25 September 2023 Refitted the door once the Cold Weld had set and line it all up again. Played around with door seal samples to see what I wanted to use on the door, boot and hinge apertures. I found I can use the same seal type on all the apertures so once I new the size I ordered some online. I was almost ready to order some mini hinges for the boot and bonnet when Rob at Quantum posted pictures of some new internal hinges for the car. Just waiting to see when they are going to be available and how much they are going to be. 1 October 2023 Decided that today I would see if my car actually drove and if the speedo worked. Ran the car up to temperature then drove it down the road and back, nothing fell off and the speedo is working (it still needs calibrating). I noticed the fan didn't seem to be cooling the engine fully, this wasn't a problem before so I'll need to investigate that a bit. Engine seems to be running OK and I was able to adjust the idle down to 1000RPM, the closed loop idle still isn't working so I've disabled that until I can get it down to the tuners for the ECU to be properly mapped. Also notice my oil leak is back so I will need to investigate that again, hoping it's just a case of redoing the cam cover again with more sealant in the corner and maybe a fresh rubber gasket. Worked on getting the door seal fitted on the drivers door, the edge of the door need a bit of work to get the thickness consistent and straight all the way round the door apertures which I sorted with a selection of sanders. Once that was done I cut the seal to length and fitted it. I need something to tidy, seal the ends of the seal so I'll have a look around for some thing suitable or maybe 3D print something. 7 October 2023 Removed the nearside door, tidied up the door aperture, fitted the door seal and then refitted the door, seems like a good fit. Topped up the radiator, which only needed a little coolant, and then ran it up to temperature it seemed to be OK but I think I need to run it for longer to see. I wonder if the fan might not be running at full speed. Might try a test with a direct battery feed. I got on with securing some of the body wiring. I cut down some M4 bolts, to a length and then drilled the body and secured the wiring with some p-clips. The wiring to the side indicators needed some additional support, the wiring connectors I used have provision to slot on to a bracket. I cut and shaped some aluminium sheet to fit in the slot on the connector. I secured it to the chassis frame and slid the connector on to it. I added some more p-clips to the wiring on the front of the car to secure it. 14 October 2023 Managed to break the light fixing on one of my headlights last week so had to replace the bowl with a new one. Straightforward enough to unbolt and refit but I had to unpin the headlight connectors to get them through the hole. I had ordered some classic Mini hinges, so got on with fitting them to the boot lid. Started off by smoothing the edges of the boot lid to remove a few imperfections and remove any lumps using a small die grinder and some 180 grit sanding discs. I used some 2000 grit for smoothing out the gel coat around the outside where there were a few lumps. Then I spent some time marking up where I wanted the hinges, I ended up having them 20cm in from each edge. I used some masking tape so I could put some alignment marks on the bode to help everything line up. The hinges didn't come with any gaskets so I cut some out of gasket paper. I used the gaskets to mark the holes to drill in the boot lid then fastened them to the boot lid to mark the position on the bodywork and drilled those holes out. The bolts are are M6 so I drilled out to 7mm to give a but of wiggle room. The counter sunk screws supplied are designed to go into a steel panel so they a re bit short for the GRP panel so I've ordered some 20mm ones to replace them. But the boot lid opens and closes nicely. I then started on the boot handle/lock. I positioned it in the centre of the panel at the top and then moved it about until the locking mechanism would catch the lip in the body. I cut a 19mm hole out to fit the central bar and then filed it to fit the locating pegs. I drilled out the holes for the bolts on the handle as well. The latch bolt holes are in a different position to the handles and it needs to be mounted away from the panel so it can latch on the body work lip. I plan to bond a piece of wood to the inside of the boot lid that I can screw the latch to. Ordered some longer countersunk bolts for the hinges and extras for the handle. Ordered some threaded inserts for wood and also picked up some leather ammo pouches that I have a cunning plan for. 15 October 2023 Back to the boot latch mounting. The base of the handle was flat so I ground a slight curve on it to match the panel. I made rubber gasket to seal against the panel and iron out any imperfections. I cut a piece of wood to sit on the inside of the boot lid to mount the latch onto. I drilled clearance holes for the handle bolts and the shaft but the holes needed for mounting the latch overlapped the clearance holes I needed for the handle mounting bolts. I came up with an alternative design with a single hole for the lock shaft and then a cut out on one side to clear the handle mounting bolts. That seems to work much better. Still waiting for the counter sunk headed bolts so for now it is mocked up with some hex bolts.
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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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