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(Continued from page 12)
Its been a week now and still the chassis isn't blasted worked on a roller blade half pipe and jump ramp that the kids in town wanted for the Xmas break. Ben, my son, drew up the plans and I helped with the construction.
I got a call from the sandblasters that the chassis was done and to pick it up for painting before it rains. So the next point of call was the panel shop for painting. And there it sat, a light holding wash of 2 pot on the steal work waiting for its final coat.
Back to the half pipe. The local pistol club donated 6 sheets of 12mm ply and the rest of the material we scrounged up from a number of sources. It took a week and two weekends to weld together and loxin in place. Another week has gone and stills no paint and its now getting frustrating. I went down to the panel shop to get some ETA and they were shut. Next day shut again. I rang the owner at home and no answer so left a message on his machine. 2 days later I received a call saying he was call out of town for some important work and that he would be back tomorrow. I went and saw him and it became clear the with Xmas coming the only way I was going to get my chassis painted was if I did it myself. So I picked up the chassis and all my bits and did the job myself. The finish didn't turn out as good as I wanted but it at least has a good coat on it and I can get back into it. The paint job took a full weekend and 3 week days after work.
At this stage I took a whole heap of photos as a record of the current stage and started putting my car back together for what I hope will be the last time. The rear sub assembly went first them the motor and gearbox, the intercooler, intake filter box, radiator, steering rack, steering column, break and clutch master cylinders, steering fluid tank, radiator over flow tank, windscreen washer tank, front wishbones and assembled the front brakes and hubs. It was now looking like the car I has pictured in my head and I love it. Next came the fuel tank cradle and temporarily installed the drivers seat.
At this time I took a breather and looked at what I needed to get together over the next few days for the Xmas weekend coming up. So I visited the local hardware got the few bits I needed, looked at my job list and stopped for the Xmas break.
I got started again just a few hours hear and there finishing off the little bits that needed doing and then attached the hydraulics. Re-plumbed the rear brakes and ran the feed line via the center tunnel to the master cylinder. The front brakes were much harder because there were many more twists and turns but came together in the end. I then connected all the flexible lines to the hubs and that was the breaks. The clutch was pretty straightforward and didn't pose any problems. I picked up 500ml of fluid, got a mate to help with the bleeding and at 5:15pm Monday the 28th had my hydraulics all done. I sat in the drivers seat for the first time for a while and got my first feel of the car sitting on its own shocks and with a full set of clutch and brake peddle pressure. I sat there for about 30 minutes looking forward thinking of the first drive and the jobs between that moment and the stage I'm at now. I figure about 4 months.
The next task is the fuel tank but before I can do that I need to sort out the center console and hand brake cables and levers. The lever bolts on to the center console and its draw cable connects to the small bridge that pulls the two individual hand brake cables. These cables loop and secure under where I have decided to install the original Nissan tank. The center console was from the original Nissan and incredibly enough is almost a perfect. It took the best part of half a day to trim panel beat and fit (temporarily) so that I could get an accurate length on the new cable anchor I had to make. This was a complicated bracket that bolted on to the diff sub assembly and incorporated a cable outer locator, cable end anchor and the bolting location dictated the cable length. That intern needed to have the hand brake lever and its cable in place so the whole thing fell within the length of the cable adjustment bolt. Its now done and works great.
The tail shaft was next and as luck would have it I had to remove the hand brake anchor bracket to fit it. It looks as though there is only one way to service the shaft universals and that will be by removing the fuel tank and hand brake cable anchor and sliding the shaft out through the rear over the top of the diff sub assembly.
I've been thinking a lot about the wiring over the last few days and so while doing all the other jobs temporarily ran and drooped the cable loom in place just to see how it looked. There is clearly a lot of extra cabling but have decided to leave it rather than strip it out and re do the loom. That way I can reproduce a slightly modified copy of the original wiring drawing. As I've had the cabling sitting there I have been fiddling with it a bit to the point that I now can see how its all going to fit and what parts are going to be a pain. At least the surprises are now down to a minimum. My first job in 2000 will be the electric's.................I wonder if the CPU is Y2K compliant........I know the hot water jug at work is, some one put a sticker on it to let us all know.
January '2000
Well the jug survived the Y2K roll over along with our other more complex system, as we expected and with that I started the wiring. The first thing to do was to droop the wiring over the chassis in approximately the same layout as per the original car and see how close my positioning of all the bits was. Unfortunately there were a few pieces that simply couldn't fit in their original location so will need to unpack the loom and in some instances re-run new wiring. I fitted the entire engine management loom and the computer in much the same location and have decided to use the space created under the scuttle to eventually cover the inevitable "Spaghetti". Next I ran the starting/charging/dash and control loom. This has all the big items like relays, fuses, earth points and battery connectors. Next came the accessory stuff, lights, indicators, fuel and brake levels etc. This last bit was quit fiddley because there was a lot of unpicking and re-taping. With the loom now structured the way I want it I now need to secure it in place and protect it from harm. Originally I was going to run it inside the drivers side, side intrusion panel but it was more practical to run it up the center tunnel which is what I also did with the fuel and rear brake lines.
I then installed the fuel tank and connected up all the lines I ran before New Year. I have one flexible line to connect but I need to wait until the serv'o open on Wednesday to buy it. So for the time being its back to the wiring. I tidied up the wiring under the scuttle and had to make some changes to allow room for the dash board housing and the instrument. Got word that the services manual is on its way and that will speed things up quite a bit. In the mean time I will keep plugging away using the wiring as my main focus but keep other things moving along as well.
Took the car for its first trip by putting it on a trailer, towing it to the local fabrication work shop and tacked together and fitted the role cage. I am very happy with the results. Also noticed a chewed up backing plate from a brake shoe on the trailer. I will (Continued on page 14)
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