Rear fog light re-route wiring

 This one was irritating me...

I am not sure if the wiring route I took was wrong, the wiring had got snagged behind the rear panel or something completely unrelated however the rear fog lamp wiring does not reach the spade connectors in the fog lamp.

Only option was to carefully drill a new hole in the rear panel (being fully conscious there is a fuel tank at behind it) and poke the wire through the new hole. The new position for the hole actually produced more slack in the wiring so re-routing the wire did not ultimately prove to be too difficult and thus dismissed the initial idea the wiring had got snagged when the rear panel went on as it was free and easy to relocate to the new hole...

The fog lamp (as is the reversing lamp) are modified versions having been adjusted at the rear for the angle of the rear panel so they sit vertical to the panel when fitted. You can do this yourself but GBS stock the modified ones done expertly and finish with some trim - job sorted!

Honk! Honk!

grabbed a quick half an hour in the garage tonight, super quick easy job - fit the horn.

Seems to be differing schools of thought on best place to fit but majority seem to favour the front left cross member. One rivnut later and the horn was wired in and fitted.

Also took the opportunity to tidy up some of the main wiring loom which runs down the left hand side of the chassis, copious amounts of cable ties later and its all looking alot neater.

Pedalbox

Whilst the scuttle is in position I had a look at the pedalbox since fundamentally it looks straightforward to fit and with little work required to be done.

To complete it, so to speak, it needs 10 M8 rivnuts fitting, and simply positioning screwing into place on the chassis, firewall.

first challenge and one which I had noted on other builds - the throttle pedal screw on initial fit does not fit straight into the locating hole in chassis - very puzzling.... 

Solution is quite straightforward and a light bulb moment sat in bed drew me to the folds in the pedalbox base where it folds out to lay flat on the chassis. Simply put, the folds need tightening - so taking a toffee hammer to the fold and using a straight edge (steel rule) - tap along each fold line to tighten the fold to a defined right angle. place back in position on the chassis, push the throttle bolt through the pedal box into the chassis frame and bingo it goes in straight - result!



The box will need some selective trimming and bending dependent on respective fit to firewall and chassis but overall as mentioned earlier this is a nice quick job to do.

M8 rivnuts applied to the top edge of the box where the lid fixes in position and also along the bottom edge into the chassis frame (be careful, these holes are quite close to the edge of the chassis frame). Finally a couple of further holes to secure into the firewall and job done its fitted.

Scuttle part 1

So new year, new challenge....thought it was time to have a look at how the scuttle comes together and fits to the chassis.

Approached this stage of the build with some trepidation as the scuttle along with the rear panel requires some panel bending, so quite a sizeable task awaits the amateur builder - definitely out of the comfort zone with this task.

Spent alot of time reading other builder blogs, general web research, studying photos in order to establish the stages to work through in achieving a fully built scuttle. What I established early on is that:

• You need a jig / platform to assist with the initial bends
• You need to ensure all the tabs on the fire wall are folded out forwards and most importantly are flat along the edge which the top of the scuttle will form its shape over
• You need alot of patience and perseverance, plus three pairs of hands! 

So first task, get the folds in the firewall tabs done, I needed a straight edge to act as the guide for the bends and to ensure they folded flat in relation to the edge of the firewall - a steel rule assisted in that together with a "toffee" hammer to tap the fold as flat as possible against the straight edge - overall pleased with that stage. take breath, onto the next stage.

I built a temporary jig/platform and attached the fire wall to it. I then took the top skin of the scuttle and flexed some bend into the panel to at least assist with the bend over the top of the firewall.

The principle is actually quite straightforward albeit you don't have enough pairs of hands, the steel has a mind of its own and its initially very flimsy whilst the first few tabs are secured. Basically, the tabs on the firewall are to be lined up with the tabs on the front of the scuttle skin, rivet together which provides an initial fix and working out form the centre repeat this process along the flat-ish firewall top edge.

Its important to work centre out evenly - centre, left tab, right tab, left tab, right tab etc each time push the scuttle down onto the top of the firewall, locate the two tabs together and cleco / rivet in place

I left the side tabs free at this stage as to be honest although the jig helped with the initial fixings, the side fixings were more challenging and I felt I needed the chassis to now become the jig and help pull the sides of the skin round.


In essence, the scuttle top skin needs to bend round the firewall edge but at the same time also pull the sides of the skin in as well - the jig I built was not allowing for that, so next best thing has to be the car chassis.

6 x M8 rivnuts were fitted along the side panel tops and a further 3 x M6 rivnuts along the edge of the firewall, battery tray panel area. these allow the scuttle/firewall to be screwed into position with dome head screws.

I offered up the part built scuttle, firstly screwed in the firewall into the chassis frame and once that was secure bent the scuttle skin over the remainder of the firewall on either side and pulled round locating into the M8 rivnuts secured with a dome head screws.

this proved surprisingly rigid and forms the initial shape quite nicely.

Some trimming of the panel is still needed to get a perfect fit in the corners and I note the top edge of the firewall as it bends down on the drivers side is pushing backwards slightly so I need to ease that forwards as I pull the skin over to meet with the M8 rivnuts/screws - I think this should be easily resolved.

Overall pleased and encouraged with how this has gone.

So part one done - a scuttle has been formed into the shape, next stages are to:

• Fine tune fitment around the pinch areas I have noted above
• Get a nice thick bead of Polyurethane sealant going across the back of the firewall / inside scuttle area
• Blind Rivet / Poly seal the dashboard bracket to the cockpit side of the scuttle (this should pull the true shape in nicely)
• Cut off and trim the front temporary tabs

Low pressure fuel pump & filter

so a slight pause in build recently, as household and garden tasks have taken a priority with the recent upturn in weather. However I grabbed some time in the garage over the weekend and continued prep work on the plumbing and pipework in the chassis.

Brake lines are in rough situ awaiting final fitment so I need to think about the fuel lines and how they run around the chassis. Thought I would start at the rear and move forwards.

When I bought the kit I acquired the full fuel kit which includes:

low pressure fuel pump
fuel filter
high pressure fuel pump
mounting plate
swirl pot
various fuel lines / hoses
jubilee clips
fuel tank

Swirl pot has been fitted earlier in the build so time to focus on the low pressure fuel pump, fuel filter and mounting plate. First step was to mount the pump and filter to the mounting plate and I elected to use a large jubilee clip on the filter rather than the plastic cable tie as I felt that offered a more robust fitment. 

The fuel pump needs some basic assembly but all goes together quite nicely and I noted that one of the rubber mounting bobbins locates through the mounting plate into a rivnut fixed into the chassis.

Next step was to drill 9mm holes for the rivnuts - need to be quite careful here as the holes are quite close to the edge of the chassis frame the mounting plate sits on. The plate is secured by M6 dome head screws.

So holes drilled, rivnuts inserted, the plate can be fixed into position and the pump / filter set in place.

Some fuel hose needs to bridge the filter and pump and that was secured in place with some ptfe tape around the brass fittings and jubilee clipped into position remembering to ensure the jubilee clips can be accessed from above for when the access panel in the boot is fitted later on down the build process.

All done, one more stage ticked off, next stop, high pressure fuel pump on the drivers bulkhead