Thursday - Part 3:
I spent absolutely ages going through photos, checking things on line and I even found the original steering wheel.
By this stage I had remembered to refit the indicator stalk & this reminded me about the self cancelling switch.
This operated by two big lugs on the original wheel, but two pins on the new wooden one.
But I am not going to hammer the pins into position just yet, until I sort everything else out.
One post on line showed that other Spitfire owners had discovered this boss was too big for late model 1500s.
They also showed a simple solution and I'll come to that shortly.
I decided that I needed to work "backwards" to discover how much space I needed.
By now, I'd also worked out the steering wheel was tightened up against the taper in the column.
But the air turned blue when I discovered the brand new steering nut I bought was the wrong part!
Going back to the boss problem, the on line solution was to simply widen the opening in the plastic cover.
Before:
After:
Back in position.
Close, but no cigar.
So I will need to open up the hole just a little bit more and that should do the trick.
But by now I had been cooking in the sunshine and wanted a clear head for this final set up.
Plus my family were back home and my wife wanted some takeaway fish and chips.
So I decided to call it a day and I hope I will get the chance to finish this job at the weekend.
I'll leave you will a photo of the wheel with its centre section in place.
Whilst it was a shame I didn't get more done today, I'd rather take my time and not make a mistake setting up the steering.
So until next time, take care, Paul.
PS
A1 Alpha:
I've enjoyed following
Micky1Mo & the Tribute boys designing the new Sammio
here.
This is a photo of the new scuttle design being constructed to sit on top of a cut down Spitfire body tub.
I've always said my build will look like a distance relative of Sammios with the original "curvy" scuttle shape.
But now looks like I will have a little bit more in common with the new car.
The only depressing thing is that this new build approach will be miles faster than what I am stuck doing now.
In fact, every job I've had to do today wouldn't be required, as you wouldn't need to take any of these things off in the first place!!