MadaboutKitcars

many thanks!

Robin - your wing mirrors and review mirror... Where did you get them from, and what are the part numbers please. The wing's look so much nicer than the oblong ones Marlin supplied me.

The wing mirrors I purchased straight from Tek - the manufacturer. http://www.texautomotive.com/ (Also bought my wipers from them)

I had to cover the edges for the SVA.

The rear view mirror came from a stand at one of the kit car shows. Can't remember who - sorry. But it is just a standard clasic type mirror that someone had put some rubber edging on. Its fallen off now....

Peter has the same one - perhaps he can remeber?

Robin

Thanks Robin - I've managed to find them.

Tex don't have an online shop on the Tex website, but they do in the form of [url]www.motoringclassics.co.uk[/url]

The stupid thing is that they don't cary all of Tex's range. I could order the wing mirrors from them, but not a rear view mirror! hwell:

Europa are no better - they sell the bits to make the mirrors up seperatley (Arms, mirrors etc), but I'm loath to do that as I'm not sure if the mirrors on offer have the 'spring back' built in.

I've manage to order both wing mirrors and rear view mirror from [url]www.classic-car-accessories.co.uk[/url], and have saved on two lots of postage.

I used the good old fashioned dog and bone....


I should have mentioned - I used the convex (concave?) mirrors. Anyway the ones where you get a much wider view. You will need this to keep the SVA man happy...

Robin

Yep - ordered convex ones. When I rang them up, they just told me to use the other website. Mind you, the girl at the other end of the phone didn't sound particually switched on...

Well I have completed the wipers and washers which I think is the last "mechanical" job. Car will be coming off the road soon for the winter when I hope to complete the trim and paint it. Yes - I might be foolhardy - but I am going to attempt to paint it myself.



More pics of the windscreen wipers and washers here. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/martinclan/pictures12.htm


Robin

That all looks very familiar!

I think you're very brave at having a go at the spraying as it'll be nice to be able to say you did it all yourself. I've never liked car spraying so i'd worry that i'd never get it finished or take another 5 years!!
Are you going to do it bit by bit or spray all the pieces in one go?

The plan is to take mine apart this winter for painting and maybe the new engine, but that's another story!

I will probably do it in three goes.

1. Front wings, nose and scuttle top.
2. Doors A post panels and windscreen closure (all the ali bits).
3. Rear tub rear wings and spare wheel cover.

I am going to make a "spray booth" in the garage using poly sheet. The car will live outside for the duration under the car port.

If I make a mess of it I can always do it again.... Now I have the Fuji HVLP compressor and gun it is only the cost of materials (and time....)

I am going to try polishing the bonnets. If that doesn't work out I can always paint them another time.



Aha - so have you made progress on getting the engine running?

Robin

I'm dying to see how your paint comes out Robin... I'm sure with your attention to detail it'll be fine, but I still find it a little scary!

On another note, you don't happen to have a link to the templates for tube notching do you? I may just bite and have a bar welded in as you have. I just worry about the welding with the 1/3 of a tank of petrol in the back - I assume I'd need to drain the tank?

Sounds like a good plan.
Not much real progress on the new engine, a bit of armchair planning and a bit of ebaying to collect all the bits I need.

I can probably find the templates - I think I bookmarked it on my "work" PC. But you can probably find it anyway just by Googling "tube notching template".

The one I found allowed you to enter the diameter of both tubes and the intersection angle (90) and then generated the template as a 100% sized PDF. You just print it out and stick it on the tube. It was pretty easy to do but if you are going to do it, use seamless tubing - its much stronger and looks better (no seam - no surprise there...)

I drained the petrol from the tank first - but the welder wasn't at all concerned by the fact it had had fuel in it. In fact unleaded is actually quite difficult to ignite apparently - although I haven't experimented myself lol.

I had an extinguisher to hand and made sure all the tank apertures were well and truly sealed. The main body of the tank was still covered by the boot floor.

The biggest bugbear - is you will have to take the rear tub off again to allow access by the welder.

The welder I "employed" was an agricultural welder (we are a bit rural here...) and he used a stick welder but made a neat job of it. I just tidied it up with a scraping of filler and painted it with a matt paint. You can't see the join as they say...

IMHO this is the only way to do this properly - its a pity Marlin don't do it as standard.

Robin

I found one:

http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi

It's all online, which is quite neat.

Hi,
I fitted 4 point seatbelts with an inertia real that required a bracket to move the seatbelt mounting point forward from the rear chassis rail. I made the bracket and going for a belts and braces method put a 3/8 bolt through the rear chassis rail which went into a spreader plate on the underside.

My tame welder did a neat job despite being only and inch or so from the fuel tank. He used some heatproff shield to make sure none of the weld splattered onto the tank. Its fairly agricultural out here in Sommerset too.

That's the one I used.

Good Googling!

Robin

Any pictures Chris? I was going to do the same and even got as far as buying the seat belts, but I found that the reels fouled on the rear tub. I still have the seat belts and, if your mod is simple, would like to retro-fit them. Static 4 point seatbelts are a pain at times....

Robin

I'll try to post a photo some time this evening.
Somewhere somebody had a tutorial of how to embed photos in the post rather than as attachments. Anyone remeber where?

Found the example, just testing
[IMG]=http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=184&d=1253729535[/IMG]

Bum!

Welding isn't the neatest. The bar is 4cm by 4mm which is about as thick as the stuff they use on aftermarket brackets used to lower the position of a ordinary seatbelt top mount.

Any force will be essentially along the bracket so if it does bend in a shunt it may move up only a few mm.

The bolt securing the inertial reel goes into a plated nut that is welded to the underside of the bracket. At the rear the bracket is welded to the chassis and a long bolt goes right through the chassis rail to a plated and welded nut on the underside. IVA man didn't make any comment about the security of the fitting.



I've also made a cover to go over the belts so that stuff floating around in the boot does not jam it

Thanks Chris

Seems to be pretty much the same arrangment as the Sportster. I will think about doing something similar when the tub comes off for painting (The Sportster doesn't have the luxury of an opening boot!)

I'v changed the first photo, it wasn't supposed to be of a nut. I'm going to tidy up when the tub comes off for painting....
That should be in exactly two weeks.

I have restarted the trim. My first attempt at a door card. Not too bad (even if I do say so myself ;-) )



Few more pics here http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/martinclan/pictures13.htm

Robin

Very Smart!

Well the trim is progressing (very) slowly. I completed a prototype of a "centre Console" today that sits on top of the transmission tunnel. It provides a handy oddments tray and a simple way to fix the handbrake and gearstick trims. Also made in such a way that access to the handbrake adjustment is easy.

It sits just above the transmission tunnel on blocks so I can easily get the carpet underneath. As it covers almost the entire top it also means that all I need to do is cover the sides with carpet.



Why is it a prototype? Well once I fixed it in position I found that I couldn't engage reverse gear - oops.... Oh well it will be easier next time round.

Car interior is looking very black ATM. I think I may have to change the carpet to brighten things up a bit.

Robin