Would You Like to See My Etchings?

I've been busy over the last month with a variety of little jobs to keep me busy. One of the most satisfying has been the design of a new switch plate and VIN for Vikki.

If you remember, I made the original VIN plate from a blank I got from eBay. This got me through IVA, but me being me, I was never happy with the wonky less than perfect stamping I'd done on it. Similarly, I had made the bezel / switch plate for the centre console out of a blank of acrylic and used some sticky labels from CBS to mark up the different switch functions.

I had decided some time ago, that I was going to make some nicer replacements for these, and had been searching the net for a suitable source of replacements. During this search I found an outfit called Schaeffer AG.

They make engraved front panels for companies, and do one off bespoke work for a very reasonable price. You download their free CAD program, design your panels and then send it off to the electronically. After you've paid, they mill it up and after a week or so they arrive in the post from Germany. All very simple.

Anyway, I designed these for the car:

And here they are in real life. The engraving is spot on, and the inking is accurate and within the engraved marks (as you'd expect by something that's been CNC'd):

Both plates are made out 3mm thick black anodised aluminum.

As you can see, I've changed the layout of the switch panel to incorporate a starter button and a panel mounted heater valve. This is because a) starter buttons are cool, and b) the old cable operated valve never really worked that well.

So, before I could put the new switch plate on, I had to redo the plumbing to the heater:

I made a new bracket to hold the heater valve which bolts to the heater box, and ran new pipes to and from the valve. I also took the opportunity to recover the centre console in new leather cloth, as there was a long slot out of the fabric at the top of it where the slider had been.

I also had to cut a new hole for the stem of the valve to stick through, and for the starter button. Once that was all done, I mounted the plate, and put the console back in:

The heater knob was turned at my Engineering class out of some aluminium bar stock, and shaped to mimic the starter button. I think it came out just right. :)

The wiring to the starter button was remarkably simple - the button I used is capable of handing high current, so it was just a case of rerouting the start cables from the ignition switch to the starter button. I also modified the column mounted switch to stop it from rotating to the start position, and removed the spring. So to start Vikki now all I do is insert the key, rotate it to the run position (it's as far as it'll turn now) and then press the starter. Brummmm! :D

I've also got round to making an iPhone mount out of a second rod mounted rear-view mirror. I popped the glass out and replaced it with an aluminum plate:

A small piece of L section aluminum has been riveted through a slot to give the phone something to sit on, and the plate is held in via a screw through the back. I also modified the clamp mechanism:

I replaced the original bolt with a polished stainless carrige bolt, and reused one of the old plastic knobs that held the windscreen in the uprights before I replaced them. It now means that I can easily unmount and mount the holder from the rod when I need to, without tools.

To finish it off, and to hold the phone in place in use, I covered the plate with some of the super grippy rubber mat that you see sold for putting on dashboards to keep your gear from sliding around, and added a couple of elasticated loops either end to pull the phone into the holder:

It all seems very secure.

The biggest piece of work I've done since the last update is fit the chrome plated servo I ordered off the back of the dual servo trial I did before Christmas. Mike's order with MBM took a little longer to arrive than we expected, and we had to wait for the adaptor plates to be cut - but they arrived a couple of weeks ago and they're all installed and plumbed in.

The adaptor plate is a thick laser cut slab of steel, that had a notch cut out for the vac pipe elbow and had the servo mounting holes pre cut. I had to drill and countersink the master cylinder holes, but Mike was clever enough to have the 70mm PCD of the Ford master cylinder etched into the plate - so it was simply a matter of deciding the rotation of the cylinder and marking the line through the mounting holes, and drilling where the line intersected the circle.

However, countersinking the holes on the back for the setscrews was not easy. My HSS countersinks took a long time to do the job, even with cutting fluid and enough pressure on the drill press to brake one of the arms on the depth wheel! 

Once done though and tested, I took it off and painted it up before re-assembling for good. It also allowed me to install the adjustable output rod I'd turned in engineering class. The servo comes with a rod that can be wound in and out to meet whatever master cylinder your using, but it was too short for the Ford cylinder. So I made this up:

And screwed it in in place of the supplied one:

To set the correct depth, I just wound it out to it's full extent, and then tried the master cylinder against it. Each time it didn't allow the master cylinder on the adaptor plate to sit flush with the front face of the servo I wound it in a bit and tried again, until I could get it to fit flush. Then I bolted it up.

I then re-ran the fluid feed hoses (as the originals where too short now, as the servo and plate make the cylinder project further forward), and re-attached the vacuum hose and heat shield:

After re-bleeding the brakes to make sure there was no air in the lines, I took her for a blast to make sure the brakes felt as they should, and they did. Much, much better than with the dinky metro servo. I managed to lock the front brakes during one emergency stop test - tyre smoke! :)

When you're not being a hooligan though, the brakes a perfect now. You don't have to stand on them just get her to slow down - a slight push with your right foot and you can immediately feel the brakes bite and the speed fall off. I'm very happy with it, and I'd advise any Marlin owner that isn't happy with their brakes to consider this as a cheap and easy way to upgrade their system.

Finally - I've gotten round to posting the code that the lowduino uses, and a couple of spreadsheets that I used to calculate the fuel tank and gauge mapping. If you want to try to make your own, check them out here.