Wednesday 9 November 2011

heater and dash under trays

Time for a wee update though not a lot of progress that can been seen really. As I started working on the wiring and metering out wires etc. I realised that i needed to really get the heater ducting and lower vents finished in order to see what space I had where for cables and other things. To do this I needed to get the under trays fitted.
The under trays need set into place then held at the front with clamps whilst the back is marked then drilled through and on up into the steering column support bar in a few places, then tapped. The right and left trays need this done, the center one has holes in the 2 supports already and just the tray needs drilled.
The fronts of the trays that fit either side will get held in place with the dash lip as it has to be bolted underneath.


With the rear mounting holes done, The 76mm hole was cut with the holesaw for the adjustable heater duct and also a 12v power socket was added as well, This was done for both the passenger and the drivers side.




On the passenger side I also added a bank of relays as I needed extra on the car that wasnt covered by the GD loom. I need 1 for the fuel pump, 1 for firing the 2nd cooling fan as I'm using 2 stage cooling from the GM ECU, 2 more relays are required for the heaters in the drivers and passenger seats. I also need one more for part of the alarm system. The last one at the moment is spare, it will either stay a spare or its always there just encase or an emergency if required to swop with another.






Not loads of room with all the heater hoses on the passenger side along with the wiper motor.





Above pic shows the T piece which splits the air to the demist on the dash and also the lower hot ait vent. next hmmmmmm more wiring in the dash area :)

Sunday 6 November 2011

Wiper motor and cockpit wiring

Time to get the wiper motor and drive mech into place, first the motor was bolted onto the bracket and the drive and tube curved across the dash past the 2 wiper spindle mechs.
Once everying was in place correctly I marked the bundy tube where the cuts had to be made and also running it about 100mm past the 2nd wiper spindle. Removed the whole lot again and cut the tube pieces and flared all the ends with my flaring tool. All put back and bolted into place. Will have to check operation at some point once the electrics are sorted to make sure its parking in the right place and not 180deg out.









With the wiper motor in place I bolted in the dash air vents then set about looking at piping the dash vents and the vents that blow the air down towards the footwells, The pipes need to be split and I had seen before where people made up T pieces etc. I got a handlier way around this and its a perfect fit for the flexi tubing :) I used 2 waste T pieces and cut of the ends where the rubber O rings are housed the remaining pipe is the excact diameter required. No particular reason I painted them balck the same colour as the pipe. I 'll get back to finishing this job at a later date.
Also got stuck into the wiring behind the dash, I ran near ll the cables that i could behind the dash and inside the car so quite a bit of work in this area, will take me a while and my head is pickled for today :).








Friday 4 November 2011

Exhaust clamps / cable cover etc

I had noticed the clamps that come with the exhaust were not stainless steel even though the exhaust was and also they dropped well below the exhaust. I decided to remove them and add Mikalor stainless steel clamps.
Looks at lot better with these clamps and they wont cause any ground clearance issues :)






I got some foam strip as well that was sticky on one side I used this to seal around the covers for the wheel arch compartments to stop any moisture getting in.

On my mind for a while was how to tidy/conceal all the cables for the ECU, main power and everything else that I had routed through the middle of the bulkhead. I done this in order to try and keep every thing else clutter free around the engine bay. The end result is my new cover :)











Thats all for now, Next job on my list is the wiper motor assembly and drive links along with some pipe work for the pedal box.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Engine bay

The flexible hose from the fuel rail to the copper fuel line running down the chassis needed routed a bit better and some heat shrink on it to stop it rubbing on the electrical cables. in order to do this the Rocker cover bracket needed cut and re welded to stop the eblow fouling.





With that job done the covers could be fitted :) The connections from the heater box to the stainless heater pipes all linked up now as well.


The radiator mount was bolted in then the air filter was fitted and also the radiator, took a while to get done and everything connected up. The carbon link pipe was also dilled and the air temp sensor fitted.







All in all pretty happy with the progress this past month, project seems to be coming along heaps and bounds :)

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Door trim etc

Decided to get the drivers side door finishers, eschusions etc sorted, also added the Carbon kick plate. Made a start on the fitting the steering column, first was to get it lined up and cut as slot where the bolt wil pass through.











Monday 31 October 2011

Pedal box

What started out to be smallish job ended up taking a long time to do. I thought I was at the point of adding the brake pedal switch and then simply bolting the pedal box back in, hmmmmm wrong, quite a few hours later with the pedal box in and out a few times and a sore back its in now and I hope it don't have to come out for a long time.
Once I made the bracket for the brake light switch I ran some rubber U channel around it, not sure if its needed for IVA or not but better safe than sorry. Once I put the pedal box back in I looked at the spacings of the pedals and remembered that for people with broader feet needs the pedal spacing tweaked. As I had the footwell extension in I could move the clutch and brake pedals over towards the tunnel, I also moved the acceleration pedal at tad. I ended up with the pedal box in and out a few times to get this right for me and taking it apart each time to alter the pedals in the vice. Not easy putting the pedal box in on ur on bolt wise. I thought once this was done that was me , errr em nope, I noticed the goo goo pedal :) was just a straight bar right up and nothing there to attach the throttle cable to, suppose this is due to the fact we fit so many engines/cables. I had to take a while and figure out the route the throttle cable needed to go from the engine back to the pedal. Took a while to get the best route but once it was attached to the bulkhead wall I could see what mods needed carried out on the pedal shaft to attach the cable. I drilled and slotted the top and then added a stainless Jubilee so it could never jump out of the locator.
Pedal box was then bolted up and during this the adjusters were set for the brake and clutch cylinders, just more time :)
On another note I removed the windscreen pillar cover and ran some rubber U channel around it, again for IVA and their edge rule, I also replaced the lower bolt for a dome head again just to be safe. Some pics below, not sure what I'm doing next but loads to choose from :)

                                                                  Pedals moved to the left
                                                              Plenty of foot room now :)
All bolted up and throttle connected, rubber around windscreen pillar cover.
                                            Stainless throttle bracket added and cable attached



Sunday 30 October 2011

Footwell extension and carpets

I started on the car today by taking back out the drivers seat and making a start on the handbrake mounting position and getting the mounting holes drilled through the carpets and body floor. I need to get my handbrake cable shortened and a different end put on it. Will ring speedy cables tmw and hopefully that will get that snag sorted.
I went to do the drivers side bulkhead carpet then realised I had not fitted the footwell extension, worse still I had not drilled all the holes in the body to get it bolted up. Well this took ages to do but we got there in the end. I put alloy rivnuts in the extension piece and used 5mm button heads inserted from the inside. I also run a bead of  silicon to help seal it.
Once the extension piece was installed next began trying to carpet round the extension and the last bit of the tunnel, hmmmmmm pain in the butt this was and I was getting a tad high with my head right inside the footwell lol.
I also glued in the small bulkhead piece once i cut the holes out for the pedal box.
Before the pedal box goes back in I need to make a brake switch bracket to mount on the pedal box that's the next job on the to do list.


Saturday 29 October 2011

Seats and Harness

Started off the day by tidying the workshop as I hate tools lying everywhere and then i cant find anything.  Finished of all the harness anchor points first then started into the seat adjusters. I fitted them to the seats before drilling the holes in the shell for mounting the seats in. All bolted in so thats a bit more done and dusted for now. Tmw's another day :)













Friday 28 October 2011

Roll bars and interior

Got back to doing the final mounting on the roll bars. The rubber seals i made up were stuck to the boot floor with sikaflex. I drilled and tapped the rear leg of the roll bars to allow fitting of the new head rest mounts. I got some stainless steel thread bar to allow mounting to the headrest.
Took a while to get the hoops into place and everything bolted up, Job done now :)
I set the seats in the car to see what the interior was going to look like, looks the mutts nutts :))) well happy with the design of the seats I come up with, red stitching looks well on them.
Hope to get a bit more done over the weekend, some pics below of the work done and car now.













Sunday 23 October 2011

Interior carpets, leather , trim

The progress starting to show now on the interior though a long way to go yet. The carpet is all fitted now apart from one bulkhead piece where the pedal box goes.
I fitted the side carpets first then the tunnel carpet before doing the rear bulkhead and the front bulkhead. Once the carpets were in the leather tunnel top got fitted after the brackets where made and the gear lever installed.










Door rubbers fitted and end finishers installed on the passenger side, DS finishers still need sorted. I fitted Carbon kick strips at the bottom of the doors and also behind where the seats go. The ones behind the seat should stop the harness from rubbing on the body work.






 More progress soon  :)