Clean the Screen

So another update on progress..... yes two updates within a month wowsers!!

After Christmas i also ordered the wiper package from AK this consists of the wiper arms and blades, wheel box's/spindles and the wiper motor complete with bundy tube. On the AK in order to achieve full clearance of the screen 3 wipers are needed. This is one of the first bits to look at to identify an AK kit. This was one of the bits that i was considering changing and only fitting two wipers simply because i prefer two to three. But after chatting to a few people i have decided to follow AK's advice and stick with three, this will give sufficient clearance of the screen required for IVA and not leave the centre part of the screen unwiped. So first things first when cutting into the body is measure twice and cut once. I simply laid the tapered chrome bezels on the top scuttle just in front of the rubber windscreen seal, to give me a rough layout of the position of the wheel box spindles. They come with rubber washers to protect the paintwork between the metal and the body so these are good for using as a cutting template.

Once i was happy with the spacing and i had checked the underside for clearance etc.. i checked all measurement's again. I even held a wiper arm and blade in position with each spindle position and checked roughly screen clearance and wipe area.

So with the areas to be cut marked out. cutting could be started, simply with a good size drill bit and position the drill so that it cuts through at roughly the same angel as the spindle will be (rather than just straight down through the scuttle) Once one was done its just a simple case of opening the hole slowly using a file so that the spindle of the wheel box fits through nicely, these are then just held in place with the top bezel and nut. now  repeat the process twice more and fit the wheel box's.



When the spindles are secured i was able to offer up a wiper arm and blade, and with no gear linkage in place its free to move so i could do a good check for the sweep. I didn't want the blades to catch the top of the screen or have any contact with each other during operation or parked position.

Same again with two wipers fitted, checking clearance and movement of the arms and same again with all three on. This is actually a very enjoyable job to do in my opinion, its very simple and with basic understanding of how this all operates its great to see the wipers move and do what they are supposed to do.

So now with all three wheel box's and wipers fitted its onto the motor itself. This is located on a pre mounted bracket on the AK chassis under the scuttle just to the right of the steering column. It is held in place with the supplied clamp and rubber mounting blocks to keep the motor nice and quiet when running. If you have any experience with classic mini's the wiper setup is exactly the same, but the motor is fitted in the engine bay rather than cockpit.

The wiper motor has a long geared cable (i forget its actual name) looks like a long flexible Archimedes screw that runs from out the motor. This is simply fed through the wheel boxes in turn and provides the movement for each wiper arm. I initially put all this together and did a quick test run. This was exciting pressed the stalk down and the wipers burst into life sweeping the screen very nicely indeed... happy days.



Now was just a quick case of fitting the bundy tube. This is just a alloy tube that has to be cut to size to fit between each wheel box so the geared cable runs through it. This is cut with a pipe cutter and when you have required length you will need to put a small flare on each end. This is so that each wheel box clamps over it when fully installed it actually firms up any movement you had in the spindle when just held with the top nut. A little bit of patience here as its cut then flare and test fit... if still to long, cut again another flare and test fit.


When you have all sections cut to size and they fit well its time to get down and dirty.... The bundy tube and all the gears will work best and more importantly quietest when they are well greased up. So i set about ramming each section of tube with as much bearing grease i could get in. Also smear the geared cable with as much as you can, nice messy job this so keep some cloths to hand.

Now were starting final assembly (well final for the time being, as a full removal will be required for paint shop) with all the box's linked and clamped, and the bundy tube all secure you can cut off the excess of the geared cable. I left a good 3"- 4" overhang to account for the movement when in operation and cut back. So with all this complete only one job left to do...... test they all work.

Working well as you can see in the video. Some bending of the arms is required to give a good even clean of the screen along with some grease in the arm springs, as you can hear in the video they are a little creaky.

I also sprayed the screen with a misting bottle to see how they preform, and i was pleasantly surprised. I was dreading they would be like one of my old mini's where a took a perfect working set of black plastic blades off and fitted chrome wipers.... only to find the looked nicer, but instead of wiping the screen they just smeared the water and made visibility worse, but they looked nicer than the black plastic ones..... so they stayed on!!!

I still need to drill a couple of holes for the washer jets bit this is just a quick 2 second job, so no hurry for that. 

Another update soon. I'm hoping to get a few loose ends finished off such as the fuel filler hose and filler cap, along with little jobs like the heater air flow to the matrix and the internal foot well vents. Keep checking back for that in the next month i hope.

Christmas gave me gas!!!!

Well did threaten an update soon, and now Christmas is in the past i have managed to find some garage time and get some bits done.

I placed an order with AK for the gas rams for the boot and bonnet, along with the windscreen wiper package (see next update)

Upon arrival i started with a quick dry run off all the parts that had arrived. After checking a couple of things with AK Jon advised me to do the bonnet first and boot second. This is because the gas rams that are sent are rock solid with gas and you have to bleed the gas out using a valve provided to give the correct resistance for the item being held. With the bonnet being heavier than the boot it makes sense to to this first in case too much gas is let out by mistake, it can then be used for the boot.

The bonnet setup is basically an right angle bracket (with a face of polished stainless steel, for strength and cosmetics) with the gas ram that then attaches to another U shaped bracket and then that to the rib's moulded into underside of the bonnet.

Its hard to show the bracket fitted on the inner wing, simply because its polished stainless steel and it just reflects the light, but this simply bolts through the inner wing with the mounting for the bottom of the gas ram protruding out under the rain channel. The bracket is fitted roughly 1" back of the chassis crossover. This is so that enough room is available for when the ram is in the closed position.

When the bracket is fitted its just a simple case of measuring back 11" along the water channel from the lower gas mount point and transfer that mark to the underside of the bonnet for the top mount plate.

These measurement's are important as they decide the amount of angle when the bonnet is open... in hindsight i would have adjusted slightly to give me a little more open angle, but its not going to worry me as its perfectly acceptable as it is now.

When fitting the top bracket AK say just to rivet in place. Now that's perfectly fine, but when it comes to getting it painted, i don't want to have to drill the heads off. And more importantly i don't want rivets loos in the bonnet rib, so that every time i lift the bonnet i can here them drop down the front. So i just simply marked the correct position and sunk in a couple of riv nuts, this then allows me to bolt the top bracket in place and undo when i want. No need to worry about masking off when the body goes to paint.... I'll just remove the gas rams totally.

Now once the top and bottom bracket are fitted the bonnet will hold itself up on its own!!! bye bye trusty piece of 2x2, i might have to frame that bit of timber its been so much use wheel chock, cut size for the windscreen rake, bonnet stay, boot stay and bits cut off to wedge the door latch plates.

Now it comes to bleeding the gas rams... slowly slowly catch the monkey. So simply remove both rams (they now just unscrew from the mount plates) and with the valve provided remove a little gas at a time. Jon advised that with one ram on the bonnet its should have just enough gas to let the bonnet fall, as so when they are both fitted they will hold the bonnet without any issues.

I will admit now that i did balls up on one, i was letting out the gas and as i unscrewed the valve it drained all / 90% of the gas from the ram, so this has been relocated to the boot as it has a lesser load to deal with.

And with most progress on this car its a classic case of "two steps forward, one step back"

the gas rams have pushed the bonnet back so mush (in the closed position) that my bonnet lock cams are catching again on the water channel. So some more adjustment there along with the bonnet shut gaps. All part of the fun i suppose.

Another concern i have is that when the bonnet is closed the rams are both directly above the manifolds so they will be exposed to a massive amount of heat. I have seen a couple of posts on the CobraClub forum regarding this and failed struts, but i will cross that bridge if and when i get to it.

Garage time wouldn't be the same anymore without a visit from my little mate to have a good look at whats going on. Hes still a little scared when the engine gets fired up, but I'm sure he will learn to love it...... his dad certainly did!!!

I also believe that he could be made into a bonnet mascot as he would meet the IVA test with the 3mm radius?? not to sure about the visibility. Cheers for the help little mate!!!

So moving onto the boot. a little more thought here than just simple drill and mount like the front. The gas lower brackets need to be bonded to the underside of the rear wing. AK advise to just bond in with filler, which I'm sure is OK, But a fair amount of force is being held on these brackets, and to add with the continual use of the boot i don't want brackets to come loose in the future. So i wanted to add the "belts and braces" technique. This is simply just drilling through the water drain channel and the bracket and holding in place with a rivet.

The rivet you can see here in the water channel, but it will be practically unnoticeable when its been painted and the rubber boot seal is back on. And it will add some much needed strength to the bracket and not allow any movement which may start to de-bond it from under the wing.








Now onto the top brackets for the rams. Exactly the same principle as the bonnet here, again I'm using riv nuts to allow removal of the brackets come paint time. You can see in the picture the initial holes i have filled when i was experimenting with my internal boot hinges. This i suppose was lucky it was a failure as the fixings would have clashed with the mounting plate. But I'm still a little disappointed i couldn't get them to work..... maby on the next one!!??

So that's the boot rams fitted, another job ticked off the list. Overall I'm very happy with the fitting of them all. As you can see in the picture with the boot open that it is drooping a little on the right. This is because its the ram which i let all the gas out of by mistake... error.

Its not that noticeable and i did make enquiry's with the manufacturers regarding re-gassing, They have a small cost of £5 to re-gas's...... and £16 courier as its compressed nitrogen. So that can be added to a snags list after completion of the car.

Im NOT Dead!!!!

Greetings and happy new year to all.

I apologise for such an epic amount of time since any update. I have received a few messages through the CobraClub forum from readers of this blog, hoping that i have the faith still to finish.
Times haven't been easy at "Camp Tommy" as the Christmas festive season has taken its annual drain on what little savings i had, and a special thanks to N-Power who gave me the best Christmas present on the Friday before Christmas..... a fecking huge gas bill!!!

As so not to depress you all with my tales of pity and misery, ill just keep you posted with updates that an order went to AK this week for bits and pieces so some further progress in the next few weeks...... keep the faith!!! I'm really going to push for a late 2013/spring 2014 completion on this now. The missus is wanting more kids??? fuck knows why? we have a 2 year old now who is bloody hard work. And with comments from friends and family that say "its easier with two" just get evil glares and abuse thrown at them. Car first... more kids later... end off!!! (don't hold me to this please, I'm only human)

So i wish you all a nappy new year, i hope the festive season was nice and relaxing now back to the daily grind. Further updates ASAP promise!!