Fuel plumbing

Another productive week/weekend, and I still have most of Sunday to do more. The first job done was to get the front wiring completed, so now the front is all wrapped and terminated in a nine pin block. It was a bit of a headache, but thankfully I was able to find a 12 volt power supply and buzz things out as I went. Two of the lights didn't work, the first was a badly fitted bulb which just needed turning round and reseating. The other was a blown bulb. The things weren't even fitted and I have a blown bulb! Anyway, a quick Ebay later and I have a ten pack of Lucas bulbs. I suspect at least one other will have failed so I might as well have spares. 

Moving on to the rear I realised the loom still needs to include the fuel pump supply. And that's not got a permanent home yet. After many hours of head scratching and planning, I figured that bolting it to the fuel tank strap would be very effective;

I did wonder about putting the filter more accessible than the pump, but the pump looks prettier! The aluminium strap didn't fit tightly enough initially;

You can see the middle fixing is bent out of shape and not holding things tight enough. I added another layer of aluminium to all three fixings, and it sits much better. On the tank it looks spot on;

The fuel pipes here are mostly cut. There's a loop between the out of the filter and the in of the pump, then the pump outlet (green cap) should go off to the engine (more on that later). The filter inlet comes from underneath (the lower connector here);

The upper pipe is the return from the engine. The engine connection is made to two hard lines;

That run down the transmission tunnel. This photo shows a couple of issues I need to deal with. First, at the top edge the two pipes are in contact with the edge of the tank, so I need some sort of fixing to stop them from being worn through and also to keep them in place. I'll be 3D printing a bracket that then gets glued on to the tank, which the pipes will clip into. 

The other issue is the fuel and return pipes pointing downwards follow a very similar path, and again they'll wear each other away with constant movement. So again, another bracket is needed to clamp them in place. 

Now that the pump is in place, I can measure the wiring along the car and get it connected. 

However, there is one issue. The outlet of the pump is 12mm, and the whole fuel system is 8mm. No problem, I was able to find a brass reducer to get from 12mm to 8mm. But as I type this, I realised I have no way of connecting the two 12mm ends! Obviously it's got to be proper fuel hose as well. I've got the fuel clamps (once I find them, I've put them 'safe'), but I need maybe four inches of 12mm hose. I'll have a check on Ebay, alternatively the Newark kit car show is next weekend so I can hopefully get some there. 

Finished two jobs

 First a quick one, the dashboard lights;

These look really good, can't wait to get them wired up and lit. I do need to get the facing plastic for all gauges and lights, to protect them. 

Now on to the bigger job, the radiator grille. This is what I'm covering;

This is where I was last weekend;

The next step was to do the two curved sides. A wooden mould was required to get the two arcs converted to a curved section;

Temporarily fixed and put in place shows that it works well;

Then I cut the mesh to suit;

That was evil, getting through stainless steel mesh is probably the worst job I've ever had. I started with a hacksaw, then melted a jigsaw blade, in the end it was angry grinder!

Putting it all together;

And a trial fit;

Some rivets and glue;

And then bolted in place;

I am so happy with the result, it's worked exactly as expected. A quick comparison with what I was aiming for;

And it works for me. Of course, as I was taking pictures I did wonder whether I need to open that bonnet nostril and use more of the grille!! Not yet though, that's just overcomplicating things. And I've never done that before...

So, next job? Fuel plumbing I think, so filter and pump, with wiring and pipes.

Light mounting

 As ever I'm bouncing all over the place, multiple jobs on the go and not really finishing them! Hopefully this one will be a simple one, dashboard lights. I've been looking at these for a while but only very recently got everything together to see what is required. 

First thing, the lights themselves. It'll be a 3D printed housing, with the bulb lights mounted behind them. In front will be transparent printed plastic, with a paper diffuser. As with everything I did a trial first, and came up with this;

The first print was of the colours, that's the top row of coloured bars. This looked 'ok', but not strong enough particularly with the orange. The next two are basically two layers of the same print. With the paper background the colour is strong enough, and then with light shining from behind it should be plenty.

The rows above are test symbols, basically a random set of symbols that I was using as an example. It was mainly to see whether a positive or negative symbol would be better. To be honest I'm not sure, it might come down to aesthetics rather than function! 

The symbols will be 10mm square, which will fit into a 14mm circle. The housing will follow the same design as the gauges, with a 9mm frame round them. This is a 2mm round profile, a 5mm flat and another 2mm round profile. 

In terms of what I need (from left to right);

• Left hand indicator,  a green arrow.
• Brake fluid level warning, a red exclamation in a circle. 
• Main beam, a blue 'light' symbol shining to the left.
• Side lights, a green pair of 'light' symbols.
• Fog light, a yellow 'light' symbol shining to the right.
• Battery charging condition, a red battery.
• Right hand indicator, a green arrow. 

Turns out I don't actually need orange, oh well.

This is the set of images and applicable colours ready to print;

Now I have this I can start 3D designing the housing. 

(Update). I stuck a printout of the lights roughly where they will go;

It's quite apparent that having them spaced out is not going to work, it's just too wide. The bottom row has them all touching, which looks ok but isn't physically possible. The bulb fittings are too big to work like that, and there wouldn't be any separation to stop the lights bleeding from one to the next. What I'll need to do is make it as physically close to each other without blending in. From a 3D print point of view that's around 2mm gap between them. I'm not sure how that translates to the face though, I'll see what Fusion reckons is physically possible.