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A bit more time was spent looking at the pedals, then we decided to try putting a hole in just to see what it would be like. So, a pilot hole was drilled through the round chassis rail. Its a bit hard to tell, but I would say that it was in a better position. Now I just need to find a suitable length M8 bolt which can go all the way through the chassis rail, and still leave enough sticking out to fit the pedal on.
Once that had been done, the front wheels were put back on, it was dropped onto the ground, the rear end was lifted up, and the right rear wheel was removed. We then drilled and fitted the right rear body bracket, which went in much easier than the other two. It must just get better with practice. We didn't do anything to the left rear bracket, as that is where the bodywork is about 6 inches too far out, so I don't plan on doing anything with that one until it can be left out in the sun all day so that the body can warm up and hopefully be bent into the right shape, possibly with a little bit of help from a hot air gun.
2/7/2001
We decided to make a start on fitting the wiper motor, as the position
of it determines what sort of bracket is going to support the bodywork
behind the engine, and where the heater will fit. The problem is that
without taking most of the wiper assembly to bits, it can't be put
into position under the body as the spindle the wiper blade fits on
needs to be passed through the body, but the position for that hole
can't be drilled until I know where the wiper is going to go. So, we
ended up sitting the windscreen in the frame, and just playing around
with the wiper blade on its own to figure out what sort of sweep it
would get and where it would have to be mounted.
As the sweep of the wiper is probably slightly wider than it could be, the spindle wants to be mounted as close to the windscreen as possible to try and stop it going off the edge of the glass. This determines the maximum length of the wiper blade, as when its vertical it doesn't want to go over the glass. Now that that length is known, the spindle location can be moved towards the driver's side until the end of the blade is near the outside edge of the windscreen. This then gives what should be the best position for the wiper. The SVA manual is a bit vague about how much of the screen needs to be cleared, but having it as far to the offside as possible means that it will wipe the maximum amount possible on the driver's side, and leave a bit of a gap on the passenger side, but as the screen curves round so much I don't really see that as being a problem.
Once that position had been determined, and double checked a few times, the hole was drilled, and then filed out to about the right size. Now that that is done, The positions for mounting it can be worked out.
5/7/2001
Filed out the wiper motor hole to make it bigger. The bodywork there
is almost 1cm thick, and to get enough of the spindle to stick through
the hole has to be at least as wide as the base of the spindle, and
probably a bit more to allow for a bit of movement.I just made it big
enough to fit to start with, as it can be enlarged once the brackets
are sorted out to hold the wiper assembly in position.
I then started chopping up bits of inner tube to protect the body from the side mounting brackets.
7/7/2001
Finished off chopping up the bits of rubber, including some of the
thick stuff I'd bought at Stafford to go where the body sits on the
chassis, on the insides of the doors and at the sides of the boot
hole. All the brackets were then put back on and tightened up.
With the body secured again, I jacked up the right side of the car, and put a third bracket on that side, on the middle outrigger. This one was a bit easier to make than the others, as the sill lines up better with the outrigger as it is horizontal, so just a flat bracket could be used, attached to the underside of the outrigger. Once this was in, it made the whole side of the body much more rigid.
I then made a small alloy p-clip to hold the speedo sensor cable away from the handbrake.
8/7/2001
The support brackets to hold the middle of the bodywork behind the
engine and the wiper motor were planned out. Basically three triangles
made from steel strip should be enough - one vertically to the left
side of the centre to support the body and also the left side of the
wiper motor assembly, and two on the right side to support that side
of the body and that end of the wiper motor, both being attached to
the pedal box chassis brackets. The only problem I can see with this
is that the wiper motor might be able to rotate slightly, only being
held on each end (which is how it was fixed in the AX originally), but
until its all in place I won't really be able to tell. I'll just have
to add extra support in later if necessary. I also can't work out the
position of the heater until I know exactly where the wiper motor is
going to end up, so the whole of the space under the dash will have to
wait.
The engine bay side panel that the exhaust goes through now won't fit on without removing half of the exhaust system, so it had to be cut in half. Also, the large nut securing the steering shaft support would be hidden by this panel, so I cut a hole in it to allow the support to be tighteneded/adjusted in the future.
After reading comments on the list recently about underbonnet temperatures getting high, I decided to make some extra engine compartment ventilation. The side panels are needed to make sure that anything thrown up by the wheels doesn't end up in the engine bay - just not putting them on or chopping huge holes in them wouldn't be an option. So, I ended up making a load of louvres in them, by cutting some vertical slots in the panels and then twisting the stripts round to allow air to flow out of the engine bay. Cutting the slots was the hardest part of it, which involved drilling some holes at the top, filing these together to form a hole large enough to fit a hacksaw blade into, and then cutting the slot using a hacksaw blade with a single handle on one end. The raggy cuts were cleaned up with a file, and then a pair of needle-nose pliers were used to twist the strips round. The end result looks quite good, and hopefully it will make a bit of difference to the amount of airflow. I'm planning on putting some vents in the rear of the bonnet some time as well, but they can wait until after SVA.
9/7/2001
Filed off the sharp edges on the louvres so that I don't end up
chopping fingers off when I get round to fitting them.
I tied a bit of rope round the left side of the body where it is bent out of shape, and plan on gradually tightening it up to try and pull it in so that it lines up properly. The lower seatbelt bolt hole is conveniently in a position to allow the rope to go round the the body and hold both the top and the side down, as the problem is that if you push the side in the top just twists round and up, so to have any effect they both have to be held down.
10/7/2001
Sat around poking bits of wire into the left side petrol tank, trying
to figure out the internal structure of it and how the float arm of
the sender will be able to work. There is a horizontal baffle around
four inches from the bottom, above the pickup pipe and balance
pipe. This doesn't really end up being a problem, as due to the shape
of the tank if I want it to only read full when it is actually full,
the lowest the arm will be able to go is well above the baffle.
Looks like its going to end up having the sender resistor box thing right next to the hole for the sender (in the front of the tank), which will allow the float arm to be as long as possible. It will have to be bent so that it goes almost to the top of the tank when full, and just as far down as the range will let it, so when it reads empty there is probably still going to be around a quarter of the tank left.
Due to the limited range of the sender and the shape of the tank, there is just no way of getting it to work over the full range of the tank, so it either has to stay at full for a long time, or reach empty earlier which seems the safest option. Of course, if the tank had been a sensible shape in a sensible position, with a hole in the top for the sender, then using something like a dip pipe sender would have made it all a lot simpler...
12/7/2001
Planned out what I'm going to do to route the speedo sensor cable from
the axle to the chassis. My original thought had been to have
something going straight up from the top of the diff casing to the
centre of the alloy panel between the seats, but the problem with this
is allowing the cable to take up the movement of the suspension.
So, I ended up deciding on routing the cable over the top of the diff and to the rhs axle, then taking it in a wide loop almost horizontally across to the panel behind the driver's seat. I'm going to use a section of flexible thin rubber hose (actually a bit of wiper washer piping) to form the link, with the cable passed through it, as this is rigid enough to hold its shape (the cable on its own would just flap around), but flexible enough to take up the movement. The ends of the hose will then be clamped onto the axle and to the alloy panel.
The following drawing should give an idea of what I mean (select it for a larger version).
This means that the cable doesn't bend much for a large movement of the axle, it just twists slightly, so hopefully there no chance of it snapping or bending too much.
14/7/2001
Connected up the speedo cable using the method above. Once the cable
had been soldered together (after fitting the rubber hose), it was
cable tied to the axle and to the brake pipe on the top of the diff,
with a small alloy extension from the sensor bracket providing extra
support. An alloy p-clip was used on the panel behind the driver's
seat to hold the end of the pipe, and then another one was used to
secure the cable before it joined the main part of the loom.
I then made a start on fitting the Sierra washer bottle. This is going to be fitted to the end of the passenger footwell, but leaning over a bit so that the left bolt hole on it can be secured to the lhs round chassis rail, using a bracket. I made a start on the bracket, which is just a long flat bit of thin steel (actually half of a Sierra horn bracket), with the end bent up to meet the bolt hole on the washer bottle, and the rest of it curved to match the shape of the chassis tube as it lies along the length of the tube.
15/7/2001
Drilled the footwell mounting hole for the washer bottle, and then
finished shaping the bracket so that it was exactly the right
shape. It was then drilled for the M8 bolt, and the rivets that will
be used to attach it to the chassis rail. The rivet holes in the
chassis were drilled, and the bracket was painted black. Some bits of
inner tube were cut to give a seal around the footwell hole, though
I'll probably end up putting some sealant on it anyway just to be
sure.
Its not really the best position for it, as the top bulkhead chassis rails get in the way of the filler cap so I'll have to use a funnel or pipe to fill it up, but it keeps it out of the way.
16/7/2001
Rivetted the washer bottle bracket to the chassis, shortened the
washer pump cable, and made an alloy p-clip to support the cable as
there is nothing to cable tie it to.
18/7/2001
Had a bit more of a look at the wiper controls. As the switching
required to make full use of the wiper is a bit weird, there are two
options, neither of them using the Golf stalk.
Assuming I've worked it all out correctly (I'll have to double check what it does or have a look in a Golf Haynes manual), the switching performed by the Golf wiper stalk is almost as strange as the AX's, but unfortunately won't be suitable at all without some really complicated wiring.
The simplest solution is probably going to be to get the column stalk from an AX and the intermittant relay, and then use them to control the wiper properly. Unlike the Golf stalks, which are part of a large ring that goes round the steering column, the AX stalks are separate boxes, one each side of the column, so taking the wiper stalk should be fairly straightforward. This can then be either attached to the column somehow, or just mounted in the dash with a shortened lever on it.
The other option is to get a three position rotary switch (such as a heater control) that has an 'off' connection (three outputs rather than just two with neither of them connected for 'off'), and using a relay use that to control the wiper. The relay would have to be used in the 'off' position to allow the self parking to work, as that circuit has to be disabled when in the 'on' or 'fast' positions. This would mean not being able to use the intermittant speed, as it would get far too complicated to allow that to work.
I'll have to go to a breakers again for some other bits I'm missing like door catches (the plan is to use Fiat Uno ones, as they are nice and compact and easy to remove, and there were hordes of them around the last time I was at the breakers), bonnet and boot catches and another attempt to find a suitable numberplate light, so I'll see what the AX switch is like and just use that if it will fit easily, othewise I'll have to use the 2nd option.
19/7/2001
Bent the petrol sender float arm to a shape that will allow just below
the maximum full level to be measured, and then trimmed it to
length. It ended up being bent back from its original slightly bent
position, but this is just due the empty and full positions of the
sender being the wrong way round for mounting it horizontally. Also
chopped down the main bar that the sensor fits onto, so it will now
actually fit into the tank. Well, almost anyway, as the hole in the
tank is much too small for the sender to fit through, so its going to
have to be opened up a bit in places. Getting the rubber seal over the
sender is difficult enough, and that is flexible. I'll just have to
see how it goes, as I don't want to chop too much out of the hole and
stop it getting a decent seal.
21/7/2001
While the left front wheel was off to work on the washer bottle, I cut
out a hole for the battery leads in the engine bay side panel. Looking
for something to use as a grommet, I found a second spark lead holder
(the one that goes at the front of the rocker cover), and the battery
leads just happen to be the same size. So, the hole was cut, but
leaving the centre in which was bent horizontal, and the rubber holder
will be zip tied to this to keep it in position and stop it falling
out.
In the morning I bought some more 3x25mm steel strip to make the centre brackets for the body from. Final checks of the position of the wiper motor, and the two sections for the large bracket were cut, holes drilled in one end, and holes drilled in the chassis rails behind the engine. As the body and chassis don't line up exactly front to back, the brackets had to be bent forward a bit so that they were in the right position.
23/7/2001
The wiper motor position was checked yet again to be totally sure, and
then I drilled the first hole in the body horizontally through to the
engine bay. The centre of the hole was then marked onto one of the
brackets, which was drilled and test fitted. As this seemed alright,
the second bracket was marked through the first one (to make sure the
triangle lined up properly), and then drilled. Fitting it all
together, it seemed to be fine. Even though the bolts weren't very
tight, it added a lot more strength to the body and stopped it moving
around so much.
24/7/2001
After having a look in a Golf Haynes manual at the library, I've found
out that the operation of the Golf wipers is almost exactly the same
as the AX ones. The main thing that was confusing me was the position
of the stalk for the different wiper modes. I was expecting it to be
like every car I've driven - start with off at the top, and work down
to increase the speeds. With the Golf one (which I had no idea of),
off is the 2nd position up from the bottom, intermittant is the lowest
position, and slow and fast are the two positions above off. It turns
out I had correctly found the connections used in the different
positions apart from the fast connection, which as I was thinking it
was the off position then it sort of made sense for nothing to be
connected in that position.
Anyway, it ends up that I can use the Golf stalk to control the wipers, so don't have to get hold of an AX one or rig up something strange. The only thing was that there is no connection in the loom for the intermittant control, so I added in a wire to the connector just in case I decide to use that, though I will have to get an intermittant relay from something to be able to use it.
25/7/2001
Drilled a couple of holes in the pedal box support to put more body
mounting brackets on. Not quite as easy as it seems, as the master
cylinder had to be unbolted so that it could be moved out of the way
so that the drill would fit in, and the drill extension had to be used
as that has a much smaller chuck on it than the drill itself. Its a
lot harder to get any decent pressure using this extension, especially
when leaning over the front wing and trying not to put too much weight
on it, so it took a while to drill through the 5mm steel plate. My
parents and brother are down for a bit which helped, as while I
drilled the hole, my brother controlled the drill, and my dad held the
master cylinder out of the way.
My dad also got a bit more rubbing down of the rear bodywork done while the master cylinder was unbolted and refitted, and we were working out where to drill the holes.
26/7/2001
While I was at work the front end of the bodywork was rubbed down with
wet and dry to get rid of the rough patches. Where the rear end is
covered in yellow spots, the front has a different problem which is
hordes of bubbles in the surface. You don't really notice them
initially, but once any rubbing down is done they fill up with the
residue and show up as lots of little white dots. There is absolutely
no way they can be rubbed out as the gelcoat is already thin enough in
lots of places, so we'll either just have to leave them as they are or
try to fill them with black gelcoat, paint or polish.
The car was rolled out of the garage and turned round, so that the lhs could be left in the sun all day. The current bits of wood used to pull the side into position using a bit of rope were replaced with an old car jack (my brother's idea), allowng much easier adjustment of the tension.
27/7/2001
More work donw while I wasn't there - the front wings and windscreen
frame were rubbed down, with the very top bit of the frame polished up
as well. Some of the many holes/imperfections were filled in with the
black gelcoat that I got at the same time as the bodywork. The colour
doesn't quite match exactly, but its good enough and much better than
it was originally. They might be less noticeable once they have been
properly rubbed down and polished.
My brother also put some louvres into the left side engine bay panel. The plan was to use a cold chisel to create the slots in it, but he ended up just drilling holes and using the nibbler tin snip things to cut them. It cuts a wider slot than the hacksaw blade, but gives a much better edge to it.
Total hours this month -
52
Total build hours -
692.0
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