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