Rear Wings & Dash (part 3)

I decided to take a couple of days off work following my birthday as I was eager to fit the new parts I had so gratefully acquired! Before I could crack on I needed to turn the car around, the junk I have in the garage meant it was easier to work at the front of the car - not really that useful when I have rear wings to fit. So the car had it's first outing on the open road, admittedly pushed by my brother & I. Stupidly I didn't take any photos of this, they would have made really good pictures given the sun was out and the road was clear.

Rear Wings
I had a relaxed start on Monday morning and decided to tackle the rear wings first, from reading other blogs I was aware that I needed to remember to add in the rubber tubing (same stuff as on the rear panel) between the wing and the side of the car. With this in mind I pulled out the tubing and hung it off the back of the car so I wouldn’t forget. I've also seen that most people use rivnuts to secure the wings, I can't stand these so had decided to use M8x20 Allen head bolts, large flat washers and some nylocs. I had the nut heads on the inside of the car, will probably be covered with carpet but will give flat(ish) look.

The overall prep and fitting was pretty easy, the wings are what they are and shouldn't be that difficult to fit. When the car is fully built I will add a small amount of Sikeflex just to give that added strength.

I then focused on the rear lights; I had chosen a nice set of LED lights that sit in elevated round pods. The difficulty I had here was ensuring that the lights were the same height, straight and level on both sides!  The lights are universal and as such I had to make up a bracket to get them attached to the car, the advantage of this meant that I could also design it in such a way to minimise the drilling required in the actual wing. For security and piece of mind the rivets are mounted through a 1.5mm piece of steel, then through the wing and onto a thick steel bracket attached the light. I have 2 long reach 3mm rivets and 1 standard 4mm rivet per light. The fog and reverse lights are held on with 2 M6x15 bolts, secured in the bespoke brackets and secured between the rear panel and the fuel tank. Note to all other builds, think about lights before you fit the rear panel as its a tight squeeze!

The lights took longer than I had planned, well into Tuesday however I'm mega chuffed with how the lights are looking, just need a battery now so I can start to test things.

Dash - wiring up
Having received the final switches I needed to complete the dash I set about completing the wiring, everything was precut all I needed to do was add a bit of solder to a couple of connections. Once done I placed the dash in the car, having built my own loom I need to attach this to the standard GBS plug. So in true Formula 1 style I was sat in the car with my laptop place on the scuttle with my wiring diagram on show. I needed this to show my which GBS colour matched with each plug I had created. About 5 wires from the end the laptop died and I called it a day as it was getting late (Tuesday evening). Will revisit this next weekend and plan to test in a few weeks once I have the battery installed (and bought!)

Most of the wiring in the car is now complete except for the small engine loom, I still need to purchase this from GBS as they didn't have any at Stoneleigh.

Might have to focus my attention back to the engine soon, alternator still to fit and I now have a fan temp switch to fit.

Dash part 2 & Stoneleigh

I've been continuing with the wiring on the dash, pleased to say that it is all complete - except where I haven't received the final switches yet! I even had a chance to discuss the wiring plan with Simon (GBS) whilst at Stoneleigh; fortunately the plan seems it will work (in theory). So with the dash more or less complete, I felt it was time to have a trial fit; however before doing so, I decided to turn the rear dash support panel around so the rivets were on the inside (or to put it better - hidden).

Hopefully I will have a chance to add a photo of the final wiring as I'm quite pleased with it, it's also looking a lot tidier than shown in my previous post! I've tried to show the overall wiring plan, if it works I'll leave this post as it is, if I have issues then you may see this post disappear! The only change from this plan is a live feed to the security key switch.

8th July: The hazards didn't work, here is the solution: http://www.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=34078

Next jobs on the list included finally fitting the alternator and finishing the coolant pipes. The alternator has given me a few issues so far, the Sierra unit is too big, as is the standard mount as it fouls the steering shaft. So I now have a smaller alloy Capri mount but the alternator is still too close to the steering shaft. I'm going to try again next weekend, if no luck then I will raise the mount with a steel plate. With the coolant, I've got a GBS standard radiator with an overflow outlet, I also have a fancy header tank; however before I go all over the top with the cooling, I'm just going to fit an expansion tank. Once the car is running, I'll have a true feel of the cooling requirements.

I guess at some point I should think about turning the engine so I can fit the Bestek dizzy with the timing as close as possible to perfect, or maybe just OK?!

After these jobs have been looked at, I will be moving onto the rear wings, hopefully this should just be a weekend job and will include fitting the rear lights. Once this is complete, the car will be really taking shape. I'm still hoping to drive it for some part of this summer.

Stoneleigh
I was fortunate enough to be given tickets for Christmas so, as the May bank holiday arrived, I shot off up to Warwick for a day out in the sun. It was the first show I'd attended as a builder and it was a completely different experience as just an enthusiast - better I must add!

My trip to Stoneleigh was filled with various objectives, I had parts to collect, questions to ask and cars to 'borrow' ideas from. It was much the same for Mike (albeit a different car), he had my other ticket. I picked up my new exhaust manifold, exhaust fittings, carpet and battery cables and loaded up the car. Lots of parts to keep me busy over the next few weeks. I also managed to speak to Simon regarding the IVA, few hints & tips obtained - the most important is that the diffuser is not IVA compliant anymore! As mentioned above, Simon gave me some advice and set a few things straight on my wiring. I hadn't got anything wrong but had made some assumptions which he confirmed as correct. It was good to see the GBS stand so busy, possibly one of the bigger stands at the show. I picked up a few parts as above and got some ideas from the cars on show at both GBS and the RHOCar pitch. All in all, a very successful day and I'm pleased with the progress I've made since picking up the chassis in September.

Dash - part 1

I'm at the stage where I needed to start on the dash. I felt that this needed to be exactly how I wanted it so I was expecting it to take some time. Part of the beauty of the self builds is the fact that each car is unique to the builder - to best demonstrate this, I have confess that I've been planning this part of the build since pretty much the beginning of the build! So, after months I have finally decided on the setup:

- Smiths Telemetrix gauges (3 small and 2 large)
- Savage style switches & Starter button
- LED warning light cluster

With all this decided upon, I then needed to sort out placements. Before getting to the final design, I think I had gone though 4 others! But once I'd sat with the dash in front of the tv for a whole evening without even touching it, I felt I had hit the perfect design. After cutting, this is how it looked:


There will be 2 additional holes cut once the switches arrive (birthday hint!).

So with the dash cut I then needed to think about the actual wiring. After spending a couple hours on Visio, I've designed the ultimate wiring plan, I'll upload it here once it's been tested and proven to work. Wiring plan sorted, I set about fixing in gauges:


Here is a picture of the rear with some of the initial wiring. So far all the gauges have been wired in.


I will follow up this blog entry with the finished dash in a few weeks, but first, off to Stoneleigh!! First kit show as an actual builder, can't wait! Aims of Stoneleigh, coolant routing ideas and general part shopping.