Wednesday 6 February 2019

Battery cables

Had a bit a time today so fitted the battery cables I copied Dales post and fitted the Positive at the bottom ,although my set differed from his as only had rubber protectors on the engine side ( will need to clarify that with Andy )
Also the main wiring loom supply that I fed in above the heater what seems like an age ago needed to be fitted to the positive as well which needed filling out to fit !
another little job off the list. also fitted the heater plug at the same time ,The heater is three speed and the wiring is for 2 speed using the diagram on the side of the heater went for lowest and highest ( can always change my mind )
Batt cables from the inside showing the main loom feed and the now wired heater plug

Also dropped in the battery box to test for fit ready to bolt though the floor on next visit .
seems to be too many holes just for a bat box more reading required  






 

Tuesday 5 February 2019

Washer jet

looked at the kit and two jets are provided but copied a lot of other people and went for just the 1 as it is twin jet and how much rain use am I going to see ( famous last words )
found the centre of the car and marked 20mm  in from the bonnet copied from other blogs and noticed that the windscreen stay was 3 mm off the centre line . After deliberation and re checking my measurements it is the windscreen that was not quite plumb, assuming this is due to the windscreens being hand made. Decided to stick with the centre line as the stay bracket wont be seen because of the rubber .
Jet fits nicely
 

Fuel Cap

I opted for the Aston Martin type fuel cap and it comes undrilled but had pilot indents on the underside.
Drilled these 4.5 mm to accept 4mm countersunk bolts which then needed countersinking from the top .
This was a challenge in itself  as the countersink (from screw fix) was too wide to get square on to the holes so with a make shift lathe ( drill in the vice and angle grinder !!) made it thinner so it now fits

Drilled out and countersunk

then it was just a simple job to fit the unit to the car but wanted to make sure that the cap was the right way round so ,,, fitted the cap with all the gaskets as clearance s close tightened it down and placed it on the car so it was facing were I wanted it to then mark the holes

placed on the car at the angle I wanted

I then drilled a 5mm hole and tapped it out 6mm to place a grub screw in the back ( as picture above) so it could not move over time .

Marked the holes and drilled out 5mm so I had a bit of error factor and fitted it looks good .
finished cap







Saturday 2 February 2019

Wipers

Tackling the wiper mounts today ,The outer edge of the rubber washers were marked at 415 mm from the windscreen stay and 5 mm from the screen rubber and the eliptical spindle holes were marked on to masking tape using the inside of the rubber washer as a guide. The centres of the holes were established and marked only to find that they were marked already by GD .Oh well at least I was right with my markings . I then checked that the distance between the holes was the same as the assembled wiper mechanism and it was within  2 mm which I figured I could lose by bending the tubing to follow the curve of the body


All set to drill my baby  
 Drilled the holes with a small drill first as expecting it to bite which it did
after that I drilled  the rest of the holes with the drill going backwards ( always amazes me how that still cuts )
once I had got to 13mm I set to with a file for the final touches .

Once  the hole right the GD manual says that the spacer has to be cut down measured this and decided it was 5mm to long .
original spacer
Quick drive to one of Steve's mates and a 30minute lathe job later the spacer was right .
5mm shorter

Fitting it all was a lot more fiddly than I guessed it would be due to weight of the motor so took the motor off and just fitted the tubes with the idea of threading the motor though later.
What a pose

That all went well  and all lined up very well slid the motor cable up though the tubes and turned the wiper spindles to feed the cable though .all went easy .secured the motor with the bracket and after reading the manual noticed I should have put a piece of rubber between the motor and frame (did wonder what that strange bit of rubber was )


fitted and happy



motor secured (with the rubber)
 
 
The park position of the motor will need to be checked once they run as the wipers should park on the drivers side (which may need to be altered later .
 
another job off he list.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

Sunday 13 January 2019

Brakes

Had a bit of time to kill so finished fitting the two brake pipes on the master cylinders bit more tricky than I thought as the pipe is too long to fasten to either end until it is bent but didn't know were to bend it until I could get it in .found the easiest way was to screw the pipe into the cylinder first and bend to suit as the cylinder thread is quite fine and easy to cross thread
another job ticked off
Note the brake pipes don't fit on the end like the clutch

Windscreen 2

After feeling elated for getting the windscreen fitted and then subsequently removing it leaving the end posts ,discovered that I needed to fit the centre stay as more often than not it doesn't fit and the windscreen needs adjusting again to suit
Fitted the centre stay to the windscreen (while off the car ) making sure to use the screws provided so not to damage the glass
Bracket fitted on Kitchen table( Mrs not happy)
 
Offered up the windscreen back on to the car and to my surprise and relief it fits and needs no adjustment ,so back off again

Steve checking on the gap as I daren't look (god how dusty !!)









Friday 4 January 2019

Windscreen

Tackled the windscreen today as Steve came round and was willing to help .

Trial fitted the windscreen only to find the holes needed a bit of fettling , once the windscreen would slide in and out the stanchions were removed from the screen by undoing the four fixing screws on either side.
 The stanchions were then drilled 8 mm at the pilot holes ignoring the top hole. It is brass so grabs a bit but a bit of grease sorted that out .I used a countersink on both sides of the hole to take any burs off .
The drilled stanchions were then re-attached to the screen and the screen put in place. The screen position was checked as per the manual which is :-

The screen should be about 6mm off the scuttle at the outer edges and the top should be 930mm from the rear of the cockpit roll to the inside of the screen.

Windscreen temp fitted -looks like a car now
Mine was bang on which meant I didn't have to mess about with altering any holes .
Then had to check that the screen was square in the car by checking the measurements from the windscreen top screw each side  to the back of the door opening again bang on well pleased .


Steve smiling ready to fit the dash stays ( the smile wont last long !!)
 Next came the  under dash cross bars these "just "fit to the same holes as the windscreen ! .

however, because the stations seemed to be a little narrower than the car and looking at other blogs we put a washer on each side between the car and the windscreen station to stop any stress .
trying to line up the two cross beams .the windscreen and without the washers falling out needs 6 hands when only 3 can get in .
All sorted eventually  ( learnt some new swear words )and then realising that the bottom cross member has two  rivnuts needing fitting to bolt it  to transmission tunnel !! so all out  again


Cross member fitted for the second time showing the rivnuts to secure the bar when the carpet is fitted  



Other side showing brackets for the centre dash

Finally all fitted check again for square and the correct measurements before marking were the Wipers were going to go. The screen can be removed  after a quick picture (long day but a real sense of achievement  Thanks Steve)
Windscreen fitted and wipers marked








Pedal box pipes

Started to fit the pedal box pipes as had a bit of time .Started with the clutch as that is the pipe that must go to the rear of the car .


Brake feed pipe and supply pipe fitted


 
Clutch pipe fitted to rear  

Tuesday 4 December 2018

Pedal box Fitting

Fitting the Pedal box is a two person job at best .Took the pedals off to try and get it lined up right


Fastened with 1 bolt so I can get it level and check the holes still line up  

Read on other blogs that the cylinders need to be spaced off with washers so as I had some ally plate put that on the back to try and compensate !?
Still didn't work as I still had to cut 3mm off the clutch cylinder thread but worked a treat for the brake cylinders

Fitted finally
 Some confusion with which master cylinder goes were as there are two different sizes
0.75 and 0.625 I was convinced that the bigger one should go to the front but was labelled up the other way round  a call to Andy and I was wrong the smaller one goes on the front !!

Fitted with 2 mm of free play and the bias bar fitted the right way round
 










Seats Arrive

Exciting day as finally finished with the garden decking, extension and fence so no can concentrate on the important things like building my Cobra!
My seat (with My mate Steve's foot in shot )