Build Part 4
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| I seem to have spent the last few weeks making little progress with the build having been totally bogged down with the wiring. Lack of space has been a big problem particularly in routing the rear loom around the diff and into the rear chassis area. P clipping to the frame would have been much easier without the driveshafts and rear suspension getting in the way. I had to route the loom under the rear transverse member and then up into the front centre of the boot tray where it split and went to each side of the car. This meant making a channel to protect it from damage by anything slipping around inside the boot area
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| I could, and probably should have just folded a channel section but I didn’t mainly because of the angular sides of the boot tray that I thought might make it difficult to get an exact fit. I made it in three pieces and TIG welded it together. It was screwed and riveted in place. It fitted, and gave me some practise with the TIG welder, sorely needed some might say!! |
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Routing the loom |
| I took a great deal of time in the routing the loom, soldering on bullet connectors and making sure I had earthed to the chassis and (belt and braces) had a direct cable link back to the battery. |
Many electrical problems stem from a bad earth and I was determined that I would be beyond reproach in this department. The multi-way plugs and sockets have worked very well and as a bonus that I had not thought of before, was that the body may be removed without any interference to the wiring. Just separate the plugs from their respective sockets (it says here in the Haynes Manual tee hee!) In order to finish the front wiring, the bonnet will have to come off and when it is off, I can planish the aluminium bulge so that it will not need much filler. The inside of the bonnet also needs finishing off to blend in the aluminium with the fibreglass. |
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Tonneau |
| I am fortunate to have a local upholsterer, quite a character. He splits his time between re-covering three piece suites for Womens Institute types (all twinsets and pearls) and doing seats for Hells Angels Harleys. Quite a mixture and he prays that they never meet. I’m not sure where I fit in. A tonneau cover came with the kit and not to buck the trend, of course it didn’t fit. This is not absolutely fair because I have raised the body and I put the mirror where it is but it did need darts putting in by the roll bar to remove some unwanted fullness. |
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Anyway nothing my man couldn’t cope with. Under his supervision, I fixed the mixture of dots and press studs and he took the cover away to be attended to. Having put the studs in, I could now fit the screen, a real step forward. I was also able to fit the outside mirrors. I bought these from Neil Foreman whom I find excellent to deal with. The mirrors have convex lenses and built-in repeaters for the indicators. They give a very good field of vision and do not stick out too far so all in all, I’m pretty pleased with them. |
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Master Switch |
With the dots in and wiring to the master switch, there was no reason not to fit the glove pockets so, in they went.
The last job of the day and, I suspect before Christmas was to make the cover for the handbrake.
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I had a small bit of NS4, just enough for the job. In fact, I ordered and received unexpectedly the next day, today, from Neil Forman, again, a gear lever gaiter. This has been nicely made; real leather gaiter with a chrome bezel. I fitted it to the transmission tunnel cover which, hopefully I have now screwed down for the last time. There are many parts like the dashboard that have to be fitted, removed and then re-fitted and it is a real relief when the thing is fitted for the final time. Although the dashboard wiring is finished and, I hope, all the wiring in the scuttle, I haven’t fitted the dashboard finally yet as I have to get the speedometer calibrated by Speedy Cables .I’m also waiting on my upholsterer to make a crash pad where the dashboard meets the fibreglass scuttle. I think this will finish that area off very nicely. Until that is finished, the dashboard cannot go in finally. |
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Looking at the car now it is quite encouraging to see that it is starting to look complete. There are a lot of finishing jobs that will take a lot of time, I know, but we are now on the final part of the journey. I started on 25th January 2006, today is 22nd December 2006.
I estimate that I have put in about 700 hours so far. It’s lucky I’m not trying to make a living building and selling these cars but, seriously, it is nice to be able to take time to do the job as well as you can. There are no prizes for a quick job and botches stay with you forever. |
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Crash-pad |
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I’ve just read a thread about fitting the fuel safety cut-out switch which is normally found in the boot-well on a Sierra. This seems to me to be a very good idea so I will try to source one and put it behind the aluminium channel in the boot area. The channel that I thought was in for good!
We are now in the middle of January and work is progressing. The crash-pad around the top of the dash/scuttle is now fitted and it finishes off that part of the car very well. I used a large D shape foam moulding into which I inserted some rope so that when the leather cloth was stretched over it, it would compress evenly. |
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| The secret is in cutting the profile into the fabric to prevent fullness of material in the curved portions. Before the dashboard can be fitted I need the speedometer back from Speedy Cables who are carrying out the recalibration. My friendly upholsterer has fitted the modified tonneau so, another step towards completion. |
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Plumbing |
This appears to be a fairly straightforward job although time will tell whether the system will cope. I bought a Ford header tank from Martin Bell at the Kit Car Workshop and mounted this on the scuttle right above the ECU, maybe not a smart thing to do!! |
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!! I purchased a pair of 90 degree hoses from Car Builder Solutions to go with a standard Pinto bottom hose that I had in stock. To fill in the gaps, I am using 28mm and 15mm copper pipe with ends that I machined to suit the hoses. I have a length of 8mm steel Bundy tube in stock and this will be ideal for the radiator overflow to the header tank. To avoid the use of bulky clips, |
I made a press tool and formed some compact aluminium ones. My flaring tool is supposed to handle steel but it was one heck of a struggle to put single flares on each end to prevent the hoses coming off under pressure. |
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I piped from the main header tank union using 15mm copper tube to the bottom hose. I had hoped to Tee in the 15mm copper into the 28mm copper using a soldered adapter but had I done this, the assembly could not be removed without taking out the engine! This was obviously not acceptable so I fitted a straight to straight compression fitting in the 15mm tube and that solved the problem. The standard 32mm top hose fitted with just a little bit taken off each end. Now to fill with coolant. Will there be any leaks? We are getting close to a firing up situation; great excitement! |
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