More Carpets and Some Leather

Time for the last big piece of carpet - the rear bulkhead. This was carefully lined up and taped into place before sticking down in a number of sections:Whilst waiting for the for the Evo-Stick to dry ready for bonding, I busied myself with investigating how to fit the seat runners. These need two areas of the seat bottom cutting out to accommodate the seat runner mechanisms:Once cut out everything fits a treat (you will need to shorten the operating wire):Just need to do the other seat now. Next up was to trial fit the leather trim panels:

The bulkhead panel is a tight fit and holds down the tunnel panel. However it needed a bit of modification to achieve this. As received the bulkhead panel fitted tight against the carpet and needed a few mm taken off the bottom to accommodate the tunnel panel underneath. This can be easily done by unsticking the leather and carefully removing a few mm off the bottom edge with the Dremel:The bulkhead panel needs two "secret" fixings to fix it to the bulkhead. To do this mark out the carpet with tape in line with the centre of one of the quilts on the panel and on the tape mark the centres of the two fixings before drilling a small hole at each location:Next offer the panel back into place and mark through from the boot:Next take your Dremel (with the depth stop adjustment fitted!) and cut out two keyhole slots to take an M5 button head bolt:To make the bolts easy to get into the bulkhead itself you can open up the holes in the bulkhead to, Say, M8 and use a repair washer on the back. I can't carry on with fixing these two panels as I need some stainless plate to make a couple of brackets and some stainless self tappers and cup washers. We'll come back to these panels in a few days.

Having come to a bit of halt with the leather panels I thought I would trial fit the handbrake:

Wired it up and the operation seems to be OK - need to fit the last piece of floor carpet and gaiter to finish.

Where does the weekend go? just left this afternoon for a tidy up. Once you get the carpet and leather in you can't help but get bits everwhere from drilling etc. So I tend to clean up every other day to keep on top of the mess!

Finishing the Dashboard

Time for one last upside down episode in the footwell - fitting the under dash covers and the screen pillar cover plates. All pretty straightforward and makes a nice tidy job:Drivers Side: And Passengers Side:And finally, before I forgot, I coated the battery compartment drain outlet with the Isoflex Liquid Rubber:

Visit from the DVLA

A nice Lady from my Local DVLA office turned up today to carry out an inspection. I was fortunate enough to be granted a home visit before SVA for which I was extremely grateful as it saves me a load of grief. So all I need now is to pass the SVA & get my MAC (Ministers Approval Certificate) and then we can crack on with Registration.

Messing about in the Battery Compartment

Thought it was about time to fit the battery, but before that I decided to fit a drain to the compartment. Anecdotal evidence from numerous GD'ers reveals that despite their best efforts water can find its way into the compartment. I made up a drain from a 10mm microbore plumbing fitting with a flange on the back - pushed through from the inside and sealed in place with Sikaflex:

I forgot to take photo's of it being made so will correct that when I do the next one. It would appear to be easier to drill a hole straight down through the floor..... but the floor comprises marine ply sandwiched between fibreglass - marine ply is resistant to moisture but probably best not to eh?

Fitting the battery was pretty easy (2mm to spare on width) - connecting up the leads and "Battery Brain" gubbins was a bit of fiddle in the confined space but after a bit of effin' & jeffin' it was done:

A bit untidy perhaps but little scope to rationalise things - it will look loads better with the cover on! You can see one of the lengths of studding from my home made battery clamp - just painting the straps at the moment.

So what about the battery "brain"does it work?

Check this out:

If you remember I included a lead under the dash connected directly to the battery - bypassing the "Brain" - this allows me to charge / condition the battery without having to remove the wheel and access panel (even when the "Brain" has disconnected the battery) - just plug & play:

Time to re-group and consider the list of outstanding jobs.

Dash Fitted!

Carried on from yesterday by fitting the water temperature sender and fixing the capillaries to the inner wing. It is important to form a couple of loops in a coil between the engine and the body so that engine movement can be accommodated: With everything in place it was time to power up and fire up to check everything functioned OK before fitting the dash: Everything checked out OK so the dash was carefully teased into place - I then removed all the skin off my knuckles doing up the wingnuts on the back to secure it: You can see how the piping rolls over to form a neat edge. Being on a roll I then fitted the stalks and column shroud that I made many months ago: I'm pretty pleased with the end result - really starting to look like a car now!

Only 44 days to go!

Final Dash Fit - 1

After a bit of cleaning up and general double-checking and tidying of things it was time to start the final fit of the dashboard - including fitting the remaining four mechanical gauges:

The oil pressure line was simple to connect up, the fuel pressure line was a bit more of a faff. The line on the gauge side of the isolator needed to be filled with oil. This was done by removing the piston and using the body of the isolator as a funnel. Oil was poured in until it appeared at the gauge end of the line and the gauge was connected up:

Both gauges were then fixed to the dashboard:

Next up was the two mechanical temperature gauges. These were carefully fed through the dashboard:

They were then fed along the engine bay towards the front of the car:

Hmmm ....... that engine needs a bit of a clean and polish!

With the senders roughly in position the dash board was moved a bit closer to its final position:

The Oil temperature sender was fixed in place just leaving the Water temperature sender to do tomorrow:

I also need to come up with a neat way of running the capillary tubes along the inner wing??

Bits 'n Bobs and Power Self Sufficiency

Got some more of the little jobs done - Bonnet lock escutcheon plates fitted along with the SVA compliant washer jet. A bit of squirting water up the garage walls and it was adjusted:

And we also have a battery now!!! - got a good price on an Optima Red Top - 730 Cold Cranking Amps should be more than sufficient!:

The little fella on the top of the battery is a "Battery Brain". This clever little thing fits between the +ve post and +ve lead and will disconnect the battery if the battery voltage drops too low - this means that no-matter what you accidentally leave turned on - your battery will never go flat and you will always be able to start the car.

Now here's the best bit:

It comes with a remote control so you can remotely isolate the battery and remotely connect it again. Seeing as the battery is hidden way and you need to remove a wheel to get to it this will be a pretty efficient anti-theft device.

Cool

Down in the Other Footwell

Here we go again - a bit more fiddley and with pedals in the way. Floor carpet placed in position for extra drama!

Down in the Footwell

Managed to sneak a quick hour in the garage tonight. This saw the passenger footwell bulkhead carpet fitted:

This was followed up by jamming myself in the footwell to fix the heater hoses to the outlets - here's an upside down action shot:

Getting out afterwards still takes me a while - even after all this practice!!

More Carpets

Carried on working towards the final installation of the dashboard. This necessitates fitting the side carpets as a) the trim finishers fit between the dashboard and the scuttle sides b) it would be difficult if not impossible to fix the carpet to the sides of the body above the level of the bottom of the dash with the dash in place.

So after lots more evo-stik and the knocking on of door seals it was done:

I also drilled a couple of holes adjacent to the fuse box for the fitting of the mechanical temperature gauges:Which reminds me.... I need to trim some cable ties!

The remaining jobs before the dash goes in are to fit the footwell bulkhead carpets - connect the heater ducting to the heater outlets and fit the washer jet.

Fuel & Oil Pressure Gauge Plumbing - 2

Bit more work - bulkhead fittings fitted and the rest of the plumbing mocked up - just need to tighten / seal all the joints:

I am also now the proud owner of a secondhand Vectra Steering Wheel and a mock-up gear lever from copper tube to size up the real thing:

The next job will be to think about the two temperature gauges and not to forget that the cockpit side and footwell bulkhead carpets need to go in before the dash is finally fitted.

Fuel & Oil Pressure Gauge Plumbing - 1

Time to start the plumbing for the Fuel Pressure and Oil Pressure Gauges. The Oil Pressure log is taken from the Tee Adaptor at the back of the block and the Fuel Pressure log is taken from a Tee just after the Fuel Pressure Regulator:

The black cylinder on the fuel log is a fuel pressure isolator. It contains a piston which separates the fuel line from the gauge line. The gauge line is (will be) filled with engine oil so no fuel enters the cockpit. The piston also contains a seal at one end so that should the gauge line leak then the fuel pushes the piston the the end of the cylinder and seals the cockpit off from the fuel.

The two gauge lines will fit to bulkhead fittings and then on to the gauges themselves:
I prefer to use bulkhead fittings as it looks a lot neater than a grommet and will also allow the lines to be disconnected should the body be removed.

Electrical Test

Plugged the dash in - connected up the umbilical to the tin-top and ........

......... no electrical faults!

Looks like Andy wins a prize!!

I only found two unrelated faults: 1 - I had broken the O/S repeater bulb when fitting the lens. 2- Only one of the twin Air horns works? - air problem rather than electrical.

Here's the evidence:

So now I really should get a battery whilst I can still start the tin-top. Then, with no more need for the umbilical (and if I cobble up a gearstick and get my hands on a Vectra steering wheel) it should be able to move under it's own power for the first time.

Time for a garage tidy up now!

Dashboard Wiring

Today I completed the under dash wiring and finished wiring up the dashboard:

It has taken a while to do as I have methodically tested the function and earths of each circuit with my multimeter. I haven't fitted the four mechanical gauges yet as I'm waiting on some plumbing supplies - but electric wise they only have illumination so nothing complicated there.

The Hazard Switch was bit complicated and I had to phone GD for the connections - so if you're using the Hella Hazard Switch the connections are:

Light Green / Brown - Pin 49
Light Green / Brown - Pin 15
Green / White - Pin R
Green/ Red - Pin L
Light Green / Purple - Pin 49A
Black - Pin 31
Red/White - Pin 58


All that remains is to plug it all together - connect up the umbilical to the tin top and test it!!!

Time for a sweep stake on the number of faults???