Steering assembly part 2

 Once i had fitted the steering wheel it just looked too low  and I couldn't get in the car very well.

GD open day was coming up so good time to catch up with everybody and have a measure .

My steering hub was 50 cm from the floor and on the gd day everybody elses was 55 to 57cm 

eventually realized what i had done .

i have fitted the steering hub under the bracket as it wouldn't fit on the top but .... it needs to be on the top

In order to get it to fit i had to cut off the corners of the steering hub 

red mark shows were i cut ( forgot to take another pic ) 

It then fits on the top and my height is the same as all the others very happy and great to catch up with all the owners .

fitted 

Now of course nothing fits on the other end 

I had 2 choices one was  to push in the steering shaft in so the rods would still fit  which i was reluctant to do as then the bracket to hold the column would then not have enough meatal to grip or 2

cut down the shaft by 30mm 

i chose the second .

Again Steve's welding services to the rescue 

Needs shortening by 30mm 

He did this by removing the socket shortening the bar and then assembling it all back together 

Just a pile of bits 

Looks the same but now 30mm shorter 

Fitted in finally together with the bracket that seems to be different to all the other cobras i saw 

Enlisted the son in laws help to fit the bracket 

Bracket fitted just need to fit the alumin surround 

Happy all in 

More wiring (boot)

 The number plate light gets its feed from a connector next to the fuel tank and goes in the boot at the hinge, I thought i could combine the two and place a boot light in the circuit  .

Started by glassing some wood each side of the boot and then a bit a 10mm heating pipe to hide the wires .

one side done ( hard to glass upside down ) 

Then moved on to the other side ,used p clips to secure the wire up to the light and all done

 

Handbrake

 Fitting the handbrake leather cover was next ,started off easy put a tie wrap on the top bit and then folded over to make it look right ,

Then i could see no way of securing the gaiter ,look at other blogs and they had a bracket which i haven't got, and figured that no one will see it anyway so .

brainstorming we came up with the idea that by welding the the 2 bolts on the handbrake could then use those to trap the gaiter .

bolts welded by my welder 

Then the gaiter could be fitted and using wad punches to make holes in the leather 

Holes in the leather 

in place 

Carpets next part

 Got a bit of time in the garage to day and was getting frustrated as the the next job was to fit the side carpet.

I was struggling with this because i didn't have enough power in my left arm to fit it and tuck it behind the pedal box .

Steve dropped in for a Tea and assisted ( well fitted it ) and it looks good Thanks Steve well worth the tea and the Subway .

Fitted the Stainless steel finishers to the windscreen stanchions as well these fit on the bottom button head so had to be careful not to disturb the washers behind it .Very  happy with how it all looks .

Drivers side 

always seems to be cables everywhere 

Steering Assembly

 Tackling the steering which seemed straight forward ( o silly me )  

There are three bits to the steering  so started with  the lower section  removed the nut slid it over the spline and re fitted 

Lower section ( courtesy of Dales blog )  

Then to the middle section which has a rose joint that needs to be pushed on and fits in a pre drilled hole in the frame .

It soon became apparent that the heater isolators that I had fitted earlier were now in the way and had to be removed .

So not to be beaten Steve came up with the idea of moving them to the stainless steel pipes that go across the body so that's what we did  just in case i get too hot .

front section so close to the pipes had to remove the isolators 

isolators now in the cross pipes 

The last section fits on the bracket but can be adjusted up and down as well as in and out .

the issue here is that once the column is secured it can no longer move.

This will have to be left  until the dash and seal is fitted so i can see were the wheel wants to be  

I bought  a steering wheel from the scrappy so i could see were it would sit and my nice sister in law supplied me with a "cute" cover for it !!!

No words are necessary 

Heater Vents

 This was going to be a bigger job than I thought .From a previous blog i have decided to fit Bluetooth speakers for use when the engine is off !!! .this has made a tight space even more tight .

The first issue was that there didn't seem to be enough room for the pipe coming from the screen vent to turn with out kinking or sitting on the tray which i didn't want  .

Second issue was that I wanted most of the heat to be in the footwells so had to devise some way to do this 

Third issue is i have a aux socket on the passenger side so want to put fuses on the undertray for the reverse lock out the Bluetooth and the aux socket.   

After brainstorming with Steve and buying a selection of fittings we (Steve !) came up with a plan . we found out by chance that the solvent plastic fitting are smaller than the push fit ,

First we cut the screen heater pipe as short as we dare .

heater screen cut down 

and then a male /female bend just went in with a bit of persuasion  .

 self tapping screw to hold in place 

next was the floor vent again using solven fittings 45 deg this time it gave us a sweeping bend 

the final challenge was to try and get as much air to the floor, idea was a equal tee on the pipe with the straight though going to the floor ,so if screen was required I can shut the floor vent .( if it works )   

finished  and repeated for drivers side 

 

Think this has gone in really well considering the room we didn't have .

Fuel Bleeding and leak checking

 After looking at Dales blog realized  that bleeding the fuel and also flushing the pipes was a sensible idea  so made a fused wire to go from the battery to the fuel pump and released the pipe from the engine ( avoid using the bleed screw on the fuel rail as any dirt may affect the seal  started the fuel pump to bleed the system .

I was amazed at just how much fuel coms out the pipe the pump was only running for a short time and my container was full .

Re attached the pipe and pleased to say no leaks . 

Door carpet and Door

 After the Bathroom replace its back on the car !

In order to fit the door properly figured the carpet will need to be in as this might alter the fit of the door 

fitting the door carpet is quite straightforward with a bit of pulling and stretching to make the carpet sit right with the rubber ..

door carpet fitted 

Could only fit partially as needed to adjust the hinges so a bit of a mess about but happy

moving on to the door card and it comes pre drilled with the hole for the handle  

hole cut were the cardboard was pre cut 

when trying to fit the door card to the door the hole seemed to be in the wrong place and would make the door card sit wrong when the door is shut .

solution was to move the door handle to fit the card .

door handle fitted on the bracket also drilled/ tapped the sliding bracket to stop it moving 
 

door handle moved to fit the door card ,

now it fits the card and the card follows the contour of the door .the door card sits on the door with the normal push fit door fasteners so fitted those and then mad a cardboard template so i can tranfer this to the door .

card template 

door masked out ready to be marked 

Bits and Bobs

Bonnet 

 Fitting the Bonnet catches next again measured on a recent trip to GD and using the wiper arms as a reference marked the bonnet and made sure both sides were the same before drilling and fitted with self tapping screws ,The bonnet is double skinned and the handles carry the weight of the bonnet so might change to button head bolts yet .

Handles fitted 

Moving into the engine bay marked a parallel line from the catch and measured down 25mm and that was the first hole for the catch , then made sure that the catch followed the curve of the body ,fastened with button heads.

drivers side fitted 

Moving on to the transmission tunnel needed to fit the gear cover ring again had to be careful not to snag the carpet so went for drilling backwards which seemed to work .

Like button heads better than the usual self tappers 

Fuel Tank 

Needed to fit the fuel flex pipe as not long away from needing fuel .Had already taken the tank to have a earth stud welded on courtesy of  Mirus Engineering So after socking the pipe in hot water to make it forgiving fitted that together with an earth wire from the filler to the tank .

pipe and wire fitted ( thanks Connor ) 

Undertrays 

There are two undertrays that fit under the dash and i know its probably a complete waste of time but i have decided to fit Bluetooth speakers so needed to cut out for this and the reverse lock out button .

Drivers side cut out and sprayed ( both sides because i sprayed the wrong side first )  

Centre tray 

After fitting the center tray  could finally fit the ecu  this was not as easy as i first thought as there is not enough room when the dash is fitted to fit the ecu to the panel .I overcame this by only securing the ecu with the front screws and making sure that it was pushed back as far as it would go . now i have enough room .

ECU fitted

The pink wire hanging down needs to connect to the bared white wire above it as that is the fuel pump supply .

Doors Part 1

 After initially fitting 1 door early on and realizing all it did was get in the way it came off again until now 

The door has an internal handle only which struggles to return on its own so as with other bloggers I attached a spring to the mechanism.

Spring fitted 

 Next job was to fit the door rubber to see if it fitted snug all the way round the door recess and found that it didn't out with the drum sander to smooth out the ridges and good to go .

door seal uniform 

Then its a case of assembling the door which is straight forward and then fitting which is not .After messing about for a while unable to get the door to shut realized that the cap heads holding the door lock were catching swapped those for countersink and getting on a lot better..

Just a case of trial and error moving the hinges about and the door lock in its mountings and then taking it off as not enough room to move the lock etc .

Eventually got the door right with the exception of one bolt that has to be left loose sa will need a spacer under that .

Door fitted (will it still fit with the carpet in ??)