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Jul 18, 2022 12:14:09 GMT
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I've slept on this and I've made the tactical decision to drop the Vellmann unit out of the equation.
We are really up against time to get it drivable for August 11th and I cannot afford to spend time on this part.
I will just run it as a std 2 speed & park switch instead - simple and easy to wire, it will clean up (remove) a good chunk of wiring as well. I'm sure Phil won't mind as it was me being clever adding in the intermittant.
Next job - hazards!
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remmoc
Part of things
Posts: 931
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Jul 18, 2022 12:25:02 GMT
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Lucas hazard switches tie in well with every other lucas set up of that age , wires are all colour coded
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Jul 18, 2022 12:26:50 GMT
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I have the switch from CBS - just got to get it wired correctly to make it work. 'Should' be simple, but we know it won't be.........
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Jul 18, 2022 18:29:41 GMT
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We thought about hazards on the minor, in then end just got a really bright led orange flashing beacon on a magnetic base, keep it under the seat and reach out of window and stick it on roof if something goes wrong.
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Jul 18, 2022 23:01:06 GMT
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Well I sort of won tonight. We now have functioning wipers. We had a damaged switch that was allegedly the correct one for the motor so I tried a quick bodge to see if it would work - and it kept blowing fuses. Testing it showed that the switch functions were not correct for the wiper motor (it wired the park wire to power creating a short) so that was binned. But it did give me an idea - using the switch that we already had but did not switch correctly either - but it does have a seperated power feed on click one that is not shared on low speed, so I added a relay in using that power to feed the relay which then connected the park circuit to low speed. Phew! long winded & unnessessary but it now works as it should. Handbrake warning light was wired in and I had a play with the hazard switch. I don't know if its a duff switch but it has many pins on the back and absolutely none of them close a circuit with the switch in either position - shame because it looks a nice switch I have some other simpler switches on my watch list so once I've sussed the basic wiring I'll get a switch to suit. Plan B is to forget this for now as the led flasher does not work on this circuit (had a similar issue on my car) and I'll fit some 6Ohm 50w resistors in line as the std flasher unit is happy to work but flashes all wrong.  1041 hours. |
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Jul 19, 2022 22:40:05 GMT
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Better progress tonight, we had a nice heavy rainfall for a while which dropped the garage temps down from 35 to 28 degrees, funnily enough it was far warmer & stickier tonight than it was last night and that was 33 degrees in the garage. Anyway, back on to making stuff - far more productive  Phils Tacho had a bracket that fitted to the column, unfortunately the bracket is designed for large radius columns and Phils is a slim one. So I made an ally bracket and welded it together, this also raises the tacho up so its a better line of sight through the steering wheel. The original mount was trimmed back and both parts drilled to accept 2 5mm bolts. It's in its crude finish here, I've yet to trim the width down a bit and make it a prettier shape, not sure yet whether to polish it or paint it. It will be held on with a Mikalor clamp, it's loosely clamped here with my spare one but it's not quite big enough.  The next job was fitting the washer bottle, once the position was worked out then it was drilled & bolted to the inner wing and the bulkhead drilled for the water tube to pass through a grommet.  Then it was on to the engine bay part of the loom, starting to thread the wires into the sheathing here;  And a bit of a milestone done as the engine turned over a little tonight as well - it would have turned over more but my old spare battery barely has 11.5 volts in it. 1043 hours |
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Jul 20, 2022 22:40:15 GMT
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Phil came over tonight - now Covid free and excited to see the car coming to life. He brought over the front & rear screens, a battery, the other rear wing and the steering wheel.
With the steering wheel placed on the column the tacho is perfect for a viewing angle, so that's good.
We pulled the spark plugs and put Phil's battery in the car, tried to spin the engine over but only a big 'click' from the solonoid still? Battery had 12.5V in it so should have been ok. We put it on charge while we did other work and refitted it later on but still the same? We tried rocking the car in gear to see if the starter was stuck and it did turn over a little with my old battery yesterday so not sure on that. Phil is bringing his other battery over tomorrow so we can jump it with that as well, if no go then the starter will come off to see what the issue is.
Moving on Phil fitted the screen rubbers so we can cut them to size tomorrow and we will fit the front & rear screens this weekend.
We did a bit more work on the engine bay loom, getting some of the sheathing on and terminating the main feed to the fuseboard from the starter.
1045.5 hours.
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Jul 22, 2022 15:50:08 GMT
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Well it was a late one last night (11.30pm) so no update till today. Phil came over with a spare battery so we could investigate the starter more. Even with 2 batteries hooked up it refused to spin the starter, only engaging the solonoid. In the end I got Phil to remove the starter and strip the solonoid off it so I could clean the contacts. Unfortunately his solonoid has a staked over end on it so its not possible to do that. I tried depressing the plunger & spinning it around a few times to scrape the contacts and then we reassembled it and hooked it up to the batteries on the floor. First attempt it worked properly, but then steadfastly refused to spin the motor even though it was engaging really solidly. A bit of persevering and suddenly it worked again. We tried it about 30 times and it worked faultlessly so it would seem it just did not like sitting idle for over a year. Phil then put it back on the engine and it now spins it over perfectly every time. With that fixed I properly terminated the starter, oil pressure & water temp wiring and got it all enclosed in conduit. Then it was working out wire lengths and feeding it into conduit with suitable exit holes in where individual wires exit from at the relevant places. The front loom is almost done now, the coil & horn still need terminating, as does the alternator but the electric fan wiring is now finished and the lights can only be done once the front wings go back on.
Fan wiring;
Some of the loom in conduit;
1048.5 hours.
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Jul 22, 2022 21:34:33 GMT
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As I finished early today I cracked on with the engine wiring. The coil, rev counter and alternator are wired in and all earths are terminated - I forgot to being the rivnut tool home as I'll add some 6mm inserts in the chassis for the earths for the indicators & headlamps. All the earth leads are finished off ready for the bolts. I've only got to finish the rear lighting wiring to the lamps, the dome lamp, the stereo wiring, the USB wiring and the Hazards and it will be completed. The end of the loom for the alternator & lights here;  1051.5 hours. |
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Jul 23, 2022 19:53:30 GMT
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Quick update as currently out for dinner but it's Alive!
After some issues with the fuel pump, and putting another couple of gallons of fuel into the tank we used my vacuum brake bleeder to pull fuel up to the carb.
With that done it started quite easily, we checked a few connections to get all the guages working right (including tapping the fuel tank sender to wake it up) and then put water in it to bring it up to temperature.
All was good and we ran it up to operating temp. It's got a bit of a misfire but we have new plugs which should cure this.
We did more but I'll update later.
1056.5 hours
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Jul 24, 2022 20:58:28 GMT
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Wow, a marathon day today! I forget a lot of what else got done yesterday but it was all wiring related. One bit was I made new gaskets for the rear lights as the originals did not fit.  Gasket & wiring finished on the lamps;
 Then it was the fog & reversing lamp wiring, I still need a single weatherpack connector for the reversing lamp.  Today I started early, finishing off wiring of the rear lamps on the car loom and making the wiring for the boot lamps and switch. With that done I then fitted and wired up all of the LED underdash lighting, worked off the courtesy light switch. Phil came over a bit later on and fitted the last of the hose clamps on the radiator hoses and the new spark plugs. We tested the engine & it starts perfectly with no more misifre.
Then it was on to fitting the front and rear screens. Very exciting stuff - it almost looks like a car again! A bit of a messy job with the Arbomast sealant but very satisfying. The wooden strips are to hold the rubbers straight while the sealant sets at the joint.
 Phil then started fitting some temporary carpet - it's more a sort of felt for bass boxes but it looks smart and will do for now until we get round to doing the interior trim properly. It will at least look nice for the NSRA Supernats in a couple of weeks time where the car will be debuted. While Phil was doing that I polished the rear wings up to a full shine ready for fitting. They are temporarily fitted now partly so I can tidy the wiring so it's hidden and partly .....well ....because Lighs fitted and looking smart;  Very tired now, but feeling good. Any comments much appreciated.
1064.75 hours
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,950
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Jul 24, 2022 21:21:51 GMT
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Looking great Mark, nice to see one sticking with the traditional British style. That carpet is suprisingly durable, I've used it on a couple of cars over foam underlay and it doesn't seem to wear. I found it quite slippy underfoot, but those spiky backed floor mats grip to it really well.
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,320
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Jul 24, 2022 21:47:12 GMT
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Looking really good. The narrowed axle at the rear really makes a huge difference to the whole look of the car. Much more “right”. A bit like all the years it’s been running around up until now were just a sort of “dry build” or prototype/shakedown period and you’ve pulled it all apart finally to sort it out cosmetically. 👍👍
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Jul 25, 2022 18:23:24 GMT
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Really starting to take shape now and looking superb
Can I just say thank you for taking the time to keep us updated it's a very good read , can't wait to see it out of the garage
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Jul 25, 2022 19:06:37 GMT
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That rear view really ticks all the right boxes.
Are they Lincoln Zephyr taillights, with the bar across them?
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Last Edit: Jul 25, 2022 19:07:23 GMT by horrido
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Jul 25, 2022 19:47:32 GMT
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Great progress and looking great, one detail though, are you going to leave the tow bar receiver grey, I think it would clean the lines up if it were matt black.
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Jul 25, 2022 22:40:32 GMT
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Thanks for all the comments, they do help significantly in keeping the mojo batteries topped up. stealthstylz - good to hear about the carpet. Glen, very nice comments - thanks. Nige, you are welcome. horrido - no they are just modern led copies of 39 teardrops. kevins - I beat you to it - I was looking at the photo yesterday & thought "if the towbar were black it would dissappear" so yes it will be going black very soon  Tonight for me it was yet more wiring - when will it end!!! lol. Back of the car is finished except fot the bootlid lamp wiring which will have to wait for the bootlid to be fitted to know the length to cut the wires, and also the towbar wiring. Inside the car its just the stereo wiring, USB plug wiring, hazard switch wiring and the roof dome lamp to complete. Front of the car its the headlamp wires & indicator wires to finish off and 2 earth points to be added. Then it will be done - phew! While I was doing that Phil was continueing the carpets amd getting the seats put back in. Second to last job was refitting the steering wheel, starting to look a bit more finished now. Last job - for Phil at least, was to sit in the car and dream of driving it (I could see the brum, brum thought bubble over his head, lol  )   someone was asking about the orange indicators showing through the red - as you can see, it's not an issue.  1068 hours. |
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I think all the superlatives have been used many times in this build but it is superb,
Totally agree with "scunnynige" in thanking you for the interesting, (& for me personally often educational, ) write ups on the build,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Wow, a marathon day today! Very tired now, but feeling good. Any comments much appreciated.
1064.75 hours
That is such an OOOOFFFF-Worthy photo. Beautiful progress and coming together now. All the hours still baffle my mind. I wonder how many hours the Rezin Rockit has if you add up all the hours attributable to its build from identifying it and messaging the seller. If you add up hours spent sourcing parts, collecting etc, a d then the actual hands on hours spent on site at home. Hours do add up very fast. And the amazing job you are doing certainly sucks up the hours. |
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Jul 26, 2022 12:24:33 GMT
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Thanks Nigel & Grizz.
Nigel, it makes it worthwhile posting stuff when I get nice replies like yours. I hope people enjoy reading my threads and if you learn a bit as well then that's a bonus.
Grizz, even if you only put the labour hours in Rezin (inc Nicks & your housemates hours) you will probably be not too far behind me - I painted Phil's car which added a fair chunk of hours but otherwise we are not too dissimilar in our builds.
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)
