Another Cordite Is Born ...

[Paul L]

One of those days...
I decided to start putting all the bits of the dash back together so I could sort out / check the wiring.

I dug out my donor's speedo & rev. counter, but had forgotten the surface rust on them.



So they got a coat of Kurust and were left to dry.



I also knew I needed some extra earth connections, so dug out the section of wiring loom that came with my 2nd hand body shell.

It was a very messy job stripping the old insulation off the wires, but eventually I had some earth cable, some spare wire & some rubbish.



At this point it all went horribly wrong as I tried to find the other parts for the dash.

In particular the hazard warning switch which I was sure I'd "put somewhere safe" quite recently.

I was convinced I had put it in the box with the heater stuff, but couldn't find it.

I then when through all the boxes in the summerhouse, but still no joy, I did find lots of other things I needed, but not that switch.

In the end, I took all the boxes outside and searched them again, by which time my frustration levels were rising steadily.



At this point I took a break and even looked for a replacement on Ebay.

As I returned for one final check I could see the indicator switch which I'd found & which had been wrapped in newspaper.

At this point I was convinced I had wrapped the hazard switch in exactly the same way.

Then I saw a section of the same paper at the top of the heater box...

I'd pulled the contents out so many times, that bubble wrap & newspaper "padding" were everywhere.

Yes, you've guessed it, one section of padding actually had this sitting inside it.



Don't ask me how I missed it having looked in the box more than once, but boy did I turn the air blue.

By the time I'd finished putting all the boxes back in the summerhouse I had wasted 2 hours on my wild goose chase.

At least I found some of the things I would be using for the dash board project.



Plus the headlight switch, indicator warning light, a spare bulb to use with the oil pressure gauge & a small modern fuse connector.



I also came across a section of fibreglass cut out of the bonnet which could be used for the fake access panel.



Thankfully I had to switch back to domestic chores at this point which gave me a chance to calm down a bit.

I did get another chance to go back outside and turned my attention to this bit of scrap.
( Which I'd also dug out during the earlier search.)



I'd found it in the street one day and though that might come in handy.

I cut a section off to make a retaining bracket for the oil pressure gauge, similar to the one on the right.



After drilling a hole, hitting it with a hammer & cutting the ends to size I had this.



Note: In reality, the bracket will push against the metal dash section around where the dial is fitted.

So after wasting so much time today it was nice to finish on a (very) small success.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Mister Towed]

Could've saved yourself two hours searching for that hazard switch Paul - if you can't find a component just order another one and thirty seconds later you'll stumble upon the missing original.

You must then fit it immediately, or thirty seconds after the unnecessary second component is delivered you won't be able to find either of them...

[Scottie22]

Well done Paul!

Take note of the words of wisdom from the venerable Towed!

[DerbyDreamer]

Sounds like a 'man-look' to me! Got a garage full of stuff I can't find - every sympathy! Guess the positive is the more stuff you put back on, then the less there is to lose...

[Paul L]

Mr T & Scottie - Cheers chaps & it did turn up just after I had priced it's replacement on Ebay.

DerbyDreamer - Welcome to my build thread.
I can't wait for the day when the contents of these boxes are fitted to the car.

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Inching Forward...
I've not been able to do much on the car recently, apart from separating & tidying up some of my spare wires.



I've also been looking at my wiring diagrams for the things I need to include in my loom.

Today was very frustrating in places, but I did manage to get a few things done (eventually).
( I need to do this update in two parts & it does not follow the true time line. )

Easy jobs were some etch primer on the sides of the speedo & rev. counter.



Note: There is marking tape around the chrome trim.

I stained the insides of the two new holes I'd cut in the dash for the oil pressure gauge & choke lever.
I also touched up a few places and put a final coat on the filler in the cigarette lighter hole.
So, hopefully, the wooden dash is now done.



Next up I tested the micro heater fan by directly connecting it to the battery & it burst into life.



Then I temporarily wired up the fan speed switch and thankfully that was all working properly too.



Then I bolted the heater control panel into place so I could work out wiring and cable routes.





Then I bolted the heater into position and connected up the vents and ducting.

This allowed me to mark up where I need to mount the zip tie holders to hold everything in place.

It also let me see possible routes for the heater wires.

I have found a good earthing point on the bracket that I previously bent back through 90 degrees.

You can just about make out the earthing point that I need to crimp to the black wire.



I could have followed Mister Towed & earthed the heater to one of it's mounting bolts.

But this way, I can wrap both cables and zip tie them to the bracket, out of the way.

Although I need to extend the red wire to reach the fan speed switch.

I have already fitted the connector on the end of the new section of wire.
( Excuse the poor photo, but I was back indoors by this point. )



But I will wait until I have removed the heater before I join the two wires properly.

With the heating ducting back in I could also find a nice route for the choke cable & heater control value cable.

As expected, I needed to drill a new hole in the bulkhead for the choke, but could use an existing one for the heater.



Notes:
- The choke cable is bottom right
- The heater value cable is top right
- I can now seal the other four holes in the photo, subject to the final route of my wiring loom
- I will enlarge the cable holes to take a suitable rubber grommet

I picked two "spare" wires that would be long enough to go from the dash to the engine bay.



These wires will either be wrapped up with the existing loom and exit the bulkhead using the original Spitfire route.
Or, I will feed just these two wires out of one of the bulkhead holes mentioned above.

Either way, I fitted connectors to the ends of the wires and wrapped up the first section.





Once I have test fitted the wiring loom I will know the best way to wrap the rest of the wires.

I'll cover the rest of my day in another post in just a second...

[Paul L]

Heater Valve Switch...
I spent a long time convincing myself that I must be doing something wrong, or just missing something completely.

The cable operation is set up in such a way that the back of the switch & the switch itself can only be fitting one way.



This means the "hottest" & "coolest" settings are actually a "given".

So this is the end of cable position for hot:



And then the cable is withdrawn to reach the cold setting:



So far, so good.

But the problems started when I tried to find a lever position on the valve which worked in this direction.

I even took the lever off to see if it could be adjusted, but it was also "fixed".



In the end, the only way the lever could be make to push/pull in the correct way was if it was on the "wrong" side of the mounting bracket.



In this position, the value will open/close as it is supposed to.

Now I am happy to admit that I may have been making a simple school boy error all along.

But I couldn't believe how long I'd spend messing about trying to resolve this.

So I decided that I would take my anger out on the offending bracket and hit it repeatedly with a hammer.

It wasn't a very neat job, but I did manage to reverse / turn the cable fixing point through 90 degree.



The position above is "closed".



And turning the heater switch "up" now came me this.





As you can see, that wasn't quite right, so I adjusted the cable fixing a bit until this was how fully "on" looked.



By now I realised that I have to turn the dial through the thick end of 300 degrees to go from off to on.

OFF:



Then turn the dial anti-clockwise to ON:



So much for the 45 degrees of red heater markings.

The only good news of this whole sorry saga, was that the best way to mount the value was like this.



This removes any potential fouling issues when the other heater hose is fitted.

I will need to make a new mounting bracket, but that should be straight forward enough.

( Famous last words. )

Next job will be to check and fit the dash wiring loom.

I also want to dig out my completed headlight assembly to check it following a debate on Mac's build.

But that's all from me for now, Paul.

[Viatron]

It's the little jobs that take the time Paul, it took me ages just to fit my throttle position sensor as the throttle linkage wasn't designed to use one.
At least you can tick another box!
Mac

[ufo17]

Hi Paul, great job buddy. Just wandered weather if you move the connecting rod to the hole nearest the centre of the valve then the ratio between the distance that the dial has to move compared to the distance the valve has to move will be greatly reduced?. Just read this back to myself and am not sure it makes sense?. Tell me what you think. UFO17.

[Viatron]

I think UFO might be right paul the closer you get to the pivot point the less distance the dial should have to turn, that said the further in towards the pivot point you get the more pressure you will need to turn the dial so it may be a trade off?
HTH
Mac

[Paul L]

Mac & UFO17 - Thanks for the feedback chaps, I'll have another look at that.
I had briefly tried different holes, but the cable didn't line up very well.
However, since then I have hammered the bracket so much, another adjustment won't hurt.

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Still inching along in the right direction...
Went for a lovely family pub lunch today and we could all sit outside in the sunshine.

Thankfully, I still managed to squeeze a few jobs in later in the afternoon.

I laid out the wiring loom so I could start checking / changing things.



With the headlight switch connected, I could test the four bulbs for the dashboard dials.
( Speedo, rev counter, fuel & water temp. )



With these all working fine, the next job was to extend this loop for the oil pressure gauge.

So I fitted a few things back into the dash board to get a better idea of the layout.



You can just about see the "spare" light I have with short wires sticking out of the oil pressure gauge.
( Note: The wiring for the light is the same regardless of which type of gauge I end up using. )



So this bulb needed to be joined to the speedo one, as that was the closest.

I picked out two short sections of spare wire for the first step in the process.



I added some solder where the wires joined.



Note: I did add a bit more solder after I had taken the photo.

A section of heat shrinking tubing then sealed the join.



Then I cut the wires to the speedo bulb and joined them to the extended oil pressure gauge wires in the same way.



Funny how something as simple as a light bulb coming on can raise your spirits.



With the test complete, I could wrap the wiring up properly and tick that job off.



To pick on on Mac's reply above, this was a simple, but time consuming, little job.

Sticking with the wiring jobs for a bit, I started work on the side repeaters.



These spare wires match the existing wiring loom colours for the left and right indicators.

I will need to splice these into the loom behind the dash, before it separates into the front & rear sections of wiring.

I only had time for a very quick look at how much of the loom I need to "tuck away" behind the dash.







But before I tackle this properly, I need to do a couple of things.
- Go back & check old photos to remind myself how it was before.
- Work out a new route for the rear wiring loom, which needs to exit the bulkhead somewhere.
( I've sealed up the old holes for sending wires along the floor as there were a rust trap. )

The other bit of work I started today was the bulkhead bracket to hold the heater value.

I made a cardboard template and marked up some of my fresh steel.



I then cut this out, but added a "flap" for extra strength & a couple of bits that I may use for further bracing.



A session with the hammer gave me this.





The bracket will sit further back than this, once I've drilled a couple of locating holes.



I see how the bracket feels when welded up as it currently is, before deciding on extra bracing.

The only good thing about doing all these little jobs now, is that they would be much harder with the bulkhead mounted.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

All over the place...
I have a lot of plates spinning at the moment, but thankfully I got a bit of time on the car.

I wanted to measure the cable distance required to go from the battery to the cut off switch.

I put my new rubber battery rest in place.



But when I put the battery in I realised my donor didn't have a battery clamp in place...



Yes, the battery is the wrong shape to work with the new Spitfire clamp I bought.
( The clamp would short out the two terminals when their cables were fitted. )

A new battery was on my shopping list anyway, so I will just need to make sure it will fit properly.

For now, I simply switched the battery around and this time the clamp could work as intended.



Although I will need to trim a bit off the ends of the retaining bolts.



Quick Question:
I've measured the cable distances I need for the battery cut off switch.
But what sort of amp rating should the new cables have, for both +ve & -ve?

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The only other job I managed to do today was on the heater value support bracket.

You'd think that drilling two holes would be a simple enough job...



But I managed to break two drill bits in the process.



Clamping the edges together required a bit of wood to spread the load a bit.



But the welding itself was very straight forward, starting with the "flap" I'd left in the metal when I cut it out.



I then added just one extra brace to the front of the bracket.



Now I just need to drill a few more holes in the bracket.
- One to bolt the heater value support bracket to it.
- Plus four to mount the bracket to the bulkhead.



But I want to have a play around with the cable mounting location first.

Happy St.Patricks Day, Paul.

[Paul L]

Catching Up - Part 1
Although I haven't posted any progress, I have been chipping away at my build.
This is a belated catch up covering the last few days, but not following a strict time line.

So in no particular order...

Moorcoft Motors
Went to visit this company, a small, back street, Triumph specialist near Potters Bar.



I had a great chat with them and they will collect my "Moon Rover" and do some work on it.
I just need to finish all the construction work first and then arrange a pick up date.
Then I can leave the engine work to them so that every thing runs as it should.
They will also suggest some upgrades to improve reliability if required.

Heater Control Value Mounting Bracket:
Before I bolted the bracket to the bulkhead, I went back & checked my old photos to find this.



As I remembered the hard lines ran across the bulkhead, but I couldn't remember where.

Thankfully they all run in front of where this new bracket is going, so I drilled some holes in it & test fitted it.











Then I treated the metal bracket and gave it a coat of primer.





Then all the welding got a coat of filler.



Before that was sanded down and another coat of primer was applied.





Rear View Mirror Mounting:
I still need to work out how the Cordite body will be extended to cover the Spitfire bulkhead / dash area.
This was the "gap" when I was test fitting the body over the cut down Spitfire tub.



This photo had given me the idea that the ash tray hole could be used to provide access to mount the rear view mirror from below.

However this was the current view of that hole from above.



The ducting would be zip tied out of the way (see below).
So I just needed to take my angle grinder to a small section of the original heater control mounting panel.



To Be Continued...

[Paul L]

Catching Up - Part 2
Believe it, or not, but I'd never used a pop rivet tool before the other day, so I did a bit of testing and quickly got the hang of it.

I wanted to beef up the zip tie holders that can be used with just their sticky pads.

So I looked at fixing the rivets from either side to see what worked best.



This was the "after" and I quickly noticed a problem.



Both options left metal in the way of the zip tie itself, so I hammered one end flat.



This gives me the option of using two slots, or I could just use one slot with the rivet head in place.



Then I drilled the the four holes I need to hold the ducting and "Y" connector in place.



Plus one extra point for a zip tie to "guide" the heater control cable on its way out of the bulkhead.



Bulkhead:
The Triumph garage said that setting up the Smiths electric oil pressure gauge would be a piece of cake.

They also had no idea why the previous owner thought putting a gauge in the engine bay was a good idea.

This was good news, as I had already committed to the bulkhead holes based on wires, not pipe work.

Here are all the holes...



I did think about using a single patch to cover the three holes I didn't need.



But took a bit longer and welded in two smaller patches instead & gave them the usual treatment.







I also treated the last remaining areas of the bulkhead.





I just need to put some filler on a few places before I can prep this final section for painting black.

This marks the end of the bulkhead welding until I can re-fit this to the chassis.

Then I will just need to weld in two crush tubes and the bulkhead will be done!

Shopping Update:
I have being ordering a number of little things recently to help finish off a few areas:
- New rubber rings/seals for the original Spitfire dials where they meet the dash from Rimmer Bros.
- Some longer 170 amp rated battery cables to connect the cut off switch from Ebay.
- Some hose separators to use on the micro heater plumbing from Ebay.



To Be Continued...

[Paul L]

Catching Up - Part 3

Wiring:
I extended the power cable for the micro heater and fitted a connector to the earth lead.



Then I wrapped the wires up ready for final fitting.



I also added two earth wires to the side repeaters.



These are long enough for me to join them up with the other earth cables behind the dash.

Given the fact I have to get the power wires into the dash area anyway, it seemed to make sense to do it this way.

Wooden Dash - Centre Section
I wanted to make sure the "blank" for the old heater controls would not fall out while driving along.

So I started by hammering in some small tacks.





Before sealing the edges completely with fibreglass filler.



When this was set I could sand it all down and get a coat of primer on it.



This is what it will look like on the other side.



Although I am considering fitting the Wolseley 1500 badge I picked up from ebay here.



I think it looks pretty good, but as always, I am open to your feedback.

Dash - Final Adjustment
I have decided to "sink" the oil pressure gauge as it looks out of place just sitting proud.
This will take a bit of extra time, but I think it will be worth it in the end.
There is no real deadline for this build, so I see no point in cutting corners at this stage.

That's all for now as I've got to go, take care, Paul.

PS
Hopefully I will get a chance to reply to other builds over the weekend.

[Viatron]

Cracking on now Paul! If you want my ten penneth worth the best mod you can make to your engine would be to go with a distributor less ignition system, whether it be megajolt, nodiz whatever.
I have yet to find an engine that doesn't respond well to being 3d mapped, they generally start and tick over better and the pickup is usually very much improved. Although you wont gain any extra power it will allow you to wring out every single pony that's there. Its not a difficult project and although I have had a set back with my Nodiz I'm absolutely sure I will be better off in terms of driveability once its sorted. Oh and if your thinking of performance upgrades I would always advise brakes first then engine, the other way round can occasionally end up badly :-)
Keep up the good work
TTFN
Mac

[Paul L]

Mac - Cheers, your advice is always welcome.

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Making a mess of the dash...
Whilst I liked the view of the oil pressure gauge from the front.



I knew I was never going to be happy with the way it sat proud of the dash compared to all the other dials.



But as I said yesterday, I want to do the best job I can, so it the dial needed to be "sunk".

So I marked up the edge of the dial.





Then set up my drill so it wouldn't go down too far.



Unfortunately, the wooden drill bit didn't really work and I had to use a metal one instead.

I also used a craft knife, but to be honest the result was a bit of a dog's dinner.



Because although the gauge looked good from this angle.



It was a bit of a mess from this one.



So I wrapped up the gauge and put some wood filler into the gaps.



Not sure if this will work, or not, but I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Other Jobs
I got some fibreglass filler on the welding I did over the surplus bulkhead holes.



There were three other areas that I needed to patch up as well.



Then I painted the two heater control value brackets and the steering column cover.



While I had the paint out, I covered all the remaining parts of the bulkhead, apart from the areas with filler applied.



So once the filler is sanded down and painted, the bulkhead will finally be the same colour all over.

Cheers, Paul.

[Scottie22]

Paul, why don't you buy a hole drilling set? It would make your life so much easier!
I bought one last year from Aldi, and I was in there today, and they have them on sale again only £9.99.
They are really good quality, I used them to drill all those holes in my steel wheels, and they are still sharp!

[Paul L]

Scottie - I do have a cheap hole drilling set, but not one for the size I needed.
Although I might still try to pop into Aldi next week if I get the chance.

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Bloody Showers...
I managed to get a quick break in the rain to get a little bit done.

I sanded down the fibreglass filler applied yesterday and gave it a coat of paint.

Here was where the surplus holes were.



And this was the bulkhead as a whole.



This was quite a landmark moment, because after five months of work, the bulkhead is finally one colour all over.

There are still a few odd jods to do on the bulkhead, but the end really is nigh.

The only other thing I managed to do was tidy up the wood filler in the dash hole & stain it.



To be honest the circle around the oil pressure gauge still looks like I chewed the hole out with my teeth.

But the overall look of this project will be "battered old ex-race car", so maybe I will get away with it.

I had just finished the wood staining when the sky went black, so I packed everything away & covered the bulkhead (again!).
Note: The cover is spread out so it doesn't touch any of the wet paint below.



Taking a break...
I have decided to stop work on the car now for a short time, at least a week, maybe two.
I simply have too many other things to do at the moment and they are being neglected in favour of the build.
Well, given the choice of sorting out house admin (bills, statements, etc.) or the car, what would you choose?
Hopefully without any car distractions I can quickly sort out everything else and then get back to it ASAP.

And Finally...
I know I have spent a very long time repairing / modifying this bulkhead.
But I take great pride in how much my metal working skills have improved since I started on it.
It should not be too long now before I can build the "join" between the bulkhead & the rear frame work.
At which point it will feel like I finally back to the main road to building the Cordite.
Although my initial focus will not extend beyond the "Moon Rover" stage.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

[Scottie22]

Hi Paul, been so busy on my seats, Iv'e not looked at your thread for a while.

Like you said if you keep inching along ( always provided its in the right direction!) You will get there in the end.
That's my philosophy too!

Keep at it mate!

Scottie

[Paul L]

Scottie - Cheers.
I will now be able to look back at the bulkhead and see what chipping away can achieve.
The rest of this build will be an extension of that approach until the car is done.
The reality is there is so much left to do, that I don't really want to think about it.
But by sticking to the job in hand (no matter how small), I know I will get there in the end.

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Well, I've been pretty good at focussing on "non car" activities recently.
But there is a little bit of process to report since my last update...

Wiring Loom - Part 1:
I brought my loom indoors to make checking where to adjust the wiring a bit easier to do.
This also meant I could chip away at it in the evenings when it was dark outside.
The only down side is that the quality of many of the indoor photos are pretty poor.



The original Spitfire 1500 had a separate side light & front indicator unit.
However, for my Cordite, I've got a headlight with a side light built in.
So I took this opportunity to re-route the original wires for these items and the two car horns.

This is the original cable routing before, with the headlight & side light as two separate cable runs.



The next photo is a bit more of a close up before I started unwrapped the wires.
Note: There is a collection of earth wires joined together in a little "siding" of their own.



This was my revised cable route:



Notes:
- The bundles of wires at coming from the top of the photo will start at the bulkhead.
- The wires for the two horns exit to the right and point towards the top of the photo.
- All the other wires feeding the headlights, side lights & indicators run off at the bottom of the photo.

There is more work required on the lighting wires at the bottom, but, for now, I wrapped up the rest.



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I knew that I had already removed all of the Spitfire heater wiring when I thinned out the loom.

Therefore I wasn't sure how hard it would be to add wiring back into the loom for the new heater fan speed switch.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I traced the wiring I needed to use and found this connecting block.



Which lead to my collection of spare wires where the original heater wire was just waiting for me.



This may not be the original Triumph set up, but it made the re-connection a piece of cake.
( There have been very few "easy" jobs on this build, so I'll take the small victories when I can! )



I still need to fit a wider blade connector on the other end, as the new switch is a different size.
But I will do that when I have measured just how long this wire needs to be.



Note:
I've already sorted out the other wire for this fan speed switch which runs from the micro heater itself.

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These big blue connectors had been used to connect the fuel gauge light to the heater switch lighting.



The heater wires were already gone, so I removed the connectors and re-joined the wires together.



This made the initial wrapping of the various wires behind the centre dash section easier.
( L-R = Water temp. gauge, headlight switch & fuel gauge. )



There will be one more run of wires coming from the main loom into this area.
- The fan speed switch wire (see unwrapped photo above).
- Plus an extra earth cable I am going run from the loom to the micro heater's earthing point.

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As part of my general "tidying up" of the wiring, my donor came with some nice "trunking" for the headlight wires.



The only problem was finding a way of holding it in place next to the rubber grommet in the headlight shell.



I'd tried simply using electrical tape to keep it in place, but it just wouldn't hold, so I used some tiny zip ties.
( These came with my crimping tool set. )

One went on the cables.



Then another two went around the "trunking" on either side of the first zip tie and that seems to work.



I've started working on a couple of other sections of the loom, but I'll cover that when I have finished the work.