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2/5/2002
Pilot holes for the hinges were marked and drilled in the boot lid.
5/5/2002
Stoneleigh show - picked up a pair of C spanners for a fiver, and got
a couple of stainless dome headed coach bolts which will be used to
hold down the bodywork between the two roll hoops.
Came to a fairly important decision - I won't bother hinging the doors for now, and will just bolt them in place so that they don't open. This will mean less things to test for SVA, and as the doors are so small it might not be worth bothering to open them anyway. Also, I won't have to spend ages working out the design of some new hinges and fitting them, so will get to use the car slightly earlier... They will only be bolted in place rather than glassed or anything more permanent, so that if it ends up being too awkward to get in and out with the doors closed, I can just unbolt them, fill in the holes and then fit some hinges.
6/5/2002
2 years exactly since I picked the kit up, at an average of about 1.5
hours a day spent working on it - how time flies when you're
redesigning stuff to work...
While setting up to drill out the first set of bolt holes for the boot hinges, my dad suggested that it would be easier to use self tappers for now just to check that it will all work. So, some large screws were found which fitted into the pilot holes perfectly. The boot lid was then put onto the body, and the hinges bolted into place, after some wiggling round to get the hinges onto the bolts.
As expected, the boot could only be opened a small amount, as the box section around the boot lid catches on the lip around the edge of the hole in the bodywork. So, the bits to be chopped off were worked out, the hinges were unbolted and the lid removed, and more of the bodywork chopped and filed. This was repeated numerous times, as I didn't want to take too much off in one go. The shape of the rear rhs corner of the boot lid meant that even removing the whole lip from the bodywork wouldn't be enough, so a section of the box was chopped from the lid. A lot more had to be removed from the lower edge of the lid, as this was also catching on the bodywork.
Once enough grp had been removed, the lid could open all of the way. It even went far enough to stay open by itself, which I wasn't sure would happen. The lower lip on the bodywork is different thicknesses on each side, so the hinge was hitting the left side and not the right, so recesses were filed into the lip to allow the hinges to open a bit further.
7/5/2002
Spent more time filing off edges that were still rubbing (including
taking a fair amount off the whole lower edge of the lid), and took a
bit more off the lower lip to allow it to open further.
8/5/2002
More filing of the last few contact points between the lid and the
body - it should now open without rubbing anywhere. Also marked and
drilled the mounting holes for the numberplate light, and cut a bit of
inner tube to go behind it as the boot lid isn't flat so the light
wouldn't sit properly on it and get a half decent watertight seal.
9/5/2002
Drilled and cut a hole in the rhs of the box on the boot lid, which
will allow access to the holes for the hinge bolts so that nuts can be
fitted. Then made a start on drilling out the pilot holes to 6mm for
the bolts.
10/5/2002
Marked and drilled/filed out the bolt holes for rhs hinge in the boot
lid and the hinge.
11/5/2002
Decided to wind up the spring platforms on the shock absorbers, while
the whole car is off the ground. Not really sure where they should be,
but put all four of them to approximately 1/2 the adjustment height.
Cut a hole in the lhs of the boot box to allow access to the hinge bolts, and then drilled/filed out the bolt holes. Unfortunately, they didn't all quite line up properly, so that when they were bolted in place the hinges wouldn't fit over the bolts in the bodywork, so after the holes were enlarged slightly I managed to get it all back together, this time leaving the boot bolts slack, bolting the hinges to the bodywork, then tightening the boot bolts and marking on the position of the hinges, so that next time it should all line up properly first time.
I also had to remove another load off the bottom edge of the boot lid, which was catching on the bodywork again when it was opened.
12/5/2002
Worked out the exact position of the M5 rivnut holes for the ends of
the hinges, and then filed out the pilot hole to match (I didn't trust
drilling it, as its too easy for the grp to chip). I fitted one rivnut
to check that it would be fine, and then filed out the holes for the
others.
14/5/2002
Fitted the rest of the rivnuts to the boot lid, accompanied by lots of
lovely crunching noises - hopefully they don't end up damaging the
grp.
. As the only purpose of these is to hold the hinge against the boot lid, the sideways location of the hinge isn't important. So, I drilled out the bolt holes to 5.5mm so that the bolts don't end up being too tight, as this is easier than filing out the holes in the hinge to match the position of the rivnut in the boot, as all of the holes have wandered a bit from the original marked positions.
After a little bit more bending of the hinges to fit the lid properly again (due to the end now being held flat when bolted down, which it never was before), it was all bolted up and fitted onto the bodywork again. It decided to catch in a different position on the lower edge this time, so that was filed down, but apart from that seemed fine.
So, the next thing is to reinforce the first bends in the hinges with some extra steel strips, as the thin hinges on their own are a bit wobbly.
15/5/2002
Cut a length of 3x25mm steel strip, and then bent it to fit over the
lower section of the lhs boot hinge, which took a while to get a close
fit. The bolt holes for the hinge onto the boot overlap, so these were
drilled out, and other holes to rivet the lower parts together were
marked and punched.
16/5/2002
The rivet holes were drilled out in the strip and the hinge, and then
a strip for the rhs hinge was cut, shaped and the bolt holes were
drilled.
17/5/2002
Marked and drilled the rivet holes in the rhs hinge. Then the bolt
holes in both straps and in the rhs hinge were countersunk to fit the
bolts that will be used.
18/5/2002
Painted the boot hinge strengthening strips, the boot hinges where
paint had come off at the bends, the three lower dash brackets, and
the small throttle return spring bracket.
Next I decided to sort out the bodywork between the roll hoops, which is going to be bolted down using the domed stainless coach bolts I bought at Stoneleigh.
First, the position of the extra chassis tube that is attached between the roll hoops was marked onto the bodywork. As with cutting the roll hoop holes, this was far from easy, due to the shape and angle of the bodywork. Then, I decided on the positions of the bolt holes, trying to keep them evenly spaced on the bodywork (as the chassis tube and bodywork don't line up). These were marked, checked multiple times, and then drilled. As I'm using coach bolts, a square hole is needed in the bodywork to stop the bolt from turning, so this was marked around the drilled hole, then carefully filed out to fit the bolt.
Once the bodywork hole was ready, I was able to mark and drill the hole in the chassis rail. This was made difficult as this section of bodywork slopes down towards the front of the car, and to get the bolt heads to sit flat against the bodywork, the bolts need to go through the chassis at an angle. So, these were carefully marked and checked, then drilled out.
After the bolts had been trimmed to the correct length, they both went in fine after an extra bit of filing of the bodywork hole to fit.
Next, something was needed to support the bodywork around the holes, so that the bolts don't just keep pulling it down. Wood to the rescue again, and a couple of small blocks were cut, drilled and shaped to fit, along with a small section of inner tube to go on the grp side of the block.
19/5/2002
The dash was put in place so that I could finally work out where to
put the heater vent holes. I had already marked on where the shrouding
underneath ends up, so based on that could decide where the holes
could go.
As the bodywork curves round so much along the front edge of the dash, there is no easy reference to work from. Also, the inside edge of the lip to support the windscreen isn't even, so I can't just draw a curve round based on that. So, I sat the windscreen in place and worked out where the black edge on it ends up, which is the same width all along the lower edge. Rather than trying to drill/cut a curved hole, I'm going to keep it simple and do straight dashed lines of holes. So, using the screen as the reference I marked the start and end points of the lines, and then could join the dots. These lines were then moved towards the rear of the car until they lined up with the vent shroud positions underneath, and marked again.
Now, all I've got to do is work how how many holes there are going to be along the two lines, and how wide they should be, and then very carefully mark and drill them out.
While the dash was in place, I put the steering wheel on and a seat in so that I could check the visibility of the instruments through the wheel. Paper templates of the instruments were stuck onto the dash in the position I'd decided on ages ago (alternating big and small, with a small in the centre), with the speedo on the right and the rev counter on the left. With the 14" Polo wheel fitted I could see the speedo numbers up to around 100mph, and the top few thousand of the rev counter. I can now cut out the holes in the dash, and also make a matching flat metal plate to cover the tatty dash grp with.
Of course, when I get round to fitting a smaller wheel (probably around 12") the visibility will be totally different, so things might be rearranged then...
21/5/2002
Decided to split the two vents up into two shorter sections, so there
are now four lines marked. As the hose enters the alloy shrouding in
the centre, then breaking the vents up into two sections should
hopefully stop all of the air just coming out of the middle. So, these
were measured, marked with pen, then taped over with masking tape and
marked again with a pencil.
I double checked the position of the holes in relation to the alloy shrouding, and they are just a bit too close, so I will be moving both the holes and the alloy away from each other slightly so that there should be plenty of clearance between them.
I then spent a while trying to work out what pattern to do the vents in. The main problem is that long straight lines will be difficult to drill and file out accurately, so a bunch of short lines should be easier. Decided on a dashed line of 1.5cm holes with 1cm gaps between them, which will be around 3.5mm wide.
22/5/2002
I did what I should have done earlier - fixed the dash in place using
the screws through the dash clips, so that I know its in the proper
position. I then double checked the positions of the markings again,
and found out that the rhs one was slightly out. So, this was marked
in the proper position, and the dashed lines were drawn on the masking
tape. The first pilot hole was drilled using a 3mm drill so that there
will be space either side of it to file the edges of the hole flat.
23/5/2002
Finished drilling and filing out the first slot. It seems fine, but
getting the edges lined up with the marks on the masking tape isn't
easy, so I decided to mark through the tape onto the grp for the other
slots using a sharp pointed nail. This way it makes filing out the
holes to the right size and shape much easier. The first row of holes
was then drilled out (by doing two holes at one end, one at the other,
filing the two holes together and then using a junior hacksaw blade to
chop out the middle bit), and most of them were filed out to the right
size.
24/5/2002
Finished off filing the first row of holes to shape, then marked and
drilled the 2nd row, and started filing them.
25/5/2002
Finished off all of the vent holes, which took most of the day. Fitted
the dash to check the positions, and they seem to be alright. I then
filed out the undersides of the holes to get rid of the sharp edges,
which might help the air to flow out through the holes, but probably
won't make any difference at all...
Now that all of the holes were done, I could accurately work out where the alloy has to be positioned on the underside of the dash. They were lined up so that they just overlapped the vents, and the positions marked. As they have moved slightly, they needed a bit of reshaping for them to sit flat on the grp.
Next, worked out the exact positions of the instruments, and marked their centres, measuring the marks to try and get it done as accurately as possible.
26/5/2002
Cut a paper template for the dash pod, so that I can cut a thin sheet
of steel to fit. Then, the holes required for the instruments were
measured, scored onto the dash using a sharpened double pointed
compass, and then they were drilled and filed out to fit. This took
quite a while, with around 250 holes drilled around the edges of the
five holes, then a lot of filing needed to get the holes to the right
shape and size.
Then I decided on the arrangement of the dash switches (lights, heater fan, hazards, for light and radiator fan override), and marked up the positions of the holes needed on the flat section on the lhs of the dash. The switches were also given a clean, as they were a bit mucky from years of use in their original cars.
28/5/2002
Marked on the holes for the rotary switches, which have a threaded
section that will pass through the dash and which is held in place
with a nut and washer. There is a flat side to the threaded section to
stop it turning round, so I had to work out where this wants to go,
and then mark it on the dash. The way the switches work they both
start at the bottom and get turned up to work, with one going
clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, so it ends up that the flat
section goes vertically, on opposite sides for each switch, which
makes it a bit easier to work out.
I then drilled, hacksawed and filed out the first push switch hole. The rear end of the switch is slightly bigger than the top, so the hole has to be big enough for it to pass in, but then it moves around a bit when sat in place, so depending on how well it fits once a plate has been made to go over the grp it might need wedging in place to stop it moving.
29/5/2002
Cut out the holes for the other two push switches, but they still need
filing out to exactly the right size.
30/5/2002
Finished shaping the last 2 push switch holes, then drilled and filed
out the two rotary switch holes.
31/5/2002
Rivetted the support bars to the boot hinges, then marked and drilled
the holes that needed making on the body and boot lid for the backs of
the rivets to poke into.
I also had a play around with the selection of LEDs and resistors that I have. A while ago I worked out the resistors needed for a 14V supply, but the red ones are still a bit dull so will need slightly smaller resistors to brighten them up a bit. The green and yellow seem about right, but the blue is far too bright and will just be blinding at night, so needs a fairly bigger resistor to dim it down. I tried putting a 3W resistor in parallel with the alternator warning LED (as recommended on the mailing list to allow the regulator in the alternator to start up properly), and not surprisingly it started to heat up. The ignition should never really be left on for a long time without the engine running, but its probably going to be safest to mount it on some metal to keep it cool just in case.
Total hours this month -
54.5
Total build hours -
1140.5
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