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.
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AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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