MadaboutKitcars

Its nice to see some pics, quite a lot of luggage space? Do you keep reversing in and out of the garage? I don't suppose bonding paste comes in a mastic type tube?

No put pu adhesive does and for something like that it would be ideal, try Googling body kit adhesive.
Hth

I did a few calculations and I've got a little over 84 litres of useable space in the luggage bay - just over half what a BMW Mini boot has. Plus there's space for a couple of squashy bags behind the seats so touring is a real possibility.

Yes, I've been driving my Spyder in and out of the garage to work on it in the daylight. I even took it up the drive and got into second gear, just to see what it felt like. So far so good and, surprisingly, I've had no issues with the handling, despite cutting the front springs down with an angle grinder.

The bonding paste comes in a 'paint' tin and needs MEK catalyst adding or it won't set (as I found out when I first tried to use it). It would probably be a little easier to do this bit with something you can squeeze out of a gun but I just used what I had to hand and it's worked fine. I'll skim over the fillets with filler tomorrow so they can be painted in body colour.

No progress for the last three weeks due to family holiday and other commitments I'm afraid.

Had a couple of hours to myself today though, so I decided to tidy up something that's been bugging me for a while - the radiator hose routing. I had run the hoses right back but always felt they looked a bit untidy, so I've shortened them and am in the process of fabricating a couple of simple brackets to hold them in place -



I expect there to be clearance issues under the bonnet so a scoop/bulge will almost certainly be required, but I think it looks much neater now.

Installation looks very neat.

(It does make a difference when trouble is taken of lining up the hose clamps etc)

(But when do you add the over spray - after the bonnet is fitted?)

I'm planning to do most of the spraying myself, but I'll have the overspray added by a pro later to make sure it looks 'just so'. After all, I wouldn't want it passing a tuv test, now would I...

I know there may have, sort of, maybe, been talk elsewhere about over spray possibly hinting at a bodge job <cough> on mine I had a fair bit in the engine bay despite all the masking and all the care i took and with the magic of elbow-grease and some chassis black it now looks fine and taught me even more valuable lessons about car building which is why I am doing this in the first place

Yes, I'm afraid one or two people seem to have lost sight of the idea underpinning Gary's creations - cheap (ish) fun cars for the discerning eccentric.

For those expecting precision engineering, perfect paint finishes and active safety features, alternative products are available with various stars, propellors and shields on their bonnets for a mere £30k - £100k+

You pays your money you takes your choice...

I like my overspray. It adds a bit of "je ne sais pas"

Anyway, in my mind, anything that add an additional layer of protection during my winter driving is good for me *cough* *ahem* *cough*

So, I'd alluded to the fact that I've been having loom problems on someone else's thread and I've finally sorted it out today.

The problem started when I was moving the wiring about in preparation for bonding the front bulkhead to the underside of the body. The bare metal capillary tube leading from the adjustable thermostat switch to the sensor in the top hose touched something live. There was a flash and a puff of smoke and a terminal looking hole appeared in the tube

Concerned that I might have also blown a fuse somewhere, I turned on the ignition and started checking that everything still worked. I then found that the entire circuit that supplies power to the indicators, dash lights, brake lights, heater motor, reversing light and windscreen wiper motor (which I was using to power the electric fan) had no power supply at all. I checked the fuse and found that to be fine, and then checked the input side of the fuse - nothing. The car still started and all the other circuits were fine, but there was just no power to one side of the fuse box.

Absolutely gutted, it was obvious that one of my repairs to the loom (that I'd made after cutting through it with my angle grinder) had failed. There was nothing for it but pull the loom out again and start testing the circuits until the duff one revealed itself.



After a day of checking all the electric spaghetti with my multi meter I couldn't find a single fault in any circuit, so I reassembled it all, minus a few redundant cables to make it all a bit neater. Battery reinstalled, ignition on and...

Still no power to any of the circuits on that side of the fuse box I plipped the immobiliser and started the engine again just to make sure it would still start, then shut it down to stop it overheating and had another look through the wiring diagram to see if I'd missed anything.

It was then that I saw that the coil was also powered off the dead circuit. And as I was thinking 'how the bloody hell am I still able to start the engine if there's no power to the coil?' my immobiliser went 'plip plip' to let me know it had armed itself after its thirty second delay. My immobiliser! Of course! I'd accidentally wired the bloody thing in so it isolates the entire circuit that the coil is on when it's armed. I plipped it again and switched on the ignition and, hey presto, I have power to everything again, hooray!

Anyway, at least I was able to tidy up the wiring, which had got a bit out of hand, and I've also replaced the adjustable thermostatic fan switch with a fixed one, which is much simpler and neater -



I've gone for an 'on at 88 off at 79' switch and mounted it in the bottom hose. This now cuts the fan in at the right moment, just as the needle climbs out from between the two dots on the temperature gauge, has it back between the dots in thirty seconds and then cuts out. Perfect. I'd say that you'd need a hotter switch if you plan to put it in the top hose though, as the water coming out of the block will be hotter than the water coming out of the radiator.

Anyway, I've got a few days off now so I'm aiming to make some real progress.

That's more like it T, let me see some work on the car instead of your political rantings...

Sounding good matey, fingers crossed you'll get some more, 'quality time' in to make up for the blip.

Charming. And I just thought I was sticking up for Gary...

Mr T - You have my sympathy on the wiring loom.
It is very easy to miss something that has a knock on impact on something else.
Glad to hear you have sorted it and that is one less thing to worry about.

Looking forward to seeing what you can achieve in the next few days.

Good luck, Paul.

'Heater motor, reversing light, immobiliser...'

This must be the de luxe model!

Ha ha. Yes, the heater is definitely a luxury, and one that the car clearly thinks is unnecessary as I still haven't got it to work. The immobiliser is there because I'm still toying with the idea of a switch panel with push button start instead of a key, so I don't want anyone to be able to just drive off into the sunset (rain?) I'm not bothering with a reversing light and I've cut that circuit out already, while the wiper motor live supply is now feeding the electric fan.

Oh, and you forgot my ultimate Spyder fripperies - luggage space and... a wireless!

T, where did you get the Bacall valve for your shot blaster?

The shot blaster came with all its valves, hose, ceramic nozzles etc. It was about £99 from ebay.

I've made a start on the bulkhead today, shaping some filler panels I've made from the curved dash panel that I won't be using due to having a 550 dash installed -



It's starting to look a lot neater already

I have the same looking blaster, but it looked like your one had a lever ball valve?hwell:

It did indeed, but that's how it came. I wouldn't worry too much - within thirty seconds of using it for the first time all the valves wore out and started leaking anyway. Didn't stop the thing from working though.

Just ordered one, mine works ok apart from that. Looking forward to seeing what you're upto next.

I'll be finishing the tidying up of the bulkhead tomorrow, and there are a few loose ends I need to address. Then I need to speak to the chap at Peterborough DVLA to arrange my rebody inspection....

...I'd be interested to know how you get on the DVLA at Peterborough as its probably where I would go with mine (I'm in Northampton). Fingers crossed they are happy to see unfinished cars.

I left a message on his mobile first thing this morning but haven't received a reply yet

I know he knows the ropes though as Phil9 has put both his through Peterborough with no problems.