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Finished rubbing down the rear bodywork, the main sloping front section, and all around the front air intake.
3/6/2003
Rubbed down the front left corner, and the lower front edge under the
air intake.
4/6/2003
Rubbed down the front right corner, so that is the whole of the front
done.
5/6/2003
Got most of the left rear corner rubbed down.
7/6/2003
A weekend of lots of little jobs, as it seems that I'm starting to run
out of stuff to do, which is a good sign that its almost finished...
Fitted battery isolation switch alloy cover. Bolted the battery and leads in place, and smeared the terminals with some vaseline to hopefully stop them getting gunked up. Fitted the VIN plate to the bulkhead.
The front indicators were fitted. The screw holes in the bodywork didn't line up exactly with the holes in the wooden mounting blocks when I thought they did, so needed a bit of filing out to get them in the right place. They were then fitted using self tappers and the small alloy washer things I'd made earlier. The lights were then put in, and a protective outer put onto the cables, as being right in front of the front wheels they are a bit exposed. A couple of alloy p-clips were then made to attach to one of the headlight mounting bolts, which is the most convenient place to route the cable past.
8/6/2003
The front indicator cable clips were fitted to the headlight bolts,
and cable ties were fitted to holes drilled in the front bonnet recess
to hold both the indicator and headlight wires in place, in a part
well below the lower edge of the bonnet itself so they won't
catch. The bullet connectors were forced together (they are such a
tight fit they certainly won't shake loose by themselves), and the
cables all tied in place in front of the engine.
The whole of the front bodywork up to the wheels was polished. An old exhaust rubber bobbin that ripped itself apart due to the spring in the exhaust was cut in half and used on the second two bolts holding the silencer in place, as it had only been held in place with 2 since it was fitted. An extra cable tie was fitted to the alloy plate on the lhs filler pipe, as it was a bit loose before.
The 6 top rear lights were screwed into their wooden spacer blocks, and some small bits of alloy plate were used to hold the ground contact in place. As the pre-made screw holes in the lights were far too close to the centre, I had drilled new holes in the lights further out, but this meant that the ground contact which normally goes under a screw head wasn't held in place and could end up not making contact with the bulb, so the new screw hole right next to it had to be used to hold it down instead.
9/6/2003
Cleaned the interior of the car, getting rid of the dust/swarf
etc. and the gelcoat left over from sanding the bodywork, as hopefully
the carpets will get stuck in this week.
Then I rubbed down the fronts of both door recesses, and the inside edge of the left front wheelarch.
11/6/2003
The engine was started again without any problems, and run up to
temperature, and the carbs were fiddled with (trying to balance them,
adjusting idle screws etc.) to see if the smoke coming out of the
exhaust could be reduced, but it didn't really seem to make any
difference.
So, it looks like the best/easiest/quickest thing to do will be to slap a Sierra carb on for SVA, rather than fiddling around with these carbs, and then try and get them sorted out later on, as at the moment they would have a hard time passing the MOT visible smoke test, never mind the SVA emissions.
12/6/2003
With the help of my dad, we made a start on fitting the carpets, using
Evostik contact adhesive. Some jute felt that I'd got from a kit show
ages ago was chopped up to go at the ends of the footwells under the
carpets, and all the way round the bulkhead (or at least the
accessible parts anyway). The footwell end sections were glued to the
carpet first, and then stuck to the alloy after it had been left to
cure a bit and the carpet had been trimmed (as its been moved further
to the back of the car by the thickness of the felt).
The bits of carpet for the trailing arm covers were also glued on, and the top edge of the main rear section was stuck in place. This was left to cure overnight, so that the rest of it could be glued without disturbing the top edge which is the main bit that has to line up.
13/6/2003
The rest of the rear section was glued, and after some minor trimming
the main left section was mostly glued on, working from the
back. While waiting for the solvent to evaporate (as the carpets were
all stuck in in stages), the rear boot lock and cables were fitted in
stages. Once the locks were greased, it seemed to be working fine.
We got through the 500ml of glue much quicker than expected, probably due to the rough backing of the carpet taking a lot more than necessary, so I had to buy some more. This time I went for the Evostik Timebond, which is basically the same stuff as the Impact glue, but is extremely non-drip rather than the runny Contact glue which is harder to apply, is available in a 1 litre tin instead of the 500ml metal bottle so much easier to get out, is adjustable for a short time until firm pressure is applied rather than the pretty much instant death-grip of the Impact glue, and is also a fair bit cheaper, which is nice.
14/6/2003
The rest of the main left section was finished, with the front edge
needing a trim to go round the end of the footwell due to the felt
being added, and the whole of the main right side was fitted.
After pondering how to fit the stainless footwell panels for a while, my brother suggested that for the sides the simplest thing would be rivnuts in the alloy, so that the panels are clamped through the carpet, rather than trying to glue or sew them in place which wouldn't really work that well. So, before the front part of the rhs carpet was glued, the stainless panels were drilled, rivnuts were fitted to the alloy, and holes cut in the carpet to allow the bolts to go through.
15/6/2003
The rivnuts for the left stainless panel were fitted, the gear remote
was greased up and fitted, and the handbrake lever and tunnel were
fitted together. Greasing the gear lever makes a huge difference to
how it feels when dry as it doesn't stick quite as much, but its hard
to tell how long it will stay like that for...
The seams of the tunnel were then taped over with duct tape as this is the simplest way to seal it, and the carpet for the left lower side of the tunnel was trimmed and fitted. Most of the rhs lower tunnel section was fitted, and the holes in the end for the stainless panel were also cut.
After being propped up by the jack for a while now, we checked the fit of the windscreen to see if it had made a difference. It did seem to be a slightly better fit than before, but the whole of the top left side is still a fair bit higher than the frame. We did notice that it seems to be rocking on the lower left corner of the glass, so the grp was marked and I'll try grinding a bit of here later to see if it helps. The grp is more than thick enough here, so it shouldn't cause a problem.
16/6/2003
The rhs lower tunnel section was finished, then the left and right
windscreen pillar carpets were trimmed a bit and then the middle
sections glued in place. The fit of the upper surround section was
checked, and then the left and right ends were edged with some vinyl,
as these will overlap the carpet on the uprights. The front edges of
the grp and alloy on the uprights were painted black so that they
won't be quite as visible through the screen, as the black printed
border isn't wide enough to hide it all.
The 1 litre tin of glue was also used up, so I bought another 500ml tin of Timebond, as that should be more than enough to get the rest of it done.
18/6/2003
Trimmed the vinyl edges of the tunnel carpet sections around the ends
and the corners, as when there are multiple layers it gets a bit thick
and might stick up. The edges of the vinyl where then glued to the
back of the carpet, so that once they are glued in place the edges
shouldn't move around.
The newly edged upper windscreen carpet section ends were trimmed so that it would fit in again.
19/6/2003
The upper sections of the side windscreen frame carpets were trimmed
to fit under the top section, and then glued in place. A new bit for
the front of the tunnel handbrake recess was cut out, as the original
one was far too small, and I did a general check of the fit of the
tunnel carpets, which might need a bit of a trim right at the front..
21/6/2003
Trimmed the front bit of carpet for the tunnel handbrake recess and
glued it in place. Then I spent the rest of the day gouging bits out
of the windscreen surround to try and match it to the shape of the
winscreen. Went through the cycle of fitting the glass, marking the
high points where it was touching, removing the glass and scraping out
the grp (using the edges and ends of some files and a flat bladed
woodworking chisel) what seemed like about 10 times. Its definitely
better than it was when I started, but there is still a long way to go
to make it sit flat all the way round, and as the shapes are so
different I think it will need building up in a few places as even
though the surround is thick, it isn't quite thick enough to take up
the large gaps there are.
Currently, bits of it are around 4mm thinner than they used to be, and the top left side of the surround is something like 7-8mm lower than the glass. The main problem areas were both lower corners, and the top right corner, with around 2' of grp scraped away in total of varying depth. The end of the flat file is good for scraping through the gelcoat as the chisel just tends to chip it, but once through that into the glass itself the chisel is much better at slicing layers off, though it can be a bit too good at times if it gets under a layer of matting and prises up a huge lump.
23/6/2003
More scraping, fitting and marking of the windscreen and surround.
24/6/2003
Yet more scraping, fitting and marking of the windscreen and surround.
26/6/2003
Even more scraping, fitting and marking of the windscreen and
surround. Getting closer, but still a fair way to go. At least the car
will be a bit lighter by the time I've finished...
28/6/2003
Drove up to Tiger to borrow a Sierra carb (Weber 32/36 DGAV) and
manifold from lister Paul, who was picking his kit up at the
time. Once back home, the coolant was drained (leaving a nice rusty
stain on the drive), and the smoky old carbs and manifold were removed
in one lump after the fuel and heater hoses were disconnected.
Turns out that it was worthwhile doing this anyway, as the copper pipe thing that screws into the manifold for the heater hose was totally clogged up with a weird transparent jelly. There was none of it in the head or in the hose, it was all in the connector, so it must have been from some reaction between the copper and the alloy casting.
The unused vacuum connections on the Sierra manifold (for crankcase breather and brake servo) were blocked off, the fuel line was extended and a new alloy p-clip made to hold it in the right position, and after popping to the local motor factors to get a new manifold gasket, it was fitted to the engine, and the fuel and water lines were connected up.
29/6/2003
The coolant system was given a bit of a rinse by pouring some clean
water into the header tank, and the two steel joins in the large hoses
were removed and replaced by stainless versions (which actually came
off a decades old milking machine...). The mild steel ones were
covered with rust, inside and out, so the stainless should last much
better, and then the system was refilled.
The crankcase breather hose was rerouted slightly, due to the different manifold shape, and the hoses over the top of the engine and around the carb were tidied up a bit with cable ties to stop them rubbing.
Then, it was time to start the engine. After giving the fuel pump time to fill the carb, I turned the key and it started straight away. I left it running for a short while then stopped to check for any leaks, but it was fine and wasn't giving out any smoke which was the main thing. Unfortunately the battery was a bit too low to be able to restart it, so it was left to charge over lunchtime.
AFter the battery had had time to recover, it started again and I left it running for a lot longer to check for any smoke, and that things started to warm up properly. Holding a bit of paper next to the tailpipe didn't show up any smoke, but due to the lining of soot left in the system from the other carbs, there were a few flecks of this being fired out.
Next was trying to figure out what to do for the throttle cable. The manifold has a huge bracket sticking out to the left which the Sierra cable outer sits in, but as I'd trimmed the outer for the Dellortos which are effectively closer to the pedal, its now not long enough to reach, so I'll have to sort something else out.
30/6/2003
Marked the edges of the top tunnel carpet section, and then started
trimming the side carpet sections so that they just go under the edges
of the top section.
Total hours this month -
74.0
Total build hours -
1966.0
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