Badges and clutch stop

 The first task from this weekend was a clutch stop to prevent the pedal from moving too far. The problem is I didn't appreciate how much travel I'd put into the clutch pedal! It's not surprising that the clutch pedal can push it too far. But it meant that to add a physical stop would have had the bolt mounted either on the cylinder itself or where a brake line lives. Although looking at the pictures using the upper mounting bolt may be an option;

I may look at that during the week, it's only just occurred to me. I was looking at drilling a new hole and dismissed the idea.

In any case, what I did do was add a sleeve to the pushrod to limit the travel there. 

This works very effectively and is quite a hard stop on the pedal. However it's effectively pressing against the master cylinder and I'm wary whether that would be considered an issue at the retest.

This is the slave cylinder at rest;

And at full travel with the stop in place;

If I compare that to with it taken out;

It does really help with the movement but it's not strictly needed to get past the test. So it stays off for now.

I can actually see the upper fixing bolt of the MC in a different photo;

Access is tight but I could figure out a decent bolt length pretty easily. I'll keep that as option two.

Given that I have almost nothing to do on the car, I thought I'd look at a bit of decoration. On with the 3D printer;

It was a bit of a faff getting it from text to 3D lettering but I got there in the end. It looks nice on the car as well;

The size looks good and the lettering suits the car, the only issue is the colour. It needs to be metallic at least, if not chrome. I'll see if I can find some chrome (ish) paint and give it a spray. 

This will sit with the boot, dashcam, phone mount and all the other bits and pieces to be added post-IVA.

Lastly, I gave the corner weights a go. It wasn't particularly accurate but when I started I could see the left hand side was 30Kg lighter than the right. That would be enough to throw off braking efforts. A few tweaks to the spring platforms got it to about 5Kg difference. Although I then remeasured the indicator height and they're about 10mm different either side. It probably won't be noticeable but I daren't do any more tweaking with springs. A quick drive down the road showed that both wheels locked up at the same time which is pretty much perfect. I have also dropped the tyre PSI down to 18 so all of that is basically giving the car the best chance for braking efforts. If it doesn't pass with all that then it's major surgery time, either a different master cylinder (and therefore different plumbing) or even worse would be a brake booster which would need some major mechanical changes. 

On the subject of brake booster, I did speak to someone on LCB who used the MX5 brake booster. I was trying to figure out how that would be possible, but then after seeing a pic I realised what was happening;

His car uses a lot more of the pedal box from the MX5, including many parts that I discarded. This way round means the pedals come down from above, and all the mechanical parts work the same way as the MX5. Most importantly this keeps clearance for the brake booster. 

I can't really follow this approach as my fuse box lives where all this would go, but it does explain why he was able to retain the brake booster. 

Still, just driving my car a short distance shows the brakes are effective, so I'm still hopeful an unboosted version will suffice. I now know of at least one car that managed to get on the road without the booster;

This is from another car on LCB which shows the same MC that I'm using. 

Just for reference (and I have a feeling I've already posted it somewhere), I currently have;

134Kg nearside front

194Kg offside front

91Kg nearside rear

96Kg offside rear

For a total braking effort of 515Kg. From a design weight of 770Kg that gives me an efficiency of 66.88%, which is a pass. The new design weight of 400Kg + 500KG (900Kg total) that would only be a 57% efficiency.

To pass I need to get it to 60% efficiency, which is 900Kg/60%, or 540Kg. In other words I need to gain 25Kg of braking force. That really isn't much to be honest, the new discs and pads have an improved surface area which should suffice. In theory because the front wheels locked then the brake effort there is more about traction than brake effort, but with a dry day and reduced tyre pressures I should get more out of them. At the very least both sides should be reasonably even.

Interestingly just looking at the braking efforts again the parking brake gave 272Kg on the rear, whereas the service brake was only 187Kg. That does suggest the mechanical leverage given by the master cylinder is less than the handbrake, given both act on the same brake pads. Again, if I can get a little more on the rear that will also help. 

I need to take my mind off the brakes though, I have done literally everything possible. All the other issues were well defined and have a nice big tick next to them. The only thing I really need to focus on is the drive back to Bristol. More specifically, the weather at the time of the drive! If it's dry then great, if it's sunny then even better. If it looks like rain I'm going to need to do some prep work. 

Oh yeah, and I cleaned the car! Only a quick wipe down with soapy water but it really made it look good. 

Dashcam and pedals

 Not exactly two subjects that go together, but I thought I'd get them done in one post. First is the camera;

It's not quite as 'discreet' as it was in my head, but then the camera itself is as large as the rollbar. It works well though, with plenty of coverage. I did try the lower bar but the video showed more dashboard than outside. Discreet, yes, effective, not a chance!

It needs a TPU end cap to seal the wiring (I might even go with some silicon to seal the end) and when it gets mounted on the roll bar it will need sealing and gluing in place. Despite the tolerances being quite good it does rotate around the roll bar so it'll need fixing. It's a bit 'belt and braces' for the camera anyway. 

The next thing is the clutch pedal. On the IVA I had trouble getting it into gear a few times, I put it down to a worn slave cylinder and engine heat. Pressing the pedal right down didn't work and I was worried the car would have to be left at the centre! 

Replacing the cylinder seemed to help, until the weekend when it just wasn't happy. With my foot to the floor it wouldn't change gear. But as I lifted my foot (still with my hand on the gearstick) it dropped smoothly into gear. It turns out that if I only apply half pressure to the clutch pedal the gears are really smooth. A quick check online shows that it is possible to 'over throw' a clutch. If you remember I didn't put a back stop on any pedal as I thought the master cylinders would take care of it. In the case of the clutch pedal that's actually wrong. So I need to add a back stop to the clutch pedal. The brake pedal doesn't need one as the force of the brakes provides the stop. And the accelerator works for the full range of motion so I can leave that one alone too. 

So this weekend I'm going to drill a hole through the bulkhead and add a bolt for the clutch pedal to hit. Alternatively I could add a nut to the push rod to reduce travel, although that would be harder to adjust (the bulkhead bolt could be adjusted from inside the engine bay).

The one thing that had occurred to me is that if I had figured this out earlier and added the back stop, I could have avoided moving the brake pipe as the clutch fork wouldn't have hit it. I guess as with all the other fixes it'll show Mr IVA that I won't just settle with 'good enough'. 

Thinking about it that's been the case for most of the fixes. The number plate 'might' have been ok with just rounded edges but instead I've replaced the whole thing to show a border to the examiner. The indicators 'might' have been ok just painted but I actually moved them AND painted them. The exhaust fixings have been replaced and I've used locktite. The change of design weights could affect braking efforts so I've replaced the discs and pads. The fuel pipes got moved and got new fixing clips. 

Of course, none of that is reducing my stress and anxiety levels for the retest. I'll be glad when it's passed.

One more job for the weekend, alongside the clutch stop, will be checking the battery charging. A very simple check to confirm the alternator is behaving. I know the battery is new and can hold a charge, and it's very capable of starting the car. It also ran fine for the duration of the test and I've not charged it since, but before the long journey I want to make sure it's got 14 volts when the engine is running. 

Oh, and I want to give it a clean. I didn't appreciate how dusty it would get in the garage, and the inside needs a wipe down as well. 

A quick note for possibly later on. The consensus for the brake issues is that a smaller master cylinder may be required. I won't do it yet as I still believe the standard MC should be sufficient (if a little hard work on the brake pedal). But in case it is, the standard MX5 is 15/16 inches (although brakes international say 22.2mm which is 7/8 in). The book uses a Sierra one which may be the better option, I just need to know which Sierra one.

(Later that day)

A quick extra bit here, not enough for it's own post but I do want to note it down. When I took my car for an IVA, I had an immediate issue. As I was loading the car on to the trailer, the car grounded out on the corner of the trailer. There were two reasons for this, first the natural 'spring' of the trailer was designed for heavier loads so the One couldn't actually push the trailer down to make it flat. The second is that the car was just too damn low! 

Ride height is something I'm going to need to work on as I drive it more (potholes and speed humps are not low-car friendly). Initially all I did was raise the car on the spring seats, just to get it high enough to load up. But a post on LocostBuilders reminded me that I had done this, and not particularly scientifically. 

The issue is that the spring seat height has a bit of influence over corner weights, which could explain why the passenger side front was about 50Kg lighter on brake forces. So another task for this weekend is to reset the suspension ride height. Obviously with the car already tested for self centering I have a bit more freedom to set it to 'driveable' positions. I still don't want it too low but having it equal on both sides will be a good start. I may even do the corner weights again, just to make sure they're the same across the front. Again, that's another step closer to having greater braking forces across the front. 

And I've just remembered something else... the grub screws on one of the collars rounded off. I need to fix it. Suddenly I've gone from not having much to do on the car to 'this is several weekend of work'! I've just checked in the garage and I have spare grub screws, so at the very least I can drill it out. It's the drivers side rear so could be really easy to sort, or just an absolute nightmare. A brief test suggests it's a bit secure. I'll also look at some protection for the spring seat threads, probably just silicon grease. 

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.