Speedo check

 Didn't  think to check the Speedo but a quick call to Andy advised me that i should ( Steve  did say as well but ignored that advice .

Jacked the car up ,easier said that done as no space 

ended up making a set of low rise ramps out of some decking wood .

make shift low rise ramps 

once car jacked up and on stands into first gear on  tick over  35MPH ! works but maybe a bit fast  .

Easy enough to set by holding the trip button and then powering up goes in to set up menu 

currently set at 8000  Andy from GD said its wants to be at 28000  and now runs at 9MPh at tick over which is close enough .

Pain to do but one more job ticked off .

speedo working

Indicator Stalks

 wanted to trail  fit the stalks and the housing before sticking the leather to it and realized that i had left the stalk cables too long and had loads of cable to lose but hey ho .

All fitted on the steering coulomb so happy ,fitted the leather with the join at the bottom and pushed the front on and left to dry ,leaving the leather long at the moment until i see what its looks like on 

waiting to dry 

When we offered it up it didnt fit as well as we wanted ,biggest issue was that the surround it cut out for a key and i dont have one .this tends to make the leather crumple in ,solved with a piece of plastic from a paint tray to fill it out now looks better 

final fit 

  

undertrays

 Now the dash is in and all the gauges are also in speedo was really fiddly time to final fit the undertrays 

I have quite a lot going on with the trays as on the left one i have a aux socket and switch  floor light speaker and a switch for the usb charge point behind the seat all fused from a cable from the battery 

a lot going on 

Try as i might i couldnt get it to fit and line up ,i knew it fitted as i had already pre drilled the holes in the frame for the self tappers . 

After a lot of cursing it transpired that i had fitted the USB switch ( just in the picure on the left ) right in the way of the dash bar .

I moved this and covered the hole with plastic and voila fits .

Fitted note the whoops hole 

Fault finding

 After a disastrous day yesterday thought i would start at one problem at a time so, started with the Headlights, using GD dash wiring i traced everything out and found that were the stalks plug into the wires have been fitted wrong !!Know that not Andys fault as he sources the wiring out but it took me most of the day to sort it ( and a few very choice words)

similar blue wires in the wrong plugs 

Now it all makes a bit more sense and checks out with my meter .

so now time for next power up . 

- Side lights --ok 

-Dip lights -- ok 

Main beam --ok ( and indicator works ) 

Flash --ok

Gauge back lights --ok 

Fog light --ok ( only when head lights on and indicator works

- heater both speeds --ok ( i wired the switch backwards so always working on speed 2  duh) 

Reversing light -- ok 

indicators lhs plus repeaters   - ok 

Indicators rhs plus repeaters   - ok  

Hazards   - ok 

horn -- soft tone only -- ok ( loud disconnected as in the garage) update bloody hell that loud 

Ignition warning light --- NO 

Start button lights up -  ok 

fuel pump runs then stops   - ok 

Wipers -- ok (parking on wrong side ) 

Washer -- NO 

Brake fluid light -- NO 

Reverse lock out --ok

Brake lights --ok 

So a lot better just a few bits to look at before a start 

Powering up ( and down again)

 Time to power up 

so connected the dash up put all the fuses in and connected the battery no bang or smoke which is a good start .

first checks were

Heater --only works on one speed

Side lights -- all work 

Head lights - no dip beam  no full beam  but flash works 

Wipers -no on first speed then on second works but head lights come on !!! 

no point carrying on so enough for today out with wiring diagram.

Dash Wiring Stalks

 Final bit on the wiring was the stalks .

GD supply the stalks with a nice SS bar that screws in 

Started by cutting off the stalk ,then drilling and threading a hole in line with the stalk 

cut 

Tapped and ready to fit 

The Wiper Stalk was more difficult as it was hollow behind  for this i used epoxy first and the drilled and tapped as normal 

Other makes are available !!

Then cam on to the wiring using the tech files from the disc the wire numbers and colours  can be found ,I used the dash wiring diagram to confirm the wires and numbers 

The wiring was straightforward as there was a key for numbers and colours 

The wiper was slightly more complicated ( or i was being thick ) 

There was no wire mark for the wash or the horn ,going back to the drawing of the dash i could then work out the 2 missing cables for W and WH ,

I don't intend to have intermittent wipe on my car as hoping the wiper never get used so plan to make intermittent connection (J) speed 1(53)  and Speed1 -speed 2 (53B)  ,i am considering joining speed 1 and 2 together otherwise if i select speed 2 by mistake the wipers will stop .

need to think about that over a beer  

Dash wiring (IGN)

 Last couple of jobs before i can go for a power up is the Ignition switch and the steering stalks ,

The ignition switch is the Lucas type ,It threw me at first as i expected the switch to be

 OFF-AUX-IGN-Start  however it isn't mine is AUX -OFF-IGN- Start  

there is no wiring diagram in the box and nothing i could find in the web about wiring so after a bit of time arrived at 

Contact 1 also being at the top ,

I looked at the cables in the loom and they are 6mm so figured should use the same ,with the GDkit comes the spades and the housing for the plug so that was easy and soldered them for piece of mind however on the switch end that was another issue should have used yellow crimps due to the size of the cable but, as i was presented with double connections came up with another  idea 

first i split the cable into 2  then put the insulation back on  , I could then use 2 blue terminals on both of the connections 

insulation slides back on (note the heat shrink) 

crimped up 

Once crimped i the put heat shrink on the join , repeated this for the AUX and IGN 

heat shrink applied 

Completed 

Wiring ish

 I decided that after speaking to other owners  there is a small type of people that have no respect and open door of there cars !! how rude 

to combat this i have  installed a very simple alarm the idea being that once switched on (with a key switch)  as soon as the door is opened an alarm will go off . adding to this i also thought that i would install Bluetooth speakers for when i am stopped 

I purchased  a motorbike sounder as it is loud enough and draws little  current when activated 

 

sounder behind the dash 

i was planning to use the courtesy switches which then reminded me to look for the connection 

i found it in one of the multiplugs that connect the dash as there is no dash wire for this i took the wire out and joined it to mine.

courtesy wire joined the other two are light feed and spare 

 

This is work in progress so more to follow  wiring diagram 

i also intend to fuse the aux socket separately and run a new wire to it so i can use this as a battery charger if reqd  

 

Dasboard part 8 (final ??)

 Dashboard all done now apart from wiring the speedo and Tacho .

Never  got any wiring with the gauges but downloaded them from the smiths website and then got even more confused as there are 5 wires on the speedo dash  harness and 7 on the plug 

5 wires on harness 

7 wires on the plug 

This resulted in a call to Andy to clarify 

The red/blue goes to the green /orange ,  black/yellow needs to be earthed

and ignore the brown/slate wire and the red wire   the others are straight forward .

Same problem with the Tacho 4 wires on the harness and 6 on the plug 

4 wires 

6 wires on the plug 

again from Andy red/blue wire goes to white/slate on loom 

ignore the brown /slate  and white/black wires..

again the other 3 are straight forward 

As a dissclaimer this was for my smiths instruments and  yours could be different . 

Dash board part 7

 Been to GD and got a replacement Start button and at the same time got advised that the button will not carry the intended start current !!! 

So Relay now required , fitted the relay on one of the gauges ,as per a previous post i intend to use the engine start light as an oil pressure light so this means that i will need to supply a feed to the light an then the iol pressure sensor will evevitivaly earth it putting the start light on when there is no oil pressure ie engine stopped .

Relay can be seen attached to fuel gauge with the feed coming from the volt gauge  

The gauge lights i have fitted using male spades for the positive but the negative i fastened to the gauge nus to try and increase the earth paths  

Left the speedo and tacho Gauges out to make it easier to fit the dash (hopfully ) 

 

Dashboard Part 6

After labeling the wires it still just seemed like a maze.
Set to and started at the hazard switch end.
Needed  the technical files section for the wiring diagram from the GD disc then hoped the rest would sort of  fall into place .
I have a key switch separate from the steering column and the  hazard switch were Andy at GD puts his so guessed  the wiring would reflect this.  

Key switch and hazard switch as a starting point 

Hazard switch wired and connectors for the stalks  

Next was to tackle the switches I noticed there was a cut out at the top and I didn't want to see that so mounted the switches upside down

The cut can just be seen 

I then had to sort out the wiring as the light switch and the heater switch are both 2 position but the side lights to stay on when headlights are selected .
sorted this out with my meter and came up with

connections for the switch upside down 

Will require a link wire between 1 and 2 

once the switches were done most of the wires dropped into place ,I had a couple of issues  first is the illumination of the start button I needed to be the oil pressure wire so had to lengthen  that ,
Some of the gauges didn't have the terminals marked up so used a 12volt source to check and at the same time checked all the lamps (and found the start button doesn't light up )
 and I had no wiring diagram for the speedo or tacho in the box . the tacho was straight forward once I looked on the web but the speedo is not so easy -email to Andy then .

Dashboard part 5

Next part of the dash was to cut the holes in the leather for the instruments and switches ,but first took it back to the car to make sure it still fitted and yes it did  ,again followed others blogs and cut the hole onto segments so they will fold back .
After trying various methods found the best way was to use a scalpel bought from the internet and cut the gauges into 12ths
the switches very  fiddly and cut them into 8ths as well as multiple cuts to my finger.

cutting leather  with scalpel and hopefully not the floor  

Once this was all cut out tried all the gauges in to make sure that they would still fit and found that the indicator lamps would not go in ,gingerly use of the dremmel sorted this and pushed all the lights and gauges in .
I then applied glue to the segments and stuck those to the back of the dash.

segments glues

Had to push the switches in from the wrong side to make the segments stick and then hopefully will be able to put them in the right way .

well pleased and going for the rev counter on the drivers side

DashBoard Part 4 and Bits

Its leather time , Was really dreading this part as it could go wrong very quick and is the focus point to the car .Started by laying the leather at the bottom and making sure that the bottom was going to fit
I glued the bottom in place and let it dry .
Next day came to the rest and started by stretching the leather up which seems to require 3 pairs of hands ,By good fortune had to leave for another task and came across a local furniture upholsterer,the conversation came round to my dash and a asked for any tips ,His reply was amazing ,bring it in and I'll do it for you. So I did and he only charged me beer money .

All my own work !!

   Another couple of little jobs tackled  was to blank off the two unused  ports on the engine .

Jubilee clip added to stop the cap falling off

Spare air box connection

This one I tapped with a 6mm tap and then stud locked a 6mm grub screw .

Also managed to finish off the heater pipes .

just grommets required

Dashboard Part 3

Next stage was to cut out the foam where the gauges need to be ,read other blogs and coped the idea of using a craft knife .This worked for the gauges but did not work for the switches or lights.
Came up with the idea of heating up a screwdriver and using it as a hot knife worked a treat .

dash hole cut including the additional hole for the heated seat 

Next thought I ought to look at the dash loom expecting it to have little labels on like the engine but no such luck .
Found myself looking at the build manual technical files and found the layout schematic and had to go though each plug and group of wires to identify them separately what a pain .

spaghetti with my masking tape idents  

This raised 2 issues  the first is there was no connection for the courtesy lights on the loom ( the wires just stopped at the plug ) .
the second was that there was a sender wire for the oil pressure  gauge but my gauge is pressure driven with an oil pipe .
Following the wire back though the looms it went to the unused wire at the back of the engine .

unused white oil pressure switch wire at top of picture

    I understand why there isn't an oil light as I have a gauge but .... if its there --  bought an adapter ring from ebay (£1.00) and then pestered my local motor dealers for an oil pressure switch to fit it ,result eventually and a huge thank you to Parkers (the parts people) ,switch that fitted  was from a Chevrolet Matiz( part number SOB807).

oil pressure take off with adaptor and pressure switch

   My idea now is to wire this in on the dash to the illumination on the start button ,my thinking behind this is when the ignition is on the start button will light up and go off when the engine starts .

Dash board part 2

after cutting 2 holes out for the heated seat switches thought better start with the Dash board .
Haven't been looking forward to this but cant put it off any more . .First I mounted the dash with the 5mm screws to make sure it still fits and then removed the screw one at a time to epoxy them in place .Once this had dried removed the dash and laid it next to the foam .Reading other blogs they glued the netting side of the foam to the dash so I copied that and seemed to work fine .
I made sure that the foam doesn't come round at the bottom but overlaps at the top as other builders.
Happy with the result so far will let it dry now before cutting out the holes .

Spray glue applied and lined p with the bottom captive bolts can be seen

This bits gone well

Dashboard part 1 of ??

Decided it was high time I tackled the dashboard .
First problem was it didn't fit and when I managed to get it some were near it caught on both the door hinges .
Calls out to Andy ,Dale and the Keith for help found out that the dash need to be square at the ends unlike mine .

needs to be trimmed at the line to fit

Once trimmed it would go in but when setting the dash to be parallel with the transmission tunnel found the top was not leval with the top of the car .
with a bit of sanding and more phone calls it fits

make shift sander

Once I was happy with the fit  then pondered over which layout to go for .This was a lot easier than I thought as I wanted the 5 gauge layout and Annie (the boss) said I was having a clock !! ^ gauge layout it is then


Any layout I want as long as it looks like this !!

The dash has all the marks on it for various layouts so its just a case of making sure the right guide holes are used for the layout I was having .
Measured each gauge and then added 2 mm for the leather to give me the final sizes .
Used a dermal circle cutter for all the gauge holes after first drilling a 3mm pilot hole to allow the point of the cutter to sit in as not to move .

Dusty job so I held the camera !!(what a tidy garage!))

Note the gauge sizes written on the top least I forgot

Itching to have a go

Once the hole were done couldn't resist a trial fit

starting to look the part now ,a lot of work to get this far (note the switch marks )  

Flushed with success the switches and warning lights next .Again measured the diameter and added two mm for the leather .
used a step drill for this ironically the metric one I had was the wrong sizes but the imperial one was just right how strange .
All drilled out and ready to see it in the car .

nice fit and nice smile !

Found the the top gauges were going to foul the top sill as well as 2 of the warning lights which I expected as read on other blogs so marked these as well as the four mounting holes I was going to use .
drilled 2 each side of the big gauges and 2 at the ends .
Drilled them 5 mm in the dash and 6mm in the car to give me a bit of play when the leather goes  on .

sill filed out to clear and the securing holes can be seen

took 2 days but worth the effort