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[aaronjb]

I think TIG appeals to me for the same reasons it does for you Andy - it just seems a much 'nicer' process; you know, less angry pixies throwing blobs of hot metal around the place That said, having switched from whatever gas came with my welder (in a big BOC bottle) to Hobbyweld "universal" gas, my welds are much, much cleaner with a lot less spatter - may also have something to do with practice, I suppose

On with the (catching up) show:

I fancied a change of pace - I was probably frustrated with the pedal box and boot hinge at this point - and remembered that my bonnet hinge didn’t come with any collars to set the left & right position; the Dax hinge is basically a large tube that pivots around a smaller tube with the smaller tube mounted to the inner wings, and is free to slide left & right along that tube unless you restrict this movement. The build manual mentioned locking collars, so I decided I’d make some up out of some aluminium bar I had lying around. Lathe time! These are (short) videos, so links rather than in-line.

First, part off a section of 6082 long enough for two collars:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ChyQvgCAnzpt7YSR7

Then face off the ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UmHgLUfWkxCigUwJA

Spot drill for the center:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nb6q81Ph6gaNzUyM8

Then up a size:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KNc35eJUFq4vXgKdA

And up another size:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Q7VZK5tcPppHh4y7

And then out with the boring bar to bore out to final size:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EeLr2UWgKBPZk72G8

Then parted them into two, cross-drilled for a grub screw and tapped them for M4 grub screws:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mPeEgn5pFAiRKtAZA

Then, nothing much happened - or at least was photographed! - until November when we went to the Classic Car show at the NEC and I picked up a full set of IVA-bezel Smiths Electronic gauges, Lucas switches, warning lights and so on:


Spotted another colour I’d really love to paint the Cobra - House of Kolor Candy Apple Root Beer - but since that’s a candy colour and hideously expensive .. probably won’t!



Finally in November, I glassed in the in-fill panels in the boot:




And also welded a throttle-stop to the pedal box, so that I can set the limit of travel without relying on the carb itself:


Remember, a grinder and paint, etc!

[YZ250]

Really interesting thread Aaron, well done. 

I remember the Smiths dials well, as my Mini Cooper S had a Wood and Pickett dash that was littered with them. 

[aaronjb]

Their current ranges of dials are really nice - all electronic innards, stepper motor driven etc.. though they still make the mechanical ranges as well

January 2018 saw the delivery of the windscreen from Brasscraft - a heated, tinted winscreen plus wind wings and sun visors, and all the fittings:


The heating elements are reasonably unobtrusive, just like a tin-top:


Finally I got back to hanging panels on the car, too - first, the boot was hung:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4tGxDDakC8ec2yGw6

I used flat sections of fibreglass to build up plinths for the hinges to bolt to, and sandwiched bond-in fittings in there. They still need tidying up with filler and smoothing to be presentable, but they are functional at this point.

I hung and gapped both doors:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gEs4dZyCjk6gumzU9

One went very easily indeed, and the other was a complete pain! It turns out that the tubes the hingest bolt to aren’t symmetrical with respect to the body (despite them being part of the scuttle hoop that is factory bonded into the body), so packing spacers were needed on the
drivers side to move the hinge toward the A pillar. Here you can see that the passenger side is 10cm back from the A pillar:


But the drivers’ side is 11cm back - that 10mm makes all the difference with the door barely opening on the drivers’ side before the hinges fouled the A pillar:


Pretty sure it was Dave who suggested I check the scuttle hoop was actually square..

Progress is slow at this point - we’re up to March already now, and I fitted the brake reservoir on a home-made bracket:


It juuuust touches the underside of the bonnet right now, so may need slightly adjusting.

There was a trip to snowy Goodwood to see the “real” ones at the Members Meeting:


And this at the NEC:


And having picked up some “normal” headlights at the NEC, I swapped out the LED units:

[Varche]

 

Can I ask a wiring loom question?  Does the loom you fitted have options for anything you might choose to fit? I am thinking how do you wire in options like heated screen or an obscure. Dash instrument.

[aaronjb]

The loom I have is a so-called "universal" loom with (I think) 12 circuits - each of those circuits powers something, and mostly they're things required for the IVA test like the demister fan, lights, fog lamps, brake warning circuit etc etc, plus a radiator fan, starter motor. Basically, the bare minimum needed for a car.

Everything after that I've had to add myself - take a feed from the 12V distribution block (which has a 200A capable feed - more than enough!) to a fuse, use that to feed a relay and then use a switched live via a switch to energise the relay coil. That's how my heated windscreen is done, for example, as that needs a 25A feed. The Corsa B EPAS has a 50A permanent live feed plus a 3A switched live feed, both of which were also added (obviously the 50A feed uses a mega-fuse and is off the distribution block)

I have learned that I hate vehicle wiring 

[Varche]

Join the club. Right from when I was driving along Colwick Road in Nottingham in the 70s in a mini with extras and smoke came out of the bonnet. I leapt out and disconnected the battery and threw a jacket over the flames.

[aaronjb]

Let's hope I never have that - although I did pop a few fuses trying to figure out the wiring for the wipers! Trying to translate the Lucas wiring diagrams for the switches I was using (which aren't "wiper switches" - and yes, they're special things). Got there in the end with the aid of a relay, though.

The rest of March saw me working on the braking system again, so now I can talk about my solution to desiring twin master cylinders, yet using the Dax pedal box!

What you can see here is twin AP Racing master cylinders mounted to a Compbrake Escort pedal box, which replaces the servo and houses the bias bar etc:


Usually they are open-sided, but since I didn’t want a route for air/etc to get into the car from the engine bay, and a way to render the bias bar invisible. You can see how they normally look on their website: https://www.compbrake.com/product/ford-escort-mk56-brake-bias-servo-replacement-pedal-box-balance-bar-kit-hydraulic-dual-cylinder-copy/

The cover plates were just bent up steel, welded closed and then secured with rivnuts in the pedal box itself - they can be removed fairly easily for access to the internals if necessary at IVA, and the bias bar will be lock-wired and nyloc’d, once I figure out roughly where it should be set!

Somewhere in here I’ve fitted the winscreen and the wipers - the wiper boxes are upside down, as I would find out (much) later!




I’m fairly sure I bought the wiper kit from Dax assuming the bundy tube would be pre-cut to length and flared; either that or I bought it from Europa or CBS, but either way it wasn’t.. I flared it using my cheapy eBay brake flaring tool:


Not perfect, but it gets the job done and the tube won’t fall out of the wiper boxes!

We’re in April now, and I’ve fitted the boot lock:


And stay:


I was never totally happy with the way the stay is mounted, though, so I’ll probably revisit that later.. It’s a bit wobbly!

Some brightwork went on:


And I finally started on the wiring loom .. I think it took close to a year to finish the wiring, in the end!

[aaronjb]

The first bits of loom went in relatively quickly - some of it was very easy to judge and figure out, but what I found hard was routing all of the services without knowing where some of it would need to end up or how much space I’d actually be left with behind the dashboard when that went in - more than I thought, I think is the answer to that!



But that’s how the fuse boxes and relays started off looking - they remained quite similar until now, in fact, although they’ve been joined by a few more relays and a few more fuses..

Here, I’ve punched the main front-to-rear loom through and run it along the chassis rail; notice that the fuel return is gone, now..


Since the loom was modular, it is joined in the middle using waterproof connectors:


Some continues upward into the boot:


While some dives down to feed the fuel pump:


Everything, and I mean everything, is secured at roughly 9” intervals using P-clips or push-in conduit clips. Overboard, maybe, but the IVA man can’t question it .. hopefully!

It is a bit crowded down by the fuel pump, though!


I tried to keep cable runs outside where possible, so the rear loom (which was handily quite long) actually runs up into the ‘cavity’ between boot and rear bulkhead, and then along the rear chassis leg before entering the boot to feed the rear lights:


We are up to July 2018 by this point! And I’ve also sold a car, taken several holidays, been away for work a few times and Louise is well on the way learning to drive and has bought her first car - a Smart For Two which she loved but hated! Oh, and I’ve been helping a mate modify his car by fitting a new exhaust; it’s this mates fault that I’m building a Cobra in the first place, I should add!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hymc2UPWrjesfVQy7

[aaronjb]

While I was away for work the main +ve and -ve feeds for the loom went in courtesy of my Dad, and on my return I fiddled with the microswitch on the handbrake a little bit to try and get it working reliably:


I started fitting the bonnet hinge - first, by laying the hinge against the bonnet and drilling holes through the inner skin and bonded-in steel plate per the build manual, then tapping them for M8 bolts:


Then the inner tube (bolted to the bonnet) was married to the outer tubes (which bolt to the inner wings) and these were drilled through into the arches and bolted into place. Remember, this is some time in 2018 .. I just (literally last night) moved the hinge up in the arches as high as possible so that the bonnet no longer catches on the front of the car! I think that took about four hours, because it’s really hard to be both sides of the wheel arch at the same time…




Note those locking collars I made earlier are now installed

I also borrowed a set of wheels from another forum member that were up for sale - sadly, the offsets weren’t right for the Dax. The rears were close, but the fronts stuck out a long way..





In September, I got back to the wiring harness that nearly killed me…

[Viral_Jim]

Looking good Aaron, and a great read, thanks!

You seem to have a very broad skills base, for an 'IT geek' 

[Andy B]

..... and Louise is well on the way learning to drive and has bought her first car - a Smart For Two which she loved but hated!  ....

Great choice of car! 

[aaronjb]

Looking good Aaron, and a great read, thanks!

You seem to have a very broad skills base, for an 'IT geek' 

These days I'd much rather be building things than sitting behind a desk - but there's a lot more money in the latter, so behind a desk I sit

Great choice of car! 

She loved the way it looked but hated the way it drove - the only reason she ever passed her test is that it was (fairly) quickly sold and replaced with a MINI Cooper S (automatic). She just couldn't get to grips with the not-really-automatic gearbox (lack of creep) and the fact that speed humps felt 10x their size so she went more slowly which meant being (dangerously) overtaken by the local tits. Now they just sit up her arse, instead


I really wanted to keep all the wiring as hidden as humanly possible, which meant some creative routing and keeping as much as I could up underneath the body - i.e. around the bonnet opening, boot opening or under the car, in the arches etc.. lots and lots of either rivet-on or bond-on (Würth) cable tie bases were used at this point!



In that picture the wiring is exiting the bulkhead between the brake reservoir and clutch master cylinder - you can just see it popping out through a Trigger Automotive rubber bulkhead grommet (https://www.triggerhandbrakes.com/Bezels1.html). The loom splits into two right there with one leg running down each side of the bonnet opening.

Down the left run the lights (headlights, sidelights, indicators), horn, radiator fan, alternator sense and brake switch wiring. That splits again by the inner arch with the alternator & brake wiring staying inside the engine bay - you can see the brake switch wiring dive down the inner arch - and the alternator wiring is curled up in a loop. The lights continue through the arch, then back out through the other end of the arch to the lights where it splits (again) to run to the drivers’ and passenger side lights with the radiator fan wiring (obviously) stopping in the middle.

The right hand side has the wiring for the coil, water and oil pressure & temperature senders, etc, and terminates in a plug between footwell and wheel arch with the rest to be completed once the engine is in.

The brake fluid sensor and water pump wiring both drop down from the rear lip of the bonnet opening - you can see one above, and the other here:


Inside the car, I started wiring in what I could, like the wipers (oh, how I cursed at the wiper wiring .. a lot):


As well as IVA compliant-yet-not-Dax dashboard layouts (padded dash should pass radius requirements, but we will see!)


Somewhere in here I must have also fitted the VW Beetle wiper stalk to the Corsa column per instructions I got out of Kevin Davies - basically, the Corsa stalk bracket also houses the upper bearing, so you can’t do away with it entirely (despite the Corsa column being an almost perfect fit for the Beetle stalk!) - so you hacksaw off all the excess plastic, then file it down to be exactly the same size as the column itself. It is still retained by the two plastic retaining pegs from the original column. You can see what needs to be ditched in this picture:


You’re really just keeping that central ‘tube’, and securing it into the column with pegs that drop into the square holes (there is one at the bottom, unseen, too).  I could have done it in the lathe but since it took about five minutes with a hacksaw and a file… Here you can see how that looks once completed:



I went away for a bit (to Berlin, lovely city) and came back to find that my Dad had put all the gauges etc in the dash for me.. Plus a couple of things (like the USB socket) that I wasn’t actually going to fit. Never mind!

I made up a temporary panel for switches, so that I didn’t have to keep dragging the large (and floppy) dashboard around, and wired up the lights, hazards etc:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ERtBptMLErKzdVJ77


Figured out the wiper wiring and .. at this point realised that the wiper boxes are upside down, so the wipers run backwards:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9pJRfJnsGsmishi19

Progress slowed due to work (trip to Tel Aviv), holiday (trip to Paris) and so on, but finally the dash was in and had all the switches in it - ready to be upholstered:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kcnPNQBZwbMehBBU7

Plus, I tried to fix my two indicator stalks .. I had one that wouldn’t ‘latch’ properly, and one that latched nicely but didn’t work electrically! They are an absolute nightmare to take apart - very cheaply made, full of tiny pieces and violent springs etc.. the one that wouldn’t latch was cheap and easily bent inside (hence no longer latching) and the expensive one was covered in green verdigris.. Once filed off, that one worked, at least! The other one went into the bin:



And we are at the end of 2018, at last!

[Enceladus]

The deep red paint on the Chevrolet truck that you liked reminds me of VW Blackberry Metallic. At least that's what I think it's called. Very rare, but sometimes you see it on VW Transporter T6 & Combi vans. So dark that it appears black from a distance or a casual glance. It's only up close that you see the lovely deep red.

Anyway since it's a standard VAG colour and used on a commercial at that it might not be too expensive at an auto paint factor.

[aaronjb]

The deep red paint on the Chevrolet truck that you liked reminds me of VW Blackberry Metallic. At least that's what I think it's called. Very rare, but sometimes you see it on VW Transporter T6 & Combi vans. So dark that it appears black from a distance or a casual glance. It's only up close that you see the lovely deep red.

Anyway since it's a standard VAG colour and used on a commercial at that it might not be too expensive at an auto paint factor.

Oh yes, that does look like a nice colour! I like that a lot.. thanks, that's going in "the list" (of potential colours)!

[aaronjb]

January 2019 .. I realised I had an issue with the steering; an enormous amount of play. Most of it seems to have been in the universal joints that came from Dax many years previously, so I replaced them with much more substantial UJs from CBS - they required the intermediate shaft shortening a little more, but seem to have less play. There may still be a little play somewhere, but I need to button everything up from the wheel to the .. wheels, before I can find that. This was the play before I started (BTW, all these Google Photos links are videos):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rAoZfiMtiWmaGKQ87

These were the original UJs. It’s impossible to really see the play in a video, but you could just about see it in real life - cumulative play from each UJ added up to almost an inch at the wheel rim!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y7KySsE5STvtYYhF6

As long as it doesn’t turn out to be the steering rack..

I grunted and strained a bit underneath the dashboard area and turned the wiper boxes around, so at least the wipers don’t try to bury themselves in the bodywork anymore :oops:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sSdqxsGv7DJTUYNT9

Not much else really happened in February, and in March we lost a lot of time after I got punted up the arse while driving the OHs Mini - very little damage, but a lot of arseache with insurance companies who wanted to write her car off (which she’d only had a month) saying “A car that age, we may as well just write it off” without ever seeing it, when the damage amounted to a slightly bent bumper cover and a few scratches on the bumper:


Repaired in the end, and the body shop did a fantastic job and blew in an area just large enough to cover the one scratch the car had elsewhere which was nice - and I honestly can’t tell it’s been painted. But what a load of arseache. By way of thanks, the Mini decided to start blowing blue smoke on overrun (stem seals, known weak spot) and occasionally rattling (timing chain .. known weak spot) - should have written it off :lol:

Near the end of March we did an insane road trip to Bristol, a place near Bristol, and Farnham, and collected another FE engine (390 FE truck motor complete with C6 autobox) for a bargain price - and this one came with a lot of accessories & accessory mountings:


That was a long day in a rented van .. the other two stops were to pick up new dining chairs that were cheaper on eBay than in Ikea (like, half price cheaper, or it wouldn’t have been worth it), but jeez.. A long day in a van.

The dashboard also got its nice soft covering to satisfy the IVA man:


But by far the worst thing in March was this:


That was the last walk we ever took him on. He’d suddenly gone from his normal bright self to lethargic, unable to eat, poop, not wanting to walk, so we booked an emergency appointment and walked him up there. The vet found an enormous mass in his abdomen and after tests decided it was inoperable due to its size and his age, and he never came home.