More head scratching ............

Yesterday I thought we had conquered all the issues regarding our all in one headlamps ...... not so ! The hazards flash at a normal rate but the indicators are at least twice speed. I now know that a new relay suitable for LED is required or ballast resistors. I have only been able to find one five pin LED relay and it is from a company in the USA, I have sent for it so fingers crossed it will cure the problem, if not then resistors it is ! (EL98 - EP27). Much of this is of course on a wing and a prayer so we will see. Having spent most of the morning reading on the internet about relays and LED's we pushed on to fit the windscreen. Having looked at other blogs we unpacked the doors to use those to help us dictate a correct position. I was surprised to find out we had two nearside doors in the box !, on the off chance I rang my friend who is also building a Westfield but is some way behind us, to ask him to open his box of wet weather gear, thankfully he had two offside doors ! ( I dreaded waiting a Westfield 2-3 weeks for a replacement) a quick detour to his house and a swap and we both had the correct doors. We followed others blogs about the windscreen and decided to seat it on a bead of tiger seal which we could tidy up when all was attached. We masked the black windscreen surround and applied tiger seal much like sealing a bath and managed to get the interior neat which we were worried about, the windscreen is now sitting on plenty of sealant so hopefully when the front trim is sealed as well all should be watertight. Having got the windscreen done we packed up for the day as the temptation to fiddle with sealant thinking you can get it a little more perfect is always there !!! We seem to have reached a stage where everything takes longer than anticipated, the light at the end is growing brighter though ! 4 hours work today and a lot of reading 236 hours total.

Screen exterior seal

Screen interior seal

Looking a bit like it should !

Wiring Wizard .....................

Boy did we need one !!!!!!! a long time today head scratching as to how we made our choice of headlamps work ! We had decided we wanted the all in one headlamps, some I know think they are fugly but having seen them in the flesh thought they looked okay so once again emptied the wallet !
No doubt those of you who are wizards at wiring will find our tale amusing but we came upon some issues we had not anticipated and which caused us to use the grey matter. We had anticipated that to make day running lights legal they had to go off when side or head lights were selected so from e bay I bought a wiring harness with a relay built in which was perfect for the job, at least the blurb said so !!!
After struggling under the car and threading the wire up through the rubber grommet we got it connected and with a multimeter tried the lamp ends to see if all was good, it switched alright, but it switched the negative wire not the live feed. As the all in ones use a common earth for LED side, this unit was as much good as a chocolate fireguard. I did open the relay to see if we could re position the wires but found out it contained a dimmer unit which we did not need and was encased in resin so not modifiable. Back to the drawing board. A visit to our local suppliers and we purchased a relay, mount and some wire and without too much trouble simplified what we needed and miracles it worked, the relay attaches to the others so will be very neat when finished.

Relays new SRB 501.

The DRL now switched as required home free now !!!!   ............ err not quite !

The headlamps in these units work by an illuminated bulb which has a shield which raises and lowers for dip and beam. It follows the bulb must stay illuminated all the time because it is the same whether on dip or beam. Of course the car is wired so when beam is selected the dip wire is off so we had dip and off !! not good !. Having worked out that we needed a constant live for the bulb and use the other wire as a switch wire a bit of head scratching and Joe was able to work out how to make our dip switch do this. A bit fiddly with lots of small links but after an age all worked. Not everyones cup of tea but we like them ! and they certainly taught us how to think about wiring !

Rear of dip switch

Plugs from light units 

DRL

Headlights

  

DRL and Hazards

Teach us to modify stuff 7 hours today to get the lights working and hinge the bonnet. 232 hours total.

Happy Birthday to You ..................

Joe's birthday today, he came down around lunchtime looking very frayed around the edges after being out on the town last night ! no sympathy at all. Dad has never done these things obviously !!

We had come up with a plan to get carbon on the rear wheelarches which didn't involve taking a mortgage for the German carbon panels, nor settling for the dummy ones. Joe applied clear stoneguard to the arches first to cover most of the curved areas and then having bought flexible carbon panel cut the panel to suit and applied it over the stoneguard. The look is more what we wanted without breaking the bank and should be effective and replaceable if need be !. We also fitted the headlight carriers and fairings to the bonnet which having used some tiger seal we have to leave overnight before we can finally put the bonnet on. I still have no steering parts so will have to struggle with the bonnet in place or delay further. Getting ever closer. 4 hours today so 225 hours total.

Joe applying clear film

Carbon Panel

Minor details ...................

A couple of hours today, finished securing the bodywork to the underside and double checked all was secure at the rear before screwing the boot liner in place, made sure all bolts were marked as secure, I am sure this detail all helps for IVA. Joe had designed some plaques for the fusebox lids for easy ID so we attached those may be worth the effort some dark night ! Spoke to WF and arranged for the correct lower steering assembly to be delivered I think the upper one is still a pipe dream for now.

Fuse labels laser machined.

Next job is to collect the final pieces from my friends house and then start on the interior. 221 hours total.

Weekend finished .......

Buoyed with enthusiasm after a successful if rough engine run, we pressed on with the front end and jobs still to do. The front sides were secured to the chassis with large headed rivets to the underside only issue was making sure I knew where the chassis was and was not drilling into fresh air !
Joe was wrapping up the front end by fitting the repeaters to the wings and neatening wiring and other routings. The small repeaters are great compared to the larger ones originally supplied. We fitted 2 pin gold plugs to the repeaters making sure we could if needed remove the whole wings in one piece, hopefully we will never need to ! We corrected a fuel leak from the rear hose where it joined the metal pipe, the jubilee clip was seated incorrectly and it was a straightforward fix which seems ok now.

Wing with repeater fitted

Protected wire and Sikaflex adhesive

Heat shrinking insulation on Deans plugs

Tidy wires and brakes

More LED's yay !!

6 hours today 219 hours total we reckon about 80% there now !

Igor - yes master " Its Alive !!! "

Today was something of a momentous day for us the car finally came alive. I would like to say all was simple but some idiot had connected the fuel lines wrongly to the regulator and instead of acting as a non return valve it was acting as a no pass valve to the fuel rail, amazing how ingenious idiots are ! don't know who was responsible but it couldn't possibly be me !
I worked out how to hot wire the car as I don't have a steering column, took me longer than your average car thief I do know. Had a minor coolant weep and a very slight fuel weep both seemingly cured by tightening the jubilee clips so better than I anticipated. A couple of hours work today filling and checking things but resulted in this, running as rough as a bears axxe but running !

Walking around making Brmm Brmm noises tonight ! 2hrs today 213 total !
must remember to take that medication !!! LOL

Wipe away the sweat !!!! ..............

Having decided that my windscreen wipers are coming to a park at the wrong side of the screen and hence not wipe the bit in front of the driver, it was time to try and alter the motion to suit. Of course with the scuttle firmly attached and plumbed in, it is the devils own job to remove the motor and effect the change. A liberal application of foul and abusive language where the parentage of the vehicle designer was questioned in full, I managed to remove the motor, remove the gearbox cover and on the hidden side of the driving sprocket reveal the mystical nylon detent which has to be moved to the corresponding holes 180 degrees opposite. Only one photo I am afraid as I was covered in grease and very foul tempered by then !!. After moving the white nylon thing as per photo, the unit was re assembled and re fitted, again with liberal use of foul language and after having dropped the nuts and washers for the umpteenth time finally got it done. All now seems to work as it should. Be warned if you have not fitted your motor and it shows an arrow pointing away from the motor in the direction of the wiper drive tube then it is more than likely incorrect. My friend popped down with his scuttle which is not fitted and we did the same job in twenty minutes mine took over 2 hours !

Nylon detent to be moved to opposite holes.

2 hours to total today 211 hours total.

Weekend complete ................

Pressing on this weekend we set out to make progress on the dashboard wiring. Of all the tasks left to do this is the one which filled me with the least confidence and worried me in case we damaged something by wiring it wrongly. Nothing ventured nothing gained and we pressed on methodically a switch at a time, like Jon in Somerset our wiring loom was missing most of its outer shells for the wiring so we insulated each individual wire onto the switches with heat shrink . I would like to say we connected the battery and all worked first time, however that would be something of an exaggeration ! I had managed to make a horlicks of the offside rear wiring and we had an interesting hour sorting out the brake/indicator/side lights to work when they should, a simple matter of moving a few pins but a real pain as all had been protected and wrapped to the chassis ! misplaced confidence !
The instruments all came alive as they should and fingers crossed when we fire her up for the first time they will indicate. We had managed to label a few wires incorrectly and had a number of warning lights working incorrectly but by a process of elimination got it sorted. We wired in the Westfield self cancelling indicators which interestingly will not work when all four indicator bulbs are LED, we have to run LED bulbs at the front and ordinary incandescent at the rear for the unit to work correctly, however apart from that minor annoyance the unit works well. We now have 95% of the wiring done and working we are only left with the wipers, they work fine but where they are parking I have no idea so we will fit arms and see what is happening, fingers crossed they will be ok. The last job we have not wired as yet is the heated screen loom so have just to work that out. Feel very relieved that all is almost done and we only blew one fuse so far. You will note the vital tool required for the wiring job, the i pad on Joes knee with Jons blog photos ! helped no end thanks Jon !!. All at long last seems to be coming together so hopefully if there are no banana skins we are feeling far more confident of seeing our car on the road.

Scuttle modified to fit dash with rivnuts

Joe with dash and I pad looking like he knows what he is doing !!

Wiring almost complete ready to fit dash.

Both wings finally attached.

Balance of work from yesterday and today (total 12 hrs) making 209hrs running total !

Success ..............

After much messing around my wing attachment plan has worked as intended and all appears to be bonded fine, worth the effort not to drill the things I think !

Wing finally mounted 

Front mounting captive nuts

Rear mounting captive bolts

Moving onward now with fitting dashboard and wiring all up ! being extremely confident of what we are doing I have bought a box of 120 fuses !! watch this space !

another 3 hours of slow progress today 197 hours total.

Cycle wings plan .........

My brass strip idea for mounting the wings continues to have promise. Today I tided up the unwanted P40 and then put a layer of glass cloth over the mounts, they seem very firmly attached, time will tell !
Joe insisted I gave them a lick of black paint despite the fact no one will ever see them !!

Bonded strip

Splash of black paint

Joe's attention to detail continued with the machining of silver surrounds for the rocker switches to match the push buttons, panel looks better than original equipment I confess !

Dash ready to fit

Just an hour today messing with fibreglass, however we now have boot lid to fit and headlamp fairings.

194 hours total.

Busy weekend .................

Onwards today although other commitments meant I left Joe to it for some time, strange how he got more done without me !!
The day started with the roll bar fitting, we have the standard one so much easier than the complex RAC type. It took a long time to modify it for the high level light and getting the wire to thread through the closed end bar was a devil of a job. However Joe persevered and made a super job of drilling and filing the body to suit . Whilst I was away he also fitted the fuel filler cap which does look very nice and seems a quality item. Of course fitting these items is not a quick job as an error could be very costly so slowly does it is the order of the day !

Roll bar and filler cap

The only problem with the roll bar is the manufacturer had powder coated the securing bolts so it was impossible to use them so need to buy a couple tomorrow.

The cycle wings and my attachment system were next, a chap kindly wrote to me from the forum and I have taken his advice and used Isopon P40 for the initial attachment . First a couple of views of my brass mounts ...

Captive bolts at one side

Captive nuts at the other

The arms of the cycle wing carriers were protected with plastic and the bolts protected with vaseline .....

You will note the use of the nice smelling vaseline, I think I am going to be in the sh1t when she notices it missing from her handbag ! hopefully I can get to boots tomorrow morning and replace it before she notices ! Anyway the car has priority !!

Next job was to position a wing and rough up where the brass plates will sit ............

Cycle wing interior

Then on with a huge dollop of P40 and place the wings in position

Isopon P40 covering brass mount

After taking the dog for a walk we removed the wing and all had stuck firmly in place, with a little tidying with the dremel we were able to re fit the wing onto its carriers, I could breathe out now !

Wing refitted after glue

All that remains is to glass cloth the mounts on the underside and all should be well, of course if they drop off the first time we drive the car I will know my cunning plan was a failure ! I have however tried to pull them off as hard as I can and the stuff sticks like sugar to a blanket !! A really good weekend making huge progress maybe not so many winters nights after all !

another 8 hour day today 193 total.

Pressing on ....................

Another long day today getting to the stage where everything takes a little longer as where the body is involved can't afford to make any mistakes ! First job of the day was to install our imaginary steering column (piece of waste pipe) and position using dashboard to establish the cut out in the front edge of the scuttle.

Once we were happy it was as near as a piece of waste pipe could be we were able to mark out and dremel the scuttle front edge to suit.

Scuttle front edge relieved to clear steering column waste pipe

Having earlier secured the sides of the body in place with a couple of large head rivets we were able to find and expose the fitted scuttle rivnuts using the woodbit method from Jons blog which works superbly well. We then fitted two cap heads into the rivnuts and applied paint to them.

Cap heads in situ

Wet paint on cap head

The scuttle was then fitted into place on the wet cap heads and voila accurate holes for the bolts

Bottom edge of scuttle

The scuttle was now finally secured in place using stainless cap heads and washers

Scuttle securing bolts

Now that the scuttle was in place Joe got to fit his header tank and the red hoses which he had been salivating about for some time

Engine bay

A little work on the rear we fitted the number plate light and couldn't resist a pic with the number in place !

Rear (obvious really LOL)

Number plate light

Final job of a long day was to fit the exhaust, everything takes longer than anticipated, getting the pipe angles correct to put as little strain on the manifold as possible took a while fiddling around, but we got there in the end

Carbon can

9 hrs today 185 total.