And now for something completely different... gap filling

 Time to switch to something else. The rear of the car has a gap between the chassis and the bodywork;

This is dealt with by a GRP panel on the MK HSR, that is just visible in this picture;

But while my body kit did come with that infill panel, it's nowhere near long enough! Which is really odd, because I don't remember cutting that back edge so it's not as if I've made it not fit.

Anyhow, there's a few things to consider for this;

1. It will be made out of aluminium. It needs to match the rest of the interior so aluminium makes sense. I also have a sheet available. 
2. It needs to fix to the body and the chassis. It might sound obvious, but for more strength on the body across the back it needs to be fixed.
3. It needs to be removable. Along with 2 above, the fixings need to be removable. So rivnuts or clips. 
4. A curve would be nice. As the body is horizontal and the chassis is (near) vertical a gentle curve would look good. However it does add to the complexity quite a lot. 
5. It needs to be trimmed round the roll bar. Not a major problem, but again another very visible trim that needs to work well, no room to escape. 

Some pics for reference;

These two corners could cause me some issue. The panel needs to line up with the small tab I left from the side panel, and also sit well with the edge of the body for it to look tidy. Then a cutout for the rollbar before the long run. 

You can also see in these pictures where the top plate for the suspension mounting is higher than the cross bar. That's another gap I need to infill somehow.

First off I think I'm going to make a wooden pattern. Cutting and forming the panel is not going to be easy so I want to ensure I get as close as possible with a pattern before committing to anything. It'll also let me figure out how much of the GRP I want to cut out of the corners, I doubt very much that it will stay as it is because it just doesn't work. I cut it like that so the roll bar could just slot in but it's not giving me any benefit.

One more pic for reference, this is how high the gap is (70mm). It also shows where the metalwork has to get to. That pic does make me wonder though, a right angle rather than a curve might work better with the body. Having it come directly up and then across means that I have enough GRP to trim back and make it look flush. I was going to use U trim on the GRP in that corner anyway. 

And one last check before I start, I am 99% sure that horizontal part of the body is a straight line but I ought to double check it. Even if there is a slight curve I think I'd prefer it to be flattened out. 

Let the panel forming commence...

Last update on bonnet fitting for now

 It's time for me to work on something else, I knew the bonnet fit would take a very long time so to keep myself motivated I'm going to switch jobs. And it also doesn't help that I'm getting very tired of fibreglass fragments and getting my fingers caught between the bonnet and body. At least it shows a good panel fit if it can cut off finger circulation.

Anyway, last few photos to wrap up this stage. The last job was to remake the cross member that supports the bonnet. Because of the way the body/bonnet doesn't line up with the body as clean as it would on an MK chassis, I've already had to make a few changes. I had initially made the cross member with a slight curve, however now that things have come together it was clear to see that the curve was no longer required. It was also higher one side than the other (only by 5mm). So a bit of fettling I ended up with this, with the strip of rubber across the top to finish it off;

The next stage here will be a couple of rivnuts either side, to go through to the body. But if I plan it very carefully, I can put the fixings in just the right place to replace them with some leather strap type buckles to have it look at least a little 'old'. This sort of thing from CBS;

They will be positioned so that it looks like the bonnet opening is secured by the straps. Of course it won't be, basically five out of the six fixings will just go into the body and the last screw will go through to the rivnut. 

Anyhow, that's getting a little ahead of myself, here's the bonnet shut line view as it is now;

The first picture shows how close it is, I'm really happy with the alignment. The second picture is at a lower angle though, and you can just make out the fact that it's very slightly proud, the bonnet is maybe 1-2mm higher than the body. I think this is a good thing, because when I add the bonnet fixings it'll tighten things up and the alignment will be spot on. 

I still need to manage the sides, there's a slight curve on the bonnet that isn't in the body so I'll need some brackets and some locking mechanism to sort that out. No biggie, just not a job for now. On to the next task...

Bonnet dilemma/decision

 It's early on a Monday, the coffee hasn't kicked in, and I'm already thinking about the bonnet...

So basically the plan had been to put a U shaped trim on the trailing edge of the bonnet. I think it will look quite tidy, and save my fingers from being glassed every time I open the bonnet.

But the HSR demo car doesn't do that;

It's just a bare seam. Now, it could probably be to do with it being a white car, but then it could also have been the plan all along. And now I'm wondering whether I should do the same.

The bonnet will be supported in the middle by a cross bar, I'll be cutting and welding that today with any luck. That cross bar will hold the two locking bolts on the top, to stop it wiggling side to side. Down the side will be rubber 'somethings' which will keep it's shape, and again another couple of locking bolts near the bottom (similar to the two locks in the picture above). Once all that's in place, I do still need to trim the bonnet. This trim will allow both the 'U trim' and the 'trimless' options. I guess I'll reserve my decision until then. 

Oh, and close inspection of that side view shows the bonnet bottom edge sits very slightly lower than the body, same as mine does. The seam for the side panel also lines up, possible a bit better than mine does but I'll find out soon enough. 

Lighting

 A small but very important task today, rear lights;

Hmm, those lights look awful in the picture!! I guess it's because the picture was taken quite close, because the indicator bulbs don't stick out to the side like they look, and the reverse and fog lights are perfectly in line!

Anyway, no real issues here. I used stick on paper templates to place the indicator and stop lights, then drilled through the paper. The fog and reverse light were placed according to the IVA. Well, the fog light was, the reverse light was just done to mirror the fog light. 

The rules for the fog light were that it needs to be somewhere between the centre and the drivers side edge, it needs to be 100mm away from any stop light, and it needs to be square on. Drivers side was an easy call, a quick measurement to make sure it was far enough away covered that side of things. The main issue was having the light square on, and half an hour with the 3D printer got suitable brackets to deal with the curves;

Both lights are now very secure and square. Next step is to wire them up.

(Small edit). The gap between the lights wasn't enough for my number plate to fit, so I asked the question on LCB as to whether a 2 row plate is permitted. It seems 'yes', and it also occurred to me that there would be something in the IVA manual, and yes there is. There needs to be a space for a plate that is one of two sizes;

Euro Space option 1 is 520 wide and 120 high

Euro Space option 2 is 340 wide and 240 high

The doubling in height suggests that a 2 row plate is allowed. However, the guidance also states 'A plate hanging from the vehicle with no structure or support brackets behind it would be considered unacceptable. So I need to add a couple of brackets to support a suitable sized gap. Checking the gap with a tape measure shows I have 510 between lights, so it's got to be option 2. Interestingly even option 2 is bigger than the plate my donor car had! 

Bonnet trimming

 Well, this is it, one of the first parts where I truly have nowhere to hide. Everything done so far had some sort of tidying or refinement available. But when it comes to the bodywork alignment, it has to be spot on. And getting the bonnet and body to line up it has to be immaculate. So many cars I see at the kit car show where the panel fit isn't 'quite' there, and even a small mismatch is really visible.

So, first step was to find the edge. Problem is because the body is underneath the bonnet, and I can't go from underneath, so I needed to get a pattern from the bottom to the top. Cue some backing paper, previously purchased from Ikea;

With the bonnet up, I taped some paper to the body along the back edge. The front edge was cut to the edge of the body. Then I folded the paper back on the tape, dropped the bonnet and put the paper over the bonnet. That gave me an edge to cut to. 

Of course, there was no way I was going to cut right on the final line, so I pulled the line back 10mm and cut there.

Two terrifying hours with a multitool later, and I had a nice line and a chunk of fibreglass to take off. I did the same with the sides;

This pattern shows how little tolerance I had. I did measure the bonnet position based on the wheels, and found it's about an inch too far back. But if I had tried to claim that inch, the panel gap would have been too wide. To be honest, having the wheel an inch out is a fair swap for a tight panel gap!

The next step was to trim it to final size. But I wanted a frame of reference so I put a strip of tape where the body sat. This was the tape after the first six inches of trimming.

To be honest, this approach wasn't working. I didn't know where to stop cutting. So I made a small metal device that sits against the body edge, and transposes the position on to the bonnet. Then another length of tape to mark the edge. Unfortunately I should have taken more pictures of the process, I only took pictures of the end result;

I'm really happy with the line, apart from a couple of areas that need a little more sanding it's pretty much spot on. It's still held up by the corners as this is only between the two lines. Next step is to repeat the process on the corners, that should allow the bonnet to sit at the right height, then I can do the sides. 

Once it's all trimmed to this level, I'll need to bring it back maybe 2mm or so for the rubber edge trim. So thinking about it, I do have one more chance to fix issues. But getting it right now just makes things easier.

Some more photos, this was the same treatment done on the corners. Taped and filed back;

Filed, sanded and closed;

And the centre section now able to drop to it's correct height;

Well, I say 'correct height', it's actually dropped down a bit. So I need to come up with a way of taking out the unevenness between the bonnet and the body. Rubber would be the most obvious solution, but to get things to the right height for the sides I'm going to go 3D print some spacers. I need 1mm up to 7mm, that's how uneven it is under there! But it doesn't really matter how uneven it is underneath, as long as the top bit fits flush.

So that's it for the garage for today, and I'm hungry as well. 

Weekend work

 It was a half decent weekend weather-wise, so it was nice to wheel the car out on to the drive and work with a bit of space. Although I had to sand the drive bricks first...

Anyhow, the car is now an extra 5 inches higher than it was, and has a nice little ramp to get in and out of the garage. Of course, I still had to jack up each side to get underneath but that's what happens with normal cars anyway!

The 'getting underneath' was for the rivnuts for the body, five across the back and three down each side. They were pretty poor rivnuts unfortunately, no 'feel' for when they had compressed into place and I must have gotten through at least half a dozen nuts and bolts getting them in place. But they're on, and only needed a bit of encouragement to accept the bolts that will hold the body in place.

Ah, the body... I had to hold it up to get the next interior panel sorted, and while it stayed in place it did donate a fair few glass fibres for insertion into my hands!! Still, it's in place and I can now look at cutting the bonnet. The pattern I made wasn't too far off, but I wiped off the mark and made a new one anyway. I guess I'm just putting off cutting the body, but it really has to be done. Maybe tomorrow.

I do need to order some shorter bolts for the body though, I only have excessively long onrs and they're silver. Some domed black ones will look a lot better, along with black penny washers. 

Braces and supports

 My next job isn't on the car, although it is car related. I need to create some wooden 'accessories' for the car. 

First one I've mentioned before, a short aluminium ramp to get the dollies up the garage lip. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Then the dollies themselves. I thought they'd be ok from a height point of view, and while the car looks really great and low, it's completely impractical. In fact, the sump is probably a matter of millimetres off the floor! So to at least get close to standard ride height I need to build up the dollies. It'll be a wooden frame around the edge, so the car doesn't lie directly on the dollies but is a few inches higher. I was thinking of just one frame of CLS to lift it 63mm, but to be honest I think two layers would be more realistic. Even if it means I struggle to get in and out of it!

Lastly will be some frame to hold the bodywork up. I've got a few last jobs to do underneath the body and while I don't want to remove the body completely, I do need to hold it up a few inches. It does need to be in a way that doesn't block the last of the riveting, or the rivnut fitting I need to do on the back and sides. Although thinking about it, there's not much more on the body to fit a frame! So it might need to be done in two parts.

Speedo drive

 Well, this was an interesting one. I noticed where the speedo drive was when the engine was last out of the car, and reminded myself to have a look at fitting the cable. It turns out.... I can't!! There is simply no room between the drive and the body panel. 

So there's a couple of options. First is to swap the mechanical drive for the electronic version. This makes it easier at the engine end, but it also means I've got to swap the speedo for a newer version. If I swap the speedo then I'll need three other gauges for them to match. Then I'd be swapping wiring etc etc. It would not be pleasant.

The other option is to stay with the mechanical drive, but feed it into the drivers side footwell. If I cut a hole in the footwell, I can feed the cable along the inside and it won't be in the way. Considering the cable has to come into the car at some point, it would just be coming in a bit earlier. It's black on black so wouldn't be too noticeable, I'd just have to make sure it was well secured. 

Not tonight though, I'll see what other options there might be first. 

(Update 17/4). Well, it looks like I'll be bringing it into the car then. The option for electronic drive just got far too complex. There was an option to go for a different electronic speedo with something like magnets on the driveshaft or diff, but again it needs replacement gauges. 

So I'll cut a hole in the side, and bring it up tucked tight against the drivers footwell side. There is no diagonal brace to get in the way, so it can come all the way up the inside. It's going to be fiddly to fix in place but it does solve the other issue I had with getting to the speedo. So that's a job for the weekend, or at least 'a' weekend. 

Another month but a lot of work

 Another big gap between posting, but for several reasons. The first is that Covid hit again, so that was at least three weekends with almost nothing happening. Considering that back on the 18th of March (4 weeks ago) my plan had been to get the engine in and body on, I didn't even have enough strength to manhandle the engine or lift the body!!

In the meantime I did get a few things done. First is the coolant bottle, I have an aluminium and steel bracket that provides suitable support, that will be rivetted to the scuttle once the scuttle is in it's final position. Same for the ECU, just needs riveting on to that same scuttle. 

The battery mount was slightly more involved. First off, a rant at Halfords. I'm fine with them saying 'click and collect in an hour', but when the hour is '10am on May 12th' it starts to get a bit ridiculous! However it did force me to get my butt in gear and make a fixing clamp rather than waiting for Halfords to figure out their own stock levels. And here it is;

First was a little tray, just bent to shape. I had planned on riveting this in place but then I figured I'd be forever stuck with that size battery. So for now the battery will just sit in it!

The battery clamp is steel bar that was cut to length then a thread cut into it for the first couple of inches. On the other end was a right angle bend. This goes through the scuttle into the cross beam steel. The idea is that you hook the bar in place, then with the nuts and cross bar it's held firmly in position. The cross bar is just half of a steel tube. I was going to use angle iron, but they're basically doing the same job. It's extremely solid, I'm very happy with it. My only concern with this design is the proximity of the terminals to the cross bar, it's essentially a short circuit waiting to happen. I might put a sleeve on the cross bar, as well as the required insulation on the terminals. 

So that's three out of four scuttle items mounted. The last one is the engine fuse box which needed to wait until the engine went in. Before the engine went in (hopefully for the last time) I fitted the brake and fuel lines. The fuel lines were an absolute headache, it's 8mm copper that didn't want to bend. In fact, I actually wasted a length of copper because I managed to kink a bend. I finally got it replaced and fixed the length of the tunnel, so now both ends are waiting for rubber pipes to be added.

Oh, and somewhere around this point I decided the last panel for the tunnel is to be removable as well. For the sake of some rivnuts it's going to save me so many headaches!

On to the body, and this might be the first time I've got everything on and in place all at once;

I'm extremely happy with the panel fit, with the braces and the aluminium panels everything is really tight. What I'm not so happy with is the outriggers. My design had the outriggers bonded to the body, then the outriggers in slots bolted to the chassis. That isn't going to work in real life, the outriggers just aren't mobile enough. So I'm going back to rivnuts for the sides and back of the body. As mentioned though, because everything is really tight I'm not using them for outright strength, they will just be there to stop things blowing out sideways and backwards. 

This means I can mark the front for cutting. You can see the marking template in the picture above, that was traced to the edge of the body, taped along the back edge then laid on to the closed bonnet. This is what I'm left with;

The black line shows how much is to be removed from the bonnet in order for it to align with the body. I checked this at least half a dozen times, and I'll probably check at least a few more time before I actually cut. It's interesting that it's so deep in the top, because near the corner between the top and side, the match is very nearly there. Then there is a severe angle to cut off the side. It's not as if I could have got anything wrong yet, I've not cut the bonnet and the front half of the body is profiled. I can only assume that they expected there to either be an overlap like there is now, or for the builder to cut it back to the mark. (Edit: I've just checked the picture of the light blue example and that has a similar amount of overlap to be cut back!) 

What I do need to do is check the body is straight first, I wouldn't want to cut it to the perfect edge then find the body has moved on the outriggers. I've got rivnuts arriving today to do that.

Once I've cut to length and the bonnet has dropped into position, I can cut the bonnet brace to suit. That will keep everything in line, I'll add a strip of rubber so it all stays put once it's tight. 

Next job, along the back of the cockpit;

Basically I need a rounded edge to go between the rear chassis bar and the bottom of the body. It needs to extend to the corners while avoiding the roll bar, with more rivnuts to secure it to the chassis and body. I can't tell whether it will sit on the front of the chassis overlapping the existing aluminium, or bend to fix to the body. Fixing to the existing alumium would look better, but also make the middle panel remove a bit awkward. 

Then dashboard. Now that everything is in place, I've not got enough space behind the wheel for the gauges. They're just too tall for the space. The easy solution is to move them to the centre of the dashboard;

I'm quite happy with how they look there, it just means they need to be more IVA compliant than they would be if they had been behind the steering wheel. I also need to ensure the speed cable works, although just looking at that photo I know the speedo drive off the gearbox is basically right below the speedo gauge! As long as the cable is long enough to loop round to the body then I'm ok.

What else is there? Oh, now the body is fitted I can get back to the last bit of aluminium on the sides, which will need riveting and gluing. The other side of the transmission tunnel can also be riveted. 

The seatbelts can go on now, I'll get that all bolted up. Oh, talking of bolts, I did check what I needed and ordered the outstanding bolts from Westfield fasteners. I now have all the lengths I need. Well, apart from two, for some reason the bolts into the gearbox for the gearbox mounting are a really weird thread. I'm going to have to find those somewhere.

Seats will be the next big thing to do, there's a few details I want to sort out (like the visible metal between base and back), but they will be brought indoors for covering. 

I also need to figure out a way of lifting the whole body six inches and supporting it there. That will give me access to the remaining panels without being too much in the way.

Oh, and a ramp... while it's on dollies rather than one wheels it has a tremendous amount of trouble getting in and out of the garage. Aluminium sheet helped but bent, so I want to make a semi-permanent ramp from wood and aluminium. Then I can just hang it out of the garage and wheel the car in and out as required. 

Well, that was a big post... I'll break it down a bit next time. In fact, I might even chop this one up into a few parts.

Elapsed time vs effort

 One thing I have been wondering about this entire build is 'where has the time gone'. The first blog post is from February 2013, so it's now 11 years 1 month. Even Bentley don't take that long to hand build a car!

So I decided to have a look through this blog and add up the actual time. Up to this point I've spent 801 hours on the car, approximately 20 weeks based on a 40 hour week. It does seem a bit high but it's nowhere near as much as the 11 years suggests. 

For the first few years I didn't get much time to work on it, in 2015 for example I didn't work on the car at all. That's the joys of working away unfortunately, I only had weekends for literally everything and car building came fairly low on the list at the time. In the first five years I did 119 hours, about 3 weeks worth.

Covid also took a toll, despite having a lot more free time (because we couldn't actually do anything!) I was still unable to progress with the car. So 2022 was another year with zero time spent.

Thankfully the last couple of years have been improved, with nearly 300 hours last year and 82 so far this year. And it shows from a progress point of view, it has really moved on recently and is getting very close to finishing.

I also need to add up the costs, I did have a cost calculator very early on but I didn't keep it up to date. The bodywork was still the biggest cost (£1000), closely followed by the donor (£435), then the various metal purchases. I reckon even if I got to 3K total costs, that's only £300 a year. I pay more than that for insurance on my tintop!

But I'm definitely not making a profit on anything. Even if I sell it for 10K (which is very optimistic), that's 7K over ten years. Not exactly something I could live on. 

Fibreglass and wiring

 So one thing I've got to sort out is fixing the wire for the side repeaters, and possible the rear of the car. The guidelines say that it needs to be fixed a minimum of 300mm space, which means quite a few are needed. But just using adhesive pads isn't going to cut it with Mr IVA. 

I've asked this question before, and was pointed towards a mounting plate with a bolt welded in the centre. They're not cheap though, and I'd need maybe a dozen in total? But of course there's always a cheaper option. Strips of steel with a bolt welded in will do the same job, then I'll use fibreglass filler or similar to fix it to the body. 

As a reference, here's one that Toolstation stock https://www.toolstation.com/made4trade-backplate-for-euro-clips/p55986. But it uses an M10 bolt which is mega overkill for two wires! I can drop it down to M4 or M6 and still provide enough security for wiring. 

So I'll get some made up then figure out the positioning before fitting them. 

To do list March 2024

 After the wiring and painting is done, and the handbrake is ready to go, there isn't a great deal left now. It's time to make a more granular to-do list;

• Fuse box, battery and coolant bottle mounting on scuttle. This is a few brackets and a shedload of rivets, should be a couple of hours work max.
• Fuel filler pipe and cap. I'm not sure I can do this before the body is fitted, I'm not even sure what filler pipe I need. Time to go online to figure that one out.
• fuel pump and filter mounting on the back of the car. As with everything on the scuttle, it's a few brackets and a shedload of rivets. Or maybe rivnuts.
• Front body cross brace cut to height and welded. This is a supporting bar that has been made to the correct curve but needs to be set to the correct height in order for the body to sit well together. As you might expect this is also another job for after the body fitted.
• Dashboard. Yeah, that. 
• Seat trimming. This has been on my list for ages but I can't put it off any longer. It also means that the seats can't live in the garage, once they're trimmed they're then vulnerable. Unless I wrap them with something, maybe clingfilm? I'll have a think about that.
• Drill the wholes for seat and seatbelt fixings. The aluminium sheets quite nicely cover all the mounting holes, this will be to uncover them.
• Pedal limit brackets for all pedals. Each pedal needs to only move a certain distance. The brake pedal has a natural limit (the brakes being 'on') and the brake switch itself stops it from coming too far out. The clutch pedal is completely free in both directions so needs the most work. The gas pedal is actually limited by the travel of the throttle cable but I might want something a bit more rigid. Otherwise I'm going to be snapping throttle cables!
• Exhaust end trim. To be done once the body is on.
• Boot hinges and lock. To be identified then fitted once the body is on.
• Boot lining. Question mark on this one, it's not needed for IVA but depending on when I get my test appointment I might try and add it.
• Drill seat belt mounts on roll bar. They're currently just marking holes, they need to be opened up to the relevant bolt size.
• Paint roll bar. Not sure about the colour though, I'm sort of leaning towards either a green to match the body, or a matt black to match the chassis. In either case it needs to be a very high quality smooth surface, so probably roller?
• Trim front body to the right length. Also to be done with the body on.
• Shorten driveshaft. To be sent away after triple checking the measurements.
• Wiring brackets/fixings. I need a few wiring fixings, mainly for the front and rear bodies. Nothing clever, most likely 3D printed.
• Chassis number stamped in place. Oooh, that makes it a real car!!
• Trim under rollbar. Body on task.
• Bolt audit (I still need to do this so I can order whatever bolts I don't have.)

It looks like a longer list, but each of these is an hour tops. This is in contrast to previous to-do lists where it was a week per line!

On to next week then. I have this in mind for next weekend (if the weather allows);

• Engine back in and chassis back on skates
• Body in place to check aluminium panel fit (particularly where the panels tuck under the body)
• Bond runners and aluminium in place (this could actually chew up a fair bit of time on the weekend so I need to be careful)
• Add front and measure/mark/cut to suit. (Eeeek!!). 

Handbrake finished

 I nearly forgot, I have finished the handbrake. The initial plan was to have it under the dash, but that got a bit challenging, I came up with a location under the steering wheel, but had some fun and games with cable routing;

Ignoring the cable for now, this posed several challenges. I couldn't get the mechanism to operate on the rear cables without some major engineering. The pulling force was across the car instead of front to back, and it was slightly higher, and it had to avoid the gearbox. 

Basically the only option was a Bowden cable. So I started with a quick Ebay search for a cheap cable that seemed long enough and didn't have any fancy brackets or anything. Cue a front cable from a Seat something-or-other. This gets routed from the handbrake, into the tunnel via a reinforced hole;

As you can imagine it needed to be reinforced as the chassis rail wasn't that big to start with. A 25mm right angle with an inbuilt sleeve, all welded and then smoothed flat got me a hole through the middle but without affecting the strength.

Then I needs something at the back for the cable to pull against, a simple bracket would suffice;

Once the new cable was lashed up, it can connect to the bracket, with the rear cables and the spring also in place. My only doubt was/is that the bracket doesn't allow enough travel on the cables, but there's not much I can do about that now. Typically a good handbrake locks at between 3 and 5 clicks, if I can adjust the cable to match then I think I'm ok.

Front body electrics

 Woohoo, we had some dry weather! Well, drier weather, it was still a bit grim. But at least I was able to get the front body out and plan the electrics. This was side repeaters, front indicators, front side lights and headlight wiring. First job was to get a reference on the side and drill a marker hole for the repeaters;

I levelled the body on the ground, then measured a distance up from the ground on both sides. Then matched a similar distance from the front arch (the rear edge of the body is all over the place but not unexpected), then drilled a hole.

The wiring wasn't long enough to deal with the side repeaters, so I borrowed a couple of lengths from the wiper motor. While the main colour is blue rather than green, the trace colour is white and black the same as the normal colour. Along with a black for ground, that was the two runs cut, terminated and taped into place (obviously they'll be fixed inside rather than stay on the outside!!

The next step was to continue those two lines to the front indicators and on to the main connector. At the same time I brought the headlight wiring down to the main connector. When it was all taped up it looked like this;

This is when I realised I didn't have spare wires for the side lights, and to be honest I had no clue what colour it needed to be! Even checking the wiring diagram I wasn't sure, so I'm going to have to track it down. Oh, and I think I'm short of a length of earth wire, a section long enough to get from left to right. I'm sure I have some spare wire so it isn't an issue, I do just need to make sure it's enough to host the headlight as there's a fair bit of juice going through those headlights. 

The holes also need to be enlarged. This is as far as my stepped drill went, I had to get a larger drill bit from Amazon to finish. It's only a cheap drill bit as it needs to drill maybe eight holes in total.

Then again, I did have a thought about mounting. The lights have three fixing holes, remarkably close to the main hole in the middle. I'm not convinced using self tappers or even nuts and bolts will provide a suitable fixing for the lights. What I'm tempted to do is make rear plates, a triangular bit of metal (probably aluminium) that sits behind the lights and gives them a stronger fixing to screw or bolt into. I have spare material and wouldn't take much to knock something up. 

The next job will be the rear, and then I need to get the wiring from the connector back to the various locations it needs to live in. Fuse box and steering column are the main ones for the headlights and side lights, indicators go back to the flasher relay and fuse box. Neither should be much trouble as long as I have enough wire. 

Gauge bezels

One of the jobs I have is to make some bezels for the gauges. I can't find any online for a decent price, but I also can't machine them. I'm heading for 3D printing, but I have trouble with the material and with the output. The prints are the right shape but usually a very uneven texture. For example, here is a raw PLA print;

The front face is as rough as it looks. This is also PLA which will melt and distort in a car. The latter is easy to fix, I have to print with ABS. I did have to do some messing around with bed adhesion, but managed to do an ABS print with no distortion;

So it won't distort in the car, but the surface is just as bad. 

To fix the surface, there are two options. One is to sand and paint, the other is to use acetone vapours to 'melt' the surface. This is a sand and paint;

And this is an ABS print after 5 hours of a vapour chamber;

It's quite clear to me that acetone wins by a country mile. It's nice and glossy, easy to do (just leave it alone for half a day!!), and repeatable. So I just need to adjust the print and then do the work. I did have high hopes for the sand and paint, but it's still just too rough to be able to sit in my line of vision every time I go for a drive.

I did note that even with the acetone, the surface isn't perfectly smooth. I think I'm going to have to adjust the print to get the front edge domed slightly, but also sand it a little bit. The sanding marks should disappear after the acetone does its job, but sanding will give it a head start and give me the best result. 

So I need to leave this one to solidify so I can inspect it a bit more, then print a few. Oh, and the vapour chamber I'm using is an opaque tub so I have to open it whenever I want to check it. And of course, every time I open it I release the vapour that had built up. I think for the final version I'm going to use a glass lid so I can watch it. 

(Update) after an hour or so, here's the acetone polished one in place on the rev counter;

I'm very happy with the result, just the profile to sort as it needs to host a plastic or glass face. Probably plastic to be honest, it's easier to get plastic of that size rather than glass. 

Floor done

 I have put it off for (pretty much) ten years, but I thought this weekend would be floor day. Thursday I tidied the garage, Friday got the engine out and the chassis on it's side, then today started with a clean of the panels. I really ought to have taken the masking tape off on day one, because my fingers and nails are raw from peeling it off. Anyway, clean panels;

A fit with temporary rivets showed they were still ok;

But test fitting real rivets proved to be harder. I'm not entirely sure why, but some of the holes weren't big enough for the rivets. I even had to redrill half a dozen holes for rivets to fit. Eventually they all went in;

Of course, they all had to come back out again to apply the Tiger Seal. But after applying the seal, the rivets went on well. It looks nice too, very even and secure;

It does bode well for the other panels, I was tempted to add some more but I thought I'd not tempt fate and leave it there for today. Of course, it does mean the Tiger Seal is unlikely to survive to the next panel fit. In theory the other panels don't need the same level of strength, but it would still be nice to use it for all panels.

I've also picked the chassis paint, I have a satin black exterior metal paint to go over everything. I'll apply the bottom coat tomorrow then with any luck that'll be the last time the chassis has to be anything other than the normal way up.