Another mixed bag this weekend, mainly controlled by the temperature. This weekend was ridiculously hot, even in the garage that is traditionally cool I was struggling. But I did get a couple of jobs done.
First thing was the arches. Having measure the bracket angles and printed them out, Saturday was trimming back the fibreglass garbage until I got to good material, then gluing the brackets in place. After leaving them for 24 hours, I'm 99% sure I now have strong enough arches, at least on the front. If something managed to tear apart Tigerseal or break the brackets, then the body or the arch is toast anyway! Last thing I want to do is just tidy the last few rough edges up, then give it one more coat of paint. Then that'll be the bonnet ready for the exterior paint. I do need to wash down the bonnet underside though, it's so dusty from the fibreglass trimming. God knows what my lungs are like!
Next was the earth wires on the front. No real biggie here, although I did realise my earth point was the wrong size bolt for the earth connectors. A bit of fiddling with a new bolt and some extensions on the earth wires sorted that. I put a loop in the wire so there was no opportunity for it to get tight or damaged when the bonnet was opened.
I also managed to glue on the corner covers for the passenger seat, so now I can bolt in the passenger seat and seat belt along with the drivers seat. On that subject, I saw a Facebook post about someone with Cobra seats where the back had broken off from the bottom, the pictures show a single tube around the same size as my own. but me being the 'belt and braces' kind of person I've added some triangulation to the corners. That should mean I get a decent life out of the seats before a similar thing happens (if at all).
And now on to the loss. The steering shroud has beaten me. I thought it would be easy enough to design and print a new one, but even though I got the latest design pretty much spot on, it didn't work. The steering wheel hole is off centre whereas I tried to be clever and centred it. The top of the shroud also doesn't fit right in the dash. Given that the top surface of the shroud just won't print correctly either, I've admitted defeat. The existing shroud is currently in a bucket of soapy water to remove the glue from the leather covering. I'm going to clean it, sand it and paint it matt black, then that'll be it. That'll teach me to try and be clever, I reckon I've used at least one reel of filament with nothing to show for it. Then again, prime day did get me a couple of reels for a tenner each, so swings and roundabouts.
Staying with 3D printing though, the next bit I need to do is the rear. Similar to the front I want to make some reinforcement brackets. They're slightly different for the rear as there is still a lip present, however I don't want to cut through it because that would weaken things rather than strengthen them. The bracket will therefore have to come over the lip in some form, as well as avoiding the filler. Having said that, the presence of the lip does give me an opportunity to use screw fixings as well as Tigerseal. I'll have a think about that one.
Before I forget, seat belt reel... I noticed when my brother in law was in the car that the reel had a strong tendency to lock before it could be drawn out. It's because the reel is fixed at an angle. Combine that with the slight slope of my drive and it was enough for the reel to think the car was turning over. Given that the reel runs directly to the roll bar there's no need for it to be flush against the back of the cabin so I'll bend the bracket for it to sit upright.
Oh, and I found the other bonnet tie down so I can get that fitted on the passenger side. I do need to fit some spacers to keep those tight but that's an easy one.
It's my holidays soon so there will be a break in the proceedings, but I must be getting close to being ready for IVA. A set of tyres might help but that's the next/last big expense. Looking on Black Circles there's some ditch finders for around £50 a corner, but there is a local mobile fitter who can often get cheaper tyres, or more importantly better tyres for the same price.
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