DONE ........... well maybe .........

Time to report that to all intents and purposes the car is 100% complete and ready for IVA. The only hold up is waiting for a new relay which is en route from the USA and should be here this week. The pictures are of me sitting in the car as this is probably the last I shall see of it as Joe is keeping it in his garage so dad driving it is probably a pipe dream !!!
We couldn't have done this without the friends we have made on the blogs and the forum and I am very grateful. 3 hours today 263 hours total .... 21st April to 21st October.

Brumm Brumm ....................

The car was largely complete today with the exception of a few minor items but we were impatient to see if we could get it to run properly. To cut a long story short I enlisted the help of Tony from Falcon Auto Centre. I had reams of printed paper from the ecu manufacturer, from the syncronometer manufacturer and from various blogs on the net ! Tony laughed and asked for a piece of rubber tube ! the linkage set up was a country mile out which is why I couldn't get the syncronometer to make any sense. He disconnected the throttle body interconnect, set up the butterfly gap at idle and then got the engine to idle with his rubber tube and finally used the syncronometer to get the bodies spot on. The engine now idles happily with no vibration and seems to run very smooth, why do people like Tony make it look so easy !! of course I would have found the answer (in about a month LOL)

Joe and Tony listening to the purr !

We then had a sneaky test run on the close, all seems to work as it should. The snag list is down to about a dozen items which are probably another couple of hours work. Last job tonight was to fit the rear diffuser with sikaflex and a couple of black rivets, held in place with the trolley jack until morning. Forms for IVA done so as soon as we get a new relay from the states we will be done. 7 hours today 260 hours total.


2012-10-20 15.55.42 from Joe Bromley on Vimeo.

Finishing straight ..............

After a time away from the car attending to other matters we regrouped this morning to push on. First job of the day was to finish the boot locks, Joe had some fun and games getting the locks as neat and the slots as compact as he could, a very slow process which took almost three hours of messing around and numerous trial fits. However at the end Joe produced a really neat slot and two locks which work smoothly, so much for a five minute job !

Finished boot lid.

I had earlier managed to take a small chip of gelcoat from the edge of the rear return where it goes over the bulkhead carpet, we purchased a thin black gloss trim strip which fits perfectly and disguises the chip, although in retrospect it has finished behind the seat and wouldn't have been visible, but I guess we would have known it was there.

Black edging strip.

Pushing on we drilled the holes for the seats, a pity they don't fit the supplied ones and are very close to the edge, a little time consuming and fiddly, I strongly recommend making a template of the seat base, all lines up much easier then ! Carpets were next and then seats and belts all fitted very well with no drama. We fitted carbon chassis rail covers which were double side taped on top of the supplied leatherette ones and were cut to fit under the side panels making a very neat finish.

Carpets and harnesses in place

Carbon chassis rail covers

Finally seats in place and we could sit in and make brum brum noises !!! must take my medication !

Seats in place

Joe trying car for size

We have not fitted the steering wheel as yet as we have to lose some material from the rear of the plastic boss which interferes with the padded dash, however not too concerned about that as the supplied steering wheel may be removed just after IVA ! and replaced. 10 hours today and hoping for similar tomorrow, shortly will only be the snag list left ! 253 hours total.

Short sunday ...................

Just a few hours today forging on ...
Managed to correct the wiper blade angle by a combination of repositioning the rubbers and a gentle tweak of the wiper arms. The blades are now much more parallel to the windscreen and appear to do an acceptable job. We drilled the holes for the shoulder harness and fitted the eyed bolts I am not sure as they are too short will do some reading. We ran the engine again all appears well but am not convinced the water temperature gauge is working, although it could be we did not get it hot enough. The idle is very rough but will just about keep going when the engine has warmed up. We cleaned out the interior ready for seats and carpets and fitted the rubber gaiters to handbrake and gearlever. 3 hours today 243 hours total. My better half was rejoicing as her dining room appeared from under a pile of parts, they may have to move back in yet but I won't spoil it for her for now!

Running with drl on.

Front (after IVA)

Not too much longer !

Unicorn Horn ..................

178 days after paying in full I have a complete kit, the steering arrived yesterday. I had expected it to be made of Unicorn Horn with an fine inlay of Dodo beak polished to perfection but no .... just metal and powder coat. Enough of the sarcasm and onwards ........
The steering fitted into place without too much difficulty and my drain pipe centering idea worked well so no re cutting of the scuttle. We then set about finishing the wiring and installing the dashboard, the work we had done earlier made it a relatively short task and it fitted into place and all still seems to work. The upper trim piece was added and I am pleased with the result. Tomorrow Joe will have to spend some time flat on his back under the dash doing some final tidying but all in all a satisfying few hours work. Ted was most unimpressed and slept in the car all afternoon. We finished the day with attaching the windscreen trim piece which took longer than anticipated and I am still not happy with the final angle of the wiper blades in relation to the screen, some further fiddling necessary tomorrow I think. I have just noticed also that the trim piece is clearly a different gelcoat when under fluorescent light but in daylight the contrast will not be as bad. I would ask WF for a new one but as I am likely to die of old age before receiving it, we will put up with the mismatch ! 4 hours today 240 hours total.

Dash in progress

 

 

Ted got bored !

 

 

 

Dashboard in place

Wiper trim

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.