Finished wiring the lights

That's that then. Finished wiring the lights in the boot:

Having completed wiring all the lighting I set about checking everything - including hazards and indicators - using a 12v power probe on the main body loom dashboard connectors. Everything checked out OK.

With no news on the windscreen front it looks like I might have to start thinking about fitting the dreaded roll hoops!

More Lights and Exhausts

Fitted the last of the lights tonight - the reversing light and the fog light. I carefully marked the position of the lights to get them centred - but when I fitted the exhaust tail pipes it soon became obvious that the exhausts were off centre by about an inch or so. So there was nothing for it but to crawl underneath and slacken of the rear rubber hanger - pull the exhaust across with a ratchet strap and tighten it all up again - oh for a four poster lift!! The next problem was the length of the tailpipes:A bit too long - OK if you have the rear nudge bar fitted - but I'm not going to have one. So - out with the grinder and 2" was lopped off the tailpipes:Much better:
Now looking at this picture I think I still need to move the exhaust to nearside a bit more - don't know how much adjustment is left??

With all the lights fitted and can now finish off the loom in the boot - tomorrows job.

Note: This foglight will not pass SVA as it does not have a parabolic reflector - so I'll have to come up with a temporary SVA fix.

Wiring the front lights

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the headlights and front indicators have a lot of excess wiring. On factory cars this all appears to be pushed back through the holes in the inner wing - connected together with bullet connectors and bundled up - in a place which is pretty awkward to get to

I didn't fancy doing this.... so instead I got hold of some proper waterproof headlamp connectors and cut the loom and lamp wires back. There are four wires to each headlight and two to each indicator. However the indicators have wires that loop out to the side repeaters. Because most waterproof connectors employ wire seals that only work on single wires - you need to use a four way connector for the indicators but loop the wires like this:

The rest is straightforward if a little cramped working inside the wheelarch. The two connectors were fixed to the inner wing with two p-clips with a single fixing:

A much tidier job.... and much easier to remove the lights when it is eventually time for painting. One thing I've noticed.... all these small jobs seem to take longer than I thought?

More Lights

I decided to continue fitting the lights - this time at the rear - the idea being that this allows me to finish off all the electrical looms,

It seemed to take a long time to fit the four rear lights but this was mainly due to taking my time to ensure both sides were level and spaced the same:

Next I thought I would fit the number plate light,,,, easier said than done! The cable for the light has to run between the two boot lid skins along the strengthening rib. First of all it has to pass through the hinge and into the boot lid (remove the hinge whilst propping the boot lid so you can take it off to drill the holes):

For the life of me I could not get my cable puller pushed all the way round the strengthening rib as the corners were too tight. So I had to resort to what the factory do and drill two holes in the corners:

When done a grommet soon tidies the holes up:

You will need to remove the boot latch to help feed the cable. I found my cable needed extending and the boot latch hole was a convenient place to do this.

I drilled the holes for the fixing bolts on the outer skin but drilled a bigger hole on the inner skin. This allows enough room to get a socket in to tighten the fixing:

And when you are done two more grommets again make it a tidy job:

So there goes another day in the garage - slow progress - but I'm finding it takes longer doing these kind of things as it will be obvious if something is not level or doesn't match across the car.

More Parts & Progress

Picked up the next batch of parts yesterday - with one notable exception - the windscreen. Supplier problems means it will be at least a few weeks until this is ready. Also the steering column wasn't finished.... but I can't fit that until the screen is in so it didn't really matter. In addition quite a few of the bits I picked up can't be fitted until the screen is in - lets hope it's not going to be too long?

I started the day with a bit of an awkward task..... fitting the front under-tray. The tray fits between the radiator frame mounts and the radiator itself. Now obviously I didn't fancy taking the rad out! So the solution is to offer up the tray and mark where the radiator fixing bolts will go - and then cut some slots:

In order to create some room for the tray to fit between the rad and it's mounts I slackened off the radiator lower fixings (don't take them out... they are a bugger to get back in) and loosened the radiator support frame bolts. I could then use two bits of wood to move the rad up a few mm. It all then turns into a bit of a Chinese puzzle .... but eventually it was in and the rad fixings tightened up again:

The tray also bolts through the inner arches and helps to pull them in and stiffen them up:

All that was left to do then was to bolt the oil cooler to the tray:

Job Done! Having spent most of the morning mucking on with the tray I was after some instant (relatively) gratification... so I fitted the front indicators and headlights:

Big difference... really starting to look like a car now. I didn't fit the rubber sealing rings on the headlights as by omitting them it allows the headlamp surround rings to fit flush to the body. Any water that gets through is only going to get inside the wheelarch...... and it will be wet in there anyway. The wiring with the lights is over long so some alterations are going to be required.

Bonnet Scoop Done

.... Or it will be as soon as I get my hands on some M4 Nylocs. After some more filing, some filling, some sanding and some painting it now looks like this:

The new air cleaner fits a treat:

Off to GD tomorrow for another batch of parts... but it looks like it's gonna be bad news regarding the windscreen.

New Air Cleaner

The new air cleaner arrived and was fitted in no time..... only problem is that the oval cleaners appear to come only in a natural aluminium finish for you to paint yourself.

The new cleaner somehow looks a little more aggressive:

It now stands proud of the bonnet but below the underside of the scoop:

With more than enough room for any engine movement!:

I also bonded the two bonnet skins with Sikaflex - leaving a small gap to make filling easier. That'll be the next job followed by more filing and sanding.

Air Cleaner Thoughts

I think I have managed to convince myself that I'm going to have to do something with the air cleaner. The one fitted at the moment is too close to the underside of the bonnet. One alternative would be this:

This measures 13.5 inches long by 7 inches wide with a 2.5 inch filter element. This gives a filter area of 88 square inches. The filter area of my existing setup is 132 square inches - so this would represent a reduction of one third. Now this would make me worry that it would be too restrictive for the engine - hmmmmmm.

However, lets look at the Cobra oval filters that a lot of the Ford chaps use:

Now these are 21 inches long by 10 inches wide with a 1.75 inch high filter element giving a filter area of 93 square inches - i.e. only 5.6% more than the oval Edelbrock alternative. Furthermore the oval Edelbrock cleaners are used on three-deuce and double-quad set ups:

Three-deuce and double-quad set ups are going to "suck" at lot more air than my carb, so again it should be no problem.

Finally I spoke to my engine builder Jez who confirmed all would be OK..... should have just done that first I suppose!!

The other advantage (as you can see from the above photo) is that unlike the drop base filter I have now, the fuel inlet and throttle mechanisms will be easily accessible. Because the oval filter doesn't have a drop base it will sit higher - above the bonnet but below the bottom of the air scoop. This puts it closer to cooler fresh air which will be no bad thing. It might even leave me enough room to fit a phenolic carb spacer should I find I suffer from fuel vapourisation problems.

Right..... that's me convinced... time for some shopping!

Bonnet Scoop - 2

After a spot of careful marking out and a stiff drink to steady the hand I armed myself with the weapon of choice (Dremel). After an hour of cutting and filing I managed to remove a large chunk of my bonnet!

Cutting out the opening causes the two bonnet skins to separate:

Before I can finish filing and sanding the opening I need to bond the two skins together - waiting for some Sikaflex to arrive :(

Clearance to the air cleaner is about 6-7mm (if I omit 3 nuts either side) as you can see in the picture:

Should be OK as I have polyurethane engine mounts which are virtually solid so there will be very little engine movement. I'll have to see if it is OK on the road - worst case scenario will be to change the air cleaner for an oval jobbie. Although at this moment I think the bonnet is flexible enough to show a gap with the scoop if the three bolts are missing?

When my Sikaflex arrives I'll bond the two skins together, finish off the opening and paint the cut edge and the underside of the scoop and then fit the scoop.