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In order to close up the firewall/cowl area the cable that drives the wipers had to transition from the engine compartment to the inside of the car by transiting the cowl. The cable travels through this piece of 3 dimensional artwork: It was tempting to build the firewall around the tube under the heading of "It aint ever going to come out" but I know better. A slit of the proper dimensions had to be created where the tube transitions from the cowl to the interior. And the tube has to be insertable from this slit. It is a PITA to do, but I know it can be done because I did it three or four times, problem is you cant see the hole you are aiming for. The red line gives you an idea of what needs to happen. There is ONE twist/position/push that will work. But it will. By the way, see the piece of green tin that I used to close the firewall. It just so happens to come from a spare Miata firewall that I had kicking around and it is in the spot is is meant to be. Next task is to scrub this are with a wire wheel and get some seam sealer and paint on the whole area. Then I can cross a task off the list and will be down to the last ten items on the fabrication list On another front. The though process for how to trim out the rear space is ongoing. The aux fuel tank has been removed and a flat template is in place. That seems easy enough with only the material being open for debate. The question is how to blend in the Miata seatbelt towers and the Volvo wheel-tubs. Option 1 ( would be carpeted) Option 2 ( where the tub would be covered a-la original P1800ES) Edit...Just had a bad thought: I did not try to introduce the wiper tube with the windshield in place. What are the odds that is going to bite me if I ever need to mess with the thing?
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Last Edit: Feb 9, 2018 16:03:47 GMT by bjornagn
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My answer is that the 8 gives a more gradual transition along the arc of the wing and hence softens the otherwise rectangular shape. So 8 for me. Plus it ensures the most functionality if we define the function to be balancing air pressure in the wheel-well.
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nalesutol: I think you spotted it better than I did when it comes to what does not agree with my eye's desire. I tend to like uninterrupted fair curves when it comes to automotive style. I realize the ship has sailed, but something like this would not interrupt the Loti natural sweep as they don't come above the wing surface.
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In the interest of discourse...love the function and execution of the fender gills, but not so much the form.
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So, what do you do to celebrate after you figure out that the dash, HVAC and wiper stuff is going to play nice? Why take it all apart for the bazzilionth time! In order to make room for the wiper box development, the firewall was not yet sealed to the scuttle area. So, out comes the lot and a few more hours to fit and weld in a closing panel. Not my prettiest welding due to difficulty in cleaning to bare metal, but is will do.
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So was that a conversion kit? Yeah, Specialty Wipers www.specialtypowerwindows.com/products/2Here is a video of the system being installed. There are two very similar if not identical products sold on E-bay. One is $99 and the other is $275. I bought the more expensive one hoping that it would avoid the chineseum dilemmas. The biggest issue I had is that the drive wheel taper did not fit the motor drive spindle and I had to create my own taper to match and make the drive wheel go on the motor shaft.
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Can you show how you fixed the motor to the cables please? Let me know if I am getting close to what you need?! In case it is not clear in the picture, the fixed tube that the cable slides in is held in place by a grove that accepts the single flared end of the steel tube. Same deal at the wiper boxes where you can see two slots on the bottom edge. The install makes for a very compact wiper system that is ideal for Hot-Rods. The truth of the matter is that I could make one of these quite easily if I had the cable. I was going to use the MGB system that I had kicking around, but it did not offer any easy way to adjust the sweep angle, and the spindles were too short. A part of me wants to drive this with the Miata wiper motor, but going down that rabbit hole on principle does not seem like a good use of the limited time that I have to get this car on the road.
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And we finally have wipers! I think I am more excited about this than I was when the engine ran for the first time or even when it moved under it's own power. I knew those were going to happen, but these curse word wipers have about 30 hours into them and I was not certain until the last minute that they were going to do the job. Managed to fab-up an elegant mounting for the system that makes use of the factory Miata wiper motor bracket. A singlo bolt on the other end to support and it is nice and solid ( rubber) mounted. The principle of operation should be familiar to a lot of people here since it is that same system used by Lucas to drive every MG wiper system for 40 years or so. The cable driving a spindel via a cog is quite efficient packaging. I got lucky in that the wiper spindles from the kit were a perfect fit into the gutted Volvo spindles and that took care of all the finishing and sealing of wiper stalk to cowl concerns. I can now finish closing up the firewall on the RH side and then the dash can go in to stay. Maybe. And just as a side note...funny how a piece of glass transforms the car from a shell to something that might actualy be driven sometime. Even more so the view ( and sound ) when sitting inside.
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Last Edit: Feb 5, 2018 13:36:40 GMT by bjornagn
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Ah...the ironies of life! The suspension issue has been resolved. Sits right about where I want it to and did not cost me a dime. The solutions? Well the nice new coil-over go in the skip, and out come the old Bilsteins that I had on the shelf all along ( they were on the car when I got it) Note how two of the shocks have a black spring? The black springs are from a place called Monster Miata. Monster Miata sells these springs as part of their V8 Conversion kit for the Miata. Just so happened I had a set of these sitting on the shelf. So, the new springs go on the front shocks, and the factory springs from the front go to the rear of the car. It would be nice to have the adjustability of a coil-over to fine tune the stance, but this gets the job done for now. The rocker panel pinch welds are at 6.5" from the ground: Right where I wanted them to be when I was building the car on the jig. Now...back to the pesky wipers.
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Last Edit: Feb 1, 2018 20:40:57 GMT by bjornagn
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Jan 31, 2018 16:51:08 GMT
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Jan 30, 2018 18:23:29 GMT
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Good to see the journey continue in any fashion. I must stop giving bodywork advice....seems like I scare most people off the project!
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Nothing personal...but your builds don’t flatter the Hemi as far as durability is concerned. Is there an Achilles heel to this engine?
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Jan 29, 2018 19:07:51 GMT
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Spacers needed, or longer suspension? Not sure at this point? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I need to get back with the supplier and see if there are stiffer springs on offer or measure what I have and go find my own solution. Mostly disappointed because I did not see this coming, I spent a lot of time making the selection and it cost a bunch of $$$. I'll get over it.
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Jan 29, 2018 16:06:56 GMT
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Hmmm.... This may look cool, but not really going to work on the road! That is with the perches screwed up as far as they go. Lower a-arm not even close to being level to the ground ( limit of what I want for good handling)
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Jan 26, 2018 17:00:38 GMT
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Progress on four fronts The new coil over suspension is installed. Along with the coil-overs, I decided to swap out the original 200k km rubber suspension bushings for the Energy suspension urethanes. I did this because I did not have a way to verify the condition of the factory rubber bushings. And yes, the bushings are a royal PITA to swap out and I think that every surface in my shop is now coated in icky silicone lube that I hope will prevent squeeks. ( 15 years with the MGB and no issue, so fingers crossed) On the wiper front, I am going with a cable driven system that is very similar to the Lucas systems. I was able to integrate the aftermarket spindle into the Volvo mounting so it should give me a easy path to finishing off where the wipers come out the cowl. On the right is the factory spindle and on the left is the new wheelbox grafted into the factory tube. Fingers crossed this will work.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:21:09 GMT
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Unfortunately, interior design is not something that I have a lot of experience or aptitude for. Will do the best I can.
As to the shifter? Keep in mind that the automatic transmission is the whole reason this project got off the ground in the first place. That said, since it is designed from the start as a GT rather than sports-car, it might actually fit the bill better than a manual. Horses for courses and all that...
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Jan 22, 2018 11:01:13 GMT
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Drove over the border and picked up a big haul of parts on Saturday. Kind of overwhelmed with were to start so I picked the suspension as a defined task. Not five minutes into that, I find that the sway bar wants to occupy the same space as the lower radiator hose. I put this down to poor planning on the part of Volvo. So, six hours later, a solution is figured out, I have dug through the scrap-metal pile, cut weld grind, drill, curse word something up and redone and voila, the sway bar now clears the rad hose. As a bonus, the lower mount makes the rad shroud that I am going to fabricate a bit easier by moving the sway bar down. Initial test confirming that it will work. Simultaneous to that, I am installing the new coil-over suspension... And since we cant let an opportunity for scope creep go by, I also decide to reverse a previous decision to leave the stock 200,000 km rubber suspension bushings in place. I had the energy suspension bushings just sitting on the shelf, so why not use them ( I actually have a few reasons for not using poly suspension bushings ). Anyways, a job that should have taken a few hours is now going to take me a week or two by the time I press the old bushings out find a source for the silicone lube, install zerk fittings and get it all together!
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Jan 17, 2018 15:27:53 GMT
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My shop actually gets too warm.
I have a 24' infrared tube heater and it warms the place up from near freezing to toasty warm in about 15 minutes. The nice thing is that the first thing it heats up is the work-zone right under the tube. Something thing to keep in mind when planning a new shop or to heat an existing one.
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Jan 16, 2018 22:17:11 GMT
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I'm the only normal one around here. Just ask me!
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Jan 11, 2018 15:15:52 GMT
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Building the home shop won’t be free either. Building the home shop will tie up a lot of capital that could be used to kickstart the business.) with And the home shop also won’t get your money back when you sell.
So, IF the goal is to figure out a transition to doing the car thing full time, renting the shop might be the more cost effective path to answering the question. Do the business plan and if you can’t do a business plan then don’t do a business since your odds of success at that point are no better than putting the bundle on red or black and spinning the wheel.
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