Despite my best efforts I just couldn't get the angle to remove the shafts, so in the end I took the diff out. Which needed the boot to come out. Not a big deal for either of them, just a bit time consuming. It was so much easier with the diff out though, the first shaft came out with a sharp thump;
Having it on the floor also meant I could put the diff on it's side to save the oil. The seal was toast which was a good sign;
A whole section in the bottom left was folded in. Even if the folded section had maintained a seal, the creases would have let oil out.
New seals both sides, then a quick top up. I reckon I got about 100ml of oil in before it reached capacity. Given a full diff is only 0.75 that was a decent amount but not so much that the diff was knackered. Well, at least I'm hoping that is the case!
Next job was a bit of painting. The steering column was looking a bit rough, as was some of the interior steel sections. A quick coating of matt black sorted both, hopefully once it's completely dry it'll protect a bit better.
Then it was on to the windscreen. Starting from last post where I had cardboard cut outs, I printed the hinge and trial fitted the windscreen.
Straightaway I realised that the hinges were too chunky. I liked the idea of chunky hinges but together they were almost the width of the screen.
Then the second issue;
The curve of the car meant the screens were pointing out like ears. It was quite pronounced with the square glass but even with the rounded glass it was going to look weird.
So there was a few things to fix. First was the angle, that wasn't too difficult. A few trials with some spacers showed that if one side went up 3mm and the other side went down 3mm, the 6mm difference would put the screens horizontal. The second fix was just to make the brackets a lot narrower.
I've ended up here;
The screens aren't perfectly horizontal as that would look as out of place as ones parallel to the car. I think this angle is spot on. I'll set the angle at 70 degrees to start with, and have the lowest (inner) edge to be 10mm off the surface. The outer edge will then be 16mm. I'll leave the bottom wiper until the screens are on, just in case I decide they're not needed. I think they will be just to stop wind getting in from underneath.
Oh, and the initial hinge design used Nyloc nuts to make things tight. That didn't work, it was just too stiff and I even broke one of the initial brackets tightening it. So now I have some TPU washers that should lock things in place. Of course, only a test drive will show whether it's strong enough so that will be a while yet.
In terms of fixing them to the car, as long as I'm not too close to the dashboard then there's nothing underneath to screw into accidentally. So only a few more fixings to go for the screens, basically brackets to screens and brackets to car.
Next job is the rear number plate holder, version 4. I've took the old one off (with only some trouble removing the old sealant), now I need to print a reduced version. I'm staying with a full sized plate but I want to make sure there is no exposed support. The only exposed printed part will be the number plate light itself. That needs to be done as one piece so I don't have glue lines in it. I'll probably go for a centre piece big enough to fit on the bed, then just a couple of T pieces to provide side support. I'll also do a similar design for the front plate, obviously without the light.
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