TWENTY EIGHT LITTLE HOLES

The dot punching was not a problem, but my initial attempts to drill the first of the 28 pilot holes into the fishtail was hard work. Being so used to drilling into aluminium I started off slowly, with my battery drill, but the bit didn't bite into the stainless steel, through the paper template no trouble, but then just a dimple.

I put a new 3.2mm bit into my electric drill, cranked up the generator and using more pressure and higher speed, the bit eventually started to cut and then I was on a role.

After the first few pilot holes were drilled, I tried opening them up with a regular 6mm bit, but that caught and stalled the drill, so I used a step drill. I put a 6mm washer over it and as the hole was cut and the drill punched through, the washer prevented the next 8mm step from starting to cut.

 

When the last hole was cut, I removed the remains of the paper template, cleaned off the sellotape residue with white spirit and gently ran a large countersink into each hole to clean them up. I finished of with a stiff polishing mop on the electric drill to remove the last little bits of swarf and the first one was done. I'm saving the other one for tomorrow as my shoulder is now aching.

BITS AND PIECES

I decided that before I got stuck into wiring the dashboard, I would finish off some of the outstanding little job.

First task to be crossed off the list was to connect the cable from the new choke knob into the sliding connector tube that links with the choke cables from the two carbs. All three cables are located in a circular block by small nipples on their ends and rather than try and solder a nipple on the end of the new cable, I tried various methods of connecting the new cable to the one from the connector tube.

It was soon obvious that this approach wasn't going to work so I experimented with making a solder nipple on a spare bit of cable. By letting gravity pull molten solder down the last few mm. of cable it formed a perfect blob, or nipple, right on the end of the cable. Happy that I could do this again, I cut the new inner and outer cable to length, threaded it through an adjuster and made a solder nipple as before. I reconnected all three cables into the connector tube, adjusted out the slack and it works.

 

Next job was to fit the MSVA required plastic sleeves to the track rods, these are to protect pedestrians from the edges of the adjustment and lock nuts in the event of an accident. It required the track rod ball joints to be separated from the steering arms, so that the sleeves could be slipped onto the rods, but as they hadn't been fully tightened this wasn't a problem.

The louvered front number plate carrier flexed at the right angle bend and I could imagine it flapping up and down at speed, so I bent up a couple of 2mm strips and riveted them onto the underside, that should resolve a potential problem.

Final job of the day was to determine the configuration of holes that I wanted to drill in each of the silencers fishtails. I drew up two patterns of seven holes a side, one at 1.5cm and the other at 1.25cm centres and drilled them into scrap timber.

I have decided to use the larger centre pattern and drew out another couple of paper patterns which are now stuck to the fishtails and await drilling.

Dot punch, hammer and 6mm drill bit at the ready and tomorrow I hope to get that job sorted and then it's fitting the fuel level sender to the top of the fuel tank.

DOT DOT DASH

That's it all holes drilled, some needed a bit of filing. The hazard warning switch needed a large 30mm hole, so I used a smaller circular cutter and did some considerable filing, after which I realised that I had a 32mm stepped drill, that I had never used, anyway I ran it through to clean up the hole, but I could have saved myself a lot of energy,

The bottom trim was fitted and the completed dash was offered up, it didn't fit! The back of the Starter Button fouled the scuttle flange, but my jig saw quickly removed enough material and the dash settled back and the bolt holes lined up, so obviously nothing else was touching. Although I had earlier removed a crescent of the scuttle flange to allow the speedo to fit. Arthur would normally supply the dash with all the holes laser cut and the two main holes would be for 80mm instruments, but I particularly wanted to use the bikes, impressively big instruments, so space was a bit tight, but I think the look is right.

NEATLY DONE

The 52mm cutter that Pete loaned me is a very substantial beast, needing a very substantial hole drilled first, to accept the allen screw. The required hole was bigger than any of my drills, the largest one being 12mm, I pondered and then realised that one of my Rota Broach cutters was exactly the right size. However before I started cutting I made several checks in the cockpit to ensure that nothing obstructed the dials and carefully marked up the positions for the four instruments and dot punched the centre point of each one.

The first instrument to be fitted was the Voltmeter, I consulted Google as to which to fit, a Voltmeter or an Ammeter, the consensus was Voltmeter, as it was much simpler to wire and gave you all you needed to know about the state of your battery.

On the dot punched mark a small pilot hole was drilled first, to accept the pin of the Rota Broach and the 16mm central hole was cut. Once that was done the the 52mm cutter was assembled, with the cutter part on the underside, the large allen bolt pulling the top half down. With the dash board firmly clamped, a large allen key, assisted with a strong tube over the end of the key, turned the cutter. Quite a force was required, but after about six turns the hole was made. The cut disc was very wavy, but the hole was clean and the surrounding metal undistorted and the gauge dropped in snugly.

The corresponding hole for the fuel gauge was quickly cut, but before I did the two for the clock and oil pressure gauge, I offered up the dash board to the scuttle and did a final check. Just as well as otherwise the clock would have intruded into the glove box. A slight repositioning and those two holes were cut. Tomorrow another twelve holes to cut, eight of which are for the warning lights, I can't wait to see the dash in place.

DASHING ABOUT

Having attended to some of those little outstanding jobs, I really wanted to make a start this weekend, on drilling the holes in the dash board and fitting instruments, switches and warning lights, especially as four Smiths Classic instruments arrived in the post last week.

Saturday was out of the question, as we went to the Red Bull air Race at Ascot Race Course and Sunday was an all day, birthday lunch party, but today I made a start and fitted the two main instruments, speedo and tacho, but before I post the photos of that job, a few from Saturdays outing follow.I don't as a rule put non Marjorie related photos on the blog, but on this occasion I will make an exception as it was quite a spectacle.

A strange name 'dash board' it goes back to the horse drawn era, when a a board between rear of the horse and the driver prevented mud and water splashing up on to the driver when the horse started to 'dash' along. As it was carriage builders who started to build the first cars the names for various parts were carried over and gradually the dash board became taller and joined up with a wind shield and became a convenient place to mount essential instruments.

Enough of the history lesson. After I had made a final decision on where all of the holes should be drilled, I removed the dash and started with those for the big 100mm speedo and tacho. I don't have a hole cutter this big, so I had to go down the time honoured route. First I scribed two 50mm radii circles and then a slightly smaller circle was scribed inside the first ring, dots marks was punched around this circle and a six mm drill pierced the circumference. A hack saw blade in my jig saw joined up all the holes and my flap wheel in the electric drill smoothed the cut and gradually opened out the hole so that the instruments slipped in.

I cut and drilled two securing brackets for each instrument and I used two cable ties connected together to prevent them spreading or twisting and there they were firmly secured in place.

 

When seated in the car both instruments are visible just under the top rim of the steering wheel, leaving room for two of the smaller instruments below and to either side and that's what I will be doing tomorrow.

PARP PARP

My Build Buddy, Pete, sent me a parcel containing MVSA compliant wing mirrors, a cowl for my little spotlight and most importantly a serious hole cutter for cutting the 52mm holes in my dashboard for the instruments.

Now that's the job I really want to get stuck into, but I feel the need to get all the little jobs out of the way first. Firstly I enlarged the hole in the small bulkhead panel that fouled the riv-nut that secured the silencer back to the side.

Whilst the top GRP barrel decking was off, I decided to apply the self adhesive, 3mm foam strip to the underside of all the bolted down panels that surround the back wheels. These panels have to be removable so that the back wheel can be accessed, but they also need to be sealed to stop water getting intro the storage areas either side of the wheel. I ran out of the foam strip as I was the placing first length on the underside of the lid to the electric box, this application is not to stop water egress, but to prevent it rattling. The other photo shows all of the rear panels stripped of plastic and bolted in place.

Now it was time to fit the wing mirrors, these rather ugly black jobs will be replaced with neater chrome ones once MVSA has been granted and of course my smashing little swiveling spot lamp, complete with cowl will have to be removed for MSVA.

I couldn't resist the 'Parp Parp' bulb horn, a snip at £14 on Ebay, again will have to come off for MSVA, but good fun. Still got a few more jobs to get sorted, before I get started on the dashboard.

A FISHY TAIL

For some while I had been scouring the internet for Brooklands style silencers with fish tail ends, I have found ideal, after market ones for Velocette motorcycles, but they are designed just to be fitted on one side of a bike. I found an ugly cast aluminium one, but eventually found these  stainless steel beauties from a kit "sports car" manufacturer who were happy to supply me. They came complete with reducers to fit my inch and a half pipes.

My piece of ali tubing came in handy again as I used a length to space the distance between the rear clamp and the side of the car. I used a length of M6 stud, a dome headed nut and a M6 riv-nut again backed by a drilled out penny washer. The result is that, in one go, the fishtail is clamped into the silencers and the whole lot rigidly fastened back to the car. Of course the drilled hole in the side of the car exactly matched where a small bulkhead is to be riveted, which necessitate a slot being cut into each of these bulkheads to accommodate the riv-nut, typical, never quite as straight forward as you think.

I need to polish up the spacer tube to look like stainless and I also feel that I would like to drill the customary holes on the outside of each fishtail, but I will mark the hole pattern onto paper first, stick it onto the fishtail and check out the appearance, before making a decision.

By the way, my little camera turned up, neatly stowed in the glove box.

Two other things, Arthur advised me that the bonnet is not as thin as I thought, it is 1.5mm thick and My Build Buddy Pete has pointed out sadly, that my beautiful bonnet catches are not MSVA compliant and I will have to change them to ones without the curled over finger hook. Ho Hum, lets hope the correct ones share the same fixing hole spacing.

WHAT'S THE CATCH

Tick two off and add another five to the job list, never a dull moment, that is the plan. I initially allocated two to three years for the build and I am only a couple of months into the second year and I seem to be accelerating towards the finish line.

Apart from headlights and indicators, oh and of course, wheels and fenders, the front end looks almost finished, especially now now that I've removed the plastic film from the bonnet halves and fitted the securing catches. I drilled out the holes in both parts of the catches to take M4 button head bolts and used riv-nuts in the body and bonnet to attach the catches. I was concerned that the bonnet might deform as the aluminium is only 1mm, but I found that M6 washers placed over the back of the riv-nuts, before I pulled them, made for a solid fitting.

 

I really fancied an oil catch tank, shown in the CBS catalogue, complete with an air filter on top. I measured carefully and yes, it would fit onto the front of the drivers side foot well bulkhead, so I ordered it. When it arrived, it was every bit as beautiful as I had hoped, but was larger than I imagined, it did fit onto the bulkhead as planned, only, the filter part was mm's away from the steering column and I thought it unlikely that the MSVA testers would like that. Instead I mounted it onto the vertical chassis rail, which gave 25mm of clearance to the steering column. I spaced out the inner fitting with a bit of ali tubing, the width of the chassis rail and again I used a penny washer on the back of that riv-nut to stiffen the fitting.

All breather pipes connected and it does look the bizz, a little over the top maybe, considering it will hardly be seen once the side panel is reattached, but I like it!

Arthur pointed out to me that I said BMW Mini when I referred to the column mounted indicator switch, I meant, of course BMC Mini.

Also sharp eyed and keen readers, might wonder how I managed to post the above two photos on the 3rd of August, when they clearly show the date as the 4th. That won't happen again, as I've reset the date and time on the camera, but the strange thing is, that the little camera that I usually take into the garage, has totally disappeared, not surprising as I spend more time looking for the right tool or part, than I do in actually fitting it, age I guess! and I am sure it will turn up in the most unlikely place.