Dash 99% finished

 So after last weeks debacle, things worked better. For reference, this is what the brushed on glue looked like;

It makes me cringe just looking at it, but at least it peeled off very cleanly. Fast forward to this weekend with spray adhesive;

This was far more successful, and the finished product is exactly what I was after. I was so happy to see this come together, it's a huge part of the overall look of the car. 

I also did the gear shift surround bolts, which can be seen in the pic above. Problem is that the leather was just a bit thicker than expected so it's left a gap. It also means the surround is higher than 2.5mm so it no longer meets the radius requirements. A bit of 3D printing for a profiled surround and I have this;

It's not quite as clean as metal on metal, but it still tidies it up a bit and gets everything level and IVA friendly. I'm tempted to glue the leather to the underside of the frame as I'm not sure it would stay in place over time, but I'm also tempted to make another gaiter.

And that comes to yet another digression. With the dash in place I can see the black steering wheel and shroud look a little out of place. A wooden wheel would be perfect, but they're not cheap (well, some are, but they're made of chinesium and I've seen some scary youtube videos on those!). The current wheel is Momo so it's definitely good quality, and it needs a centre boss made up anyway. So I'm thinking a bit more leather work might be good. If nothing else the centre boss should be the same colour. The shroud is also the dull black plastic from Mazda, and I think I can do a bit better with just a layer of leather. That in particular will really tie it into the dash and seats. I'd end up with leather soft furnishings, aluminium interior, and black fixings. Nice, clean, simple. Well, not simple, the amount of work to make it look 'simple' is actually quite complex!

Right, back to wiring. I keep putting it off, but it's got to be done. Rather than looking at it from a 'dash' point of view, I'm going to do it one circuit at a time. Today's mission, wire in the indicators and hazards. So that's front and rear lights, tell tales, column switch and hazard toggle switch. All connected to the light relay. That's something my brain can deal with, I just hope I can find enough green/white and green/black wiring. 

Trouble with glue

 I really am not on a good streak at the moment, so this is a bit of a rant. Partly over the poor quality of products nowadays, partly over my own incompetence.

It's been about glue this weekend. I need to fit the fuel filler bayonet to the filler neck, and since I can't TIG weld then glue is the only option. To be fair it kind of did work, although I question the longevity. I used epoxy to bond the two parts together, and yes it stuck but it was unfortunately off centre. So the cap wouldn't go on. I expected a struggle when taking it apart, but the fact that it just needed a bit of encouragement with a stanley knife makes me wonder how long it would last.

Once it was apart and cleaned up, I tried some JB weld. Turned out I'd not done enough, because it wouldn't even hold together under it's own weight. After a second clean up, I made a decent lump and applied it. I also clamped it in place and left it, I am hoping that patience is a virtue here and it'll be fine tomorrow. Or next week, depending on when I want to look at it again.

The other gluing job was the dashboard leather on to the blank. I bought the contact adhesive yesterday, thinking that my challenge would be getting it flat and whether it stuck to the leather. Turns out my problem was neither of those, it's the fact that it didn't stick to the blank! I noticed it when I was painting it on, it was going gloopy and dragging. I actually got to the point where there was a visible lump right above where the steering wheel would be, so that would have been horrible.

I prepared myself for a frustrating time getting rid of the glue, turned out that I need not have worried. It just peeled off. Now, I'm not an expert on glues, but when something peels off that easily, something has gone wrong. The leather looked ok though, it had wrinkled up a bit but had accepted the glue no problem.

So at the moment I've washed the glue off the leather and left it stretched flat to dry, and I'm wondering what to do with the blank. I don't want to strip the paint off completely but I think it's going to need more than a bit of sandpaper. I'm thinking perhaps a wire brush to actually score the surface which should hopefully keep things fairly smooth once it's done. 

And of course, I thought it was going to work fine first time, so I temporarily put all the wiring stuff underneath the board that I'd laid out... so no more wiring today. I don't mind to be honest, after such a bad start to the day I'm not in the mood for more garage work. I might go in there to tidy up in a bit, I need to get some stuff sorted/binned. In fact, yes I might do that as it's fairly relaxing, reasonably trouble free, and I could do with a win today. 

Weekend progress

 Again, more of an 'aide memoire' than any actual decent blog post. I've done most of the wiring loom, I just have four white/red power wires to join up together, and the same for four black ground wires. That gets rid of the spaghetti. Now the next part is to wire in the lights and dashboard.

There's a few blockers to that though. First off is that I seemed to have trimmed an entire lighting section out of the loom!! There should be a connector on the column multi switches that powers the lights, but now I've got to the end of this particular task I have no more connectors. I'll need to go back and see what I removed. It might be that I took each individual wire out in turn, then ended up with an empty connector that I stuffed in the 'spares' box. Once I find the connector I can wire it back in, 

I also need to print out the fuse and relay positioning, again I seem to have quite a few empty holes and I want to make sure I've not unwired something important. I also need to check the relays are still in the right place, for example I know the indicator flasher is wired in but it's missing two of the wires. I need to energise the flasher with some power and then see what comes out. The flasher is listed as;

• Black Ground.
• No connection
• Orange hazard light switch to Black Ground.
• Green Black to left hand lights (front/side/back and tell tale)
• Green Red to direction switch on column
• Green Yellow to direction switch on column
• Green White to right hand lights (front/side/back and tell tale)
• Black Red to fuse block

Looking at the existing wiring in the block, I can see;

NC          GR/RE      OR      BL

BL/RE    GR/YE      NC      NC

If the one below the black is the actual 'no connection' then the other two must be left and right. 

For the lights and dashboard it's all new, so it'll just be lengths of wire of the appropriate colour.

Ah yes, colours... I seem to have some wires that were attached to the loom, and attached to the engine, but neither end is actually attached anymore! I need to find;

• White/Blue. Apparently this is labelled as battery negative. 
• Green/Orange. This is most likely going to be the horn I think?
• White/Black. Off to the alternator for the battery?

None of them go to the ECU so I can rule that out straightaway. I'll have to double check the colours to see if they're actually what I have.

For other wires, I've got Blue Yellow to come from the fluid level sensor and the parking brake switch, when either of them close that puts a ground on the far end of the brake light tell tale to light the bulb. Black Blue for the coolant temp sensor, that'll go direct to the gauge with the other end being grounded.

I also have Yellow Red to come from the oil pressure sensor, again to the oil pressure gauge. 

I feel like it's all starting to come together now. I do have a lot of fused power feeds to go round the car, and there are so many ground points to put in. The grounds are fairly straightforward though, crimped ring connectors screwed to key points on the chassis. 

I'm going to try and get more done during the week, even if it's one or two wire colours a day I'd soon get them all done. Then it's a test, then bind up the wires and secure them ready for IVA. I have a route for the dashboard wires but I will need to make it IVA friendly, there's a sharp 180 degree bend that goes round an aluminium edge, that's just ripe for IVA to fail. 3D printing to the rescue there! Behind the dash it's easier though, the current connectors are in quite close proximity and would be stable enough to hold the wires on their own but it won't take much to add a couple of cable tie brackets to make it extra secure. I'll have to remember to position some next time I get the glue out, which will be when I come to put the fuel filler together. But that will have to wait until I get some more PETG for the 3D printer, I've actually run out of a roll! Only the second roll I've managed to finish too, I must have been doing a huge amount of printing recently. 

Fuel filler

 One more post about the fuel filler, just for my own memory to be honest. The fuel filler neck arrived;

And thankfully it was a usable size, this photo compares it to my moulded one. It's maybe a little larger which is fine. The main frustration is that the Ebay listing said it was new, this was far from new. I don't think it's been used, but the chrome is so tarnished that it looks like it's sat in someone's toolbox for years. It's annoying, but not worth trying to get a refund, after all it's still usable.

The only thing was the angled edges that the cap locks on to, they were simply to severe for the cap to lock. This was expected, I knew I'd be out of luck to get them to work perfectly. Fortunately a few minutes with the dremel got me a shallower angle that the fuel cap could lock to. So that's that.

Now comes the fitting. My idea had been to weld a steel collar on to the tube that would sit inside the bodywork. This neck would then protrude above the body, with maybe a decorative trim to finish it off. Problem is this neck is actually wider than the two inch tube, so I'm not going to be able to weld a collar on and get it to fit through the body. I could make the body hole wider for the neck, but then I'd need to trim it. And again, because the neck is wider than the tube, the trim wouldn't work either. 

I think it's an opportunity for some more 3D printing... Basically I want a bracket to sit under the body. The internal diameter will be for the tube. Then I want an upper lip to fill the hole in the body where the neck needs to fit through. Then the overall part should be wide enough to fix the tube to the body.

Or... I can do the same, but have the tube come in from above. That way I can make the hole only big enough for the tube rather than the neck. I could still use a 3D printed collar to bond everything in place. That would mean I wouldn't need an outer trim, I could just make sure the bodywork hole is tight against the tube. The neck itself would then sit just above the body.

Oh, but that introduces a new problem. When I lock the fuel cap, it needs me to press down on the cap. If I do that too often, I might end up pushing the tube through the collar. However that could be mitigated by my gluing approach, if I use two halves of a collar then I can more easily apply epoxy inside the collar. I could then use a jubilee band during gluing to really press it on there. 

I could also reinforce it by using another 3D printed collar underneath the neck lip. It doesn't need to be much, just enough so the neck sits proud and so the cap has about 1mm clearance to the bodywork. I don't want it to sit on the body because that would scratch the body over time, as well as make it difficult to lock as things wear.

Right, that's my notes sorted, I can come back to that another time. My task for this weekend is to get the loom sorted, or at least get the spaghetti sorted. Even if I don't get all the way to the dash, at least I could get the engine ready to run. Two solid days should be enough, as long as I don't make excuses to avoid it. Like writing a blog post on how to fix a fuel cap...

Metal/epoxy moulding and other things

 I'm sure I'm missing a few photos, but here's what happened...

Firstly I modelled a gas cap neck end in Onshape and printed it out;

Once I'd checked it worked ok with the cap, I printed a negative, basically a mould;

(The real thing would not have photographed very well, even this 3D model is difficult to visualise). . Then with nearly a full tube of JB weld I filled the mould;

I did try some release agent on the mould, hence the discoloured wood that it's sitting on. Unfortunately the release agent did very little as the epoxy had managed to get in between the plastic threads. At least I knew it was a good adhesive!!

Once it had cured, I set about removing the mould. It had to be done essentially one layer at a time, and in doing so I actually broke the thing I was moulding. That was a little disappointing, but more epoxy and I was able to get it back to it's final form. This is the original printed version alongside the new moulded version;

And... it does work surprisingly enough. It's certainly strong enough to cope with holding the cap on, it needs some fine sanding just on the edges to make the action smoother though. The epoxy worked so well that it duplicated the 3D print layers, which means the surfaces are rough.

Of course, in the meantime I did find a filler neck for a Royal Enfield bike that could actually do the job, so I have one of those on order. If that arrives and works I'll use that instead.

In other news, the gauges are progressing well. I'm adding paint on the bezels now;

A bit more sanding, painting, sanding and painting will get me some decently smooth surfaces. I've also cut and polished the acrylic faces;

I needed a lot of elbow grease and some watch face polish (polywatch is the name). It worked well to be honest, it got rid of most of the hazing. There's still a few tiny marks but hopefully they won't be seen once they're mounted in place. 

I've also added one layer of knifing putty to the hub caps, once they're dry I'll need to sand them;

By the way, knifing putty is really hard to work with. But on the good side it does mean it'll be quite tough. It needs a good sanding and shaping, and for some reason I'm missing one. I only had three when I came to do the putty work. 

And lastly, an update on wiring. It's horrible. That's the update. I can see why it's left until the end, and many builders opt for an aftermarket loom. However I do have most of it done, I've got maybe a dozen wires left. I've temporarily mounted the two fuse boxes in roughly the same position they will be in the car;

The spaghetti is what I need to get rid of. There's two main power feeds that go to most of the sensors and connectors, then there's fuses for a few extras (EG fuel pump). Many of the fuses aren't used anymore, if I put my mind to it I could have replaced both blocks with a smaller unit. But for now I'm staying standard with all the challenges that brings.

Oh, and Mr Insomnia kicked in last night with an interesting question... where did the dashboard connectors go? I've got the one for the ignition switch, but there's one required for the indicators and one for the lights. Oh, and the horn (why do I keep forgetting the horn?!). From my 'donor photos' I can see three connectors that look like they would have been at home on the column;

Two white connectors and one black. Hopefully they will match up with 'something' on the extracted loom!

Another fail (fuel tank filler)

 It was all going quite well so I was bound to trip up on something. The plan for the fuel filler neck was to weld a plate to the end of a tube, then cut it to shape. Actually, scratch that, the original plan was to buy a filler neck, but it turns out the ones I was watching on Ebay are the wrong size. So the alternative was to DIY it.

The job started ok, once I'd ground back the welds I could see some pinholes so that wasn't a surprise. Cutting the end hole to size got the cap on, but it wasn't tight enough. Regular fuel filler necks have a gentle slope to pull the cap tight so I had to replicate that. Not too bad, a few taps with the hammer and I got the right angle to pull it tight.

Problem is this is where it came unstuck. I'd effectively broken the welds to make the slope, so it was no longer one piece of metal. And of course, now everything was thin, welding just became a game of 'chase the blow through'. Unfortunately while other locations could tolerate blobs on the other side, as soon as I had one weld on the inside the end became useless. 

So it's back to the drawing board for this one. The issue is that I need to have a flat surface on the top for the cap to seal against, but then a sloping surface for it to tighten up against. And everything I can come up with either covers one or the other, not both. 

My next thought is some form of mouldable metal to make the shape, something like SteelStik or cold weld from JB weld. If I 3D print a mould I reckon I could get it quite accurate, but would it be strong enough? I'd add a flange to attach it to the body, and if it was strong enough I could attach the fuel pipe straight to it. I'll see how good my 3D skills are first! 

New toys

 First an update on the tank. It was another miserable welding job, I hate working on metal that thin. Loads of pinprick holes that needed rewelding. But I finally got it done and pressure tested. This is just before welding it up, showing the flexi pipe in it's proper home;

I think it looks perfect, and it's clear of the roll bar brace. After this picture was taken I welded it up, painted it and put it away ready for the other end.

Oh yeah, the other end. So this arrived;

£40 for an vented lockable gas cap and this cover that goes on top. I don't know whether this particular cap is IVA friendly, if not I'll just go with the standard gas cap. Not as pretty, but safe.

Now the problem was what to fit it to. I got this first because I wanted to see how wide the cap was. Turns out it's wider than all of the Ebay bookmarked pipes so none of them are any use! However it's a perfect fit for my 2 inch tube. So the plan is to weld a flat plate to the end of the tube, then drill and cut a suitably slotted hole in the tope for the cap. Once that's done it's another bit of welding to fix a mounting skirt to the tube for the bodywork. So definitely the locost version.

The only thing I do need to consider is keeping it fuel tight (again!) and also having it perfectly flat on the face. Thankfully I have access to both sides so I'll be able to tap and bend it where required. It needs to be flat to seal to the gas cap rubber, otherwise it's going to be an instant fail. I think in theory I can put the cap on the tube then fill it with water to see if it's tight.

Last thing is the switch gear. I finally found somewhere that sold bog standard toggle switches, or at least I thought they did. Turns out they were momentary flasher switches rather than on/off! A quick disassembly and remodel of the switch mechanism got me a pair of on/off toggle switches. Then it was back to the 3D printer for a mount;

The first one on the left was just way too small in every dimension, not sure what happened there. The second centre one was better, it had the front edge trim on and it looked ok on it's own. The switches fitted, but when it came to screwing on the collars it didn't work. So another couple of millimetres in every direction got me to the one on the right. Now that's just waiting for me to add a legend and the perspex. 

For perspex I managed to get small sheets from Hobbycraft, even in a buy two get one free offer so I have some spare material. It looks ok but I've not yet tried cutting it yet, that will be the main test. If it cuts and/or grinds down then I have enough to make face plates for all dash gauges, tell tales and switches. If it doesn't then I've wasted £6, hardly a dealbreaker!