Number Plates

I had the plates made up at a local garage, I also have some on order which are a little more minimalist - i.e. don't have the border or 'in your face' garage name & cut down the front plate size to the legal bare minimum. But these will do for now - the important thing is to get the car on the road.

Front

There is a small plate bracket as part of the kit - now with hindsight & 12 months experience building the car this is the sort of part I could easily make myself. Simple ali bracket which bolts to the underside of the nose.

I also took the opportunity with the nose off to remove the indicator extensions - I've been eyeing up some small motorbike style indicators but resisted buying so far. Currently fixing the plate with adhesive pads:

Rear

The back plate either fixes directly to the rear panel, or when my spare wheel is in place needed a couple of brackets on the spare tube. I had two stainless brackets from the original reversing & fog lamps which were perfect:

My two brackets, drilled & riveted, sitting behind the plate, & a nice small number plate lamp which is stuck in place & temporary wiring routed up to the original lamp which is still on the back panel. The dangling wire is temporarily held taught but in due course I need a better route for it through the spare wheel bracket itself:

The tiny number plate LED lamp is actually E marked from CBSOnline; I'll check it out in the dark to see how much it actually illuminates.

I think thats the last step - fully road legal!

Update - The number plate lamp sends light in all directions, including backwards. I've masked up and painted the back face so it doesn't show white light behind.

Windscreen Washer

The washer bottle slides over the bracket on the nearside footwell; connects to the loom and a pipe which takes the water to the washer nozzle:

Underside of the washer nozzle; Backup tie wrap holding the pipe on:

Tested, adjusted the nozzles to actually spray water on the screen & job done. I'm sticking with water only for now, I don't really want washer fluid all over the car & probably the passengers on the rare occasion the washer is used (i.e. probably only at MOT time)

Wipers

ECU out temporarily so I could re-install the wiper motor and wiper gearboxes - straight foward - but awkward and fiddly to get everything re-assembled. The wiper motor plug on the loom was loose so a little tweak on its pins to make a good connection then re-install of the ECU in front:

Originally I was thinking the wipers should park on the nearside as per standard practice, however the scuttle holes are positioned centrally so they need to park drivers side for maximum sweep/clearing in front of the driver.

I made up a cardboard template to work out the arc - the limiting point is at park the wiper blade must sit on the bottom edge and at 90º it must miss the top of the windscreen. I lined up the top edge of the wiper with the top of the frame - hindsight - I should have probably lined up the middle with the middle to end up cutting the same length of each end of the arm:

Then offered up the wiper arm and worked out the bend & cut points. The arm will bend, masked up to avoid marking the surface then applied a little brute force with the help of the vice & my large adjustable spanner:

I temporarily took the springs out of the blades before any fitting up to minimise the chance of inadvertently scratching the glass. The arm also takes a slight twist to try and get the wiper blade square against the glass. Then ran the wiper motor and marked where the blade needed a little trimming at either end:

Similar process on the nearside wiper & we pretty much have a matching set. Its not perfect, I may re-visit if it bugs me too much. The wiper blades slide on the arms and positively locate with a 'nub/lug' however shortening the arms removes this lug - I decided for now to glue them in place with a little Sikaflex/black panel glue - again possibly another one to re-visit - the other option is to drill a hole and either rivet or self tapping screw in place:

Update Jun 2014 - Re worked the wiper arms and blades to join/pivot centrally here

Windscreen - final fit

I've read a fair few blogs running into issues with the windscreen frame fitting so wasn't really looking forward to it. Consulted with Simon B on RHOCar & I  found a blog with pictures of the process (on a 2B): Colin's 2B windscreen frame fitting (site no longer exists)

Glass into the frame

Inserted the flat rubber strip around the curved frame & cut it to the right length either side to allow the bottom rail to slide home. Then squirted a bead of washing up liquid around the rubber & worked it in with my finger.

I was expecting to need the ratchet straps to push the glass in, but it simply slid into place with gentle pressure & a little care on the corners where the rubber rippled:

Then the bottom rail, I used the same procedure - rubber strip inserted, a little washing up liquid and slide onto the bottom of the glass. This time I'm using the ratchet straps to hold everything steady while I consider the next step - fixing the bottom corners:

I don't know what I did different to other builders - Simon @ GBS said it should go together fine & pretty much it did!

Frame bottom corners

I toyed with the idea of a bracket on the outside of the frame, but in the end went for the GBS method on the corners. A diagonal self tapping (well wood screw) diagonally across the corner.

The only place to really trip up here is damaging the glass while drilling and fitting. So carefully angled a 3.2mm hole in from the side rail and into the centre of the bottom rail:

There's not much metal for the screw to grab so I also made a couple of reinforcing places from scraps of stainless. These slide into the bottom rail and gives the screw something solid/hard to grab:

This shot is just offering up the screw, I then measured the length required and cut the end of the screw so it only just protruded from the bottom hole:

Finishing

Once I knew the fixing method would work & the nearside held in the correct position I swapped to the offside side and duplicated the process. Although the bottom 'T' sealing strip can be slid into the grove in the bottom rail it means you cannot then see what you are doing to screw the corners in place - so - I screwed the corner together then carefully pushed the bottom rubber strip into its grove with a screwdriver:

The screw heads either side were mostly countersunk in place, but not too much to weaken the side frame. I used the Dremel & grinder head to smooth the screw heads flush with the frame. Theres just enough of the phillips head left meaning I could dismantle if I needed to:

Finally cut off the excess rubber strip with a sharp knife, as per Colin's advice angling the knife very slightly into the frame and taking care not to mark the glass:

Job done.. 

Fitting

I painted the windscreen uprights initially with brush on hammerite - mistake - too thick !

So sanded back and used hammerite black silk spray paint which gave a much nicer result. If the registration paperwork hadn't arrived I may have even got these powder-coated - but I need to get the car drivable while the weather holds!

The original wing mirror mounting holes were plugged with grommets, wing mirror stalks attached to the windscreen uprights and all bolted to the scuttle. My wife helped manoeuvre the windscreen assembly into place & its held either side with 5x flanged button head bolts which were already tapped into the frame and checked for length:

Very cool.. :)

DVLA - Taxed & Registered

In the post today was my tax disc & registration number from the DVLA.

The onus is back on me now to finish the windscreen, fit wipers, fit number plates & get on the road!

Windscreen - fixtures and fittings

Back on the windscreen; The target is to finish work on the uprights this weekend so I can paint them during the week & move to final assembly next weekend & hopefully coincide with the registration and tax coming through.

Pillars & screen surround:

Adjustment of the uprights to get everything as symmetrical as possible. The whole assembly was off/on the car a 3-4 of times this morning to get the uprights adjusted - one final check with the glass in place - then back to the template for final fit and drilling. I used the natural sight line along the top of the windscreen to the rollbar for a level - doesn't look to bad to me:

 

I prepared the uprights by drilling with holes for the wing mirrors, 5x holes on the leading edge for the windscreen mount & 4x on the trailing edge for door hinges. I decided to set this up for future direction by ensuring I have mounting points for potential doors and half hood before everything is assembled. Once the glass is in there will be limited options for drilling any new mounting holes.

Clecos in top & bottom both sides to hold everything in place then I drilled through the existing upright holes to get the right positioning in the aluminium frame behind:

I wanted a consistent look - button head hex bolts on the uprights, so going for drilled & tapped holes rather than self tappers. The uprights are 4mm holes, the aluminium frame has 3.2mm holes which I then tapped out in situ to ensure everything would line up.

(Still no proper tap set, but ali is soft so I just about got away with an adjustable spanner along with a little WD40 to lubricate):

Mock up of the result - this will all come apart one more time to fit the glass and paint the uprights & only 2 of the 5 windscreen mounting bolts in place:

Top rail half hood fittings:

My intentions for fitting a half hood - I've seen many options fitting to the top rail, I defintely dont want a line of poppers, lift the dot or similar along the top - so going to try something a little different.

These are lift of hinges used on musical cases etc - the idea is if I attach one half to the top rail of the windscreen in three places I can attach the webbing or a centre hood rail  to the 'hook on' part later. 

These will  show above the line of the windscreen rail but -

  1. I think I prefer it over poppers or an awning rail groove

  2. The brackets will be fitted using tapped button head bolts, so I can always remove them later

Windscreen - prep

Next up the windscreen

Frame adjustment

Adjusted the frame by carefully bending over my knee so it fitted my screen & marked off the places to trim the bottom rail at either side. The frame is all pre-bent from the factory, it just needed a little adjustment for a good fit:

Hacksaw either side in line with the bottom frame edge. I've seen these mitre'd too - but thought I would make a neater job if I stuck to just cutting the bottom rail. I'm not sure how the bottom rail attaches to the sides - possibly needs a little ali plug which can be screwed into?

With hindsight - when cutting the lower frame I should have left a couple of lugs on the end to slide into the side frames, realised this after I cut it of course & during a chat with Simon.B re his blog and experience.

I should have also explicitly allowed a couple of mm all round for the rubber seal which goes around the glass making it take up a little more room - I lucked out in the end & everything fitted, but more by luck than judgement.

Pillars

Checked the pre-drilled hole positions either side of the scuttle for reference, I didn't assume anything and measured both sides:

Then marked up on the bottom edge of each pillar. The holes are on a line between the inside and outside corners of the bottom edge rather than central:

I didn't have a round form to bend the pillars against, instead made small flexes at various points until the shape looked reasonable: 

This isn't bad - theres no point following the contour of the scuttle too far around or I'll end up with a sharp bend where the uprights need to go nearer vertical:

First Fit

I cut a hardboard template in place of the glass for fitting (as seen on Simon's Blog I think) and offered up the main windscreen frame. This is after 2-3 times off/on with the pillars to re shape everything. Its getting close - still needs some adjustment to move the whole assembly about 1cm to the offside & a twist in the pillars so they run square fore/aft and I can think about drilling some holes:

I also need to consider space for rubber seals around the glass (hence everything sitting on a couple of layers of spare cloths/carpet) & make a final decision on the finish. The uprights will be black - hammerite or powder coat, not sure about the frame itself yet - I may leave it aluminium.

I've got some M4 flanged dome head bolts which I'm intending to attach the frame with. I also want to have fittings, or at least holes drilled, for door hinges & clips for a half top.

Mountney Steering Wheel

First of the upgrades - off with the stock Sierra wheel and I'm installing a 12" Mountney in its place. This is the same model wheel I had on my old Spitfire, worked well enough then so sticking with it.

I kept the horn slip ring from the old wheel however its not actually wired in currently, just will save me taking the wheel hub off again if I decide to use the horn centre push:

Straightforward unbolt & torque back up again ensuring the indicator cancelling cam is in the right place.
I upgraded the supplied wheel to boss bolts with black button head allen bolts with shake proof nylocs on the reverse - just to match the style elsewhere on the car & nylocs 

Much better!

I just need to pick up a GBS centre badge at some point and we'll be good.