Hiccup on the seats

 I'm really happy with the seat wadding;

It's made a really smooth squishy surface just ready for the leatherette. It glued on to the sides quite well, I did staple it underneath but the plan is to remove the staples and trim the excess just before the leatherette goes on.

I did take this opportunity to take a quick measurement;

That's 750mm to the base of the seat to the top of the headrest. The regulations are;

• 85mm from each side of the centre line. That's an easy one, it's about 220mm total. It is slightly offset but I think it's still fine. 
• Measured at an angle of up to 25 degrees. My recline angle is 15 degrees so I'm measuring ok.
• Top of the head restraint must be at least 700mm above the R point. 

The issue is that the R point is 53mm from the seat base. That means I'm 3mm short. 

At first thought I could argue that the wadding going over the top edge of the head restraint could fill in the extra 3mm, but am I really going to measure a pass/fail on how thick some padding is going to be? Especially it it would mean redoing the seats.

So the easiest fix is simply to raise the seat back. I'm going to raise it maybe an inch or so, it's not going to cause an issue apart from where the leather pulls tight behind the seat. That's just a decorative thing. The priority is to make it strong enough to be considered a safety device. I doubt the extra inch will make that much difference from a 'seat aesthetics' point of view, as long as they're both done the same. 

I'm going to 3D print a measuring block, then take some better measurement to sort out an extension.

(The following Tuesday)

The measuring block is now printed, and it's showing something interesting.  In the IVA manual, the seat base is also angled;

But my base isn't, it's horizontal. So as I move 136mm forward, the ninety degree angle at the top actually makes the seat back 'longer'. In fact, with my 'measureometer' (patent pending) it actually measures just over 730mm;

So again, in theory I don't actually need to do anything. I'm at least 30mm clear to the metalwork, and I still have a layer of wadding to go on top. Havin said that I'm still going to increase it by an inch, it's not much effort and it gives me a safety margin. 

It does make the headrest back cover more difficult to deal with though, as it'll mean I'm trying to staple into metal. I'll have to bring the leatherette down a bit further but I'll end up with creases. The easiest way to fix that is to have a short board covered with leatherette that will bond to the back of the headrest. But that will mismatch with the rest of the back, so I'll have to do something to lift it up.

This is the back of the headrest;

The wood sits inset based on the metal, which works well for what I had planned because the metal clamp would raise the leather up and I'd be left with a nice transition from back to side. Actually, that will work, the extra board for the headrest would simply sit on top. 

One step at a time I think... I'll lift the headrest 30mm and start there.

Start on the seats

 First, a problem...

Yes, despite me having far more space than a regular Haynes roadster, the air filter doesn't fit. I noticed it after fitting the meter and the filter, then seeing the bonnet not sitting right. The filter is jammed between the frame and the body. Given that I'm not going to cut the body or the frame, the filter is the one that has to give. That'll be an interesting side project, not quite sure what to do yet. 

Anyway, back to the seats. The foam glued on really well after my dashboard exploits;

And thankfully just having that thin foam on has made the seats far more comfortable. I did manage to get the wadding from the Hole in the Wall, although storm Darragh did make that particular journey quite eventful. Before that goes on I needed to round off the corners;

The left side is the cut right angle from the initial trim, the right was after I'd smoothed it over a bit. It was pretty easy to do to be honest, the powerfile with a really coarse grit belt was enough to shape it. Then my Japanese saw rasp took off the untidy bits. So now I have two seats with nicely rounded edges;

I'm really happy with the outcome, everything has gone right so far.

There is a slight change of plan on the wadding though. I had originally planned to have the surface as one piece, and the edge trim as another. But that seemed to be asking for trouble, particularly how the rounded corners were done. Instead I've cut it so the surface wraps round and staples to the back. I'll still glue it in the centre so it doesn't slide about under the leatherette, but being able to pull it taught round the edge will hopefully give me a really smooth corner without too much effort. 

Once that's done I can apply the leatherette. 

A halt in the proceedings

 Since the last post I seem to have done very little. To be fair, it's been absolutely freezing in the garage, and the clocks going back make it even more challenging. 

But I thought I would at least update the blog to see what needs to be done. Well, I know what needs to be done, the blasted wiring! I need to get on with it but it really is painful. I could probably get it done in an hour or so, then just need to tidy it up, job done. 

Away from the wiring, I'm also looking at the seats. I put the foam on the seats to see what will happen, and I'm a bit wary it won't be as smooth and curved as it is in my head. The foam is firm and very 'right angled'. Looking on youtube I think I need to add a layer of dacron, a lighter foam that can round off the corners. If I trim the sharp corners then add dacron I think I can get it looking reasonably curved. 

The seat base is 50cm long, 41 wide. Add 5cm all round gives me 60 x 51.

The back is 41 wide as well, 77cm tall. Same addition is 87 x 51.

I also need to add a strip all round, a couple of inches thick. All four sides of base and back is 418cm. Working it all out I can get away with a 2.5 yards based on a 54" width (1.5 yards). I could 'probably' get away with a 1 metre wide, but I don't think haberdashers have embraced the metric system yet. 

Of course, haberdashers aren't as common as they used to be. Where I used to work there was one on the high street, and there's one in Walsall which isn't far. But there is a market tomorrow (Wednesday) and there might be one on there. The weather won't be good but it'll be worth the journey, especially if I can do some Xmas shopping at the same time!

I then have to;

• Trim the exhaust
• Complete and attach the arch fenders
• Finish the fuel tank plumbing (possibly buy some correctly marked hose)
• Bolt together and tighten up the suspension
• Seatbelts
• Edge trim everywhere
• Paint (I'm tempted to leave this until after IVA)
• New tyres

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!

Last bit of dash

 There is one last bit of dashboard work that I need to do, and that's switches. Most of the switches are dealt with by the column stalks, so that's indicators and lights. What's missing is the fog light and the hazard light switches.

As with everything I do, I started out really complex. I had in mind that I needed IVA compatible switches that illuminate with the correct colour and symbol. Of course, in reality I didn't need it to be like that!

First thing, IVA. This is actually a simple fix, I just need to make sure the switches are in the exempt zone, which is 127mm outside of the steering wheel. Given that is pretty close to the side of the car it means I can put the switches anywhere on the right hand side panel. Which is actually where I wanted them for aesthetic reasons, it means that once again I'm able to keep the dash as clean as possible. Staying within the exempt zone means that I can go with pretty toggle switches rather than dumpy IVA friendly ones. 

Second, illumination. I thought that they both have to have tell-tales associated with the switch, but they don't. They only need tell-tales 'somewhere'. Well, on the MX5 the hazard flasher actually triggers the left and right direction indicators which is a valid tell-tale for IVA. Similar with fog light, I've already incorporated a warning light into my dash lights so I don't actually need to do anything more. Obviously the correct colour and symbol has already been covered.

The only requirement now is that the switches are correctly labelled. At the moment I'm thinking of taking inspiration from my existing lights;

This is a set of seven inline. If I use the same design but aim for a '2x2' pattern, it means I could have the toggle switches in the bottom two, and them symbols in the top two. I wouldn't have the symbols looking the same as these, I'm possibly thinking white symbols on a black background would be best. What I'd do is print an inverted image on to acetate, then paint the back of the image with Tipp-ex to expose the white symbol.  

It does mean I still need to find some attractive toggle switches, which is actually proving to be quite challenging. It's not as if they need to be complex like on other cars, even the hazard switch is just a single pole to ground. The flasher unit deals with the complexity. 

And I do need to get some perspex or similar, that would allow me to finish the dash. I seem to remember hobbycraft do smaller sheets, the DIY places do panels suitable for greenhouses etc which are just too big. 

Tank surgery

 At the last car show in Newark, I bought myself a short length of fuel filler hose, just to finish off that particular job. Shouldn't be too much a problem I thought... then I got home and remembered how things sit;

Unfortunately the distance from the fuel cap location to the tank is longer than I remembered. It's also way too sharp an angle. And finally the roll bar support is in the way. Here's a better view of the issues;

Last night I had a thought about making a steel pipe to get from the tank to the filler location, but even that is not possible. So unfortunately it's going to be open surgery on the tank. Quite extensive open surgery in fact. What I did spot was a gap on the side;

There's a sufficiently large gap between the corner of the tank and the roll bar support. If I move the end piece to the side of the tank, it then becomes a shorter distance for the fuel filler pipe to travel. It's also a less severe angle to get to the filler, which means I can use the length of flexi filler pipe that I have bought.

The downside to that is I need to remove the end cap and the existing filler hole, and replace the lot with a repositioned hole. It's not going to come off without a fight so it's going to have to be a fresh piece of metal. And of course it's only thin steel to start with so that's going to be a fun task again. My wife described the tank as 'home made', and that's purely because of all the extra welds that had to be added to solve the pinprick holes! Still, I don't think any of that is a bad thing, I've got a lot more experience with welding so I might do a better job this time round. 

The last thing that is a worry is that I open up the end plate and find the tank is rusted to hell inside. This has been sat for many years, and in theory it's been sealed but water seems to find a way. Fingers crossed it's not too bad, but if not it'll be a whole new tank. I still have steel so it wouldn't cost anything other than time. I've got some 2 inch tube left over from my exhaust, it's not seamless but there's no requirement for seamless for a fuel tank. 

(Follow up from Wednesday)

So I got it cut open, and actually it's not too bad inside;

The surface corrosion is limited to the heat affected zone of the welds, and it is just surface corrosion. A wipe with a cloth gets rid of it. The edges are all rippled, but that's partly where it's welded and partly where I've taken the end cap off.

It looks really good after cleanup, the edges are pretty straight and I was able to make a template;

The lower half is the end plate with marks for folding into shape, then the top will cover the cutout section. It's marked up but more for riveting and welding.

Oh yeah, that's one thing. The metal seems to be 'pinging', IE it's going from one position to the next due to either tension or compression. That means that it's only straight in one state. So I'll need to hold it in place while I weld it. I'm thinking a series of temporary rivets will do the trick, then as I weld things into shape they will hold the surfaces together. 

I do need to insert the tube, which is the whole point of this exercise, but I also don't want to make things awkward when fitting the end plate. If I fit the tube before putting the cap on, I can get the weld done well but have a chance of warping the metal. Whereas if I cap it first then put the tube in, I can get things straighter than they were but the tube insert might then warp things. 

Either way I've got to be very careful here, I'd rather not have to go on the hunt for microscopic holes again. But I also don't want to blow through the metal as it's really thin. I might do some practice runs on spare tin just to see what I can drop the settings down to. 

(Thursdays update)

The cap is working quite well. The corners folded a lot better this time, I guess watching a whole load of random panel beating Youtube videos does actually improve things! This is the current state;

The sides are pretty tight although the plan for using some fixing rivets is still the best idea to really get things snug for welding. The tabs on each corner will be trimmed and then dressed round the tank, with rounded corners on all four sides I need to make a rounded cap. I've just noticed from this pic that I can see some paint underneath the new part, that'll have to be cleaned up before I weld. 

Talking of welding, this is my current welding setting;

So the toggle switch is at max, the rotary is at 2, and wire feed is at around 7. This works well for the steel I use, but is way overkill for this tank. Checking the manual it reckons 1mm to 1.2mm for these settings, given the fuel tank is 1mm I think that's wrong. I'm going to drop it to Max 1, with around 5 on the feed. That's good for 0.6mm to 0.8mm.

By the way, I think I might have mentioned this before, but these Clarke units are really good. While I started with an Aldi special, that burnt out after a year or so. This one I got second hand and had already lived a very long and hard life judging by the condition of it. A clean and replace of the consumables and it's alive again. The only real issue I have now is the wire feed knob, it has literally no resistance so it's really easy to knock it with the torch lead and set it too high or too low. I think a protective shroud might be useful, something to stop it turning by accident.

So the plan for tonight is to do the corners of the fuel tank, then the weekend will be welding it up and pressure testing it again. 

(Later that day)

The corners are now done;

I'm also happy with how the temporary rivet fixings are working. It's really able to clamp those surfaces together so I can get a good weld seam. Yes I have half a dozen extra holes to fill in, but that's easier than a potentially leaky seam. So that's all set up for welding, once I've had a bit of practice on some scrap. 

Wiring change of plan

 Ooh, a change of plan, I've not done that before... anyhow, I tried fitting the fuse boxes, but in the right location and using the existing brackets they end up looking like they're stuck in mid air. 

So I'm going to abandon the tabs and print some proper brackets. They'll get bonded on to the side and then they can be screwed down properly. 

A couple of other jobs have been done. First, the rear number place mount, looking massively overkill but really secure so no chance of failing IVA for it;

It looks good with the donor plate. I've also fitted the coolant bottle, although it needs a couple of nuts added inside the car;

And that's the last of the protective film too, whether that's good or bad I don't know. Perhaps after the second tube of metal polish I might rethink the whole aluminium look!!

Engine wiring part 2

 Rather unsurprisingly the engine wiring is still going on. It's really tough going, but if I get it wrong it's either a dead car before I start, or an AA callout on the way back from Malvern 2025.

The engine sensors are now cut to length, with the ECU mounted on the back of the firewall and nicely protected from the elements. I did think about putting it flat but it seemed like a waste of space. Then again, even sat on the firewall I can't put anything in front of it because I need to maintain access!!

The wires will all come across the bulkhead to the engine via a single location, so that will bind up quite well. The sensor wiring has been substantially shortened for the most part, the only one that is still factory length is the airflow sensor and that's because it's right out at front.

I've also picked up a few other sensors as I've gone. For example the cooling fan sensor is situated underneath the connector for the fuel injectors, so that got trimmed.

The next big job is actually what I thought would be the first, which is the 'big' wiring. I've got the alternator and starter motor already wired up as expected, because I didn't take them apart. But on the other end is the engine fuse box, and on the end of the other loom is the interior fuse box. Both mounted on to the chassis in the original car, so they've got mounting lugs. Problem is I can't seem to find a location where I can reuse the lugs. I don't want to use a different fuse box at the moment as it will just be that one extra complexity and cost. So I need to mount the two fuse boxes somehow.

The logical place would be above the steering column on the platform of the bulkhead, here's an earlier view with the body not in place;

However I wouldn't call it majorly structural, given that it's basically the same aluminium sheet bent out of the way and reformed, rather than having anything substantial added to it. I think to mount the two boxes I'm going to need some vertical mounting structure as well as some platform reinforcement. It does need to be off the surface, mainly because the wiring comes out the back of both. 

Putting them in place it actually looks like horizontal is better. The engine one can be horizontal, pointing out towards the engine. Then the interior one can be behind it, pointing to the left. That also means the wires to the ignition switch have a fairly short distance to travel, as does the main power feeds (blue and white/red). 

However the first job is to figure out the fuse layout. The engine sticker looks like it had fallen off as it was upside down compared to the box, and the interior fuse box has no lid! That's kind of expected, it would have been a dashboard panel rather than a lid. I wonder if I could design and print a lid, that would be ideal. 

Anyway, some random pictures;

The first picture of spaghetti would make any Italian cry, and the fact that it's a car loom in the midst of being chopped up would make any electrician cry! The second is the back of the front plug, with indicators, sidelights, dipped beam and main beam. 

Engine wiring

 There's no two ways about it, this is probably the biggest job remaining. The main loom is about two inches thick, and I reckon maybe half of it is redundant. More importantly it's designed to go down both sides of the engine bay, whereas I think I only need maybe one or two wires to go down the passenger side. In fact it may just be the O2 sensor on the manifold.

So the plan will be to take out each sensor individually, route them as required, shorten the wire if needed, then bundle them back up. I'm planning on doing this in stages, and I'll tick them off as I go;

Stage 1: High current

This includes;

• Starter motor. Partly complete as I left it in place.
• Alternator. Similarly partly complete.
• Ground to chassis. Big wire to be connected.
• Ignition switch. Done. 
• Fuse box. This is more about physically locating it in the right place.
• Battery. As above, getting it physically located and connected.

Stage 2: Engine sensors

This will include all of the following, traced out individually and then taped up once they're all complete. I'll need to put the ECU in place before I start here, as basically all of this connects to the ECU. Depending on what is required I might also need to put the fuse boxes in the relevant locations as well. 

• Igniter (C4) Now extracted. 
• White (to ignition coil)
• Brown/Yellow (to ECU)
• Blue (Ignition switch)
• Yellow/Blue (to ECU and to rev counter)
• Black/White (to ECU)
• Black (Ground)
• Brown (to ECU)
• Red (to ignition coil)
• Ignition coil (D4)
• Spark plug leads
• Red (to igniter)
• White (to igniter)
• Blue (to ignition switch and capacitor to ground)
• Main relay (E4)
• White/Green (Relay and main fuse block)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Black (Ground)
• Black/White (Engine Fuse)
• Black/White (Cooling fan relay)
• Crank Angle Sensor (D7)
• Black/Light Green (Ground)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• White (to ECU)
• Yellow/Blue (to ECU)
• Throttle sensor (D7)
• Light Green/White (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Ground)
• Red (to ECU)
• Airflow meter (C7)
• Light Green/Red (to ECU)
• Red (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Shield/Ground) x 2?
• Red/Green (to ECU)
• Light Green (to fuel pump relay)
• Black (ground)
• Coolant temp sensor (B7)
• Blue/White (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Shield/Ground)
• Fuel injectors (B7)
• Yellow/Black (to ECU)
• Yellow (to ECU)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Idle speed control valve (A7)
• Blue/Orange (to ECU)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Purge solenoid valve (A7) I think this has been deleted?

Stage 3: Non-engine sensors and switches

• Fuel pump relay (C4)
• Blue/Red (to Fuel tank)
• Light Green (to AFM)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Violet (ST SIGN FUSE?)
• Black (Ground)
• O2 sensor on exhaust (B7)
• Red/Blue (to ECU)
• Clutch Switch on pedal (E7)
• Brown/White (to ECU)
• Neutral switch on gearbox (E7)
• Brown/White (to ECU)
• Cooling fan via relay (E10)
• Yellow (to relay)
• Black (to Ground)
• Coolant thermostat (E9)
• Black/Green (to ECU and relay)
• Black (Ground)
• Horn and relay (C17)
• Green/Orange (to horn switch inside combination switch)
• White/Green (STOP FUSE)
• Green/Red (Horn)

Stage 3: Connection to steering column switch gear

Mainly lights and indicators, as the ignition switch will have already been wired in stage 1.

Stage 4: Connection to gauges and tell-tales

Once things have been wired from the controls and sensors it'll be fairly straightforward to wire them back to the dash. 

My circuit diagram

 This is going to be my reference for wiring, rather than a blog update. However it may be useful for some. 

I've split the wiring into parts, so I'll reference each part below. All pinouts are from looking into the male connector. 

Front lights

(For reference, pins 1, 3 and 8 have square corners)

1. Dipped beam right

2. Dipped beam left

3. Side lights

4. Full beam right

5. Full beam left

6. Not connected

7. Right indicator

8. Left indicator

9. Not connected

Rear lights

1. Fuel pump

2. Fuel pump additional

3. Position/Tail (Red/Black)

4. Brake (Green)

5. Reverse (Red/Green)

6. Fog (Green/Yellow)

7. Right indicator (Green/Black)

8. Left indicator (Green/White)

9. Not connected

Black is earth going to two chassis points.

Gauges

1. Illumination positive (red).

2. Temperature gauge signal (blue/black).

3. Common ground to chassis (black).

4. Gauge positive (black/yellow).

5. Oil pressure signal (yellow/red).

6. Rev counter signal (yellow/blue). 

Tell tales

1. Side lights. (red)

2. Main beam. (Red/white)

3. Left indicator. (Green/black)

4. Common ground to chassis. (black)

5. Right indicator. (Green/white)

6. Fog light. (Green/yellow)

1. Battery positive. (Black/Yellow)

2. Brake fluid positive. (Black/Yellow)

3. Battery negative. (White/blue)

4. Brake fluid negative. (Blue/yellow)

Toggle Switches

1. Fog. Green Yellow to Fog light

2. Fog. Red black from headlights (So only power with lights on)

3. Hazard. Orange to flasher relay

4. Hazard. Black to earth