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February
2006
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3 months off from the car build!
A couple of odds and ends tied up over that period, but not much. Mainly the
seats are in and seatbelts fitted.
So late Jan saw the boot lid
fitted and lock installed [ photo ], which means the boot area is complete
except for the carbon covers final fit, but that will be dictated by the hood
fasteners. Not going to fit the hood for the SVA but will need to do a
trial to get the alignment of the press-studs sorted, mid to late Feb I think!
Instrumentation was still in
need of work, and I had found a supplier to fabricate the cluster plate in 5mm
Aluminium so placed the order last week of Jan with a estimated delivery date
mid Feb, lots of time to get the wiring loom sorted out and few bits ordered for
it. Two days later I get an email to say that its done and if I want to collect
it would be available on Friday! So that's here test fitted the smiths clocks,
warning lights and switches - it all fits J
Also started the fit for the
front indicators, extended them but got to sort out the SVA proofing them now -
D'oh! [ photo ]. At last ride height has been sorted!! I now have clearance of
4" which is 0.25" more than a new mini, so should be ok - anything was
going to be better than the original 2" clearance J
So far I still think end of
March Early April will be SVA time.....
Next.....
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October
2005
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October has been a month of
cockpit interior. There are a number of items still outstanding, like
wiper arms and blades, sealing around windscreen to scuttle and boot cover and
lid. But I wanted the interior fitted as much as possible. I Had
already design the look and now it was a job of putting it into practice,
September had prepared most of the hard work, so it was a case of leather
upholstery skills J
Picking up from September there
was the tunnel, sills and the dash lower edges to attend to. I took a while on
these items as I wanted to make sure the finish was as good as I could get. I
think I succeeded [ photo ] here's the
sills [ photo ] and the tunnel [
photo
].
November would see the seats
going in for their final fix and some of the other items finishing off.
Instrument cluster has been designed and I'm in the process of getting it
fabricated, then I'll need to order the instruments themselves, but that may be
well after Christmas now.
Next.....
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September
2005
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September was a
month of preparation mainly, with some actual work, but not a lot to show. In
preparation for what? Well the interior needed to be started sometime and that
time was fast approaching! Most of the work was all the behind the scenes stuff
that HAD to be done, otherwise the final outcome would be, well pants!
I needed to trim
back some of the dashboard in the passenger area and to modify the instrument
area. I've never liked the look of the 'specs instrument cluster, nor the
angle they are to be mounted at. No disrespect to the other builders who have
gone with RH on this, but I just don't like it. So it was always going to be
replacement clocks, and I've settled for Smith's. The pre-assembled
scuttle and dash needed some remodeling, the crease that runs across the passenger
side diagonally had to be straightened to run top to bottom in a vertical line [
photo ]. Then the cluster arrangement I was going for had to be cut out of the
existing dash and a new replacement panel fixed in [ photo ].
Once that was
done it was onto covering the dash in foam, making a suitable tunnel top and
covering that in foam, as well as the sill covers. The steering cowl had to be
cut and fitted, bit nerve racking as there was no room for error, but I think it
looks ok [ photo ].
Once happy I enlisted the help of mum to work on the leather upholstery, not that she has any
leather working experience, but she's been using a sewing machine a lot longer
than I have :) By the end of the month I had tested a number of options [ photo
] for how the thing was to be upholstered and carried out a few tests to make
sure the paper patterns I'd produced would actually work [ photo ]. On the very
last day I had actually covered the dash in leather [ photo
], but the rest would have to
wait for October.
Next.....
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August
2005
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So what am I faced with?
Well some electrics, minor outer trim items, exhaust pipe, all the interior trim
and dash board .... Oh yeah, all the scuttle fitted components; wiper assembly,
screen washer, heaters and windscreen. So it was going to be the scuttle
items first. There are a few things that are dependent upon each other and
I just knew I'd miss something, so I wrote out a detailed build plan for
August. As I've painted the roll bar black I'd already decided that the
windscreen frame would also have to be black. I also knew I wasn't going
to fabricate it in quite the way RH have recommended, I wanted to use bolts to
hold it to the pillar, not quarter inch screws [ photo ].
Having got the screen assembled
and painted up it was onto the wiper motor assembly. I followed RH video
instructions precisely as possible, and the result? Rubbish! The pinions drop
back through the scuttle top, so the wiper arms would chafe the
scuttle. I'll have to fabricate a pair of shoulders to go over the pinions
and give the wiper arms something to key to. Heaters went in next, followed by
the windscreen washer jet.
Reworked the brackets and its a
lot better! Onto fitting the windscreen...ARGH, now I know why some of the other
super spec builders went to SVA without the screen. WHAT a pig of a job to
get that on. Still it IS on now [ photo
]. Exhaust silencer cover was another August job [ photo
], and again not as simple as stated on the vids... that is definitely a
recurring theme ;) Final job in August was to carpet the boot [ photo
].
Next.....
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July
2005
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July
has started on a bad footing…the handbrake I was so please with, well… “it
came orf in me ‘and!” Still
I’m pleased to say it wasn’t my engineering OR welding (surprisingly) but an
oversight, so a new outer bracket should do the trick.
Rear
wheel arches are back on in their final fit state and sealed, the stone guards
are pop-riveted on (that was slo-ow work) [ photo ].
All rear lights are cabled up, just need to do the number plate light –
but that’ll wait till I figure out how to fix the number plate on J.
I
decided to have a test of the speedo, fabricated a sender bracket and fixed the
magnets to the tops of the prop-shaft bolts [ photo ] the test was reasonably
successful, but I think I need to re-check the calibration.
The fuel sender needs some modification to work with the Smith’s gauge,
so I’ll need to figure out the resistance difference between the two.
One
task I was unsure about turned out to be not too bad.
Fitting the spare wheel threaded rods.
I made up 2 steel plates with holes drilled to match the rear panel, one
on either side of the panel with nuts tightened up sandwiching it all together,
rods then cut to the appropriate size and the wheel seems to fit alright [ photo
].
July
has ended on a high. A significant
milestone has been reached; all mechanical work has been finished.
J I recon
I could have the car ready for SVA in the next 6 weeks if I really push, BUT I
have already committed to the slower build plan of SVA in March ready for a 06
plate. So I shall stick to that.
If I get it done earlier then I shall go over every SVA test item and
double check the car. I accept that I probably wont get it through first time,
but the shorter the fail list is the better ;)
Now
onto August J
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June
2005
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June
has been a bit slow I have to admit. Too
much sun to spend all the time in the garage J
But There has been some progress. Headlights
are on and cable sheath and cables are all in [ photo ]. New fuse and relay
board made [ photo ] this will run the dipped, main beam,
fog lights and
Heater circuits. All tested and seem to work.
Side
panels have been refitted and most internal seams and joints sealed. So
I DID have to move the front flexi-brake pipes. After a couple of tests it was
fairly obvious Mr SVA-man would not like them where they were. So I had to fabricate a bracket
and mount them behind the front wishbone, now they don't look like they're
pulling, but I did have to cut a slot in the side panel L
[ photo ].
Rear
panel refitted and crescents too. I
was supposed to be fitting the various components into the scuttle…. Didn’t
get done! That’s now pushed into
July L.
I have also realised that the build is going to have to be slowed. Couple
of reason, the budgets getting rather stretched, but more importantly some of
the work I did earlier has had to be re-done due to ..... well lets just say the
workmanship is now a LOT better. My plan is now to take my time and really
focus on small details as I go, much better to have a car that I'm really
pleased with and ready for next spring, than one that I know will need to be
revisited after SVA at the end of the summer ready for winter.
Next.....
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May
2005
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May has seen a dramatic change
to her appearance. At the beginning I mounted the rear wheel arches and fitted
the rear lights [ photo ]. Next I moved onto the boot area
cover. This is a 5 piece carbon fibre affair with two pieces covering the
top of the crescents, another two to cover the sides up to the boot lid and a
final piece along the back edge of the boot lid. The boot lid itself is
made of 5 pieces of stainless steel that needs fitting together. The
supplied plastic hinges aren't really up to the job, so I have decided to fit
some top mounted long hinges (Triumphesq). At this point I indulged in
a bit of a set photo shoot, well she does look almost finished [ photo ].
That was all the main panel work
done ! Major result. The only things left are the exhaust cover and the
windscreen. but they can wait. It was now time for the inner panels.
I'd noted that some guys had just created small infill's around the areas that
let the outside inside, whilst others had gone for full inner panels.
After a LOT of debating I decided to go the full inner panel route. So she
was stripped down back to the chassis, and the inner panels constructed from
thin Ali sheets, glued and riveted to the outside of the chassis members (I
wanted to see the tubing inside the car). [ photo ].
It was about this time that I
discovered the rpvc pipe RH had supplied for the remote brake reservoir was NOT
compatible with hydraulic liquid!! So I would have to fabricate an alternative. A
mix of 12mm OD copper pipe and flexible brake pipe [ photo
].
Whilst I had the outer panels
off I fitted the side repeaters and ran the wiring, and drilled the holes for
the headlight cables etc. The scuttle needed a LOT of work by now and most
of that was to spill into June. Such as Heaters, Wiper unit, extra fuses
and relays and of course the instrument panel.
Next.....
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April
2005
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I was really quite pleased with
progress in March, even if I did have a couple of set backs. So April has
arrived and started with a bit of tidying up of the work from March. Its time
for the part of the build I've been putting off for as long as possible; The
rear panel!
First thing was to make sure the
tank breather and filler pipes would bend out of the way ok. I've decided
not to route the breather pipe out of the back of the boot as per RHSC advice,
but instead will modify the filler neck to connect it to that [ photo
].
Once Happy with the pipes I made
a ply panel to strengthen the rear of the car and give the back panel something
the key to. Then I painted the roll bar with a few final coats of black [ photo
].
So the rear panel was a pain!
Took a few goes at getting it shaped and in its final place but I got there!
On to positioning the headlights and front indicators. I'd got some carbon
look indicator brackets, similar to those on a Caterham, and they look the
business [photo]. Unfortunately
the Hood's headlight bracket is further back than on a Caterham, so the
indicator position will fail the SVA visibility test D'OH!! I shall have to
think of something else for the test.
She is looking a lot more like a
finished car now [ photo ], but she's
still got a long way to go! Next up was finishing off the boot area with a panel
to separate it form the cockpit; this I made out of very thin Ally sheet [ photo
] once the cockpit is finished all of that patch work paneling will be hidden
beneath a carpet (good job too!)
Next.....
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March
2005
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Well February saw a lot of
activity, but it seems little to show for it as most of the work revolved around
the wiring loom. Still that's in and most of it has been tested in some
form. March means Engine Test according to my build plan, and that's
exactly what's going to happen :)
Having finished mounting the
battery [ photo ] I moved on to other items that needed to be finished before
the engine test. Power Steering Fluid needs to run through the pump, even though
there is no power rack. RH haven't supplied anything to accommodate this,
even though this is meant to be a "complete" kit and its been on sale
for 18 months. Their "solution" was to "get a 1 litre
bottle of fluid and some how attach the pipes to that so it can act as a
reservoir".... ooooo such a technologically sound fix. Obviously I
didn't follow that advice and ordered a proper Rover part (cost less then £20).
I've fitted it behind the radiator and piped up accordingly [ photo ].
Engine oil's in, a few litres of petrol and wire up the lambda sensor, and the
engine test is scheduled for the second weekend.
OK...so I admit it, I'd piped up
the petrol lines the wrong way wrong, d'oh!! But a couple of minutes later and
she burst into life, wahooo!! She lives! [ photo
]
That was a significant achievement
to actually have her started :) Trouble was tho I'd cut a few corners to get
there and now I would need to go back and fix them. So it was back to
re-piping the steering fluid reservoir, fine tuning the front flexible brake
pipes...and then it occurred to me to inventory all the outstanding work.
So that's what I did, I prioritised each and identified the dependencies for
each job I had left. I then set a timescale to them and that gave me a new
build plan, which now has a target completion of the end of August. So the
rest of this month and the rest of the build will be based totally on that plan.
There's a lot of work to do with
the panels and I'd only temporarily fitted them for reference before putting
them back in storage. So now it was time to refit the side panels and
scuttle, that would allow me to fit the nose cone infill panels, the nose cone itself
and the bonnet. I then tackled the cycle wing brackets and have now fitted
the cycle wings. Its actually beginning to look like a car [ photo
].
Next.....
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February 2005
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