Weather Update:
Apparently it is not my imagination, this will
officially be the wettest summer in living memory.
Unfortunately I've seriously underestimated the impact of this rubbish weather on my Cordite build.
Don't get me wrong, I always knew attempting to build outside was going to be a major challenge.
But these days, it seems almost impossible to align my limited free time with any sort of dry weather.
I can't relocate the project to a lock up garage as I promised to be 'just outside' for family reasons.
Also my wife doesn't want a 'Circus Tent' outside the house after I showed her TriTone's photos.
Although in fairness, this might still be possible for a very limited time at the end of the build.
So for now, I'll just deal with the weather as best I can & try to keep the project moving forward.
Thankfully Sunday gave me a glimmer of hope when time & weather finally worked in my favour.
I managed a few hours in both the morning & late afternoon, so some small progress to report...
Body Shell:
Wasted some time trying various ways of jacking up & supporting the car for access underneath.
Eventually came to the conclusion that doing this safely on a sloping drive requires more thought.
So I put the car back on the ground and moved on to the electrics instead...
I've now disconnected all the wiring from the back & middle of the car & pulled it to the front.
Despite the apparent mess, this is one of the few areas I feel pretty confident about (touch wood).
Also these wires will be thinned out before being refitted (see wiring loom section below).
I then started on the dash board and have now removed the left & middle sections.
In addition to labelling wires, I've also taken photos & made notes about what goes where.
As I plan to reuse the Spitfire fuel & temp. gauges, main light switch & probably heater controls too.
( Luckily I did have an allen key in the extremely tiny size required to remove the heater buttons )
Took out the passenger side heater vent + hose and put that in the 'may come in handy later' pile.
Removed the gear lever surround from the gearbox tunnel & then started on the tunnel itself.
Before Photo:
No problem with the self tapping screws, but I got stuck with the nuts & bolts through the bulkhead.
As the rest of the family were out, I was missing the extra pair of hands needed to hold a spanner in place.
It was about this time that the skies turned black & I had to start putting everything away again.
At least I was able to start the engine & move the car around the drive before the rain came.
Neighbours: ... everybody needs good neighbours ...
In addition to weather delays, as soon as I start work outside, all my neighbours seem to arrive for a chat.
Clearly Sammio building is not a common sight around here, so they all want to know what I am doing.
I'd rather keep on everyone's good side for now, as I'm sure I will be making a bit of noise in the future.
Internal Frame:
Initially I wasn't planning to paint the frame until I'd test fitted it to the chassis.
Given the experience of others, there are bound to be some minor adjustments required.
However, as I'm storing it under a cover outside, this means it is rapidly starting to rust.
So 'Plan B' became clean off this surface rust & paint everything with smooth black Hammerite.
It will not be the end of the world if I have to remove the paint in some areas & repaint if required.
Thankfully this is something both my daughters are happy to help with (one missing from photo).
Couldn't cover the frame while the paint was drying, so obviously it was raining in the morning.
QUESTION - Has anyone treated the
inside of the framework (as I can see rust inside there too)?
Wiring Loom Planning: - Thankfully something I can do indoors!
I started by simply blowing up my Haynes manual wiring diagram to A3 size at work.
I then highlighted the things I was replacing with new, or removing all together in the Cordite.
E.g. New tail lights & indicators, but no reversing lights, courtesy lights, wind screen wipers, etc.
This left me with a better idea of what wiring I actually needed and now it inter-connects.
( By chance part of this thought process was covered in another forum thread
here. )
I'd like to say this was part of my thinking ahead approach, but it followed my own stupidity.
I wanted to test my new lights with my old switches / wiring before I removed the body shell.
At this point I found all the bulbs from my new rear lights were missing (supplier error, bulbs now sent).
Then I couldn't get the LED number plate lights to work despite using the correctly labelled wires.
This was another day when rain stopped play, so I came inside for a proper look at the wiring diagram.
It became clear that they originally connected to the light switch via the Spitfire rear light cluster.
As I'd removed this (and not fitted my new alternatives) no wonder the lights wouldn't work!
At this point I abandoned comprehensive testing & hope simply connecting things properly will be enough.
Although I did just wire the LED's up and connect them directly to the battery as a simple test.
I put them facing the back of the number plate to see how much was lit up and frankly they are rubbish.
I'll reserve final judgement for now until they are wired up with the engine running.
(Excuse the poor photo)
Also I was able to use a domestic 9 volt battery to test the bulbs were working in my new lights.
And I did wire up two brand new car horns that came with my donor & they are working fine.
Although it might take me a while to get the hang of a steering column mounted horn button.
Shopping Update:
My new headlights & all the various bits I needed from Rimmer Bros have arrived (see previous post).
Which brings the total I've spent to date on new parts for my Cordite build to just over £600.
The good news is that I think this covers the bulk of what I need for my planned spartan finish.
Although I'm still considering replacing/upgrading my radiator rather than risk the RadWeld repair.
Note: I will provide a detailed breakdown of everything I have bought at the end of the build.
However, I still have a lot of shopping to do in order to finish the actual construction of the car.
I need to establish the quantities of marine ply, fibre glass, bonding paste, filler, etc. required.
I couldn't believe the size of one of Mister Towed's bonding blobs when he did his body.
But, as always, he supplied a good explanation of what he was doing and it all made sense.
Until next time, take care, Paul.
