BUILD ~ NOVEMBER 2003

1 & 2/11/2003

More work on the wiring, mainly trying to figure out the operation of the left stalk for headlight beam/flash, indicators and hazards.  Approached it by looking at wiring diagrams for the relay and for a Ford Sierra, armed with bits of information I soldered and crimped the connections I was confident on and have then stopped to consider the others in more detail.

Also stuck some wing piping onto the back edge of the bonnet, chosen to glue this to the bonnet rather than to the scuttle for two reasons.  Firstly it will protect the bonnet when it is off the car and secondly that it would be difficult to do neatly on the scuttle unless I was to then face the scuttle in polished ali plate.

Now that Dad has straightened up the front of the headlamp shells, I painted the front edge with blue gelcoat in order to better disguise the edge.

 

Sunday, brought the temporary wooden dashboard into the house and carried on with its wiring loom.  I moved the warning lights (except indicators) from in front of the driver into the centre section, this was mainly as they were too crowded and would be largely obscured by the hazard switch that sticks out the top of the column shroud.  With this done I also wired up the remaining switches.

Back in the garage I worked on the hole in the centre of the bonnet for the air filter.  It is large enough to allow positioning of the bonnet, but will require further work once the exact position is decided.  Keeping it smaller than total requirement is much safer!

 

3 to 7/11/2003

Nothing due to late evenings at work and cold outside.

 

8 & 9/11/2003

Away Sailing

 

10 to 14/11/2003

Nothing due to late evenings at work and cold outside.

 

15 & 16/11/2003First side carpet glued in place. Plenty of wedges for 24 hours whilst Copydex sets.

Returned to fitting carpets, this time the long offside cockpit carpet, once trimmed round rails and a little off the length it was glued in place and wedged tight for a couple of days.

DRB_0205_Washer bottle plumbed in.jpg (43036 bytes)As this needed to set, I moved onto the scuttle and fitted the screen wash bottle along with pipe and wiring.  Then continued with other scuttle electrics.

 

 

 

 

17 to 21/11/2003

A bit of time off work this week, anyway job one was over a concern with the alternator.  I have not been able to get the charge warning light to come on (i.e. before you start the engine), so as a confidence boost I removed it from the car and took it to the local Lucas dealer.  They need to hold onto it for a while, so I went down to the Nissan agent for a brochure on the 350Z before going home for lunch.

Mum was then dragged into helping with the carpet, and we have ended up with another piece prep'd.  Need to start gluing some more bits in soon.  Did not carry on for long, as I had a test drive booked in the Mazda RX-8, oh and to collect the alternator whilst on route.  Lucas gave it a clean bill of health, but did also tell me the electrical connections for the alternator (different to those from V8D).

Alternator and mount before re-fitting to car.

Tuesday, before re-fitting the alternator I took the following picture.  Some people on the list have had trouble getting an alternator and bracket to fit.  This is a Magnetti Marelli unit, on what I believe to be a John Eales mount.  Anyway pic may help somebody.  The alternator had tested fine, and had been charging, just the pin I had been told was the warning light (marked as "W"), wasn't.  I need to use the middle pin, which is labelled "D".  Oh well, £6 is not too bad for piece of mind.

Next it was a little more carpeting and attachment of the revised seat brackets that Dad has made and painted.  That was pretty much it for this week.

 

 

22 & 23/11/2003

Saturday started late, WE WON THE RUGBY.  By mid afternoon, I was sober enough to work on the Dax and got stuck back into the electrics.  I am now working on the lights and flashers/hazards, by far the most complicated bit of the electrics are the Ford column stalks.  However, I think I now have it figured, thus ran the wires in the scuttle, fitting the headlight relays and flasher unit as well as putting multi-connectors on the stalks.  I find this is best done with the scuttle off the car.

 

Sunday, a little more work on the electrics.  I finish wiring the stalks for lights and hazards, I have made my own life slightly complicated by putting the light switch on the dash, but keeping the Ford stalk for the high beam etc.  With this done the scuttle was re-fitted to the car and multi-plugs connected.  I also temporarily fitted the SVA bars and lights, and rear indicators so I can test the indicators.  I am pleased to announce they now work, the high beam flash works, but sadly dip beam doesn't.  A little more thought is required!  Also can't work out why the air horns sound strangled and are intermittent.  Worked fine last time the scuttle was fitted.  Oh and the charge warning light now comes on.

 

24 to 28/11/2003

Just two quick trips into the garage tonight as it is freezing outside.  Trying to get the dip beam working, tried different stalk connections first that got me dip beam, but then would not select high.  Then it was a case of third time lucky, all the original connections plus an additional earth and it all worked.  So now all the electrics are tested except the wipers.

After some offering up, I have decided the approximate nose cone position and that it should clear the SVA bars enough to fit via pivots at the front corners.  So next job will be to fit the pivots.

 

29 & 30/11/2003Thickwall tube being fibreglassed into the nose cone to act as a pivot.

Fitted my pivots to the nose cone, these were fitted with resin and over the coming days I will build up a bit of a layer of glass to ensure they are strong enough.  At the same time did some more fibre glassing on my attempt at a steering cowl. 

Then moved to carpet, and finished the trimming of the back panel carpet, decided the plan of attack for the tunnel carpet and then fitted the first of the corner bulkhead carpets.

That's all for this weekend as I have a RYA First Aid at Sea course tomorrow.

 

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Last Updated 29/11/2003