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9 May 2023 The pipe for the petrol tank vent has arrived so I fitted that and made a bracket to support it in line with IVA recommendations. I then started on fixing the rear sill to the body. I cut a length of aluminium flat bar and then marked it up and drilled pilot holes in it down the centre. I placed it in position on the inside of the boot and clamped it all in place so it couldn't move and drilled the holes through the body and the sill, using some long pop rivets to ensure the holes kept alignment while I completed drilling all the pilot holes. I took the aluminium strip and drilled it out and fitted M5 countersunk rivnuts to it. Next up was to enlarge the holes in the body to fit the M5 bolts. I have a thin strip of rubber to go between the body and sill to keep rattles to a minimum which I hole punched for the bolt holes. Finally I fitted the rubber strip between the sill and body and bolted up through the sill, body and into the aluminium strip to secure it all together. 13 May 2023 Did some measuring of the body sides to the floorpan to see how even things were and how much bending would be needed. Back to schoolboy Pythagoras to calculate angles. The offside was a bit different to the nearside mostly at the rear and the bodyshell needs pulling in towards the chassis to even things up but I'm happy that the bodyshell is pretty central on the chassis. Now to bending the sills up to meet the body. I placed a piece of angle iron on the scissor lift and removed the rubber blocks, then I gradually raised the lift until the angle iron was just touching the sill. I then adjusted the position so it was outside the chassis and parallel to the chassis. I then raised the lift and allowed the angle iron to bend the sill, I had to stop when it touched the bodyshell and pull the bodyshell out and around the sill so I could bend it up a but more so when released it laid gently on the inside of the bodyshell. Then I repeated on the other side. That seems to have worked well, just need to pull the front offside wheel arch in towards the chassis to even things up side to side. I plan to bolt the bodyshell to the sill in a similar way to the method I used for the rear of the car, but I will have something on the outside to spread the force on the fibreglass, I also need to figure out the order of operation so I get all the holes to line up.
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4 April 2023 Did a test fit of the hinges with the bonded in threads and that seems to work much better, no issues tightening them up. Took them off again so I could paint them. Rubbed them down and wiped them clean then etch prime and a coat of body colour. 29 April 2023 Fitted the handbrake cables again and added a pulley wheel to lift the cable up slightly so the equaliser didn't drag on the tunnel. Fitted the return spring and adjusted the handbrake. 4 May 2023 Cleaned up and repainted around the gearbox tunnel where I had ground down the welds. Added the brackets to support the handbrake cable under the car. Fitted the doors again with the painted hinges and adjusted the door fit. Seems pretty good, not perfect but pretty good. Did a bit more trimming on the gearbox tunnel so I could fit the harness to the sides of the cockpit, I needed to enlarge the hole as I didn't want it pinched by the hanrness fixing. Spent a bit of time measuring up to ensure the body is sitting evenly on the chassis, I did this by dropping a plumb line from the wheel arch down to the centre of the wheel and measuring from the hub out to the string. Then I marked the position on the rear body and chssis plate. I think I'm almost ready to start fitting the body. I will do a few more checks before I start and I walso want to review my plan for bolting rear and side sills to the body. 27 March 2023 Put my second badge design in to etch. Did some more work on the tunnel cover template, got it to where I was happy. Cut out some aluminium sheet and bent it on my Workmate , once the initial bends were in I removed the handbrake so I could get the fitting finished before I cut the hole for the handbrake. Started making the adjustments to get the fitting perfected but still a way to go before its done. Thinking about making something to support the tunnel so it can withstand being leant on to get in and out. Took the badge out of the etching solution cleaned it up and removed the vinyl resist. Very happy with how it's come out. Next job is to cut it out to the final shape before I paint it. 6 April 2023 Trimmed the badges to size on my bandsaw and then sanded it smooth round the edge. Cleaned out the etched areas with a scotch brite wheel and then polished up the brasss. Applied some etch primer and then some paint matched to the body shell. I applied this all over as the plan is to sand it back to leave the etched area in blue. I cut some aluminium angle to length and riveted it to the rear bulkhead to give me something to secure the gearbox tunnel to. 7 April 2023 I wanted to improve the handbrake mount so I took it apart and replace the nuts I was using for spacers on the front bracket, with a piece of solid steel. I decided to replace the rivnuts I had put in with a piece of flat bar that I drilled and threaded that would sit the other side of the gearbox tunnel. Cleaned them both up and applied primer and chassis colour to them. Applied some more colour to the badges, tryin to fill the etched areas. Removed the handbrake cables as I wasn't happy with them and I plan to order some replacements. 8 April 2023 Bolted the handbrake in place with the new fixings. Checked the position of the handbrake was still OK on my cardboard template. Marked up the gearbox tunnel up with the position of the handbrake and cut it our with my nibbler. Trimmed the hole so it matched the trim ring I have, using a combination of files and flap wheels. Put the tunnel in place and then marked and drilled holes in the top surface and through the panels underneath, held them in place with Cleco fittings Marked up the bottom edge and drilled those in preparation for securing them. Removed the panel again and added m4 rivnuts to the body ready to secure it. Ordered more M4 dome head bolts to secure the rear tunnel, a pair of handbrake cables and some press studs that I will use to secure trim to the tunnel. 27 February 2023 Added JB Weld to all the hinges as they will all need additional holes. I sanded the JB Weld flat, I held the hinge up to the door marked the poision for the hole on the hinge, using the penny washers I want to use. Then I carefully and drilled and tapped the hole for the new screw position on the top hinge. I punched a hole in the gasket, for the new hole. With the door still secured in position, I used the gasket to transfer the new hole position, on to the door and then drilled the hole carefully to avoid hitting the body. I completed the same exercise on the lower hinge. The hinges came supplied with studs, but using them on the door attachment would interfere with the closure so I found some bolts to use instead, shortening where needed. 12 March 2023 The replacement MAP sensor arrived so I hooked it up and tried the engine again, the ECU is seeing the MAP and getting a feed from it but something is still not right. Reached out to some tuners to see if someone could help me but it looks like I will need to make a trek. 18 March 2023 Found that one of the studs on the door had snapped off. IT had snapped flus so I cut a slot with my Dremel so I could unscrew it. Fitted the passenger door hinges. I took all the doors off and lengthened the holes to give me a bit more adjustment. The fit in the aperture nicely but the bottom edge is a little proud so I think I need to pack out the bottom hinge a bit to push it back. I marked out the position for the filler cap, taking care to allow for the mounting ring. I cut out an undersize hole then ground it out to size with a flap wheel. I will need to make something to hold the filler pipe I modified before. I a clamp to hold it to one of the chassis rails should work. It will need to hold it at a slightly different angle. 20 March 2023 Designed a clamp to hold the filler pipe and printed it off on my 3D printer. I made it in 2 halves which will be joined by a bolt so it can swivel and will be secured using tie wraps. 25 March 2023 Redsigned my bonnet badge to make it simpler and the text more chunky, popped into rLab and printed off some vinyl and applied to my new braas blanks. 26 March 2023 I cut down an empty milk bottle to hold the salt water for my etching. I drilled a hole near the edge of the badge and passed some steel wire through it then sealed it up with electricians tape. I put it in the salt waater with a steel cathode and turned on the battery charger and left it to fizz away. I had to replace the steel wire after an hour as it had dissolved due to the electical etching process, so I found some thick plastic covered electrical wire and used that instead. Removed a bottom hinge and padded it out with a second gasket which seemed to line up the door with body nicely but it revealed a problem with the thread I'd cut in the JB Weld which stripped. I don't think it is really up to the job. I decided to try putting in a threaded piece of metal. I thought about bonding a nut in there but decided to use a rivnut instead as it was simple to do. I just had to drill the hole out oversize and cut off the flange on the rivnut and I could epoxy it in place. I decided to do all four hinges. While the glue was curing, I got on with finalising the fuel filler hose. I already had the necessary flexible filler hose so it was a case of cutting the hoses to length based on the position of the modified filler adapter. I then took it all apart, sand blasted the metal section and primed and painted it black. I removed the drivers seat and made a start on templating the last bit of the gearbox tunnel using some cardboard. Quite happy with the general look but it needs a bit more trimming. After about 7 hours of etching I removed the badge, removed the vinyl and cleaned it up. Very happy with the depth of the etching, I plan to fill the etched areas with paint and the sand it back to leave the brass showing through. I've another slightly different design that I want to try too and then I'll paint them both up and see how they look. 30 January 2023 Back to the rear bulkhead, I decided to open up the harness slots by removing the piece above the harness to make it easier to get them in and out. I also added some trim to the holes to check there was clearance all round, I made up a spacer from steel flat bar to go between the 2 harness brackets to stop them binding on each other. The first ones I made were too thick, so I made some others out of some thinner flat bar. I drilled out the rivets on the front scuttle seal plates and redid them with some Tiger Seal as well as the rivets to ensure they didn't rattle. I used some Tiger Seal to glue the rubber trim to the top. I riveted the the seal plates to the top of the scuttle. I drilled out the mounting holes for the rear bulkhead panels ready to fit them. Then I removed them and started stripping the plastic coating off them and removing the burs from the holes. 4 February 2023 Finished off removing the burs on the panels. Cleaned up the chassis rails and applied some Tiger Seal to it. Put the panels in place and rivetted them in place. I applied some additional Tiger Seal to some of the edges and to seal between the top rail and the back of the panel. Put the trim back on for the harness slots and along the top edge. Did some tidying up in the garage, took some measurements from the blocks supporting the dash as I want to 3d print some replacements. Did some CAD work to draw up the design for the 3d prints. 5 February 2022 Printed off the dash mounts in a carbon fibre reinforced plastic. 6 February 2023 Took the body off and fitted the new dash mounting blocks. Put the body back on and rolled the car out, connected up the dash plugs, put some fuel in and started it up, seemed to be running a bit lumpy, I suspect it is missing on a cylinder but it perks up once it gets some throttle. Swapped the cars round so it is on the ramp which will make fitting the doors easier. Also noted a slight oil leak from the sump, which will need to be investigated. 8 February 2023 I've been think about how I can make a badge for the car. I've got a simple design I've made. My plan is to etch some brass with the design and then paint in the etched area with black. I bought some brass plate and after a trip to a maker space that I'm a member of I had my design cut into some vinyl. It took a couple of attempts to get the vinly applied to the brass. I am using a car battery and salt water to etch the plate so I connected it all up and let it go. The principal work but it seems what I thought was a solid plate of brass is a copper plate with a thin layer of brass on it. Some of the small letters didnt come out great so I think I need to change the design slightly and find some solid brass plate but it seems the theory works. 18 February 2023 Put some petrol in the tank and started the engine up but it was running very rough which was very annoying as it was running fine the last time I started it up and nothing has changed. Spent some time checking over everything, I noticed that the ECU was reporting a very high MAP value and even without the engine running and so did some testing and while the MAP sensor was getting the correct 5v it was only putting out 0.5v without the engine running. I don't understand how the MAP sensor can be faulty, it's not had anything done to it. Tried running the ECU with the MAP input disabled and using the TPU for load which seemed to work at idle but would die as soon as any throttle was applied. Very frustrating. I've got a replacement MAP on order so I can rule that out. 20 February 2023 Got the doors out of storage and spent some time adding some padding so I could tape them in position ready to mark up the hinges. I've abandoned the idea of internal hinges and I'm using the classic Mini hinges. Added some masking tape to the door and body and played around with hinge positions. Each of the Mini hinges is slightly different and they are marked for the position they need to go on the car (RH top, RH bottom, LH top, LH bottom). It's importnt that they are put in the right position to avoid issues with the doors opening. 25 February 2023 More messing around with the hinges trying different positions on the side of the car. One of the hinge stud holes is off at an agle so I had to modify the gasket slightly. Then I offered the hinge up to the door and drew around it. I position the gasket over my outline and carefully marked the holes on the body shell. I drilled those out slightly over size so I had some room for adjustment. Then I marked the position of the hinge on the door but wasn't happy with how close it was to the edge of the door. Can't see any way it could be positioned so I plan to drill and tap a new hole. The inside of the hinge is hollow so I applied some JB Weld to fill the hole and provide something to tap into. 16 January I put the body on and started to make templates for the pieces that would rivet to the angles and bridge the gap between the scuttle and the body. I took the dash out as it was much easier to do this from the cockpit side. After a lot of trimming and checking I had 3 pieces I was happoy with. Not sure why, but the body seems to be sitting on the dash slightly so the body is not coming down to the brackets like it used to, so that will need resolving. 21 January 2023 Bolted the body in position on the brackets so it was positioned as it should be and roughly aligned side to side. I then cut out some aluminium sheet, using the cardboard templates as a guide. I temporarily attached them to the angles so I could trim them accurately and after some fuirther trimming it seems to fit. I'll need to find a rubber trim to on the top edge to seal to the body and stop the aluminium wearing the fibreglass. With sub zero temperatures I didn't stay in the garage long. Came inside to warm up and order some edge trims. 29 January 2023 Tried one of the trims I bought on the suttle panels and with a minor bit of shaping, they fitted really well. I refitted the dashboard to see where the body might be touching the dashboard but it looks fine. So I moved on to the rear bulkhead panel, which needed a bit of trimming to make room for a trim strip on the top. I think the top edge of the panel needs to be pulled forward near the middle of the car to keep a consistent gap. I looked at how the harness needs to bolt to the chassis and where I needed to cut a hole for it. I marked up the panels and then cut one of them, I've got a hole that the harness plates can bolt to the chassis, but it's a bit tight and I will need to add some trim on the edge of the hole. I would also like the top of the panel to be a bit further forward to be closer to the edge of the bodyshell, which will affect the size of the hole. 7 January 2023 Had a nother go at fitting the air filter with the shortened pipe but it's still not working for me. It fits, but is very close to rubbing on the body and in use I expect it will knock on the body. Need to find a better position for the filter. Finished off adding loom covering for the immobiliser wires and the USB charger. I've been thinking more and more about the body to sill fixings I want to use. I've ordered some flat bar aluminium some countersunk rivnuts, bolts and some flat glazing rubber. I plan to mount the rivnuts on the aluminium sills plan, between the sills and the body some 1mm rubber strip. The flat bar will be glued to the outside of the bodyshell and then drilled through to the rivnuts, the bolts will go through the body, rubber and into the rivnuts. 9 January 2023 Back to the air filter mounting. I tried various positions for the air filter while the body was on to see what the options were. I settled on a having it in front of the radiator at the top corner. Luckily in the kit of parts I bought was another rigid pipe That would work, the only problem was that it didn't have a braket on it. I made one out of a small bit of steel angle. I cut a slot in one end that would bolt to the chassis using the mounting I had put in before. The rigid pipe was made of aluminium so I decided the easiest way to join them would be with epoxy, the loading is relatively light so it should be fine. I ground down part of the tube to give me something flatish to glue to, and after several tests fit trimmed the angle iron to the length I needed. I grit blasted the angle iron to clean it up and then used Araldite to glue them together. The epoxy will be tidied up and then the whole thing will be painted. Thinking about other jobs to do before I can fix the body down I wanted to checck the seat belt fitting as that will be easier to do without the body in the way. I ordered some long (4 1/2”) 7/16s bolts for the top mount. I did some trials and they seem ok with the belts running bettwen the headrest posts, one of the belts just touches one of the headrest posts. Checked on the forum to see what other people experienced when doing the IVA. I did some test fitting of the rear bulkhead upper panels with the body in place. I first trimmed them lightly so I could get them to line up with the holes I had drilled before (a long time ago). Once they were sitting correctly I ran a marker pen around the inner edge of the cokpit to mark the edge on the panels. Then I trimmed aproximately 10mm above that line. This left me with a nice gap above the panel that doesn't show as I intend to fit a small edge seal on top of the rear bulkhead. The panels as the come from ANC overlap in the middle but I want them to butt against each other an not overlap. Some careful marking and cutting will be needed to do this. But that is for another day. 14 January 2023 Applied more primer and top coat to the air filter tube during the week in preparation for fitting today. Tried to fit it and promptly snapped off the bracket! Back to the drawing board. I decided to modify the bracket and cut a slit in it so I could strap it to the tube with a large jubilee clip. However I had to clean up the tube and bracket to remove the epoxy and repaint it. Marked up and drilled the holes to secure the top rear bulkhead panels. I've decided to overlap the panels, they will be covered in carpet or vinyl so the join won't be visible. Also made a start on make a panel to seal between the body and the bulkhead, I've some aluminium angle to length, It will get rivet to the top of the bulkhead and I'll cut some aluminium panel to shape to close the gap between the body and the angle, it will be sealed with a rubber seal on top. 15 January 2022 Fitted the revised air filter arrangment, which fits nicely in the nose of the car, it should get lots of cold air but not lots of spray. I drilled the aluminium angle so it could be held in place on the scuttle while I made a template for the panel to fit on them. Time to look back over 2022. On the outside there's not much too see other than the driving lamps, front and side indicators. Underneath the wiring is 99% done, the exhaust is fitted, there's a minor leak to fix on one of the joints. The dashboard is pretty much finished, Trying to think of all the jobs I should do before I start getting the body fully bolted down. 22 December 2022 I couple of hours in the garage so I made up a bracket to support the air filter on the upright next to the radiator. I put in a rivnut to allow me to bolt the bracket on and bolted the filter tube to it. I ran the flexi hose in and cut it to the correct length then did a test fit which looked OK. I took it apart and primed and painted the bracket. While I was waiting for the paint to dry I cleaned up the top of the scuttle and then added Tiger Seal and pop rivet my scuttle panels in place. I cleaned up the excess Tiger Seal. Then I lowered the body down, the air filter tube cleared the bottom of the body nicely but once the body was in position, there was not quite enough room to get the filter on the end. I think if I cut a 20-30mm off the end it should give me enough clearance. The filter will be tucked up by the secondary lights but not directly behind the grill so it's not visible from the front. 30 December 2022 Lifted the body off and removed the air filter and marked where I needed to trim the pipe. Cut it off with an angle grinder and then smoothed it off with a sander. There is a hole in the side of the pipe which was designed to hold a sensor in the original fitment but I don't need it. I had applied some tape temporarily but wanted to fix it permanently. I misxed up some GRP filler applied some tape on the outside and then applied the GRP on the inside and left it to dry. I made a start on making up the loom to power the USB charge point I added a connector to the wires on the port and a longer piece to connect to it. 2 January 2023 Happy New Year! First day in the garage in 2023 and I drilled out a larger hole in the glovebox so I could fit the connector through. I wrapped the loom and fed it in to the area behind the fusebox. I mounted the dash panel so I could check the electrics, I needed to remake the immobiliser connection as it had come loose. I tested the immobiliser and spent some time thinking about where to fit the aerial. I found a location that is convenient which wil be hidden behind some trim. During the testing I found an issue with the multiplug connectors on the dash I had created when extended the indicator wiring. I had to remove the pins and reterminate them that took longer than it should as I struggled to extract the pins. I then had to remount the dash panel and retest again. It all seems to work correctly. 14 November 2022 I cleared up the glue and felt inside the glovebox with sanding blocks and die grinder attachments. I worked on the glovebox door which needed sanding down to accommodate the vinyl on the glovebox and the vinyl that will be on the door. Once I was happy with the fit I glues the vinyl to the door and trimmed it back. I plan to flock the inside of the door and the inside of the glovebox. I drilled out the hole so I could fit my USB charge-point. I cut out a shape to accommodate the bulkhead USB connector I've got. The ECU cable will plug into the back and then I can plug a USB lead into the other side. I worked on the removable bulkhead panel and countersunk the holes to accommodate the Dzus fasteners and then pop riveted it in place. I had countersunk the rivet holes on the back so I could flatten the backs with a hammer. I smoothed everything off with a sanding disk. I still have to fix the springs to the fixed panels for the Dzus fasteners to lock on to. 19 November 2022 Got ready to do some flocking. I cover the glovebox door with tape all over the vinyl and the edges. The dash I covered in some carpet protector I had left over from some decorating (the cling film like stuff). I taped around the opening of the glovebox as well. I applied the coloured glue and applied the flocking fibres with the applicator to the door panel. I tipped the excess off and then went over it again. I had laid the door on a plastic sheet so I could reuse the excess. I repeated the process with the dash, this was more awkward because I had to manoeuvrer the dash around to get into all the corners. I also made a bit of a mess of the glue application so the finish wasn't completely smooth, particularly on the side of the glovebox. I left the glue to dry overnight in the utility room where it was a bit warmer than the garage. I attached the spring retainers for the Dzus fasteners onto the panels and then test fitted everything on the car. Before I fixed them permanently I finished off a few bits of wiring for the Speedo sensor after I had spoken to John who had recently wired up his ETB speedo successfully. I had to unwrap part of the dash loom to route the correct wire to the plug and I had to extend the body wiring out to the corresponding plug as well. I took the opportunity also to document the pins of the dash connectors for future reference. 28 November 2022 Connected the second speedo wire to earth which also required -rewrapping and re-positioning some wiring. I cut the vinyl on the dash to uncover the mounting holes and remounted the dash on the car. I covered the dash in my protection film for now. I put the bulkhead panels in place with cleco's and also put the fusebox panel back in place. I replaced the bodyshell on the chassis and fitted the front mounting bolts. I want to check if there is anything else I need to do before fixing the bulkhead panels in place. 5 December 2022 Had a look around the car and rewrote my list of things to do before fitting the bodyshell for good (hopefully). This is my list
I also spent some time going through my master list of jobs and organising them by area of the car (cockpit, rear of car, front of car etc). |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
May 2023
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