Just keep chipping away...

No pictures this week, not really much to show. Just grabbed an hour or two in the garage today and finished of the wiring for the other front headlight/indicator. I also drilled the holes through the floor for the seatbelt mounts. This is just a matter of holding the mounting plates in place and using the them as a guide for the drill. I've also completed the electrical connection to the heater and began marking the dashboard ready for cutting out. The heater has three speeds but there's only provision in the GD wiring loom for two so I've connected the fastest and slowest speed terminals. It seems that later dashboards have the locations for the guages pre-marked, mine hasn't but with a bit of hunting around the other blogsites and a bit of help from the guys on the cobra club forums (www.cobraclub.com) I've got all the dimensions I need to mark them out myself.

Chassis complete

I spoke to Andy at GD last week and my chassis has been built and was being sent away to be powder coated. This next part of the build should see some major progress and it's fair to say this is the quick but expensive part. I'm busy putting together a list of things to be done before the body goes on. If everything goes to plan I aim to collect chassis, engine, gearbox, propshaft, exhaust system and a few other bits on a Friday and by Sunday lunchtime have all this bolted together with the body on... Wishful thinking ? maybe, but working in a single garage with no room to store both body and chassis seperately kinda makes it a necessity, nothing like a bit of pressure to sharpen the mind eh !

Lights wired

I solved my issue with the polevolt connectors, I think others may have mounted these a little differently. I've mounted the p-clips around the collar of the female half of the connector and found the 25mm p-clips I used were too small. This was mainly down to the width of the band which with the ruber lining was too wide and fouled the "clip" part of the connector. I cut a notch into the rubber in these areas which got the band fitting nicely and then used washers to space the p-clips apart so they didn't squash the connector out of shape. The washers allowed me to fine tune the clamping pressure around the connector and with the notches cut out, meant that irrespective, the connector was now trapped and couldn't slide out.

A picture speaks a thousand words...

A notch on the top allows the connector to be trapped by the metal band of the p-clip



The same on the bottom meaning the connector is not only clamped, it physically cannot moved forwards or backwards



By varying the number of washers used a spacers I could vary the clamping pressure of the p-clip ensuring a tight fit but not so tight it squashed the connector, distorting the shape and negating the waterproof seal with the male half.




Fitted into position... The female part is fixed to the body with the male part on the headlight/indicators. When the lights are fitted for the last time (after the body polish), I'll ziptie the wires together and then into a ziptie mount secured to the rear of the headlight bowl.

Lights

Spent this afternoon wiring up the front headlights and indicators. I've gone for the 4-way waterproof connectors from polevolt in common with others, which provide a really neat solution to connecting everything up but does involve cutting off the existing connections, cutting the wiring to length and crimping on your own spade terminals. What makes it particularly tricky is that most of it has to be done under the wheelarch working with relativley short lengthes of wire. I also took the opportunity to run all the cables through protective sheathing, sealing the ends with heat shrink. This is probably all overkill but it has made a very neat job and I quite enjoyed doing it !

I decided to secure the connectors with p-clips but had some trouble with the sizes. When tightened down, the P-clips (25mm) seemed a little tight and distorted the polevolt connectors, squashing them out of shape and negating the sealing properties and the benefits of them being waterproof. I think it's just a case of cutting the rubber band of the p-clip back a little but for now, they are temporarily mounted until I can sort something out.

I've also finished painting the isoflex liquid rubber under the arches. I've gone for two coats at the moment but may add another at a later date.

Just keep moving forward...

A few pictures just to show where I'm up to. there no major steps forward here, just small jobs being ticked off the list, but as the title suggests I'm trying to keep the momentum and keep moving forward.

Here you can see that both of the wiper spindles have been fitted

I've started to paint stonechip under the front arches and in common with a few other builds I've been following I've used Isoflex liquid rubber which is intended as a roofing product but leaves a rubberised coating which should cut down on the spider web type of cracking often caused by stones flying up under the arches from the tyres. This is after the second coat and as you can see is still drying. This has to be the least enjoyable part of the build so far and is arm acheing, sticky, smelly and new T-shirt ruining.... ! (The lights and indicators have been removed for this part of the build and will probably only go back on now once the body has been polished.)

I've also fitted the heater for the last time after buying silicon rubber hose to fit over the outlets. The two outlets are at right angles to each other meaning you need one straight hose for the outlet which exist horizontally and one with a 90 degree bend in it for the outlet which exists vertically. Rather than buy two, I bough one 90 bend hose with extra long legs and simply cut one leg short using the off cut as the straight section for the other. Both of these will need cutting to length so I've left them long for now.

You can also see the battery studs which extend from with the wheel arch cavity containing the heater through into the engine bay to provide convenient power take off.

Here you can see the relay block and fuse box mounted along with the hot air outlet for the heater and the windscreen support bar which extends across the cockpit behind the dashboard. It all gets a bit tight in this area so I'm glad to have that part out of the way. If you use the Vectra column, before mounting the relay block there is a small modification to the wiring required which I strongly recommend you carry out first.

The last photo shows the dashboard temporarily held in place prior to marking out for the guages

Forward wiring loom started.

Little bit more progress this week. I fitted the side vent on the driver's side so that's both of them done now. I'm going to leave them wrapped in masking until I fit them for the last time. I still have to tidy the recess itself and spray it and the spacing tubes matt black.


I also bought some new polish/compound. Using a rotary polisher and Farecla Profile 200 with a wool pad I polished the bulkhead in the engine bay. This was followed by 500 on a lambswool pad and finally glaze on a polishing foam. Other than the odd shaped head I seem to have developed, I'm very pleased with the results.


With this area finished I could start to install the forward wiring loom. Just got a couple of "p" clips on to hold it in place, the rest will have to be left for another day.

Bonnet Locks Finished

Quick update.. Cut the slots into the bulkhead to take the bonnet locks and repaired a few scratches with gelcoat. Still need to finish the edge in places but otherwise the bonnet is now finished and just needs polishing. I'm going to leave that for the time being and keep to my plan to trial fit all components and then take them all off again before polishing the body. Once that's finished, the parts can all go back on and be fitted permanently.

Everything seemed to take a long time today and I don't feel I've got much to show for it. One thing I have done this week is order the chassis. I'm also shopping for an engine and gearbox. When that lot arrives there should be some major advancement in a very short space of time. I've gone for the "Euro" option which comes as a rolling chassis with all the suspension components, hubs, drive shafts, diff etc already bolted in place . The plan will be to bolt engine, gearbox, exhaust and a few other bits onto the chassis and then drop the body straight on. I've still got a long list of jobs to finish before hand but I'm really quite excited !