A few what sound like small jobs but were quite time consuming that I have managed to complete this month
- Finalised clipping in all the wiring
- Final fit on main switches and instruments
Steering Column
Having polished up the indicator stalk (see earlier blog) I decided to do the same to the component that sits behind the wheel
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| Original |
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| Original |
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| Paint removed using 180 grade |
After around 4 hours and lots of grades of wet and dry, all the way down to 7000 grit, here is the
finished result
The steering column has now been finally fitted and all the cables neatly fixed in place.
Steering wheel for IVA
In order to get the car through the IVA test I need to fit an original VW beetle steering wheel. Most of these are now cracked and not good, as was the one I bought off ebay. So I set about repairing it with epoxy steel and my trusty dremel, then gave it a coat of paint.
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| Cracked steering wheel |
Dashboard
The dials and all related cables have been finally fixed into place and the speedo cable fitted to both the speedometer and the nearside wheel.
Door furniture and window winding mechanisms
The door pull, opening handle and window winder mechanisms have been fitted. I used riv nut fasteners on the door pull to ensure a secure fixing. The wood panel shown on the picture below may or may not be used when the final door cards are made, designs for which are still very vague. I'm not planning to use any of the interior kit available from Chesil, its not that there's anything wrong with it, I just want a more custom/unique look to the car.
Seats
Another IVA requirement is the design & function of the seats. Mazda MX5 seats are the seats of choice and are used in the majority of Chesils. I have had a set of custom buckets seats made, but I can't fit these for the IVA. So I have had to find and then will need to fit seats from the MX5, then post IVA remove and refit my bucket seats, which of course don't have the same mount points! So lots more work.
I found some MX5 seats and during the month I have marked up the fixing points which will be drilled in order to do a test fit next month.
Exhaust
I'm using an exhaust set up made by Vintage Speed. Once the correct set finally arrived (long story) I had the header tubes sent out for ceramic coating (https://www.zircotec.com/)
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| Uncoated J tubes |
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| Ceramic Coated |
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| Rear muffler |
Slosh in the petrol tank
I decided as the tank is clean and new to give it some extra protection using Rustbuster Slosh tank sealer which is tested to be Ethanol proof and will resist petrol with over well over the current and proposed new fuel standards E10 - E15. Straight forward enough, bung up all the holes, pour in and slosh around then after a little while empty out any residual. https://www.rust.co.uk/product/slosh-petrol-tank-sealer-7
Next Jobs
- Fit exhausts
- Prepare seat mounts
- Final sound proofing to cabin
- Set up steering geometry
- Fit petrol tank and all pipes
- Make panels for under front bonnet
