Wheels, Windscreens & Wipers
Long time since the last update, but a lot of work has been done to Vikki the GOOster in that time. First off, the spare wheel has been mounted. I thought long and hard about how to mount it on the back of the car, and finally hit upon the idea of using an old rear hub - It has the correct bore and PCD for the wheel, which means it’s securely located in the wheel well and you don’t have to juggle the wheel and the bolts when you take it on or off.
The stem of the hub that contained the splines that a drive shaft would have engaged with (you can see them in this previous update) has been cut off with an axle grinder, and them the back was ground flat.
Then the small hole that the brake disk retaining screw used was enlarged and re-tapped to M10, and 3 other holes where drilled & tapped to the same size equidistant from each other on the same PCD
These new M10 holes are what holds the spare wheel mounting plate to the tub
They’re done up from inside the tub, and the bolts have been cut down to sit just below the surface of the hub / mounting plate face. The extra holes next to the mounting bolts are to allow the wheel bolts to pass through the tub when the wheel is on.
Finally, the spare wheel is attached using standard BMW wheel bolts.
The hub was painted with several coats of black hammerite before I attached it permanently.
Another major addition to the car has been the windscreen. As you saw in the video from the last blog entry, it’s very windy when you approach warp speed. Due to this, Captain Pauline demanded that the Enterpris... sorry, Vikki was fitted with a deflector screen. ;-)
The screen is attached via the pillars which extend through the fibreglass of the scuttle, and are bolted into the chassis and braced with two cranked stays. The toughest thing to do was to locate the holes that needed cutting to allow the pillar legs to go through.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that my first attempt at finding the correct spot for these holes failed abysmally. Whilst I had stuck to the age old truism of ‘Measure twice, cut once’, I had neglected to check from which edge of the fibreglass to measure from! Do’h!
After filling the incorrectly positioned holes in, I re-measured from the correct side and got the screen to fit without too many issues.
It’s amazing just how much difference a small windscreen can make! Much more pleasant to drive, and you can actually talk to the passenger now as well! :-)
Vikki also received a set of stout leather door check straps - I had noticed on several Marlins at previous kit-car shows had dented body work panels in front of the doors - which seemed to be caused by the doors swinging into the panel and deforming it. Hopefully this will stop this on her, as it limits the angle to which the door can be opened.
(You can also just see the bottom ends of the windscreen pillar legs and cranked stay where they’re bolted to the chassis on this pic)
With the new bits fitted, Vikki has been on several outings - we made it to Stoneliegh this year, but stupidly I left the camera at home so I have no evidence of her on the Marlin owners club pitch. I did take a couple of photos of her at work when I drove her there though.
These trips out did show the missing component in having a windscreen - wipers! It’s amazing just how dirty they get, even in just fair weather conditions from all the bugs and dust and crap from other cars. You really miss not being able to tap the wiper stalk and clean it off.
So - Vikki got fitted with a standard Lucas wiper system (drive cable running through tube from a motor turning a crank in a sealed gearbox) which I picked up for a song at one of the Stoneliegh auto-jumble stalls. It’s the same as they used in lots of classic cars. Three 9 inch wipers clean the whole screen.
The motor has two speeds and an automatic park facility, which marries up perfectly (thanks to advice from Peter and Robin) with the stock BMW wiper control module. Or it does if you haven’t thrown it away and then realise that you need it. Lucky they’re relatively cheap and easy to source...
So I have wash / wipe, single wipe, intermittent and fast and slow wiper settings. Which is nice. :-)
I fitted a single dual outlet washer nozzle to deliver the washer fluid - that was the easy part of the washer system. Finding a place to put a fluid reservoir was a right pain. There didn’t seem to be any easy place to put an off the shelf bottle and pump anywhere without being too close to the exhaust. In the end I went with my own concoction.
It’s a 1 litre aluminium drinks bottle with some barbed fittings bonded into the cap for the washer tubing to slip on to. It sits in a little cradle thats mounted above the pedal box. The lid is water tight when fitted, so it’s fine on it’s side. I drilled a small hole on the shoulder to let air in as the water is pumped out.
To fill it, you take it out the cradle, spin the bottle off the cap, fill it up and screw it back on. Then you just lay it in the cradle with the vent hole upwards, and do up the straps (not shown) that go through the eyelets on the cradle.
Obviously, the wiper stalk needed refitting to the steering column to control the wipers and the washers. I took the liberty of blinging these up with some nicely turned aluminium knobs I got from a place in Germany. Google.de & google language tools are your friend in these situations! :-)
Good job I did fit them as well. I don’t think the standard black plastic BMW stalk ends would have done this justice, eh?
This being a 14” MK3 Moto Lita steering wheel with teardrop slots. It looks and feels ace, and is a million time better than the old second hand wheel I got from Robin to get through the IVA. Its fitted to the Momo hub with a specific Moto to Momo adapter, and has a polished billet aluminium horn push. Not cheap, but worth every penny. :-)
My next job is to make up the wooden dashboard and door capping, now that I have the wheel and can gauge which will be the best match timber wise for it.
6 Comments →
Reader Comments (6)
Jason,
Was it a late decision to go for a wooden dash or was there some other (IVA related??) reason to start with an "upholstered" dash and change to a wooden one later.
NIgel - I'm not having a wooden dashboard - just a radiused wooden surround that frames the dash, and follows onto the doors.
Sorry if that wasn't clear. :-)
I'm sure a wooden dash would be fine for IVA though, but you'd have to ensure that the bottom edges (that could be contactable by the occupant's legs) met with the radius requirements for 'hard' dashboards.
Isn't your next job to sort out Mrs Goo's birthday present?
Mrs. Goo,
We don't know one another very well. And the car's going to cost a bit. Will a card do this year...................??
Nigel - I think that's meant for me :-)
Hello dear - why, is it that time of year again? Doesn't time fly. ;-)
ason,
I think it probably was.
But it was worth a reply..................!!
Happy Birthday to Mrs Goo whenever it is.