Sunday, April 20, 2014

Front Wings Wiring

Worked on the car a bit this morning. Main job was to cut wires, crimp them and use plastic ties to hold them. All for the indicators on the front wheel wings. Had to trial fit the wings and was happy with the result. Now the wires are in place and all is ready for the wings to be mounted. This took me an unexpected hour and a half!

Also cleaned the connections from the loom to the battery. One was showing some green stuff (like when 1,5v batteries drip their contents). This because last week I tried to make the car run but it failed. Probably was because the battery was not topped. Anyway, today, after checking the terminals and with a freshly charged battery, the car worked. Just had it for a while on neutral revving and then shut it down. The new gear knob makes it a lot easier to find the neutral!

The reason I haven't fixed the wings yet is because I'm missing the polyurethane for the extra fixing. Looked for Sikaflex or Tiger Seal around and, although there is a Sika branch in Portugal, I was unable to find it. Or a proper replacement. Ended up ordering Sikaflex 221 from the UK through eBay, due to arrive later this week or the next.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Gear Lever Knob

Didn't work on the car today. But went there to check what stuff I needed to buy to finish off the wiring on the front wings.
Also took the chance to fit a gear lever knob that I bought on the cheap. It looks OK and it makes using the gear shift a lot easier. The original stick is small and the handbrake makes it harder to grab it. With the knob, it is easier to grab and shift. Took me 10m to fit.
Designed on the Netherlands, made in China. Fake carbon and aluminium.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Front Wings Ready to Go!

Had some time on the car today. My idea was to trim the fron wings so that the wheels could be removed without clashing. But decided this didn't make much sense so I grabbed a pipe and a huge wrench and re-bent the wing stays to give more clearance. Then placed the wings on them and drilled them with the 3,5mm drillbit, marking the stays for further drilling.

Then, using a bit of rope and a wrench as weight, marked a vertical passing through the centre of the wheel and drilled the wing laterally for the indicator light.

Removed the wings and enlarged the holes on the stays with the 6mm.

Back on the storage room, enlarged the holes to 6mm. Since they will get the doomed-head bolts with the square section, as the nosecone, had to work with the file to make the holes square.

On the side holes, used the 12mm drillbit to further enlarge the hole. Then used the small diameter sanding head on the dremmel to make the hole bigger. Switched to the large diameter sanding head and after a bit more sanding, the rubbers fit correctly. Then inserted the indicators on the rubbers.
Just need to get some PU adhesive (the one I have is now dry) and add wires from the indicators to the engine bay and I can put the front wings in place.

After all this, filled the tank with 10L of gas and mounted the battery (that was charged 3 weeks ago) to try to get the car for a spin inside the parking space. Unfortunately, the battery was reading 11,5v when I tried starting the engine for the first time. It did not had enough juice to get the car going. Next time I try, I'll have to try on the day I charge the battery.

Still managed to see that I wired the indicator stalk on the steering column incorrectly. It blinks the right side when it should blink the left and vice-versa (of the nosecone indicators, the only ones already in).

It was odd that, when I removed the battery after trying to start the car, both positive and negative bolts were very hot. I never noticed this before. I wonder if I have a short or something and that is why it failed to start today.