Wipers & Front Nudge bar

Measuring the Locations

Starting to feel like some real progress being made now as it begins to look like a car. One of this week's jobs was to fit the windscreen wipers. I've stuck with the factory recommendation of having 3 wiper arms, this should meet the IVA requirement and I think the 3 wipers, whilst not authentic, does give a good look. The first task is to fit the 3 wheel boxes, positioning of these is critical as it will determine the location of the wiper arms. AK do provide some guide marks on the body and suggested measurements in the manual which were my starting point. I found the offside marks and measures were a reasonable starting point as was the central one, however the near side was out by around 30mm, After much playing with positions and measuring for accuracy as well as the aesthetics I settled on the final locations. The holes for the wheel box spindles are made at roughly 45 degrees to the bodywork, the usual process of start small and open up applies until the spindle will pass through the body and sit at the correct angle on the spacer (provided by the factory). Once all the spindles were fitted and the wipers arms & blades attached I made some test 'sweeps' there is a small amount of adjustment needed to align the wipers and I found the middle one is just catching the top of the screen surround, there is scope for adjustment in the arm, but I'll leave the final tweaks until I can run the system and let it find its natural resting place.

Fitting Spindles

Wipers Fitted

With the wheel boxes in place the next step is to get the mechanism sorted. The motor is mounted onto a factory fitted plate on the drivers side of the scuttle, there's a large rubber pad that sits behind the motor to reduce any noise. A long, flexible, rack is provided to link the wheel boxes to the motor. With the wipers removed (as the spindles need to rotate 360 deg) I fed the rack through the wheel boxes and fitted the motor into its natural resting point, taking care to ensure the motor was clear of the surrounding body & metal work. The rack can be trimmed to length as there is plenty of excess, leaving a few cm of excess at the end. Once happy with the position of rack there are tubes supplied that will protect & support the rack the rack, 4 sections are needed, each needs to be cut to the exact length and flared at the end. I cut each each length just too long to allow for a very slight curve to follow the arch of the scuttle, this is how the rack sites naturally. It does mean cutting few times to get the right length and ensure that the wheel boxes sit at the correct angle. With the rack removed I fitted the tubing between the wheel boxes, motor and on the end, then feed the rack through with plenty of grease going onto the rack and the tubes - messy!

Cutting the Tube

Flaring the Tube

Wiper Motor, Rack & Tube Installed

It's pretty much ready to test, but I'm waiting for a find day as I've not yet connected the battery to the loom and I want to do this outside - just in case!

Align the Over-Rider

Onto the front Nudge bar. I've chosen the the full bar and over-riders from Brasscraft. I like their quality and the sound advice I got from Chris when I visited the workshop. The first step is to connect the over-riders to the bar. Threaded holes are already in the ends of the bar, marking is not so easy as there are no square edges to measure from - care was needed.

Mark & Punch the Centres

Drill

 I marked up the position on the over-rider with making tape and set the centre with a punch, then removed the masking tape before drilling. This was advice from Chris, apparently leaving the making tape on can pull the chrome finish if you drill into it.  I supported the over-rider with a wooden block inside while drilling, the metal is quite thick (around 6 mm). I made sure to use new drill bits to get a clean cut and avoid any accidental slip.All fixed together with some M8 bolts, lock washers and threadlock.

Working out the best fit

Next step is to align with the body and drill holes to take the 4 studs that fix the bar. As with may things on this car it's not easy with all the curves. The factory have marked some approximate positions, but you do need to test and make sure. A great idea to judge the best position and line it all up is to use a camera tripod, you can easily adjust the height and angle. As with many of my best ideas, I stole this from someone else (thank you JPB). Because of the angle of the body work the holes are larger than you would think.

Completed

Once the holes are cut the studs line up with two angle brackets, supplied by the factory. Fit the brackets onto the studs and mark the position on the inner wing. Drill out the holes in the wing and secure the brackets. There is still some adjustment of the position of the angle of bar and the depth from the body by moving the position of the locking nuts on the bracket. The installation is finished with some chrome tube that slides over the studs and into the body.

The quality of the parts from Brasscraft is very good, they look great. But I think the overall look is let down when you look at the back of the over-rider. I expected this to be hidden behind the bodywork but the curve at the front of the car leads your eye to the rough finished inside of the metalwork. It seems this is authentic to the original but I'll make up some stainless covers at some point and tidy this up.

Electrics, Fuel Filler, Windscreen

Not much to update over the last few weeks, most of my activity on the car has been around the electrics, making up all the connectors, routing and securing the wires. Most items are now complete and wired up, there's a handful of jobs to do but I'll have to wait until I have instruments & switches. I've now re-wired the steering column, pictured below, I've cut down and insulated all the unused wires, including those from the ignition switch, they're not needed but I thought I'd leave in place just in case I plan something in the future.

Re-Wired Steering Column

Some of the electrical work has to be done from underneath the car and while it was up on the stands I double checked to make sure all the brake pipes and cables were secured at a minimum of 300 mm as per the IVA regs. I had done this when I installed it, but you start to get paranoid about these things. I'd used rubber fuel hose appropriately marked for IVA but panicked when I couldn't see the marking. When I fitted the pipe it was fitted from above as there was no body on the car. Stupidly I had put all the pipe with the marking facing upward to make it easy to see, not so easy when the body is on and you are looking from underneath. A happy couple of hours on my back in a cold garage refitting all the fuel pipe.

Centre Marked

The downside of doing the electrical work is that it looks like you haven't made any progress, several hours in the garage and the car looks the same as when you started. There's more of a buzz when you fit something tangible, especially when it's shiny! I set about fitting the fuel filler cap. I bought one of the Aston style caps from Brasscraft. First locate the centre of the recess in the body and then follow the usual rule of cutting a hole too small and slowly expanding it. I used M5 countersunk slotted screws to secure the flange to the body, with large diameter washers underneath. Once the flange was fitted I found you cannot screw the cap on without releasing the catch but not allowing the flap to open fully. With the cap fitted I wanted to install the filler hose. I had bought a 500 mm length, my initial measurements suggested this would be enough, the reality of the curve required means it's not! It was under too much tension on the unions to be safe, nothing for it but to by a longer length ( at about 3x the price).

With a spare couple of hours I wanted to trail fit the dashboard. Installation is straight forward, there are screws glassed into the back of the dashboard, you need to drill holes into the lip under the scuttle. Lining up is not easy as the dashboard is relatively flat whereas the scuttle is curved. I started at the outside edges working into the centre. I've found that the dashboard seems not to be made correctly in that it is biased by about 10 mm to the nearside. If I try and centre it against the scuttle it does not centre over the transmission tunnel, centred on the tunnel it's about 10 mm over on the nearside and too short on the off side. After half an hour of pushing and pulling I decided that it must be the dash that's wrong. I have installed centred on the tunnel and will glass up the off side to add a little extension.

Masking Tape Template

Next was to cut out the whole for the steering column. I started by making a template out of masking tape around the column. I transferred the template to the dash using the fixing screws as locating points. Marking up the dash and cutting about 5 mm inside the marking gave me a good starting point. I put the column back in using some lengths of M8 threaded bar allowing me to move the column up and down while slowly enlarging the hole but without having to keep taking the column out.

Initial Cut

Final Location

Latest job is to fit the windscreen. I bought the screen and surrounds from Brasscraft and am very impressed with the finish. Fitting the screen was, considering the significance of piece, much easier than I expected, certainly quicker than fitting the steering column to the dashboard. The legs of the screen pillars slot into holes cut in the body at the factory. The legs then bolt to the steel framework below the scuttle that carry the door hinges. The rake angle is achieved using a piece of wood 36 in long from the back of cockpit to the top of the screen. The screen takes a little gentle encouragement to sit on the scuttle properly, mainly because the rubber seal was cold. I used a fan heater to warm up the area and soften the seal which made the job much easier. Once I was happy it was level and centred I drilled holes (2 each side) through the pillar and into the steelwork. The holes were tapped out and fitted with M8 bolts. I also fitted the escutcheon plates at the foot of the pillars.

Screen Fitting

  

Lights, Camera and Shiny Bits

Lights

Front Lights

Rear Lights

First job in the latest round was to start fitting the lights. I bought a complete set from S&J Motors and opted for white indicators that, I think, will look better on the darker final colour. Positions of the headlights and front indicators are obvious and can't be altered so these were straight forward. The oval areas at the back of the body work for the brake/rear and the indicators are not a regular shape and it wasn't simple to work out the centre line. I took the lenses off and played around with the position using some bluetak before I was happy. I've yet to decide on the position of the repeaters, different builders have gone for different options, I think I favour having them above and forward of the side vents but will stick some lenses on to see how I feel. The reverse and fog light positions are marked on the rear valence. I'd like to recess these into the body as others have done but the position means that they'll intrude into the boot. Also, to get these lined up properly I want to fit the rear nudge bar (more of that later). I chose Superseal connectors for all the fittings, my local auto electrical supplier reckons these are best to avoid water ingress, important for the front lights where they are connected in the front wheel arches.

Superseal Connectors

Shiny Stuff

I ordered the majority of the bright-work from Brasscraft having heard good reports about them and had a useful exchange of e-mails with Chris, the proprietor. I ordered the screen (tinted), front and rear nudge bars with over-riders and the Aston filler cap. The parts were ready sooner than I had expected and I decided to go down to collect them. Chris is a very helpful guy with a wealth of knowledge and some good tips. I've put most of the bits in the loft for now while I finish off the electrics, tempting though it is to get it fitted and and one more step towards it being a real car. As mentioned above, I wanted to fit the rear nudge bar to check the position of the reverse & fog lights. There are positions marked in the body for the bars but I needed to double check, I rigged the nudge bar up on a jack so I could adjust the position and make sure it both looked and measured right, I also checked there were no other snags like it catching on the boot etc. The holes marked on the body were very close to accurate and it all lined up with the support brackets built into the body. The usual process of a pilot hole and slowly opening it out to accept the bars and bolt it up with the half nuts that Brasscraft supplied.

Rear Nudge Bar

Ventilation & Loom

Ventilation - Other jobs included the fitting of the ventilation system. The factory provide a fiberglass box to collect the hot air from the heater this is fixed under the scuttle. From the top of this I drilled 4 holes and fitted outlet pipes, 2 are for the windscreen demisters and 2 are there in case I want some sort of heating into the cabin (they're taped up for now). I cut two vent slots in the top of the body, underneath these are a couple of plenum units that I've bonded to the body, these are connected to the heater distribution box via a couple of flexible pipes. It's not the prettiest of installations and still needs some cleaning up, but it seems to do the job.

Wiring Harness - I've also made a start on fitting the wiring harness. I bought the complete loom from the factory. It seems pretty well made and instructions were good, identifying each of the legs and individual wires. To start the fitting you need to make a panel that will carry the fuses / relays, there are three blocks to be fitted and these don't quite fit side by side above the passenger footwell location, so I opted to fit the block associated with the windscreen on the rear, you can still get to it from underneath and it is held with a couple of screws so if you need better access it can be dropped down.

Rear of Fuse Panel with Wiper Relays

Fuse Panel from the Front & Installed

There are 4 main legs to the harness, front N/S, Engine bay, Front O/S and rear and the some connectors for the dashboard and other ancillaries, such as the handbrake switch.  The suggested routing for the front legs and engine bay is clear but I'm a bit unsure about the rear section where it routes under the wheel arch and into the boot. This will need some more thought.

Exhausts & Body Work

I needed to refit the exhausts now that the body is on permanently. This involves cutting a hole in the body just behind the front wheels. The precise location of the hole can't be measured as there are too many angles involved. When I originally fitted the exhaust I made up a template and I used that to mark the position on the body, to confirm (measure twice, cut once..), I ran a straight edge from outside corner of each header pipe. These mark approximated with the the measure I had from the template.

• Step 1 - Drilled 4 small holes through the body from the outside points of the pipes.
• Step 2 - Opened up these holes to make the initial cut
• Step 3 - Length of plastic pipe fitted into the header I opened up the hole to match the locations of the pipe.
• Step 4 - With 4 lengths of pipe in the headers I offered up the exhaust pipe and marked around that
• Step 5 - With the exhaust through the body I opened up the hole to accept the exhaust all the way. The hole is biased to the rear of the car due to the curve of the exhaust as comes through the body.

Step 1 - 4 Pilot Holes

Step 3 - Using Pipe to open up the hole

Step 4 - Offer the exhaust using pipes as a guide

Final fit

I'm tempted to remove the cover I have on the exhaust. I'm short of space in the garage though and worried that I'll scratch it so I'll leave until I next try the engine. Just got to do the other side now...

Steering & Handbrake

Steering Column Extension

It's been a while since the last update, but holidays are out of the way, the kids are back at school and I can get back into the garage. This weekend I managed to get the steering column installed. Originally I had an issue with the extension that links the column to the rack, but the factory have dealt with that and it all fits OK. The lack of steering has been a problem as every time I push the car out of the garage it moves a little off center and it was hard work to get back in the right place. I have one final issue with the steering and that's with the bush arrangement that the factory supplies, I can't get it to sit flush against the bulkhead. It seems to be the angle of the column as it comes through the bulkhead is forcing the bracket out of line. I'll have to have a play with this and see if I can get it right. Another matter is where I've run the clutch pipe, it is fouling the bracket for the steering column bush (that's why it's bent out of the way in the picture below). I've decided to reroute it over the transmission tunnel, others have done this and I think it'll look tidier. It's one of those irritants that get you every so often, I've already fitted the thing twice.

Steering Column - Upper

Steering Column Bush

The other job I've started, is fitting the handbrake. I connected the lever to the cable to find the natural resting place for it. The bracket needed some minor adjustment to stop it from fouling the body work or sticking out over the side of the ledge around the tub. I was surprised to see that the rear mounting bolt appeared to be immediately over the seat-belt  anchor point that is built into the chassis, or at least it was over the hole that the factory put in the body for this anchor point. A quick inspection showed the hole in the body was in the wrong the wrong place, I found this on both sides of the car. Good news as it meant I could install the handbrake where it 'wanted' to go on the cable, but did mean putting another hole in the body as you can see in the picture below. I'll connect the handbrake at the weekend and test it out.

Handbrake Bracket

Final Body Fix

Body Fixed

Since the last update I've successfully tested the clutch and brake hydraulics, confirmed there were no issues with the body fit trapping anything etc. So I went for the final fix, we lifted the body..and this was the first significant cock up! Whilst I had disconnected all the pipes from the master cylinders, I had overlooked one P-Clip holding the clutch pipe to the bulkhead. The attempted lift yanked the copper pipe and put several kinks in it, so I had to replace it! Before fixing the body I coated the bottoms of the seating wells with Waxoyl to minimise the impact if water did get between the body and chassis, then I put sealant around the chassis as per the guide, it takes two full canisters of sealant to do the job. Bolting in place was straightforward, a couple of the holes, pre-drilled at the factory, needed to be enlarged and a couple were a little too generous so I put some larger washers on.I also put some more sealant inside the engine bay where the foot-wells sit inside the chassis, I noticed there was quite a gap there that water could sit.

Roll Bar & Escutcheon

Roll bar from the Back

I've also put the two roll bars in. This gives something easier to hold on to when moving the car around and makes it look like I have made some real progress. The brackets that sit inside the boot fitted OK with some small opening up of the holes in the body. I've also started on some escutcheon rings to tidy up the installation. I got some M5 countersunk set screws but these sit a little proud of the escutcheon so I'll have to try some M4s. The escutcheon rings have a slightly oval internal shape that allows them to be bent to fit the body curve which is significant on outside leg.

Column with Metal Plate cut away

I made a start on the steering, I found that the upper metal shroud was fouling the steel work around the dashboard area. There was a recent thread on the forum about this but there were differing opinions, so I spoke to the factory. They recommend cutting the shroud back to fit (as pictured below). The bigger problem was the steering column extension upper UJ was fouling the clutch master cylinder. Again, this has been discussed on the forum recently and some people have had to have the extension modified. The factory have offered to this so I've sent it back (sorry I sent it back before I took any pictures).

1st Time Start (The Movie)

Ooops.. Meant to load this earlier, I'm all out of sequence now. This is the video from the first start of the engine. If you can, listen with speakers that have a decent bass, it makes all the difference!

Body - Final Trial Fit

Torrential rain washed out the morning, but the weather picked up in the afternoon. I emptied 4 gallons of water out of the covers on the body before peeling them back and getting the sun on the shell for the first time in several months. With thanks to Leon, Jon, Tom & Rob we got the shell lifted onto the chassis. I've checked and all looks good. I have trial fitted it before but not with the engine, gearbox, heater, fuel pump and other bits fitted, so there was a lot to check. All looks OK, there's a small 'conflict' with the position of the fan's thermostatic switch, but this is easy to solve. Next job is to test the clutch & hydraulic lines before I make the final fit of the body, hopefully next weekend. In the meantime I'm going to have sort out the grass where the shell stood...

Body Shell Fitting

1st Engine Start

Well this was another major milestone. Test fired the engine for the first time this weekend. I did a fare bit of prep. The exhausts went back on, oil levels in the engine & gearbox were checked. Put some coolant in. I rigged up some temporary power for the Fuel Pump, Cooling fan, distributor and of course the starter and solenoid. I didn't bother about a temperature gauge as I was only running it for 5 mins and the thermostatic fan was connected.

Starter Panel

Oil Pressure Sender

I did make up a small panel with a battery shut-off and starter button to make life easier (pictured left). I also rigged up an oil pressure sender. Like many things, this was harder to connect than it should have been. The sender screws into a 1/8 NPT hole at the back of the block below the distributor but there's not enough space around the head to allow it in, so I bought an adapter but had to grind that off to get it to fit, as you can see below. I did consider priming the oil pump, there is some debate whether you need to do this or not. I decided against as I didn't want to upset the timing (priming the oil pump requires removing the distributor). I turned the engine over on the starter with the plugs out, oil pressure came up after a couple of cranks to around 40. We fired up the engine outside (fire extinguisher at hand), and it fired after a few seconds - no hassle. The sound is fantastic and the local petrol heads came to have a look within 60 seconds.I allowed the engine to come up to temp, checking for any leaks etc, and making sure the oil pressure was kept high (you're not supposed to let the engines idle when they've been re-built like this).

Sorry but you'll have to wait for the video to be uploaded due to technical issues - but it will come.

Cooling fan and other bits

Cooling Fan - In the last couple of weeks I've fitted the cooling fan, a 16" curved fan, 2000 cfm (apparently these are quieter than the straight blade - not sure it matters with a V8 running). I've also trial fitted an adjustable thermostat as suggested by AK, I'll have to wait until the body is on again before I settle on a permanent position as I need to know what is accessible.

Exhaust Brackets - Having trial fitted the exhausts and adjusted / located the brackets on the chassis these have now been welded in place - thanks to Stuart for his welding gear and expertise. The brackets are in the process of being painted with POR15.

Heater Fitted - Finally I got round to fitting the heater to the body. The air is drawn into the heater on both sides via ducts into the foot-wells, avoiding the issue of taking air from the engine bay. I've added a stainless steel cover to bring it in line with the rest of the engine bay.

I've also put the engine oil (15/40 mineral - recommended by the engine builder) and gearbox oil (Dexron III). I want to run the engine for a quick trial and confidence test before I fit the body so have started to think about the wiring I'll need, plus an oil pressure gauge and of course the battery.

And one other job that I've come to terms with. I originally fitted 'push-fit' brake pipe clips, I think these look much tidier, but I'm concerned that some are a little loose and move a couple of mm, I don't think they'll come out but I'm not happy and neither will the IVA man! So I've decided to swap them for P-clips, not as tidy but they are secure. That leaves me with an issue; the holes drilled for the push fits are 6mm, I could tap this for an M8 but too big for the P-Clip so I'll have to use rivnuts. I'll take pictures for the next update.

Exhaust & Starting to prep the body

Exhaust Side Pipes- During the week I had a trial fit of the exhausts. Fitting the headers took a little bit of fettling as the holes don't line up perfectly with the holes in the heads. Initially I put some manifold studs in but the holes are too close to the pipes to allow the nuts to turn, so had to put some Allen headed bolts in (I only had black and will need to swap these for some shiny ones). I checked all the clearances around the ancillaries, HT leads etc and all was good. Then I fitted the side pipes, using a jack to support the weight and a rubber mallet to "encourage" the pipes onto the headers. It's a tight fit and takes a while to get it right.I set it up with 85 mm gap between the side pipe and the chassis and with the pipe parallel and level to the chassis I offered up the mounting brackets. You have to bend these brackets to suit the location of the bobbins and this is no mean feat as the brackets are 5 mm steel and are not big so there's not much leverage, I ended up using hydraulic press to get the adjustment. Here's the resulting near-side fitting:

Exhaust Trial Fit

With the brackets G-clamped in place and marked up, the side pipes came off again. I'll need to get the brackets welded onto the chassis and I'm another step closer to fitting the body. Oh, and I also made up some templates from card that I hope to use when cutting the body to accept the pipes.

Some Body Preparation - The sun was shining on Sunday so I took the covers off the body, removed the earwigs that were squatting in there. It's great to be able to work outside, daylight means I don't need my glasses but on the down side wearing only a T-shirt while working on fibre-glass means picking loads of irritating splinters. I tidied up the hole I'd made for the fuel tank pipe and expanded it out a bit. I also cut the hole for the gear lever and trial fitted the heater. As mentioned before, I've had to modify the heater to take the air from inside the car rather than the engine bay. The trial fit went well but the bolts I had were too long, I'll re-fit as soon as I get some decent bolts and post some pictures.

Gear lever & Heater Access

Fuel Tank Access

Power Steering Pump, Cooling & Prop Shaft

Power Steering Pump

Power Steering Pump - Several tasks ticked off the list in the last couple of weeks. Now that the engine was in I could fit the power steering pump. On the face of it a simple task, but as always there was a catch. There are two mounting points, one is an adjustable bracket that bolts to the cylinder head - no problem, the other is a long bolt that passes through the water pump allowing the PS pump to pivot for adjustment. The hole in the water pump has been drilled and tapped with a 3/8" thread and won't take the 10mm bolt supplied with the PS pump. On advice from the factory I drilled out the water pump to accept the 10mm bolt but as the pump sits in front of one of the chassis members I couldn't get a drill square on and had to remove the water pump. There are two pipes supplied that connect the pump to the rack, the fittings on the rack have different threads so they can't be mixed up.

Cooling System

Cooling System - Next job was to complete the plumbing. I started with the header tank, drilling & tapping a couple of holes in the top front chassis member. The radiator is mounted with a couple of brackets supplied by the factory, the only challenge was to find a couple of rubber plugs to fit onto the pegs at the bottom of the radiator. I tried some grommets but they weren't good enough. But by accident I found the rubber bungs, supplied on the pipes for the heater matrix, were perfect - job done. I decided on black silicon hoses, I wanted a neutral color in the engine. I may put steel braid on these later - I'll see how I feel as the build develops. By the way I was looking for a good way to get a near perfect finish when cutting the pipes. I found the best way was to use an O-ring, just tight enough to grip the pipe and then use this as a guide for a sharp knife. This gives a good finish and a square cut. You have to rotate the O-ring 180 deg half way through to avoid the screw.

Prop shaft - The prop shaft arrived PDQ from Bailey Morris, they gave a great service and were very helpful on the phone. This fitted exactly as I had hoped. I had to remove the bung that sits on the output shaft of the gearbox, it's on very tight and you have to be careful not to damage the oil seal that sites outside the shaft.

Prop Shaft Fitted