Testing the Brakes

The wife and kid went with me to the garage to test the brakes. Cutting to the point, the car brakes but I believe it is not perfect. It may work at very low speeds but I wouldn't trust it.

First test was her just pressing and depressing the peddle and me going around the car looking for oil leaks (since Thursday's oil was now dry). There seems to be a very slight oil leak on one of the front joins between the hard pipe and the flexible pipe, since the join was wet. But it could be old oil. I must clean it all with tissues and then retest. On the rear there was a "skushy" sound everytime the peddle was pressed, so I believe there is some air on the lines.

Second test was me spinning the back wheel (it was still in the air) and she would brake. It stopped, so even if it has air, it is working a bit.

Unpacked my shiny new hydraulic jack. Wonderful piece of kit, bought cheap at Lidl! It was the kid, 4 years old, that jacked the car up! I took the axle-stand out and he dropped the car down. I just had to tell him what to do. I think I'll be carrying that jack around on the tintop!

With the car on the floor, I pushed it a bit and she would brake to see if it stopped. Turns out it's a lot harder to push around than I thought and I don't believe this test was valid, even if it stopped. The tyres made lots of rubbing noises while I was pushing the car around. I believe it is due the the BIG amount of negative camber and toe-in on the rear wheels. It almost looks crippled. The front wheels were better, although it seems one has a bit more negative camber than the other. I really have to set up the suspension and I'm really happy I have the hydraulic jack to do it!

Just two pictures to celebrate the car out of it's "nest" and the amount of oil stains on the floor, under it. They are mostly stains I made while trying to fill the brake lines. Only two other stains are engine oil leaked from a badly tightened pickup pipe (for the oil pressure sensor) and engine oil from a previous car that we had parked there.

Bleeding Brakes - 2nd Attempt

Before going for my main task of the day, grabbed some Araldite and glued the small ally plates I previously made on the old holes of the airbox. It takes 12 hours to dry, so I placed some "crocodile"-style clamps pressing the plates and left it to dry. Took care to ensure the way the glue was distributed would seal off the holes.

Went to the car with the recently acquired tool to bleed without assistance. The packaging is bad (in French and the Portuguese translation is wrong - "Bleed only the brakes" instead of "Bleed the bakes alone"), it was cheap and that should have made me suspect it was bad quality.

It is very easy to use. Pass the black malleable pipe over the bleed nipple and then tighten it up passing the hard plastic restrainer. The restrainer broke on the 1st time I passed it over the nipple's bump... The other end is a valve that does not let air in. Place it inside a jar to hold lost oil and just pump the peddle.

What a mess this is!!! I placed pieces of cardboard under the master cylinders to catch some dripping. There was dripping! And also from the bleed nipple, since the restraining plastic was broken. And on the front some joints were not tight enough and leaked a bit too... In the end, the floor was a mess, my hands and jumpers suit a mess....

Anyway.... I first worked again the rear brakes. We tried doing them last time but the brakes were not working properly, so had to be redone. First the rear right wheel, then the rear left wheel. Was very careful always topping up the master cylinder reservoir.
Then I worked the front wheels, first the right one, then the left. In the beginning I was not getting any fluid on the "vizibleed". Had to pump several times with a fast pace (instead of slow peddle pumping I was using) to get the fluid on the bleeding nipple. Then could revert to slow pumping.
I was pumping the peddle with my hand (due to a small knee injury done earlier) and it became stiffer and stiffer, so it might have worked OK. But I can't test this alone, will have to wait for the weekend to go with the wife to the garage and get her driving and braking while I push the car around.

Dashboard Finished and Other Small Tasks

Today had to be the day! And ended up being the best day I had with the car so far in these vacations! Spent almost 6 hours working on it plus around 1 hour to go out fetch my prop catchers that were done ahead of schedule.

Working on the dash, added the missing hole for the high-beam switch. Then fitted the Digidash on the support I made. Turns out it wasn't bent as it should and the Digidash was "inside" the dashboard. Not pretty. Re-bent that and also adjusted some of the bolt holes that were slightly offset.
Then, positioned the dash on the scuttle and marked for bolts. Also marked inside for the bolts to hold the Digidash plate. Drilled it all and then bolted the parts together. Fitted the switches and all for the picture. The fan switch is not completely in since I had to take it to test the fan.

Now I need to either paint the bolts in black of find another way of making them less visible...

After this, I went to the car with just the ignition and fan switch. Took the fan out to "turn it around". I remember reading that it was possible to reassemble it to switch the direction of the blowing. But I misplaced the instructions. So, I took out the blade and turned it around. But that did nothing... So, and since after trial-fitting with the nosecone, it all fits, I moved the fan in front of the rad. (EDIT - 2012/09/16 - Switching it around just requires swapping the wires around. So on the 16th September I moved the fan behind the rad again)

Then I went around tightening the front brake fluid circuit. Since I had the spanners in my hand, also tightened the gear linkage, that was a bit wobbly.
Moved towards the rear of the car, spending a couple of minutes trial-fitting the firewall that I had trimmed. It now fits nicely and is ready to be drilled and riveted to the chassis. Although I'll only do that after I have the brakes correctly bled and the handbrake cable properly installed.

My final task of the day was to trial-fit the prop catchers so that I could see if any adjustments were needed. The parts are spot on. Just the holes they drilled (not on my drawings) are not where I need them to be, but no problem with that. The steel has a bit of surface rust, needs some scrubbing and paint. Couldn't properly trial-fit one of them (the one that loops around the prop) because I can't fit it under the floor without either disassembling the gear linkage (maybe) or dropping the prop. I'll worry about that sometime later...

Digidash Support and Airbox Hole-Covers

Some ally working today, so that I can tick off some tasks from my to-do list. Although none of the jobs was finished yet...

Cut out from some ally two squares to cover the old holes on the airbox. Also cut and bent a support to hold the Digidash inset into the dashboard.

Then created a template of the Digidash to drill holes and cut out for the plugs.

Marked the holes with a punch and a hammer then drilled with a 2mmØ on the dremel. With a cutting disk opened the big hole. Now I just need to drill two holes on the lips and equivalent holes on the dashboard to fix it with some bolts.

In the mean time, one of my fellow builders warned me that I probably am missing a cut in my dash for the dip switch. And he is right! The lights switch only has three positions (off, low, main). There is a rocket switch on the bag that I didn't know what it was for. Turns out it's to control high/dip. Thank you, Iain!

Dashboard All Cut

After several hours on the balcony, the dashboard is finally all cut up! Just need to fabricate an ally sheet to put on the back to bolt the Digidash to and drill the holes to fix it to the scuttle. And get the proper fixings for that.

The holes are, from left to right, for the steering column, the ignition key, 5 switches and the Digidash on top. The switches control fan, lights, hazards, handbrake warning and fog light. The indicators are on a stalk on the steering column and the horn is on the steering wheel.

On a side note, last week I ordered the prop catchers (should be ready this week) and also bought a kind of "easy bleeder" so that I can bleed the brakes without assistance. This means that it is up to me alone to get the car rolling before my vacations are over...

More Dashboard Cutting

Today spent two hours cutting away fibreglass on the dashboard. It was a glorious day so, instead of working on the garage store room 3 stories underground, I worked on the balcony.

Cut out the holes for the remaining 4 switches. Then used another dremel bit to trim them down so that the switches would actually fit. I believe that tip is to file away mosaics, but it works great on fibreglass.
Then I opened up the hole for the Digidash but had to suspend work midway trimming. To be completed later. The picture shows actual status and how nice the view was from the balcony.

Fan, Prop-catcher, Airbox and Dash

Steve from Aries had warn me that I should test the fan rotation before bolting it all final. It would probably be spinning the wrong direction. Took the fan switch and the ignition key with me. After connecting the battery and fitting the switch on the loom, switched the fan on. It is actually blowing towards the front instead of sucking towards the back. Will have to disassemble the fan and rotate the blade 180º, as per instructions on the box. Didn't do it because I had taken no tools with me to the car. (EDIT 2012/09/16 - Making the fan work the other way around just takes switching the wires over...)
Also offered the cut firewall to the car to see how it goes. It requires some trimming.

Next was sketch up time! I've always intended to have prop-catchers fitted for added security. But these have to be custom made by someone that can work steel sheets. So, I sketched up three catchers. The two smaller ones will old the bigger rear prop, one just before the diff and the other near the reverse box. The "inverted U" shaped "catcher" is to fit on the small front prop, near the reverse box, protecting feet and ankles. It took me ages to draw these up!

Back home, went to the balcony to do some cutting and trimming. With the glorious weather, it's a lot better to work there than underground.

Spent some time trimming the firewall. I believe now it's ready to be fit. Will need to offer it up again to validate.

Then cut the new holes on the airbox. These got right at first attempt! I was speechless! For the airbox to be ready to fit on the car, I just need to seal up the old holes and to assemble it all!

Next cutting was on fibreglass, to get the holes for instruments on the dash. Only cut one hole and was so afraid to cut it too big that made it too small and then spent ages with a file tip on the dremmel trimming the hole for the switch to fit. But I hope the following ones will be a lot easier to do.

The switch was not pressed down completely because it would be a pain to take out afterwards. Not much done but since first step is always the hardest one, I was happy with what I accomplished.