Wooden It Be Nice To Have An Update

Well, I’ve been back in the garage over the last couple of months, trying to finish of all sorts of jobs that needed doing before finally taking Vikki for paint.

A small thing that needed doing was making some sort of holder for the LED lamps that the low fuel light uses to warn of impending embarrassment on the hard shoulder. I didn’t want them to be directly mounted on the dash, but hidden in the existing low fuel lamp I’d got. So I made this up at my evening engineering course:

It’s turned brass, and the two LEDs sit side by side in it. The holder is sized to be the same diameter as the incandescent bulb holder that it replaces, so it’s the same friction fit into the body of the lamp. A lot of work (it was my first use of a lathe since I was at school!) for something you’ll never see. :-)

Something you will see is the new windscreen knobs I’ve made up to replace the large black plastic ones Marlin supply. I’m planning on putting some wind deflectors either side of the car at some point, and the plastic knobs would have gotten in the way. So I turned & knurled these:

They’re made out of stainless steel and where utter bitches to make. Stainless is so much harder than normal mild steel, I had to use carbide cutters on the lathe, and plenty of coolant. Once I had them the right diameter and height (the same heights as the friction hinge blocks that you use for the deflectors), I tapped them and then polished them up at home. Shiney! 

The engineering classes was also useful when it came to making some mounting saddles for some high level tail lamps I wanted to fit. I’ve been toying with the idea of fitting some stop / tail lights to the roll bar for some time now, after some comments from other owners last year at Stoneliegh, and my own experiences out and about - being so low, and with the wing mounted lamps being angled, some drivers don’t see you when you throw the anchors out.

The lights are motorbike tail lamps, and have dual filament bulbs. The saddles are made of 35mm diameter bar which has has been machined so it bolts to the roll over hoop with some stainless cap head screws, and holds the lamp stems with some stainless grub screws. The top of the saddles where shaped to fit the diameter of the hoop.

I gave them a coat of satin hammerite to match the hoop, and after much faffing around chasing the cables through, got them working.

When I first connected them though, I couldn't work out why they weren't working properly - the tails would work when you switched the lights on, but when you hit the brake they'd go out. 

Turns out that you need to watch out which filament is connected to the brake and the light circuits. I'd inadvertently wired it up so that the bright high resistance brake lamp was on the light circuit, and the low resistance (dimmer) tail lamp was on the brakes. So when you hit the brakes, it earthed through through the brake circuit as it was an easier path than flowing through the bulb. D'oh! 

Vikki has had a bit more chrome in the shape of a new fuel filler cap. The aero cap I had was fine, and got us through IVA - but I didn’t think it was in keeping with the style of the car. So I ordered a nice chrome 2 3/4” aston fuel cap from CBS:

The mounting neck / flange is the same size and has the same PCD on the mounting holes as the aero cap - but I still had to drill new mounting holes to ensure that when the aston cap was screwed on tight it was in the right orientation.

Bling! But it's not all sparkle and no function. If I wanted to, I could leave the locking cap off - it's all sealed but properly vented when closed without it. The locking cap is to stop toe-rags making off with my petrol.

I've mounted so that when you flick the catch it opens (it's spring loaded) and stays open due to the slope of the bodywork - hence the reason for being careful with the orientation of the neck and mounting holes) 

I did think about having it the other way down with the catch toward the back, but it would flop back down after opening, making it a pain to get the pump nozzle in.

The thing I’ve put most effort into though over the past couple of months is getting the wooden trim sorted out. I wanted a wooden surround for the dashboard, and wooden caps on the doors - in some variety of wood that would match the steering wheel.

After a trip to a local timber merchant, with the steering wheel for reference, I bought a big slab of sappelle. This is an African hardwood, very similar to mahogany.

After a lot of messing about making templates of the dashboard surround and door caps, planing and cutting out the blanks for all three at my mate Iain’s workshop, I ended up with these rough parts.:

Then after many hours of fine tuning, sanding, swearing, more sanding, filing and filling the door tops, swearing some more and putting more filler on the doors, sanding that back, they all fit right.

Then I took my time and applied three coats of yacht varnish to the wood, and voila:

I’m as chuffed as a chuffed thing the way they’re turned out. :-) The varnish has really brought the grain out and the match to the wheel is nigh on perfect.

The door caps have been cut a little short at the tub end, as I’m going to fit a polished metal cap on them to protect the end of it, and when it’s all bolted down, I’m going to use rubber D section wing piping  between the caps and the body work /doors just to take up any slight un-evenness I haven’t managed to dial out.

And that’s it for now. I’d like to get her painted before I take her to Stoneliegh this year, but there isn’t enough time to get her stripped down, painted and re-assembled in the time left. So she’ll have to go naked again. Gasp! :-)