Waiting

When I started this build I knew it was going to be a long term thing. I started it just at the wrong time in my life, with a kid on the way it wasn't going to get any significant progress for a fair few years. Just looking at these blog posts shows the difference between the beginning of the build and the end. The beginning was a post a month if I was lucky, now it's a post every weekend (with a few exceptions). 

The bit that I hadn't really appreciated was the waits for the other steps. I had expected a few weeks for the IVA appointment, that was a few months. I expected a few days for the retest, I still have another 3.5 weeks to go. Then there will be the registration stage, and again I get the impression that could be measured in months rather than weeks. 

It doesn't help that the delays result in a lack of progress, or at least what feels like a lack of progress. This weekend I didn't get anything done on the car, and I suspect the next few weekends will be similar. I ought to get it out for a warm up and a clean, but I daren't do much more. I do need to get the boot bolted up, that could be worked on. But that's for the kit car show at best, I can't have it in place for the test. 

I did get both tintops serviced and cleaned though, which they both needed. I also replaced the DSG thermostat on my Skoda, that's been struggling to get up to temperature almost since I bought it. At least now it gets nice and toasty very quickly, then the rest of the engine catches up later. Replacing the thermostat wasn't actually too bad, only a three on the 'skinned knuckles' scale. The main thing that helped there was a proper set of pliers for removing pipe clips, having ones that properly lock and also have a ratchet to keep the clip open was a godsend. And actually not that expensive on Amazon. I doubt they'd have helped on the kit car but they're perfect for VAG cars.

Oh, there is one thing I checked on the One. The radiator fan, I wanted to check it was working. Once I'd figured out that the radiator thermostat is on the front of the engine rather than the back, a quick short to earth was enough to trigger the fan. So that's one more job ticked off. 

I also have a dashcam ready to fit, or more specifically a dashcam ready for a 3D print design that will then be ready to fit. It's a small camera from Wolfang that hopefully won't stick out too much. It's front and rear as well, so as long as I can shorten the wire considerably I can put both into the roll bar mount. I will need to make it waterproof though, I'll add that to the design. Having it under the roll bar might help initially, then some sealant around the seam would finish the job maybe? It does need to be removable though, just in case the worst happens. Actually, perhaps a TPU outer shell might be effective. I'll have a think about that. First step will be to get the camera shapes into onshape then I can build the mounting around them. 

Well, I think that's it for today, the coffee has kicked in so it's time to start work. 

Boot part two

 Not much of an update, I'm trying not to do too much work on the car in case I make the IVA worse. But the boot lining is coming along;

I'm happy with how it's coming along, although the piece of aluminium on the back wasn't quite as high as it could have been. Not an issue though, I'll just reduce the side curves to meet at the correct height. The sides are just wood at the moment, once I've decided on how to fix them in place I'll cut them from aluminium. It turns out I don't have as much aluminium as I expected, I guess I was being quite efficient with the last sheet and the mudguards. I don't remember wasting any either. But I do have plenty of mild steel sheets which probably isn't good. They'd need cleaning and protecting, and they're a great deal heavier which isn't good. So I'm staying with the side panels as aluminium.

One thing I do need to consider is movement. I don't really want things rolling about in the boot so I want to use some partition or webbing to keep things still. I do still have a cargo net from an older car but I think it's too big. As an alternative I may just add tie down loops to the base that can be used as required. I doubt I'll ever be going far enough to actually need luggage, but I do want a small toolkit and some tyre inflator in one corner.

Given the side edges have to be even lower than they are now, that does remove any opportunity for finishing the trim up to the side of the boot. I don't feel like that's an issue, the boot would do it's job and in most cases would be unseen. I've certainly seen worse boots at the kit car show, including some that aren't even lined!

In other news I've printed my phone holder so that's waiting to be fixed in place after IVA. And I've also added a bit of glue to the number plate to make it a bit more rigid on the far edges. It should peel off quite cleanly after the IVA but if it helps get a pass then it's a small price to pay.

I've not yet found a dashcam, it's quite difficult to find a reasonably priced option that gives a decent image. It's not as if I'm looking for amazing night vision capability, after all I would hope I'm never driving at night or in bad weather. Obviously just in case it does need to be waterproof but size is probably the main factor so it can go on the roll bar without being a big blob.

I do need to get the car out and up to temperature, that's the one thing that I'm wary of. It's actually quite difficult to get the car hot enough for the fan to kick in, I guess that's a good thing. But I don't want to be sat in traffic and have it overheat.

As the next 'post IVA' job I want to look at a heel plate for the clutch. It doesn't need to be much, but it does need to be very strong as I'll be leaning against it for most of the driving. I'll have a think about that one. I also want to look at some way of restricting bonnet opening, the normal way is to use a bonnet tie but the ones I've seen don't make much sense on my car. Talking of bonnet, I do want to fit some securing pins but I can't do anything with that until after IVA. Anything sticking out of the bonnet is going to be frowned upon, and it's not worth the hassle for now. 

Boot and other fixes

The weekend weather was quite decent so I managed to get quite a bit done. From Friday's post I had a few things I wanted to look at;

• Tyre pressures. These are now down to 20psi on every corner. It felt really weird having them that 'soft', my last few tintops have been VAG cars and they favour very high pressures. Letting so much air out of them to get them down to 20 just felt wrong!
• I've not done anything with the clutch, mainly because I couldn't get to the nuts! Having said that I did take the car for a drive down the road and it actually felt 'ok', mainly reverse was a struggle but that can be the case anyway (no synchromesh). 
• I also topped up the tank, just to see what the IVA used. I reckon about a litre of fuel in total? 

I also fixed the telltale lights;

They look a lot less 'waterlogged' now which is good. The laminator option didn't work, it couldn't get tight enough around the edge to fit in the slot and still be watertight. however laminating the images with sellotape did work. It might not be long term but at least its better than just exposed paper. I also did the switch labels at the same time, same process.

I've designed a phone holder to sit on the transmission tunnel;

Nothing too clever, it'll just screw to the tunnel top and have the wire sticking up from underneath. That'll feed up to the battery and to an inline power supply of some kind. My phone is a bit 'old' so it just uses a standard USB power, no fast charging or anything like that. 

Now on to the main event, the boot. Given the size of the boot lid and the space available, I have a few options with regards to boot space. The first step was to simply 'fill in' the floor;

This alone showed up a few potential issues. First, the back bar on the bodywork isn't flat. It's not meant to be, the bodywork isn't flat so I had to make things match. But it does mean the aluminium floor also needs to curve. The dots in the picture are just small magnets, but they're also an indicator of where the screws will need to go.

The plan had been to make the floor 'angled', to fill in the triangles either side. But that is actually quite a bit of work, and overall I lose space. Yes it might look really cool, but it's simply not practical.

So in the end I just thought 'keep it simple' and went for side panels where the other bars are;

It means the bottom is filled out further and is not supported in the corner, but given that it was going to be folded aluminium I think it'll be rigid enough. There will be a back panel to hide the fuel tank, that will be a separate piece that is rivetted in place to make the box shape. The only thing I need to consider is the infill. There's a couple of options, the first would be simply to edge the aluminium with the edge trim. That would look quite tidy, it would be safe and do the job. Alternatively would be some profile to go between the boot side and the edge of the opening. That would be a bit more work, especially as I'd want this boot lining to be removable (so I can get to the fuel tank, wiring etc).

In terms of capacity, this design is;

• 480mm high at the back
• 180mm high at the front
• 410mm deep
• 810mm wide

That gives me a boot space of 109 litres. That's almost KLM hand-luggage levels of storage! It will be plenty for a tool roll, a jerry can of fuel and somewhere to put my helmet when I'm not in the car. I might even look at some anchoring points for straps. 

This boot is pretty self contained, once I have the template drawn up and cut it'll be just a few rivnut in the relevant locations. I'm still considering a better rivnut tool, they've proven quite useful and I'll be using them elsewhere but it's still a pain to fit them. Particularly the small M4 ones that I use for most of my fixings. I need to find some 'real' 12.9 bolts and nuts to stop things just turning to mush as I tighten them up.