Side Repeaters

19th January 2013

With the fornt section of the loom in place, and wanting to complete a fist fit on all the connections, it was time to get the side repeaters fitted.

This had been left as they cant be fitted straight onto the body. The wall thickness of the wing is too deep so it needs grinding back.

This was achieved by fitting a grinding wheel to the Dremel, putting it through the hole that had been previous drilled and then gradually reducing the thickness of the wing.

Underseal

16th January 2013

Had been debating for a while what to under seal and what to leave as moulded. Andy said they dont bother doing the transmission tunnel but I had it in my head that it would look better in black particularly if the car is ever up on ramps so decided to finish this task off today.

I masked around the front of the bulkhead to ensure I didn't get the horrible black sticky stuff on the shiny white paint.

Electrics

15th January 2013

Having read lots of stuff about wiring looms on other blogs, it appeared that there are a number of options depending on personal preference, build spec and technical ability. These options range from custom looms, to modified GD looms to the off the shelf GD version.

My plan has always been to build, as near as damn it, a factory spec GD Mk4, albeit with my own unique detailing to give it some individuality. There was one modification that some builders have done to the loom however, that I really liked. That was to alter the cable run on the near side wing.

The standard set up is for all the body loom to come through the big hole in the inner wing then two sections go off to connect to the engine loom, the earth strap fixes to the chassis rail and the front section of the loom runs along the inner wing, inside the engine compartment, then under the arch to the front of the car then back around to the off side.

I had seen other blogs where builders have chosen to strip the whole front section back and run this though the access compartment (where the battery and heater matrix are housed) and fix this to the inner wing but from the wheel arch side thus keeping the engine bay neater.

So, with this decided, I set about removing all the outer loom shroud and pulled various wires back to the correct positions and then taped it all back up ready to install. I decided to do a dummy run first and fix it all in place prior to finishing off under sealing the arches and surrounding areas.

Loom now stays within the wheel arch and is fixed to inner wing with P clamps

Loom has been shortened and cables now need terminating

And now terminated (awaiting heat shrink covering once system is tested)

Shows look running back across bonnet hinge to off side

Off side wiring connecting to headlamp and running back to o/s side repeater

Washer Bottle

14 January 2012

In Steve's blog, I noticed that he had had made a really fancy looking stainless washer bottle resovoir. I thought this looked really neat when positioned next to the header tank so I decided to have one.

The photos below show a steel rule in place taking down the various measurements. Sadly what I didnt cater for was how the body (inner wing) would sit in relation to the chassis so this caused some issues when we did finally come to fit the body... More on that later.

Radiator and Fans

3 January 2013

Decided to go for the stainless radiator upgrade with twin fans. Next decision to make was where to fit the fans, either to the front or back of the radiator.

Having looked at other builds and done some research, it appears they are more effective at the back but I cant help but think they look better fitted to the front - so I'm gambling that as I have gone for an upgrade that isn't technically necessary, then fitting the fans at the front will be fine.

GD now supply some strips of stainless steel to mount the fans to the radiator - this must be a new things as previous builders have spoken about having to source these strips. They just needed marking and drilling as did the radiator itself, taking care not to drill through into the core.

The fans have some pieces that are attached to top/bottom, left/right that have to be removed on the one side to allow them to fit side by side.

These were cut off using the dremmel but the fumes they created weren't pleasant at all so I would definitely advise using a hack saw or a mask.

Fans mounted to front of radiator. Inner flanges removed to all them to fit side by side. Cables tied together for wiring into main body loom

Once the fans had been fixed to the radiator, the whole assembly had to be fitted to the rolling chassis. This entailed cutting down some M6 set screws as I didnt have any really short ones (the bolts holding the radiator in place will go through the frame and right into the radiator core if this is checked carefully).

The top mounting are held in place by some rubber grommets in the frame - the radiator needs some flexibility hence it isn't fixed with bolts

All fitted to chassis