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Fitted the bonnet release cables and brackets. Stuck some foam strip onto the edge of the boot lid which has helped a bit to stop it moving around as the latches don't really hold it firmly in place. Fitted some small rubber U trim to the edges of the alloy panels the steering rack passes through, and on the front vertical edges of the radiator shroud.
Also fitted some larger U trim to the holes around the roll hoops, but as everything has moved a bit since the holes were originally cut the left hole was too far to the back of the car and there was only a small gap in front of the roll hoop. So, a bit more of the grp was carefully chopped out using a juniour hacksaw blade and needle file, making it just big enough to fit the U trim on.
4/8/2003
After spending a while searching for something the right thickness to
use as spacers on the back of the dash rotary switches so that they
don't stick out too much (they were originally recessed a bit in the
Volvo they came out of), I found that the bits of dash cut out for the
instruments were just right, so chopped out and drilled a couple of
spacers for them.
5/8/2003
Fitted the numberplate light after polishing the boot around it,
finished rubbing down behind the left rear wheelarch, and rubbed down
the edge of the passenger door where it had been scraped and sanded a
while ago to make sure that the top inner edge was the correct
radius. Also worked out and labelled the dash LEDs so that I know
which order to fit them in the dash, as for some reason I didn't do
that when I connected them all up...
7/8/2003
In the garage early as I was supposed to be the first windscreen
fitting of the day. Got some more rubbing down done, on the outer edge
of the left rear wheelarch, and starting on the front right side
around the indicator.
It took about an hour for the windscreen to be fitted. First thing was fitting the rubber trim to the glass. I was expecting just use a simple T shaped trim, but the one he used actually clipped onto the edge of the glass, with some gunk already in it so that it sticks on. The lower corners were gradual enough for the trim to be bent round (with some nicks taken out of the back edge to help it round), but the top ones were too sharp so needed mitring.
Once that was fitted, he fitted some damming tape to the inside edge of the windscreen recess - basically just some 5mm thick and wide sticky backed foam strip to stop the goo oozing out when the glass is fitted. Some thin black stuff was then applied to the areas of the glass and the frame that will touch, which is what the glue sticks to. Not sure what it is, but it must be fairly evil stuff.
Then, using his battery powered mastic gun(!) a thick bead of black gunk was applied to the frame, the glass was plopped in and shuffled round a bit to try and line it up as best as possible. The main problem is that the frame is fairly close to the glass along the top and bottom edges, but the sides go from almost touching to a gap of up to 10mm or so, so without variable width trim its impossible to get the edge looking even. The bottom and top are mostly fine, sections of the sides don't quite overlap so will need gluing to keep them in place, and the 2 lower corners are exposed so will need filling or covering up somehow. After he'd gone I spent a while trying to tidy it up before everything cured, but didn't really make much difference.
Overall its turned out much better than I expected it would, but its far from perfect. If the frame actually matched the shape of the glass that would have helped, but without spending months on it it was never going to fit quite right...
Then I got on with fitting stuff to the car. The metal backing plate was fitted to the dash in the instrument binnacle, held in by the LEDs and their black platic clips. The under-dash carpet was also loosely fitted, as its much easier to do this when its out of the car. The whole lot was then put into the car, the front edge clips were lined up and their screws fitted, and the rear edge brackets were fitted to support the lower edge of the dash. Access to the bolts which hold the brackets in place is a bit awkward, so it took a while to get everything tightened up, especially in the current strength sapping heatwave.
When that was all done, the relays were bolted onto the rear edge of the dash, the top of the carpet was fully clamped in place, and the hoses between the heater and the dash vents were fitted, using cable ties on the alloy nozzles.
9/8/2003
Fitted the pipe lagging to the main interior chassis rail, and then
clamped the under-dash carpet around it. The edges were trimmed a bit
to fit properly with the carpet on the sides of the windscreen
surround. With the steering column shroud held in place, bits of
carpet were fitted to the column to help hide it (using one of the
bits I'd made months ago and a new bit for the top), and the
under-dash carpet was trimmed to fit around it. A ring of carpet was
also glued onto the battery isolation switch to cover up the edges.
10/8/2003
The plastic steering column shroud was cleaned and then fitted, along
with the stalks as the wiring gets hidden. The under-dash carpet
around the top of the steering column was then trimmed to fit, and
glued to the lower edge of the dash.
The dash rotary and push switches were fitted, after giving that area a new coat of paint to hide the scratches fromw when I was making the spacer blocks. I then tested the electrics to make sure everything still worked. No problems found
Fitted the left side engine bay alloy and grp panels.
While having lunch I realised that I'd forgotten to test the heater and washer bottle, so that was the first thing I did once I got back outside (once it had clouded in and was a suitable temperature for working in...). The washer bottle was fine, but the heater only worked on the 3rd speed. I fiddled around with the connections for a while but didn't get anywhere, so unclamped the under-dash carpet to improve the access to the heater. I tried swapping round the connectors, and that showed that the switch was fine, but the 2 slower speeds just didn't want to work.
I had noticed a small bit of smoke when I first tried it, along with a hot smell, but that didn't happen again once I had access to it. After playing around a bit more, I finally realised what the problem was - the ground and max speed connectors were the wrong way around. The heater connectors are 3-Gnd-2-1, but I'd done Gnd-3-2-1 which explains why only the 3rd speed worked. Once it was swapped round it ran fine. I couldn't see any of the wires being toasted, so I think it was just the speed control drop-down resistor on the heater as all of the current would have gone through that instead of through the motor as well.
Once I'd re-clamped the carpet I started fitting the instruments, and tidying up the wires behind them once I knew how much slack was needed. Lots of cable ties later and it was all sorted out. I put the 3 small instruments in first which weren't too bad with reasonable access through the holes for the larger instruments, but when I came to put the rev counter in the left hole I couldn't quite reach the left side to do up the clamp, so had to remove the centre small gauge. Only the speedo is left now, but I need to work out the calibration for it first and won't clamp it in place until its fine tuned to be as accurate as possible.
11/8/2003
Cut a bit of alloy strip and glued it to the small carpet section
which goes on the front of the dash, to provide a bit of extra support
for where it goes over the access hole for the relays and fuses. Then
cut and glued some bits of velcro on the right end so that the carpet
can be peeled back.
Sat the polystyrene and floor carpets in place, and then also put the seat mounting bars in. Worked out how long the bolts for the seat bars needed to be, and then cut all 8 of them to length. The rear ones will be in a big space under the seat, but the front ones don't have much clearance at all so need to be as short as possible.
12/8/2003
Booked an MOT for Friday. I asked whether the ground clearance would
be a problem, but he said it should be alright as they have access to
a ramp that sits flush with the floor. The access road to the place is
a bit lumpy, so I hope that doesn't cause more of a problem than the
test equipment itself... I'm also going to get the headlights
adjusted, and possibly the timing set properly depending on what the
emissions are like.
Fitted the four seat mounting bars, and then painted the ends of the bolts to stop them rusting.
14/8/2003
With the help of my dad, we test fitted the seatbelts but found that
the 30cm stalks are too long as they sit too high up on your
body. Nowhere locally would sell just replacement stalks, so one
unsuccessful trip to the breakers later and we were no further forward
as just about every single car was different to the previous one, and
none of them matched the Securon buclkes. We did think about taking
the stalks apart and replacing just the metal wire section with a
shorter one (it couldn't safely be shortened), but again nothing would
fit.
So, we called in to Halfords on the way back home, and bought some rear Securon seatbelts. These have an adjustable strap on the stalk instead of the standard metal bar/wire, so can be set to exactly the right length. They were reorganising the displays when we got there, and they had to retrieve the belts from a box out the back, and it seemed like they weren't going to be selling them for much longer, so we were just in time...
By now we realised that we'd be unlikely to make the 10.30 MOT tomorrow morning, so it was rebooked for 3pm instead. Once back in the garage, we noticed that the metal clamps on the stalks were the wrong way round to fit into the car, so the sewed ends of the straps were unpicked, they were rethreaded the correct way round, and the ends were resewed back together. The lower clips for the stalks and the main belts were then bolted into the car, and we started trying to fit the seats.
This ended up taking much longer than expected, as it involved one of us shuffling the seat around, with the other under the car trying to put the bolts into the holes through the mounting bars. This was pretty much impossible, as to get the seats pointing straight forwards meant they had to be squashed up against the tunnel as the outer sides of the passenger compartments are angled.
After struggling like this for a while, and drilling out the holes in the mounting bars to the next couple of sizes up, I had the blindingly obvious idea of fitting some short sections of threaded bar into opposite corners of the seats, which meant that they just slotted into place first time. The 2 bolts could easily be fitted into the other corners, and then the threaded bars replaced with bolts. This worked a treat, and I only with I'd thought of it much earlier...
The interior mirror and battery covers were fitted and we started looking at the wing mirror, but as it was a quarter to midnight we decided to leave it at that until tomorrow.
15/8/2003
Trimmed some of the fuzz off the carpet around the upper windscreen
support holes, as it was catching in the bolt threads, and the lhs
clamp and rhs mirror were fitted. The studs in the mirror are too long
to fit the domed nuts I have onto, so for now normal nuts were used as
they won't care about it for the MOT and I'll shorten them before SVA.
The stepped washers I'd previously got from the breakers for the upper seatbelt bolts turned out to be too short to allow the belts to move freely. So, the imperial sized washers that came with the new belts and were the right length, were filed out to 12mm to fit over the M12 bolts. The bolts were also shortened slightly, and then fitted to the roll hoops. We also checked the distance from the centre of the seat to the upper belt mounting point, and both sides are fine though only a couple of cm past the limit.
The footwell floor panels and lhs polystyrene block were fitted, along with the steering wheel and speedo, which was calibrated based on the measured diameter of the wheel. Somehow the clamp for the speedo has ended up being too short, even though when I shortened all of the clamps I did them all to the same amount, and the dash is one of the few bits of grp that is relatively consistent in thickness. So something has got messed up, but its a tight enough fit for now and will be extended later. This meant that the car was basically finished, apart from the doors.
The alternator heat shield was modified to add an extra clamp to the outer edge to stop it rattling, and it was then refitted with the fanbelt as tight as possible.
The wiper sweep was then checked, and luckily it is just about right, though it does go slightly onto the rubber at each end of its travel. The wiper arm was then shortened to fit properly, but cutting it, overlapping it by the amount it needed shortening, and then drilling and riveting te ovelap. I'm not sure how long it will hold up, but this avoids having any dodgy sharp edges for SVA and it can always be bolted together later on if the rivets work loose. We couldn't find any cars with suitable front or rear wiper arms, so this was the only solution. Having it the right length means that it will take a 20" blade which clears most of the screen, rather than being limited to a 16" blade which would leave a big unswept area in the middle of the lower edge of the screen.
The exhaust paste obtained from Halfords yesterday was applied to the collector and taipipe, and we tried to start the engine. It was a bit reluctant, but a quick clean of the plugs got it going and it sat at an idle of around 1800rpm, which seemed a bit high. It sat at that speed for a few minutes, and then suddenly died. The battery wasn't up to the job of turning the starter, so after a quick push start it was away again and idled fine until the water started to heat up and a small amount sprayed out of the header tank cap. So, the engine was quickly stopped, the cap tightened, and an attempt made to restart the engine. Again, it didn't want to go and the starer just made a strange slow clunking noise, suggesting a problem with the battery or the starter, and it refused to be push started. It was left to cool down with the battery on charge while we popped out for another can full of petrol, had lunch, and rebooked the MOT for 8.30 tomorrow morning. Even though the battery seemed to be fairly low, it only accepted a trickle charge from my automatic charger, which didn't seem right.
When we tried to start it again, pretty much nothing happened and the battery was only 12.7V. So, out it came and off we went to Halfords again, coming back with a new battery and wiper blade. They tested the old battery and reckoned it was alright, but with the problems it had holding charge earlier this year and the fact that the battery of the same make my brother previously had in his tin-top died late last year (we'd bought them on the same day), I didn't really trust it so decided to be on the safe side and get a decent new one anyway, and they just happened to be on special offer which was lucky.
Even though this one was only reading 12.5V it started the engine instantly, but after stopping it and trying again the starter was only sluggishly turning over, so the battery was left on charge overnight and accepted a full 2 Amps unlike the other one.
A quick check of the water showed a trace of oil floating on the surface, and there was a small amount of emulsion on the underside of the filler cap. There had been the odd bit of blue smoke from the exhaust when it was running, so all of this seemed to suggest the unlikely possibility of a blown head gasket. The nicer alternative was just lots of condensation in the crankcase (due to the valve being removed from the breather), muck in the waterways from the engine rebuild and fitting, and things bedding in while letting a bit of oil past the piston rings or valve guides. But, as the saying goes, only time would tell...
16/8/2003
Due to the problem last night, the first thing I did was cancel the
MOT. As it would be a bit difficult to get everything running and
sorted out by 8.30 (which was the only time they had free), the best
thing to do was cancel it until it looked like it would be ready,
rather than rushing to get it done which would probably just end up
causing more problems.
Straight after being taken off charge, the new battery was at 14.7V, much higher than I'd ever seen the other one, which was a good sign. But, just to be on the safe side, we removed the starter, and oiled/greased the bushes at each end of the main rod which helped to loosen it up a bit as it was slightly difficult to turn round but we have no idea how loose its supposed to be anyway. It was then refitted with some copaslip on the positive terminal to make sure that it gets a decent contact with the battery lead, and the traces of rust on the nut and washer were removed.
The spark plugs were taken out and left standing with their ends in petrol for a while to see if that would help to remove the sooty deposits left from the other carbs running too rich. The timing was also reset to 4 degrees advance, as recommended in the Haynes manual after it had been adjuested yesterday. The washer jets were also tried for the first time and adjusted to hit the windscreen properly. They are certainly powerful enough, as even when aimed at the bottom of the screen the water still gets inside the car...
The plugs were then dried off, cleaned and refitted, and the engine started instantly. It ran fine with a rock-steady idle around 1800 rpm until the water got to around 70 degrees when it just suddenly slowed down and died as it was doing before. It was restarted lots of times with different advance and carb settings, but it never ran for more than a few seconds before conking out and it couldn't be caught with the throttle as that just made it worse.
It was tried again with most of the inlet covered up to act a bit like a filter would and generate a bit of back pressure, but this didn't seem to make much of a difference. After a while it suddenly started going to 3000 rpm right after being started up, so we left it at that and decided to have a poke around inside the carb.
The first thing we noticed was that the top cover gasket was in 2 pieces, with a small bit missing from the middle, so someone has been inside here before. However, judging by the condition of the screws it must have been a while ago, as there were no clean marks or scratches left by a screwdriver anywhere. The jets themselves were fine, the inside didn't look particularly mucky, but the one thing that wasn't right was the vacuum operated power valve in the top cover, as the diaphragm was shot so it was permanently open, aloowing extra fuel to get through to the jets.
17/8/2003
An alloy blanking plate was made to cover the space for the power
valve, using a bit of inner tube and some blue Hylomar to seal it. The
engine was tried again, but it was just the same as before.
18/8/2003
While I was at work, my dad sealed and trimmed the 3 remaining bike
cables in the boot using a high power soldering iron, some solder and
extra flux to help it run into the cable and keep it from fraying
after being cut. He also started putting some filler in the numerous
holes and gaps around the edge of the driver's door.
That evening, the carb was opened up again and this time all of the internals were removed, and air was blown through the drillings and passages using a foot pump. A tiny bit of gasket came out of the power valve drilling in the main carb body, but probably not enough to make a difference. It was all put back together with some more Hylomar around the breaks in the gasket, just in case they were letting air in somewhere.
It was started up again, but was basically the same running around 2000 rpm. The low vacuum enrichment thingy was taken off the side and inspected, but the diaphragm in this was fine, so didn't look like it was causing a problem.
As it was dark by this time, the back-lights on the instruments were tested and were much brighter than I was expecting, though the white backs on them probably help a bit.
19/8/2003
Dad did a bit more filling on the driver's door, and when I got home
we decided to have one final go of the engine and just adjust
everything we could. First was the idle mixture screw, which was put
all the way in (4 1/2 turns), and then taken back out 1 1/2. We'd only
ever moved it 2 turns either direction from where it started off, and
never thought about resetting it until now.
The engine was started and it ran the same as always, so it was just left to warm up. After a few minutes, dad decided to adjust the idle stop screw as he could see that it was touching the throttle linkage when previously it had been backed off so that there was a gap. As if by magic, the engine kept on slowing down until it was idling fairly smoothly at 900 rpm. It wasn't mentioned in the Haynes manual anywhere and wasn't that obvious (to us anyway), but it seems that the choke pushes on the throttle linkage when the water is cold, and as it starts to warm up it gradually moves back and slows the engine down by effectively releasing the throttle. As we'd set the idle stop screw when the engine was cold, it didn't move back when the choke warmed up and therefore idled too fast. We thought it would be something really simple that'd cure the problem, but its annoying to find out that it is, and is something that we should have adjusted much earlier...
It was left to warm up idling at the proper speed, and it got to 105 degrees but the fan didn't come on. I used the manual override which worked fine and got it starting to cool down, but as the fan used to work by itself the most likely thing is an air pocket in the top of the radiator. Just to make sure everything else was alright, it was given a short drive up and down the street and it seemed fine apart from the steering being a bit odd, which could mostly be put down to the tracking being totally wrong.
Much relieved, we left it at that for the night. Adjusting the idle stop screw had obviously fixed the idle problem, but there doesn't seem to be any way that it could fix the sudden dying problem, so maybe cleaning out the carb and disabling the power valve was worth it after all.
20/8/2003
Before going to work, the car was started just to make sure that it
was alright from cold, and it seemed perfectly fine so the MOT was
rebooked (again) for tomorrow afternoon.
21/8/2003
While I was at work in the morning, dad started trimming the edges of
the carpets around the door recesses so that the rubber door seal
strip can be fitted. Due to the large variation in thickness of the
grp strip around the edge, some bits would fit on top of the carpet
where the grp is thinnest, but most of it won't so the carpet has to
be cut back just the right amount to allow the trim to fit, but not
leave a gap. A few shaped bits of alloy of various lengths were made
to use as guides so that the knife could just be run along the edge of
the grp and cut a consistent strip of carpet off. The lower and rear
edges were done.
The MOT had been booked for 3pm, but we started getting ready around 2 as there was no point in hanging around and then finding a problem. So, most of the garage's contents were transferred to my parent's car, the car was started and left to warm up for a couple of minutes, and then we set off. The first stop was around 100yds away at the speed bump just round the corner. I slowly crawled over it, getting out and checking the clearance to the sump and edges of the bodywork, but thankfully it was alright. It would have been a bit of a bugger if it had got beached here, as the springs are set almost as high as they will go...
After that, the drive there was fine - no funny noises, nothing fell off, and nothing broke. It was a bit breezy, but with the doors not fitted I was expecting to get a face full as it had been on the run out in Jim's car all those years ago. As the speedo was only roughly set, I drove at 30, 40 and 50 and got my parents to check the speedo in their car. There's no guarantee that its accurate, but its better than nothing, and they ended up being almost exactly the same. 5 miles later and we were there, after an unexpected diversion due to a closed off road.
The first thing (after navigating past the large holes in the road and car park) was the brake test on the sunken rollers. My main concern was something grounding here, but again it was fine even when it was being bounced in and out of them. The front left wasn't quite right, but that could have been due to the new disks and pads not being bedded in properly, as the drive over wasn't exactly long enough to give them any serious use.
Next was the headlights, but this would involve driving up onto the lift which had some very steep ramps to get onto it which it definitely wouldn't be able to clear. When I'd booked the MOT the very first time, I'd asked if the low ground clearance would be a problem and they'd said no, as their other place just up the road had a sunken lift which could be used if the one here was too high. However, it turns out that the whole test has to be done at one place (fairly obvious really), so they booked me in at the other place which luckily was free straight away. It would have been much easier if they'd just told me to book the MOT there in the first place and save the chance of extra hassle if the clearance turned out to be a problem...
So, back in the car and 30 seconds later we were at the other place, which had a fairly steep concrete ramp up into the building, which again surprisingly wasn't a problem. The first thing he said when we got there was that it would fail on the sharp edges around the headlights. I'd left the plastic covers off as I knew the lights would need adjusting, but had forgotten to bring them along just in case they were needed. So, my parents popped back home to get them. I thought that sharp edges were only a problem for SVA...
The first thing here was an emissions check which caused a bit of confusion. He asked what year the car was, so when I said 2003 he reckoned it would have to be a cat test, which there was no chance of passing. So, I said it was an 87 engine and he said that if the car was put down as an 87 to match the engine, then it would be tested to 87 levels. As my parents hadn't gone yet, I retrieved the printout I have of the page in the MOT manual which shows that kit and amateur built cars only need to be tested as pre 1985 cars for visible smoke, but he didn't believe that this applied if the car was dated as 2003.
So, he phoned the Ministry to see what they said which wasn't entirely clear, as he ended up testing it at 1987 levels and putting unknown as the date of first use. The levels ended up being much better than expected, and passed the 1987 levels anyway. Sat idling, the % CO varied between 0.8 and 1.0, and the ppm HC varied between 180 and 200. The SVA levels for my engine (just a month over the first cut-off date) are 2.5% and 1200, so unless something changes drastically it should pass the emissions tests with no problems at all. After this he muttered something about it being on a Q plate, and when I said that it definitely would, he said there'd be no problem at all testing it as visible smoke only...
The next thing was the brake test (again). Instead of rollers however, this place has a fancy platform in the floor with 4 long strips on it, one for each wheel. Someone drives the car onto the platform, slams on the brakes, and after a few seconds some numbers appear on a screen. It wasn't quite as easy as that though, as the front wheels were only just wide enough to fit onto the sensing strips, so it took them quite a few attempts to get it lined up well enough for a proper reading. The front left seemed to be fine here, but the righ rear handbrake wasn't quite right and a 25% imbalance was put on an advisory note.
After the brakes were done, the car was lined up and the windscreen washer and wiper, and all lights were checked. Even though I'd just bolted them on, the left headlight was lined up exactly right, but the right one was miles out so needed a lot of adjustment to get right. Once the covers were fitted he was happy as all the other lights were fine, so it was on to the last bit.
Getting onto the sunken ramp was fine apart from problems getting the front wheels lined up again, and I thought that the sump might hit the sliding hydraulic jack in the middle but yet again it sailed over. The whole thing was lifed up, poked, prodded, and then each end was jacked up and the wheel bearings and suspension bushes were heaved on.
Then that was it - it passed first time. I just hope the SVA will be as easy...
While I was there, I got them to sort out the tracking using their fancy laser alignment equipment. Due to the large difference in front and rear track, the fronts couldn't be set based on the rears (not that I trust the rear axle to be anywhere near central or square anyway), so were just set up with a small amount of toe in.
The drive back home felt better, as the steering was acting more like a normal car and there was actually a bit of self centring which I hadn't been able to feel before. Its still a bit lumpy, and tends to keep going over once its turned so far round, so that'll have to be looked at some time.
23/8/2003
I checked the plugs to see what condition they were ine, and they were
all the same with nice white central pillars where the soot has burnt
off, so its certainly not running rich. The water had gone down to the
minimum level, so was topped up a bit. There was still a slight trace
of emulsion on the oil filler cap, so this was wiped off to see if any
more appears the next time the engine is run. I also emptied out the
oil catch tank, which contained around 5mm of stinky (but clear)
water, hopefully all just condensation...
While the bonnet was off, I fitted a bunch of extra cable ties onto various things in the engine bay, and fitted a small alloy shield to one of the carb vacuum pipes that touches the left top chassis rail. I then finished trimming the carpet around the door recesses and up the sides of the windscreen pillars, and fitted the door seal strip with the help of a hammer and block of wood to get it properly seated.
25/8/2003
The wing mirror studs were shortened to fit the domed nuts. The speed
clamp was extended by riveting a couple of flat bits of stiff alloy
extrusion to the ends, and I also made a new alloy nut to hold the
clamp on as I'd managed to drop one of the original ones under the
dash when fitting it for the MOT and haven't been able to find it
since. The speedo and steering wheel were then refitted, as I'd had to
remove the wheel to wriggle my arm far enough up behind the dash.
The side stainless panels in the driver's footwell were removed, and the top and bottom edges were hammered over just in case the SVA inspector feels that they are dangerously sharp. An extra section of door seal was also added next to the wing mirror, as I'd cut the main length just under the mirror. It was a bit more tricky to do, as the edging had to have some of the outer edge removed to fit around the mirror, but it looks alright once fitted. The doors were then test fitted to see how they go with the seal in place, and it doesn't quite touch all the way around, but shouldn't be too bad. Some extra bits of bike inner tube were cut for the door mounting blocks, as I originally ran out when the blocks were made ages ago.
The rocker cover throttle cable bracket was removed as its not currently needed, and a short bit of spare exhaust wrap was fitted to the clutch cable near the exhaust headers, as even though the headers have a bit of wrap on them the cable outer had melted a little bit. Some short bits of rubber U trim were cut and shaped to fit on the door recess edges at the ends of the seal strip where the rounded corners are too tight for it to follow. The first ends of all 4 bits were glued in place, and then left to cure properly overnight before trying to stick the other ends down.
The new battery was removed, and I started drilling and hacksawing out the slots in the lower edges for the clamps to get hold of. I'd forgotten that the other battery already had some slots here which I'd extended to get a better hold, so its a bit odd that this one doesn't have any at all.
26/8/2003
Phoned up Norwich SVA station and they said there is currently a wait
of around 2 weeks for SVA, so the earliest I could get is 9th Sept.
That probably matches up with the amount of work left to do on the
car, so I'll try and get it booked for some time during that week.
Finished hacking and filing out the slots in the lower edge of the battery, and refitted it along with the clamps, strap, leads covered in vaseline to stop them corroding, top wooden cover and front alloy cover. As this is a slightly different shape to the previous battery, some extra sticky foam was needed on the alloy strap and front cover to make them fit properly.
27/8/2003
Glued the other ends of the rubber u-channel at the ends of the rubber
door seal, and put a bit more on the u-channel on the front edges of
the radiator shroud as they weren't secure enough.
Total hours this month -
71.5
Total build hours -
2102.0
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