glands when I return home.

Before fitting the connector block and wiring in the box I fit and tested each light in turn, I made up a written plan of what colour should fit what part of the loom and believe it or not it worked, I have only one issue and that is the negative wire from the driving light which is proving a bit of a problem, still works on full beam but has a small return current when the dipps go on.

Anyway surprisingly everything worked great so I boxed up all of the wiring.

I have fitted the box next to the fuse box.

The wiring for the passenger side has all been run to the box and the loom has been freed up and this fits neatly, so as soon as I get hold of some more glands I shall drill out the box and fit this wiring. I shall also do something similar to the back of the car so as all of the wiring is located in one box.

Full beam with indicators and side lights working.

Side Light and indicator.

I am much happier with the wiring as it is now and I have wasted a few days work messing about with the other connections. 

Not long left before going away for 5 weeks so hopefully I will get a bit more done, if not see you in around 6 weeks time.

See ya Paul

Headlights

Hi

Not had much time to get things done as Lynne has taken another week from her leave as I will be going away for a while, but of course I still managed to get some time in.

So I thought a little update.

Its been mostly little jobs I have managed to do, the first was the grill.

This was damaged in a number of places and I had already fixed a few but the main ones where on the securing arms, these had partial cracks in the joins and no doubt would not have lasted long.

So I had a piece of thin stainless to make up new brackets.

I made up one for each side and trimmed up the edges before securing in place with double sided tape, very secure now.

Before the finish fit of the grill and the Panther badge I machine polished all around the front of the car and waxed everything.

I was also a bit doubtful of the colour coding of the overriders, they just didn't look right, so out with a tin of satin black. I gave them 3 coats of paint and 3 coats of lacquer before getting out the polishing machine and the wax.

I have also received the mirror screw covers, I was going to buy the screw-on caps then found a type that are just the caps minus the screws that can fit on any screw so I bought a pack of 20 of these and hopefully the chrome finish will not rub off when washed.

I have spent most of today trying to sort out the electrics, the 2 pin waterproof connectors arrived and they are very good but a little too fiddly for me. So I went to the local car electric shop and bought a load of nipple type connectors much the same as the Lucas type fitted to the car, just put the wire ends in and crimp, much easier. I shall use the 2 pin type when I am not sitting under a car.
I have managed to get the headlights and the driving lights wired up, Firstly I carried on with the machine polish and waxed before fully fitting the headlights.

I have wired up the dipped lights as normal and the main beams have been wired up with the driving lights.

I have had a go at getting the indicators and the sidelights working but no joy at the moment so I have had a word with the electrician at the paint shop and he is coming around tomorrow after work to sort them, no doubt its an earthing issue but he said no problem.

So not much done, I have lots of little jobs I can be getting on with when I am allowed to play so shall get on with them.

see ya Paul

Windscreen finished

Hi

Long day and my arm is aching but the windscreen is lovingly hand polished.

My first job this morning was to get the wheels out of the way and onto the car.

And don't they look nice, not an exact match as they don't have any pearl in them so you don't get the slight flip but still look good.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent on the windscreen, yesterdays efforts turned out great so I had to do the same on the other upright. 

This side had the same pitting on the top edge as the other.

I started rubbing by hand then turned to my DA sander and put a 320 grit on for the main removal of the paint.

This took the main of but left 320 marks so I put a 500 on the DA.

This took out the main scratches but time to have a go by hand, I started with 400 dry in straight lines before moving onto 400 wet.

Starting to look good, then moved onto 600 wet.

Then onto 800 wet.

Then onto 1200 wet.

And 1500 wet.

Then onto 3500 diamond cloth wet.

By this time around 90% of any scratches where gone so it was time for the polish.

I gave it 3 polishes with the fine cutting compound before moving onto the metal polish.

This is after 3 polishes with the Autosol metal polish.

It was a bit premature as there was still a lot of work to do but I gave it a coat of wax and let it set for 15 mins then a good polish.

I shall redo the wax when I am ready to fit and then out with the white gloves.

The rest of the frame has the brush effect. The top rail is an extrusion as opposed to the cast sides and has no paint on so I gave that a sanding at 400 and 600 dry by hand to replicate the brushed look.

I'm not too sure about the bottom rail although I think it may also be cast as it also had a coat of paint or lacquer on it that took a bit of work to remove.

It all came up nice.

The inside had the brushed finish so again with the 400 then 600 dry.

Once I sanded everything in sight I mixed up a concoction to clean the glass, I new white vinegar cleans glass and I also had a packet of fine lime polishing powder so I mixed the 2 together, got a nice bubbly reaction as the acetic acid and the lime mixed.

That should lift any residue from years of road dirt, sneezes and sap and it worked a treat, I had to use the flat of a razor blade on the inside screen as all of those sneezes left a few lumpy bits.

I did clean it after with glass cleaner to help neutralise any acids I may have left on the rubber.

One refurbished screen, Terry has wrote saying that the damage to the rubber is more than likely caused by the windscreen wipers, other than that small damage the rubber has come up nice so I shall return the spare inner seal to Bruno.

Terry also mentioned the danger of not fitting the correct size rivets when replacing the windscreen fittings so I was extra careful as these are perhaps the main cause of windscreen cracks.

Anyway everything went according to plan and hopefully when I hit my first speed bump it will stay that way.

Now it is finished I shall bubble wrap it and put it under the bed as I still need it off for fitting the dash demisters when the dash is re-fitted.

But of course I couldn't resist having a look, so I loosely fitted it to the car.

Love the way it tapers in.

I shall get new seals for the quarter light and Terry has put me on to where I can buy them from.

I also recieved my new indicator light for the dash from CBS, I only ordered yesterday morning and it was here by 1400 still for £7 postage I would hope so.

I don't know whether its good or bad that they only had the double indicator in black and not chrome, you get a nice contrast to the chrome but not the match, O well its done now.

Terry also explained how to connect from the flasher unit in the fuse box which I shall look into, I can always then put it back the way it was, although I do quite like the new look.

See ya Paul