Tims Kit Car Build (Vincent the Vindicator) & Purchase of a new house

Ok, so I have been a bit busy with working aboard and the new house so here goes. Between November and the New Year end, we were dealing with emails to and from the solicitor in Scotland on the new house. We got the mortgage sorted out and then it was time to conclude things.

 

Meanwhile at the start of January, I had to go to Algeria. That was only meant for a 3 week trip. The customer decided to go into very minute detail while testing ,so after 5 weeks, we called it a day and came back home. Just got my feet across the door and we had sent a large cheque for the new house and got clearance that the house was ours. With short notice we took a few days off and drove up there.

Now the deal was that contents of the house should remain.....well all the pictures that were hanging up, sort of disappeared and having spent a few nights there we found some things that did not ring true. We were left with one knife and one spoon, a couple of chipped tea cups, no plates. The double bed collapsed after me and carol were in it for 30 mins. And before you say anything we were knackered from the drive up (11 hrs) so we could not do anything if we tried. I had to drag the mattresses (yes two of them) from the bed onto the floor and that was were we slept for the first night.

 

So we had a few days to make as many repairs as we could and made a list of the things we needed. Chris (my brother) came up and helped check out all the electrics and that they were working. We were left instructions about the air in the hot water pipes when trying to re fill them and how to get rid of it, that would change a few months later. So we returned back to the Midlands and some rest while working.

I managed to get another long weekend off work and at short noticed asked Chris if he wanted to come, which of course he said “yes”. I managed to fix the air in the hot water taps by adding a new stop tap to a set of pipes that I found in the bathroom. These are the drain taps for the cold and hot water system and lead outside. So I added a tap so that the cold tap when switched on would fill the hot system from bottom to top, only takes 30 sec’s and no water all over the place like following the first lot of instructions lead to.

Those 3 days by ones self and Charlie (the dog) soon set the mind wondering and I had a fairly good rest. But good things always have to end and so had another 11hrs drive back to the Midlands. I did find out that the Isle has a new man in blue who wants’ to set a good example and is getting everyone’s back up with speeding fines....While we were sitting with Bill in the pub late one night, we had a knock on the door and the boys in blue turned up. Just to inform Bill that they had finished their rounds and the bad boy was not on duty that night and they were going to the other side of the Isle. Fantastic boys in blue......well some......

Vincent had not been quite either as Craig had repaired the damaged bonnet and put some get coat on a few places and it was looking nice again. JB asked if he could borrow Vincent for a spread in a car magazine, so the answer was "Yes", but I could not have the time off work to spend all day with a reporter. Been waiting ages for the mag to come out but spotted it straight away during April. On the front cover was Vincent with a number of pages with pictures of Vincent in different poses and promoting the manufacture.

All thru April and first week of May we were planning to go back to Algeria with all the bugs fixed. Every time we arranged a date to fly out there, something happened and the flight was cancelled for a few days, so I could not organise anything what so ever. Not only that but it was the Kit Car show at Stoneleigh and JB asked if Vincent could be on the stand. "Yes, he could but don't make plans for me as I may not be there but in Algeria ( I think)"....

Well, I think the gods had been good to me as we (carol and I) made another long weekend trip up to Skye. This time we had some things to take up with us as we had been to a car boot fair and bought a few pictures and things. I had managed to fix the double bed so this was ok for now but I would have to put some more work into it to make it a permanent fix. We also bought a cheap Chinese lawnmower as the front lawn wanted cutting. I repaired the front gates and sprayed them back to Red and then did the shed at the same time. Again time beat us and we set off for home.  

 

I took the plunge and made it to the South Birmingham kit car (once a month) get together and enjoyed the chatting that was going on. A few weeks later there was an organised day out up in the peak district and a 130 mile drive up and down dale.....Vincent made it there and back without going wrong. The only thing that happened was there was an accident close to the first meeting point and it ended up that I thought I was behind the group of cars and tried to catch them up and in fact everyone turned up later than me and was always behind me. I'll enjoy the next one next time with some company.

After a lot of postponements of flights, I made the kit car show and Vincent on the stand looked fantastic. Unfortunately, Carol could not come as she took another long weekend with her sister up to Skye. They spent some time filling up the small holes where pictures once hung. They enjoyed themselves and the weather was quite good. I was a bit worried about my car that they took turns in it to drive up there and come back in.  

 

On the last day of the show just as we were packing up, two other cars that were on the stand with Vincent ..disappeared.... when I asked were they went, I was informed that there had been a rolling road which you could have a performance test carried out and they had arrange for their cars to get checked over once the show had finished and could get the cars off the stand. It took me 3 mins to get my car off the stand and towards the place where the mobile rolling road was. Vincent was checked and it was down in performance.

 

A couple of days later I just had time to fit new plug leads that I bought from the show as I had not replaced them since building Vincent. That was when I found that the distributor cap was only screwed down on one side. Well having changed the plug leads and checking the sparking plugs gaps and making sure that cap was screwed down, I went for a test drive. WOW...what a change that made and I know what the rolling road techie meant by "it looks from the chart that it need's a bloody good service 

 

Just had enough time to pack Vincent in the garage and say good by to Carol (for a short period!!!) and off to Algeria for around 6 weeks

Let me bring you whizzing up to date with what has happened in the past 4 months.

 

Took some leave from work and went up to the Isle of Skye for a week or two. We really enjoyed ourselves up there. Had a few things to do like take my youngest son back home for an 'end of school' night out. That was a coach trip to Inverness (3 hrs), taxi to airport (20 mins) and then flight to East Midlands airport (1hr) and then a train to Cradley Heath (3hrs) and took nearly all day. I was only at home for 36 hours and then had to do it all again as the old folks wanted to go up to Skye, so Dad drove to East Midlands and parked his car and then we flew back up to Inverness.

 

A friend then picked us up at Inverness airport and drove the 3 hours across Scotland to the Isle of Skye. At last I could then relax and start my holiday, so I thought. Got interested is a house and got the local estate agents to open up the house for a look around and then did some figures. Found out I could retire in about 4 year's time.

 

Before we left, we decided on a house but was asked to wait for a bit as the price would come down.....so we waited and after 4 weeks decided to go back up to Skye once more by ourselves. We had by this time looked at properties that were advertised on the net and had a short list of properties that we were going to view. One stood out and we had a look around. Eventually, we made an offer for the property but that came back after 24 hrs and was rejected, so we left it for a week. Time to say goodbye to people that live locally and just started on our way back and then received a phone call. The seller had a re-think and decided to accept our offer.

 

Got back home and then organised a home buyers report on the property. That highlighted a few things that were a concern and had an estimated cost of around £7000 to put right. Spoke to a scottish solicitor and asked if they would act for me. I was then advised to obtain a timber specialists report on the timber work. In the report there were a few new things to put right and a cost of £5000. Sent both reports of to the solicitor and then down graded our offer by the estimated cost to put things right. This was then rejected, but a counter offer was made by the seller. This was acceptable but only if the contents of the house was included in the price except of course for personnel items. We then had a wait for a reply that came the following day to say that this was acceptable. So we now have a house fully furnished and a few things to put right and then can rent it out in the summer for the next 3 years. Well thats the plan anyway, despite what Gordan B does.....

 

Had to visit the building society to sort out a re-mortgage on our main house which turned out to be no problem. Have to deal with some more paper work now. Informed the solicitor about the mortgage and then had to confirm the offer in writing and put forward a completion date (9th Jan 2009). This was accepted, but the completion date changed to the 22nd January 2009. How strange is Scottish law.....

 

Mean while, we made it to the Exeter Kit Car Show in Vincent and he made it all the way back home without any incidents, a whole 310 miles at 60-70mph. Bought a few things to fix on him over the winter period. We also went to the last track day for 2008 with Vindicator Cars. Had a nice time and took it really easy as I did not want to hit anything this time. 

 

Her in doors, showed the new mechanic (Craig) for Vindicator Cars around the track as it was his first time and then let him drive Vincent. Big mistake on her part, may I say, it lasted, 30 secs and 2 corners before Vincent ended in the ditch. Poor old Vincent, nothing goes right for him. Got him dragged out and back on the track. Had a look round and could not see anything wrong with him. Someone took pity on him and tried to take the grass out between the tire wall and the rim but that was not coming out. The worse thing was that I had just given him a wash that morning and he was very clean and shinny. It was thought that he had better go back home on the flat bed trailer and then get checked over the next day to see what damage had been done.

 

Turns out that Vincent is made of really thick metal and nobody can find any real damage. There is a slight chip on the passenger side rear wing, but that can be gel coated and the bonnet front bars have move up like last time, so they just need a tweak to straighten. The driver's seat has a slight change of shape as the back rest part has more of a recline on it. I think this time, the front screen and the wipers will have to come off , and have a look at the scuttle, as this 'moved' with the last diversion off the track and now seems very loose.

 

Craig, seems a nice chap really and I was chatting to him before her in doors got her hands on him. I had just fitted a high level led brake light and he gave me an in site of how the rear spoiler was made and how to fix the brake light into the spoiler without to much trouble.

 

By the way, her in doors and Craig are ok, a few bruises here and there but was quite funny to hear Craig say ' been working for two days and have already smashed up a customer's car', let me say that 'it won't be the last time Craig or your not trying'.

 

Thanks to Steve who took her in doors home with arm in sling in a car that has proper suspension, Chris who supplied the sling (can you supply a tourniquet next time please, just joking!!!) and JB for having a space left on his flat bed trailer .....'just in case' he told me....

After I and a seasoned mechanic had bled the brakes on several occasions and to no avail of improving them, it came to taking off the brake cylinders and checking them out. As I had bled them several times before, this was an opportunity to take the brakes down to the very beginning. I took off the brake cylinders after draining the fluid from the master reservoir. I then had her in doors take them to Keith (VC master mechanic). I would have stripped down the cylinders even more but the parts are held in place by a internal circlip which you need a proper tool to compress the circlip to take it out.

 

Upon inspection inside the cylinder, black bits of rubber was found which we believe came from the internal rubber. We also found score marks inside and a replacement cylinder was found. The new cylinder was fitted and the brakes bled. This time the brakes seemed ok, but felt a bit spongy...later I found out on a forum that silicone brake fluid has these tendency’s and slowly affect the rubbers. This is exactly what I had used to re-bleed the brakes. At least I had used dot 4 and not dot 3 which is suppose to be more brutal on the rubbers.

 

I took a look at the wing mirrors that had also been knocked off the car, not to much damage and can be put back on with bigger washers. I also did not like the large dent in the back of the passenger head light that the cycle wing had made. I went out and bought a round head hammer and started to fix the lamp. Got to a certain point and sprayed it mat black and does not look to bad. Also took the time to take off the old front indicators and put on some new ones and replaced the connector block for the headlamps and indicators for bullet connectors. The wires can be undone and taken off completely without cutting any wires....you live and learn.....

 

Just had one problem crop up when testing the indicators. Every time I tried the driver’s side, it blew the 10 amp fuse. As I had run out of 10 amp fuses I took a trip to Dollar Land (name changed!!) and picked up at least 60 fuses (10 per size) for £2. It took me 3/4 hour to find out that it was nothing I had done wrong, but the wiring inside the indicator had a strand or two from the negative side touching the positive side. The negative wire had just been turned by hand to secure to the outside of the plate holding the bulb. This was quickly fixed by some tape and now I don't blow fuses..... At least it can now go on the road.

 

For the past couple of months I had been suffering from leaking oil around the sump and had replaced the sump gasket. After a week or so I noticed that the oil was still coming out but was round the oil filter. So, off to the motor shop for an oil removal spanner and a new oil filter. I then found out that the rim of the oil filter was catching on the two nuts for the oil cooler pipes and this would explain why I was leaking oil.

 

Looked at the sandwich plate and tried to reposition the oil pipe nuts and took some metal off the lip of the oil filter (big mistake!!). Put the oil filter back on and that seemed like a tighter fit. On to the next track day and took a slow drive up to Fradley. Everyone was there and I took my place to go out onto the circuit. I was then informed that I had a bit of an oil leak under the car. Sure enough, the oil was still coming out but bigger than before.

 

Checked the oil and there was hardly any on the dip stick. Got a lift to a Ford garage and bought another oil filter and returned back to the car. Got the old (nearly new as well) filter off and found that I had ground a bit to much off the lip and the oil was seeping out under pressure. I put the new filter on and topped up the oil and had a few laps round the track and everything seemed fine. Drove back home and over the next few days noticed that the oil pressure was dropping again. This time I was going to fix it or it was off to the scrap yard.....

 

Took the filter off and the sandwich plate and checked the oil cooler pipes once more. Then it dawned on me, between the sandwich plate and the oil cooler pipes there should have been a packing washer.... I thought that I had doing up the oil cooler pipes, metal to metal would suffice (doh!!!).... Off to the motor shop again and it was on my third one that supplied some washers that might do, if I took a file to open the hole a bit. Put everything back together again and the good news is that I think I have cracked it (no, it is fine really

 

I also did some slight repairs on the passenger cycle wing that had two splits in it. This I covered inside with fibre glass and then did some gel coating. Finally, cracked the measure of hardener to gel coat, which is around 3% of hardener and takes just under a day to harden. Have given it a rub down and polish and it does not look to bad. After doing so much on the cycle wing, I reversed onto the foot path the other night and caught the bottom of the cycle wing on the curb and so I have to do some more work on it and means I get to practice with the gel coat again and again

Went for a spin round the track at Fradley on Thursday afternoon. The following day I was preparing to go away on holiday and take Vincent with me......but....errr..... to cut a long story short, I missed judged a corner and started to spin, corrected it and then failed to hit the next opposite corner and went onto the grass and heading straight for some straw bails protecting a metal girder.

 

The hinged rails that the bonnet sits on took most of the brunt as did the bonnet itself. The rails that were horizontal were now vertical and the bonnet came half way up the window screen. It knocked off both wing mirrors and put a dent in the back of the headlight.

 

Someone checked the distance between the front and back wheels on both sides and found an inch difference. Then I was informed that that was ok as the jig when the frame was made was also out. The bonnet had broken underneath where it was fixed onto the rails, so we used some cable ties to fix the bonnet back in place. Nothing else was found wrong so I drove it home and hoped that the bonnet did not fly off.

 

As I going away the next day, I stuck Vincent into the manufactures for a good look over and would contact them in the next week to see what else I had done.

 

After two week on holiday, I finally picked up the car from the manufactures and drove it home. They had fixed an ali plate with rivets under the bonnet and put it back on to the rails. The mechanic who worked on it, had cut my wiring to the indicators to fix the bonnet but failed to inform me that he had done so and had also disconnected the main lights from the connector block. I drove home without any head lights (not really needing them...) and no front indicators.
 
They also checked the tracking as we noticed that the bottom spoke of the steering wheel was not at 6pm but at 7pm when driving in a straight line. When I drove it home from the manufactures, the spoke was still at 7pm and as I parked the car on the drive, I also noticed that the front wheels were still at different angles. Now the question is:- has the tracking been done!!!! I had covered all the 'pipes' round the front wheels with old rubber heating piping and secured with cable ties and these as far as I can tell, have not been removed.......So if the tracking has not picked up that the wheels that are pointing in a different directions..........
 
The brakes were to be checked as I found going down a hill and then braking, the peddle would go down to the floor and then once lifted and braked again the brakes came on. So a) I had air in the system (which I had already bled 3 times and doing different ways like front first and then back first) or b) something else was wrong. I was informed later that the mechanic had also bled the brakes a number of times and had not improved the situation. The next task was to remove the master cylinder (back brake m/cylinder was identified) as it was thought that the one way valve was not working correctly. That being the case, I could take this off myself and not incur more mechanic costs, so the car came home. 
 
I have spoken to a few people in the know and there seems to be a fixing kit you can buy to replace the worn seals if this is the case or a new cylinder if nothing else can be found wrong. I am also prepared to replace the brake fluid and put in dot 5.1 brake fluid as this has the least resistance to moisture and rubber corrosion. As soon as this is fixed I shall take the car to a local garage to have the tracking checked again.

 

 
Scotland.....as the Vindi was not going to make it to Scotland I was a bit relieved really. With one of us driving the car towing the caravan and the other driving Vincent for 12-13 hrs would have been soul destroying. But, the Isle of Skye was fantastic. No lorry's on the road, no speed camera's, no traffic jams, no sleeping police men, only 3 cop shops on the island and a handful of police and they also have to cover some of the main land, so only saw one police man who was grabbing a drink from the super market. Weather was a bit lousy, but it was still warm. Looked at some property and came very close to retiring and moving up there.

It has been nearly 3 months since the last blog, so time has come to update you with what has happened. Got the hood sorted out and looks excellent. We had a standard hood made but had the edges done in Orange. We visited the Westfield (West Midlands) Owners club on a Sunday night and had more Vindicators show up than Westfield's....ok only one Westfield turned up...

 

Have started on the boot area and got some panels cut and riveted together. This is taking some time as I keep changing my mind as one panel is finished and then finding out an easier way how to fix it to the previous panels. This means that the previous panel then has to be slightly altered. Nearly all the panels have been cut and fixed together and sealed with plenty of mastic to stop any ingress of water.

 

 

Finally got to Stoneleigh on the back holiday Monday. Had a good look round the show and bought a few things that we still require to finish Vincent off. But I am getting the feeling that we will never finish as we keep coming up with ideas to improve / replace what we have already done. Picked up some carpet to finish of the boot area and some thin rubber that I want to put round the roll over bar and the body. I saw the demo of Alutight. This is like soldering wire to join two pieces of aluminium together. Although it seems expensive I thought I would give it a try and bought a meter length.

 

Having washed Vincent one day I found that the steering rack rod going to the driver's wheel had been hitting the bottom wishbone. How did I notice that, simple really when you see bear metal instead of powder coating. Quick check with the manufactures main mechanic and he reported to add a shim or two underneath the steering rack.  Got some penny washers and raised the rack by 1/8th of an inch and took 10 mins to do. Repainted the bottom wish bone and will now have to wait and see if I need to raise it some more.

 

I replaced the second hand air filter that I had been given for a brand new one. I also noticed that one of the fan belts had got stuck sometime and a part of it was very thin...So another trip to the part's shop for 2 brand new fan belts.

 

I also got round to changing the oil after doing the first 1000 miles in the car. As there had been a minor oil leak since getting Vincent on the road, I thought it would be a good idea to take the sump off and check the gasket and find out where the oil leak was coming from. Got the car on to the ramps and took most of the bolts off the sump, but then had to remove the starter motor to take the final bolts out. The gasket was in a right old state seeing as it had been replaced when we first put the engine in Vincent. Got a new gasket and fitted it ok and sealed it with mastic.

 

I finally got round to fixing the drivers foot well top sheet. It had always been there, but there was a hole in it that was letting the heat from the exhaust in and was getting a bit hot down by the feet. I made up a new piece of aluminium and tried the alutight that I bought from the kit car show. So far I have used about an inch of it to do a 2 inch seam but am getting better with it. I fitted the new piece and this has reduced some of the exhaust heat.  

 

Have finished off the last aluminium piece in the boot area and then started to look at the carpet. Her in doors came along and said I was interfering as it was her job to do any carpet fitting...so I have left it and it has remained unfinished. 

 

Fogot to mention in the last write up that I found a local company that could supply me with aluminium sheets. So I ordered 2  4ft x 2ft x 2mm sheets as I wanted to make a start on covering the inside of the boot area. Spent a nice couple of days trying to make a cardboard cut out for a template. Of course this did not go to plan as the cardboard kept folding up when moving it out of the boot area. As for aluminium, it keeps it's shape and the floor piece would not fit inside. So I had to cut some of the back portion off and this time it fitted. Made some single pieces to go up the back behind the drivers seat and they fitted ok. Now for a single piece down the centre to fix them all together once they are in place.....ermmm....I seem to have run out of aluminum, never mind I can always get some more.

 

Finished my 7 day stint in Libya....well almost....the customer asked if I could stop on for a few more days. I had to say that it was the wife's birthday and if you don't want to get into trouble that is one day that you have to be around for. So I returned home for a 7 day rest, well almost, first was a trip round to my aluminium supplier....oh no!!!!!....the office was all shut up and a sign saying for let and under contract. Bugger have to find someone else now....

 

During my time back home I managed to get the wipers off again, don't know how many times these things have been put on and then taken off again. I gave them a wipe down with some meths and let them hang for a while to dry off and then it was time for the black paint spray can to come out of hiding. After 24 hours and a few coats of paint they look rather nice. I put the wipers back together again and put them back on the car. These really look nice now.....

 

If you remember from last time the wipers did not work. Turns out that the fuse had blown. On replacing the fuse and fitting the horn on the steering wheel, this blew the fuse again. Turns out that the wipers and horn share the same fuze and I now have a short on the two wires that supply power to the horn switch and the wire going to the horn. Again, I did not have time to trace where the fault lies but it will mean taking that damned dash off again to get at the wires.

 

Time has expired again and I was off to Libya for another 7 days just to finish off. Weather was not to bad but it always wanted to rain first thing in the morning and the drains could not cope and the roads were covered in water. It happened again, the customer turned round to say that due to some staffing problems, we could not finish the job after all in 7 days. The best I could do was say I'd stop for 2 extra days. The customer was not too happy about letting me leave, but when I explained about another customer that was in a worst position than him, that I had to go to next, I was off back home.

 

I had just 5 days back at home before I was on another plane to another African country. I am here for 2 weeks and then I have another week at home before going out to Libya again for 10 days......I hear that the weather back in England is down to zero and sometimes below zero. Well let us just say that I am walking round in a shirt and even that gets soaked with sweat if I am not carefull.

 

The one good bit of news is I had a quick trip round to my aluminium supplier, during a weekday and it turns out he is still in business. The sign was there before they moved in and it has not been taken down and that they don't work on Saturdays (which is when I went to see them!!!durrrr!!). I did not have any cash on me to get another sheet of ali (had a problem with a new debit card...) so I ordered a new piece and let "her in door's" pick it up for me and she'll have to pay for it. So that will be waiting for me when I get back home....that is if someone will allow me some piece to stop at home.....work.... who needs it....

Middle of December and work was over, I found I had a bit too much leave left over for the current year, only 36.5 days to be exact. Seems I had worked a few weekends during the year and not been paid it but given holiday instead. So I asked for 3 weeks holiday over Christmas and the boss said 'no problem as there was nobody else left on site aboard'. Just what I wanted some spare time to work on the car.  

 

I started by looking at the window screen and trial fitted it and that looked ok. Next, out came the bag of bits with the wiper motor. First of all it was looking to see what side the wipers arms should park on. Speaking to John from Vindicator these want to park pointing towards the driver's side. That way, you get a bigger area cleaned from the drivers view point. Problem one was that the wiper arms in the wiper package that John had sold me had the arms bent the other way. There was no way that John new about them as they were wrapped up. He did find an old black wiper arm with the correct bend and size. In fact the wiper arm could be adjusted to any length and then locked in place. The wiper arm had a marking on it which turned out to be made by Tryco (I think). This is an American company and did have a UK outlet, but I could not get hold on them. In the end I ordered two new wiper arms and blades from a well known kit car supply company.

 

I ordered them on the Saturday and found out that Royal Mail did not pick up on Saturdays, also some more bad news. The supplier was then going to take the whole of the next week off for Christmas. That meant that Royal Mail would not pick up any goods until the following week. It just happened that the Monday that Royal Mail was going to pick up my package also turned out to be New Years eve. 

 

During Christmas I had a walk round our local scrap yard trying to find a small(ish) washer bottle with a motor attached. I managed to find one, complete, in a old Vauxhall that was being scraped. When I got it back it did not look like I would be able to get it fixed in place, I had to move the battery and fuse box around to do so.

 

The washer jets came from Halfords as 'her in doors' went shopping and bought them for me. These worked a treat and pushed into a drilled hole in the scuttle I was now at a bit of a loss as I could not really work on the wiper motor until the wiper arms turned up. Yes, I had the new ones which pointed the other way and the wiper blades held together by one small rivet, but ......oh hell with it.....I measured the wiper arms and offered up the wheel boxes and estimated where the blades should be when parked and when wiping. Drilled the holes for the wheel boxes and fitted them ok. Next, was to measure the outer tube for the wiper motor drive that controlled the wheel boxes. Out came the plumber's box that had a pipe end flaring tool. The distance was measured between the two wheel boxes and the outer tube cut and flares put on both ends. The pipe was then put into place with the wheel boxes.

 

Next, was where to finally position the motor to the bulk head. Found the correct position and marked it, drilled it and fixed it into position. Then I measured the distance from the motor to the first wheel box and cut the outer tubing and flared the one end for the wheel box. All that was left was the other end of the furthest wheel box and the length did not mater all that much. The wheel boxes had to be taken apart for the wiper motor control arm to be fixed on the wheel boxes inside the outer tubing. This was starting to look quite good and all the time I was panicking about if I had cut the outer tubing wrong....

 

The wiring for the wiper motor was already there and all I had to do was fine a live feed and connect up to the column arm and then back to the wiper motor. When testing, the wiper motor worked ok and even the wheel boxes moved and I had a choice of two speeds.

 

What a Christmas present I got.....I new registration plate for Vincent.....had to wait for the motor shop to open before I had a new plate made up and put it on the car. Just after New Years day the wiper arms turned up. I knew when I ordered them that they would be chrome and not black as nobody could supply me any in black. What I was not prepared for was the fitting on to the wheel box. Yes, it would fit a 14.8mm spline, but had a feature screw that would tighten up onto the spline if the spline was worn.......but mine are brand new.....not only that but the angle of the bend of the arm was not much at all and I thought this was pretty standard....

 

The new wiper arms came in a package with the manufacture's name which was not the name of the company that supplied me the parts and so with phone in one's hand I phoned the manufacture. After mentioning the predicament I was in, the woman on the other end of the phone said go to the internet and look at their site as there was computer program which would identify the type, size, colour, angle of any wiper blade you could think of and return a product code.

 

I just had to inform her that I had already been to the site and got a bit confused over the angle of the bend of the wiper arms and I thought the angle was a standard size and that there was also a comment about black arm some times not being available (which is why I phoned). I suppose I upset her as she said that there was not much call for black wiper arms but If I ordered 100 pairs then she would see what she could do. Hence I have decided to keep the chrome ones I have and wait until I see some in my hand that will do the job.

 

With the wiper arms fitted on the car, I know now that the angle is not enough as the bottom of the wiper blade hits the bottom of the window frame when parked. I may try some heat and see how much bend I can put on them. At least I have two pairs to play around with which has nearly cost me an arm or two. 

 

First day back at work and I try Vincent out on the motorway with the new window screen. Everything is working fine and then a few spots of rain start to fall, I waited until a had a few more bits of water on the screen and then tried the wipers.....guess what......they did not work..... Thinking about this, the dash had to come out while I fitted the wiper stuff and in my haste to get the car back on the road I must have touched something which has stopped the wipers from working. I had a rag which wiped the screen clean and then I noticed that it had stopped raining as well.

 

I made it to work without any other incident. What a day at work today, found out I was booked on the early morning flight to Tripoli the following day for a 7 day visit. Not much I could do about changing it and Vincent will have to wait until I come back home to have a look at the wipers. 

At last, we have a registration number for Vincent.

 

I was working at home on Friday(2nd Nov), the postman came round with two letters.....could this be the new registration and log book......no.....'eat at the local pizza place' and 'do I want my windows cleaned'....all mail shots....

Heard on the tv that the postmen where thinking about striking all next week, so I gave DVLA Swansea a ring, as it had been 4 days since the engine / chassis inspection on Monday, they said they would get the local office to ring me within two hours.

1 3/4 hrs later, Ash rang to say that my docs would be in the post Friday night.....oh no, no, no!!!, ....'you could come and collect them' said Ash.....'Yes please' said I....'what time would you like to come' said Ash....'within the next hour' I said.....

 

I phone Carol who was just about to finish work with the news and she came straight home to pick me up and we went off to the local DVLA office in B'ham. Spoke to a nice DVLA man behind a shatter proof window and explained why we were there. After 5 mins he gave us all the documents and a paper saying what the registration was. Driving back home we were both chuffed to think we could be driving Vincent very shortly. We spotted a local motor shop advertising number plates made while you wait.....We could wait, so we walked in and explained what we wanted. 6.15pm on Friday night I had number plates fixed to Vincent and out for a quick drive....

Thanks to Ash at DVLA (local office), the Motor Spares place that made up the number plates and ...sod it...to every one who help on Vincent....18 months of hard work and I have not stopped driving it around all weekend.....now waiting for some dry weather to drive to work in it.....

 

Well I did not think it would last as a few days later and I was sent off to sunny Africa (Central Africa Republic to be exact). Was there for just over 3 weeks and got back in time to go on a track day. Drove down to John at Vindicator and he just happened to have my rear spoiler. That took all of 30 mins to fit to the back boot and looks the business now. 

 

The track day went well, several people had a drive of Vincent. We left as it was just going dark and then I noticed a small problem which in hind sight should have paid more attention to it, but didn't. The ignition warning light came on as the head lights were switched on but the ignition warning light was not a very bright. We travelled towards B'ham and on the motorway got stuck in the rush hour traffic on the M6. Got to the junction of the M5 and turned off the M6 and then opened Vincent up. Down the slip road at nearly 70MPH and then the engine died.......oh dear......4 way flasher's on and pulled into the emergency lane and coasted to a stop.

 

Carol was following me as we had taken a few people with us and I had John (new member of the family) sitting in the passenger seat. Carol pulled in front of me and stopped. Straight away I knew what the problem was. Many months ago, I was advised to put an extra fuse box in where the cables went from the battery to ignition and other places. Unknown to me (in my ignorance) a cable goes to the alternator so that the battery can be charged. Now reading up on this, the alternator will provide as much power as the battery needs. As I broke the cable and put a fuse in the middle, I found out later that a 15 amp fuse was no good and it was quickly replaced by a 30amp fuse. This seemed to work ok, but was later mystified later when I saw the top of the fuse had melted away. 

 

Back on the motorway, I looked at the fuse and this had also melted away and this was a new fuse I put in a few days earlier. It just so happened that I had a spare 30amp fuse and replaced the melted one. Time to start the car......ermmmm....click......click.....click......battery was flat...... No jump leads as they were in my other car, nothing to do but to call out our breakdown people. 20 mins later and we get a mobile phone call from the Highways Agency. 'Which car has broken down' says the highway man....'The bright orange car without a roof' said I....'Well the blue car with the roof parked in front must be moved to the next junction' says highway man.  It appeared that our breakdown people had informed the Highways Agency and the Highways Agency were monitoring us via a camera on a motorway sign not far from us. So I said to Carol that her car had to be moved, she (good sport) said she would stop on the motorway and wait for the breakdown people as the policy was in her name. So I gave her my jacket to keep her warm and got into her car and turned the ignition ......ermmmm.....click.......click.......click...battery was flat...

 

I could not believe it, the car is about 7 years old and we have not had any trouble starting it. We then had to walk down to the telephone box and inform the Highways Agency what had happened. We then had to wait a further 40 mins for the break down truck to arrive. I explained the position to the breakdown driver and he came back with a charger, connected it to our battery on Vincent and one turn and Vincent roared back to life. The same was done to Carol's car battery and we were back on the road again.

 

At the weekend I looked over Vincent and connected together the alternator wires so that it was a direct connection now and without a fuse. At least the charging would always work. I then noticed a slight scratch on the side of the bonnet. This was due to the front passenger cycle wing coming into contact with full right hand lock on. As the suspension was going up and down, it had started to wear some of the gel coat off. I found that the bonnet needed to be moved 1/4 inch towards the driver's side. This was quickly done by adding a washer to one of the bonnet hinges and opening up the hole on the other hinge which gave me the 1/4 inch I was after. On normal roads this had not been a problem, but at the track day a couple of days ago, going round hair pin left hand bends slowly and right had bends fast and letting the tail swing out and putting opposite lock on had come into contact with the bonnet.

 

Just had some good news and a delivery, at last the front window and side brackets have turned up. More work for me this weekend to fit them. Not only the window but John of Vindicator cars came with a bag containing a wiper motor and all the bits. I just have to look out for a bottle, motor, jets and piping for the window wash and will be back on the road again.  

Monday morning came and I picked up the trailer at 8.30am and went back home and placed Vincent on to it and tied him down. Drove the 32 miles round B'ham to the other side and got to the VOSA unit dead on 10am. The nice VOSA man was standing outside and directed me to park on double yellow lines. Said to take a seat in the office and he would be along shortly.

 

Turns out he was waiting for the mobile sandwhich van and afterwards was waiting outside with his clip board. Asked the same questions as we had filled out months ago on the form for the SVA. Checked the chassis number and that had not moved or changed and then the engine number. Said that he had got everything now and it would be around 3 days when DVLA would be contacting me and it would be an age related plate according to the age of the doner vehicle.

 

Left the VOSA unit at 10.15 and then drove to work that was 8 miles down the road. After chatting to some friends about the whole process it suddenly dawned on me that all the paper work had gone to the DVLA office and then they had subcontracted out to VOSA to check the chassis / engine number. The question is why didn't the DVLA phone the VOSA office at Shrewsbury where I had passed the SVA. They (DVLA) had the SVA pass certificate and the inspectors name. Why did I have to fork out £50 for the hire of the trailer when they could have phoned Shrewsbury.....Mind Boggles.....

 

The DVLA young man was very apologetic about coming to two places for registration and then chassis / engine number verification. In fact there are plans to allow the DVLA  to access the VOSA database. There would be no need for a vehicle inspection again if you have passed a SVA. I informed people on the kitcar forum and someone came back saying that was what he was told 12 months ago.....

 

All I can do now is just sit back and wait and then get someone to make up some number plates.......then there is the window screen, wiper motor, wipers, screen wash, wet weather gear, heater.......ahhhhhhhh......the list never stops.......but at least the red tape has stopped.

1) Forgot to take evidence of engines age.

Use Burtons Power catalogue parts book as it contains a year chart for Ford engines.

 

2 Needed proof that the rubber pipe used between brake reservoir and master cylinder could handle brake fluid.

4) Brake balance bar (which was welded on one end) was not able to move freely

Removed welded nut and drilled one hole thru yoke of the balance bar. Had SVA balance brakes and then drill thru threaded bar and tap in a rolled split pin so that the threaded bar could not be turned.

 

5) Petrol tank pipe to fuel pump (9" long) was not secure. Used one cable tie to secure pipe.

 

6) Wiring under tunnel in one place was not secure Used one cable tie to secure wiring.

 

7) Drivers side mirror could not see the ground over the rear wheel arch under 10m from the drivers sitting position

Replaced mirrors with ones from sons motor bike. Checked to make sure that they were E marked.

 

8) Speed O was erratic and could not get true reading Found that when engine was warm that the rev counter became erratic and this affected the speed O thru the linked 12 volt supply. Cut the 12v supply link that was between speed O and rev counter and added a new 12 volt supply. Will sort out rev counter later as it is not part of the SVA.

 

9) Inside the passenger area, I had two relays placed on a ali plate that was riveted on the cross member which was lower than the bottom of the dash. Moved the ali plate from the cross member to the upright member that is higher up than the bottom of the dash.

 

10) Indicators ran at different speeds (left (fast speed) and right (normal speed)). Hazards was ok

As we are using motor bike lights at the front, these came with 10w bulbs which were replaced with normal 21w bulbs

 

11) A sharp edge was found inside the passenger area on the bottom scuttle edge. Stuck a piece of rubber over the sharp edge.

 

12a) A sharp edge on the head light bracing bar.

Had to file down the sharp edge and re spray over the powder coating (really annoying this one)

 

12b) 1st Exhaust clamp between the engine and the silencer had sharp edges that could come into contact with a persons leg.

Took the whole exhaust off and removed 1st clamp, welded exhaust where clamp was previously and refitted exhaust. Took 15 mins with Vindicator's help.

 

13) Headlights pointing towards on coming traffic by 1/4"

Turn the headlights by hand 1/4" to the near side.

 

The only thing I can say is that points 2, 9, 12a, and 12b came from Vindicator that caused me problems, but all were fixed very easily. 12a was very annoying as the whole head light bracing bar was powder coated and I had to take some of this off as a result of a sharp edge and then spray it with paint. Normally, Vindicator adds a circle metal plate towards the ends to hold indicator lights but I did not want them, so the 'tear drops' as they are called were left off. As a result nobody checked for sharp edges that came into play.

 

Number 2, if you are going to use a separate reservoir, make sure that the pipes used are marked for brake fluid, or get an email to prove it. This is a big problem area that SVA check for and I spent a whole morning going thru the yellow pages trying to find someone to supply 4ft of piping for use with brake fluid. Even car part suppliers who advertise in kit car magazines could not help. In the end I got it from a distributor who buy's them in 2ft lengths (longer if you require) from AP Racing. This was at 5pm the night before the re-test SVA.

 

Next day, I meet up with Stuart at SVA (9am) and the points were ticked off one by one. I had to change the magic number on the electronic speed O as 30, 40 and 50 mph checks were ok but not at 70 as I was reading 68. So I subtracted 50 off the magic number, re-entered it and Stuart re-checked it. He called me some name as I had gone the wrong way and made it worse, so, I added 100 and this time it passed. Other than that, Stuart said 'Could he be the first to congratulate me on a fine car and passing the SVA'.

 

I then went round the corner to the VOSA office and to cut a long story short, I was informed about producing two methods of ID's which I forgot and must also produce a MOT certificate. Now I took it that these people knew what they were on about as they do it day in day out, but boy was I in for a surprise. Next morning and Vincent went for a MOT and received full marks, only registration left to do now, I thought.

 

Two problems then arose:-

 

1) On one of the forum's, I found out that you do not need an MOT as the year of registration is when the kit car was registered and not taken from the donor vehicle, so that would be this year, therefore Vincent does not need a MOT for 3 years. But to late now as Vincent has a recorded MOT and will need one every year now (unless something during the registration happens to change this). Yes, Vincent should get an aged registration number plate according to the donor vehicle's registration. This is different to what I was told at VOSA and with Vincent sitting outside the window on the back of a trailer for everyone to see and if they wanted to have the chassis and engine number verified.

 

2) Had a phone call from work to say that they had booked me on a plane on Tuesday night to go to South Africa for 4 weeks. What more could I say....

 

As her in doors still has not had a holiday this year (accept 4 days over the August bank holiday), I booked her a seat on the same plane for 2 weeks. When she gets back, we will have to see about getting the registration paper work done, possibly getting Vincent to VOSA for chassis and engine number verification and getting a registration number. She can handle the car tax, obtaining number plates and insurance as I have made a start on getting insurance quotes. Just once thing that worries me is that she may be driving the car before I get back...and that won't do as I built / assembled Vincent.....and I am throwing my toys out of the pram.

Since the last time I wrote up the diary, I have fitted the internal mirror and made sure that the carpets are fitted. The night before the SVA I was toying with the ideal to fit the gater surrounds round the hand brake and gear lever. After some prodding from her indoors to do it before the SVA, I started and finally fitted them.

 

Next moring we were up at 5.30am, loaded the trailer with Vincent and were on the road by 6.30. Nice 1 hr drive to Shrewsbury to meet up with Stuart. I won't bore you with the full details but the end result was not coming home with a pass certificate.

 

Stuart did his part to make sure that I had assembled / manufactured all the parts on the car in a safe manner. He explained every thing that was to happen just before he carried it out.

 

I learnt a lot from Stuart, if a pipe moves, "p" clip it. If a cable moves "p" clip it. These were the main problems in the engine bay. The most serious failure was right at the end of the test, which was to check the speed sensor reading. We had a problem with both the speedo and tachometer, which decided to develope an intermitant fault and gave random readings, thus a true reading could not be obtained. We walked away with just 13 smallish problems. We left Stuart around  12.30pm and headed back home. 

 

We made a detour on our way home and dropped into Vincents' friendly kit car manufacture and in 15 mins had the complete exhaust off the car. The failure with exhaust system was a bracket half way down the down pipe before the silencer where the pipes were joined. The clamp had sharp edges and we had to do something. The clamp came off and we welded the two pipes together to form a longer exhaust manifold and down pipe.  Problem no. 1 solved.

 

Once back home we started to look at "p" clip fixes and by 6.30pm had already completed 6 more of the failures listed. 

  

After fixing nearly half of the faults in a couple of hours, I feel a lot better.

 

Now to arrange a re-test.

 

A big thank you to Stuart for making it a fantastic day, (see you soon at the re-test! arranged for the 30th August)

 

Yes, you have probably guessed it from the title that I am not at home again but on one of my travels to Togo. Let's bring you up to date with what’s happened since my last entry.

I arrived home from South Africa and had 24hrs to prepare the car so that it could take part in the manufactures track day. At least this way Vincent could have a run out to see what was or was not working The dash was put back on and I made sure that the connection block was locked. All the carpets had been finished, except for the floor. Before my visit to S.A. I ordered 2 6ft x 1ft carpets that had a hard wearing pile on top and like a rubber back to them from a friend who ran a market stall. It should have taken 2 weeks to get them delivered, now 6 wks later and they still have not turned up.

We also cut some plywood for the interior sides and covered that with the normal carpet pieces we had left over.  We secured them with Velcro bits here and there and it seemed to do the job. Next came re-fitting the seats and the passenger seat took me ¾ hr to fit. If you remember these had been pre-fitted but somehow could I get the holes lined up, my language was really awful. The driver's seat was done in 10 mins which was a blessing. We just had time to go and collect a trailer from a local company and get off to the track day (afternoon).

The postman turned up with two letters, one was a bill that could wait, and the other had the VOSA post mark on it. It turned out that they had made a mistake for Vincent going for SVA on the 2nd July. They were putting this back to the 16th July as someone was going on holiday, now I wonder who that could be as I was not going anywhere….

We duly arrived at the track albeit an hour late, but arrived ok. The car started ok and reversed down the ramps and onto the tarmac. We lined up for our turn onto the track and then someone pointed out to me the scratches to the passenger side front wheel. It seems that I got a bit close to the guard rail on the trailer and some metal spikes dug into the centre of the wheel while reversing.

We went round the track and everything seemed ok. I even tried to keep the car as straight as possible coming round the top bend and applying as much power as possible. Sliding the back end round in a controlled manner was fantastic and Vincent was unbelievable. The only thing we could find not working was the speed O and it was the only time we could have checked it. I even gave her ladyship a turn to drive Vincent, albeit it a bit more lady like approach to driving but she did well.

We had completed around 9 laps during the afternoon and were set off for a final 3 laps before going home. We had just started and I noticed that the alternator light was just flickering. We managed to get round the top corner on the track before Vincent started to fire on two cylinders, time to get back to the pits. I drove straight to the trailer and lined up Vincent as the engine died.

Back home, I looked at the wheel and the deep scratches, there was nothing I could do about them. Off I set to see my friend at the local tyre company. Yes, I could buy a new one, but these are an old model and there has been a change to them. Errrmmmm!!!. A new one arrived and I could not tell from the front what had changed but the style was the same. So I had the tyre removed from the scratched rim and put on the new rim. I was informed to make sure that the orange spacer ring on the old inner rim would have to be put on the new rim. Ok, no problem it is only a plastic ring. Got both rims back home and removed the orange plastic ring and went to fit it on the new inner rim……it does not fit….back to the type company….that is the change, you don’t need the spacer any more…..but you said…..back home and the rim fits on the car and the wheel locks in place ok.

A friend came round on the following Saturday to have a look at the interior mirror that I wanted making. I gave him a standard chrome mirror, a square metal base and a length of piping (he got the piping himself as he owed me…big time, sound like a blue peter sketch!!). As he had plenty of time on his hands, I asked him about the speed O not working, so we got Vincent on axle stands at the backend and started to look at the sensor. It was still in the same place at the diff where I put it months ago….what a relief that was…then he said ‘start the car’….’ermmm it won’t, battery is flat’….battery now being charged up. Remember the flickering ignition warning light, I started to check the fuses I had put in and on checking the alternator power lead, I had put in 15 amp which had blown and I found another 15amp had blown but I could not figure out to where this had come from or was going too. I swapped both 15's for 30amp fuses and time later on would tell if i did the right thing. After 15 mins or so, Vincent started no problem. (so all that was wrong at the track day was blown fuses and a flat battery…)

It took us (ok, my mate) 3 hours to look at the sender unit, take the dash off and look at the speed O wiring and figure out something was not connected right. I dug out the instructions ie one page which had a drawing on it for the sensor at the diff and we checked out the wiring. Opps, how was I to know that the red/blue wire was the earth and the black wire the sensor wire to the dial…..After a quick re-solder and starting Vincent in 1st gear we had 70mph on the clock….time to enter the correct values in the dial.

I knew the length of the wheel rotation and that was easy to calculate that over a mile. Next was the diff and this is where my mate looked in the Haynes manual and there was the diff rotation number to 4 decimal places. Got the final calculated figure to put into the speed dial and tried again. This time we were only doing 10mph and then we tried 2nd, 3rd, 4th and finally 5th at around 70mph at around 4000 revs (I think) so we are in the right ball park for speed indication. I am just wondering what would have happened if Vincent fell of the axle stands while I was doing 70mph right in front of the house and the garage. Does not bear thinking about…..

I did have 7 days to go before the SVA date and something happened at work. A customer needed my help urgently and could I fly out there tomorrow for 2 weeks. But…But…SVA…Vincent….wage packet…ok I am going.

I spoke to her ladyship and she tried to get hold of the very nice men at the SVA (one of whom is on holiday, in fact it is his first day back at work today and should have been SVAing Vincent), to inform them that Vincent would not be able to make the 16th July. She could not get thru by phone, so she phoned VOSA and the answer was that they would fax the SVA centre to inform them. Now my lady also being a Civil Servant knew what that meant. She rang SVA the next day and spoke to the very nice lady that said no problem, I can fix that for the following week, But her in doors says, that my husband still won’t be home by then what about the following week. Now, here comes the problem, the SVA centre is closing down for a few weeks and moving to new premises. The next date available in the new centre will be the 16th of August.......oh thunder dash….…Will Vincent ever get a SVA….Tune in next month for the exciting ventures of....

Just thought I'd pop something down on the web site to keep you informed. Spoke to her indoors over the internet (VOIP). She says that she has received a letter from VOSA about the SVA date. It is the 2nd of July at 8am......a bit early that...it will take me 1 hr just to get there. So that means I have to be up around 6am, load the car on the trailer (that I would have to fetch the night before) and off by 6.45am. Now if there are any nice men or women from VOSA reading this, then I am not complaining!!!!

 

Her in doors has been working like a good one whilst I have been away. She has lifted the tunnel carpeting and taken it to her sisters to have the piping sown to the carpet. She has also received a form from DVLA that we now have to fill in, so that might be finished by the time I get back. We will have to see how long DVLA takes to register the car and if an inspection to look as the chassis plate and engine number is required. More trailer hire charges....

 

On the car front I think that is about it for the time being until I touch down at Heathrow on the 20th. Although I could say that whilst being in South Africa, I have become a grand father and am missing all the fun. I just get the photos and movies of Sarah-Rose born on the 5/06/07.

 

Now that the bank holiday has arrived, I can work on the car for the next couple of days. First though, I had a letter arrive from VOSA, just a small questionnaire about what I had done on the car. Had I fitted the engine, gearbox, brakes, hubs etc... Can't pop the reply into the post until after the bank holiday. I also phoned up the local SVA station before the questionnaire arrived, to see if a date had been set. They informed me about the questionnaire to fill in first before I am given a date. I also asked about the next available date and was informed that it was 18th June. Now that is fantastic as I have to go on one of my trips to South Africa for 3 weeks and I am coming back around the 20th June.

 

We started on the carpeting of the inside for the next two days. I used some lite ply for the sides and cut them to shape. We had the orange piping arrive and stuck that on the top edge of the lite ply. The carpet was cut and also stuck down on the lite ply. The tunnel was put down in the same way with contact adhesive. While I am away, 'her in doors' is going to see her sister and get her sister to machine the tunnel parts together. Why her sister, she has the right sowing machine to stitch vinyl.

 

What a bank holiday this has been, it has not stopped raining over the whole holiday so it has been all work in the garage and not much space to swing a cat (joke....). We ran out of the automotive (felt) carpet and had to order some thicker carpet for the floor that has a rubber bottom to it. At least it won't rot if it gets wet.

 

Nearly all the jobs are done on the car and we are waiting for some orange piping to arrive that we ordered at the show. Once that arrives, we can start on the carpeting.

 

Still got to put the nut covers on the nuts that are showing around by the steering in the engine compartment and under the passenger compartment where the battery tray is fixed...must not forget that area. Spent a day on the DVLA web site trying to fathom out which form is required. As we have used an engine and gearbox removed from another kit car, we should be able to have a year registered number plate corresponding to the engine number instead of a Q plate.

 

Filled in the forms once, or twice as her in doors took a look and being a civil servant, new what to check for. Filled in the application form (3rd time) and got that posted off. Took us some time to obtain the axle weights and not to sure if they are now correct, ermmmm just get the application in the post and we will see what happens, me thinks!!!!

 

At work a day later and took a 5 minute break to visit the gents, my mobile phone started ringing and I only having one hand free.....must be her in doors I thought. "Hello, this VOSA ringing"......"err hello"....."Am processing your form that looks ok but you have not stated which SVA station you want to go to"....."(oh hollyhocks, under one's breath), Shrewsbury will do fine thanks"....."ok no problem I'll book it in there.. byeeee". To the very nice lady from VOSA, thank you very much I owe you a box of chocolates.

 

So I suppose I will have to wait now and see what date they have given me. I will have to create another work list of things that need to be done and double checked......interior rear mirror, must get one made as we can't find one that has a tall stand that the mirror fits on.

Friday evening saw me fitting the heat exhaust shield that was collected in the afternoon. Tomorrow is the big day when Vincent goes to Stoneleigh on the Vindicator stand. Off came the old Sierra steering wheel and our new smaller one fitted in it's place. It was then that the panic started to set in. We had a nut for the steering column, but had never fitted it as the Sierra wheel was constantly being removed. The only problem was that I had put it somewhere safe in the house/garage/conservatory/shed etc. Do you think I could remember where I put that damned nut and I had not got one of the same size either. To calm down, her in doors came with a cup of tea and a chat to take my mind off things.....There I was sitting down in the garage and then noticed a supermarket plastic bag hanging up on a nail. Seemed as there was nothing in it. Ping!!!, that's where I put the nut and nut covers ready for the SVA.....

 

The show went very well and was amazed at the people that came to see Vincent. Thank you to all the people that said something like 'nice job', 'well done', 'fantastic', 'you have done well'. These comments just re-enforced the confidence I have gained from starting the build and getting to a stage where I could show off the car. I must admit that some jobs, I handed over to my friendly engineer to sort out or manufacture or just to bend the metal bars that hold on the cycle wings. Without him, I would have been lost, probably given up and sold up, so a lot of praise goes to him. Also to my best friend, her in doors that made the tea, listened to me moan, gave me advice and also handled a spanner or two.  

 

We bought two new rear reflectors, the previous ones were of a lighter colour red and did not match the main rear light colour. Also they were square and not round and it was pointed out later that I they had sharp corners, not very good for the SVA. We also bought some cheapish carpet for the interior that would cover the sides and over the prop shaft tunnel and will start on the carpeting side shortly.

 

Looking back over the past week, and it seemed as nothing had been done. I took photos of the fan cooling switch wiring and asked an expert and he seemed to think that is was correct. But the fan would not come on when the engine temp was around 88degs. Asked another friend to come and have a look, perhaps my photos were not good enough. After 20 mins of checking and he found the problem and the fan worked by supplying 12v direct from the battery. There is a relay in the car cockpit that has 12v to a top pin and side pin. I have an orange and black wire and a green and black wire connected to the other two pins of the relay. When I checked the volts on the orange wire I was sure I had 12v and I think when I turned the ignition on, the volts disappeared. Also I was informed that these two cables were only 3 or 5 amp max and as I wanted to connect them to power the fan, this may lead to the wiring burning out because of the extra load as the motor will draw around 8-10 amps. 

Another bit of info was down at the solenoid end, I have 4 brown wires that shoot off to the fuse box, ignition, alternator and somewhere else. I was advised to take them off the solenoid and put a fuse box in-between. So as a tester, I took off the 4 brown cables that are connected together by a ring connector and connected it straight to the battery. First test, no sparks, second test, start engine, that runs ok. 6 way fuse box arrives in the post a couple of days later (thank you ebay), this was positioned in front of the battery. The brown wires were cut (disconnected the battery first!!) and the ones with the ring connecter on the other end had spade connectors fitted and connected to the fuse box. The other end of the brown cut wires also had spade connectors fitted and connected on the other side of the fuse box. All that was left to do was re-connect the ring connector to the battery. All wires should now be protected by fuses (I hope!!)

The seats arrived just in time before the National Kit car show. Problem one was after I had fitted the runners to the seats. I placed the driver's seat in the car and found because of the locking mechanism for moving the seat forward and backwards, this stopped the runners from sitting flush on the floor. I had to take another visit to my friendly engineer/mechanic and found that I needed some 11mil spacers. I think he took pity on me as he produced some thick walled steel piping and cut 8 x 11mil spacers. It was my turn to finish them off, de burring and painting them. Back home and looking at the seats, I got the other half to sit in the drivers seat (she is smaller than me!!) to make sure she could reach the pedals with the seat almost pulled forward. I was then able to mark one hole, which I drilled into the floor. Taking the seat out and turning it over, I then placed a bit of cardboard over where the holes were the bolts fitted. Making holes in the cardboard, I transferred this to the floor inside the car and aligned up with the one hole I had already drilled. The three other holes were drilled and in no time at all the drivers seat was fitted.

Next night, it was the turn of the passenger seat to be fitted. Only problem here was that the runners were 2 mil closer together at the back, so the back two holes were drilled 1 mil larger. As I had rushed to drill the holes using the cardboard template created from the previous night, I had failed to check this on the passenger seat first. You live and learn...... 

Now that the seats were in and moved backwards and forwards, it was the turn of the seat belts to be fitted and the slots cut that fed the seat belts to the rear fixing points. This went ok-ish, but now that the seats are in position, there's not to much room to get a drill in there to cut out the oblong shapes. .  Later, I added some black reinforced piping that covered the sharp edges of the oblong shapes, but instead of making them square, I made them round at the ends so that the piping flowed.

With the Bonnet and scuttle now fixed into position, work can start on the dashboard. We had the ali blank to start with and her in doors got some black vinyl. We started with an inch think piece of softish foam. Cut this 1/4" from the edge of the ali blank all the way round. From my favourite rubber lady, she gave me 1/4" wide 1/4" high hard foam. This was used to go round the edge of the ali blank. When the vinyl was placed on top and pull taught, this formed a roundish shape around the edges. We then came up on a problem ...how to fix the vinyl to the ali blank. No good using ordinary black tape....of to Wickes and ask about contact adhesive for vinyl to metal ( it won't be on display....). Once this had been stuck down, time to cut out the foam for the dials.

 

So far this year I have spent 4 weeks in Togo and nearly 3 weeks in Palestine. I decided to take some much needed rest and use up some of my holiday that I did not take last year. Vincent was taken to the work shop, were the wiring was looked at and it was found that two main wires were missing from the main loom. No wonder I could not start the car. I also had the head light bracing bar manufactured and fitted. Next came the cycle wings and the bending of the fixing bars. 

 

I started to fit the main lamps and indicators and connect up the wiring. I used normal electrical terminating blocks as a temporary measure to test that I had connected the wires up correctly. Later I used proper connecting blocks which replaced the terminal blocks. I also made some 'L' shape brackets that would be used for the rear fog / reversing lights.

 

The expansion tank that I had fitted for the main cooling system was the wrong one, so it was a search round the local scrap yard for a Rover Metro expansion tank. Thank goodness that the scrap yard people had one delivered that day and was about to take it to bits. Another bracket was manufactured to hold the tank. This consisted of a back plate with two arms which the tank sat between. The brackets were then taken to be powder coated.

 

Vincent was then taken back home and put back into the garage. Over the next few days, all the electrical wiring for the dials and lights was connected up. Blew 3 x 10amp fuses trying to get the main beam indicator light working. I could not get the ignition warning light to come on and could not figure out how this worked, so I had to ask for some help. The wiring info did not say anything about putting a 12v power source thru the warning light bulb that lead to the alternator. Same for the handbrake / oil pressure warning lights. New learning experience for me with all the wiring here but really enjoyed it. 

 

Collected the brackets from the powder coaters and fitted the expansion tank and the rear fog light. The fog light looks crap, but after the SVA, the bracket will be turned 180 deg and hopefully will sit underneath the car, instead of sticking out at the back. Not going to fit the reversing light just yet but probably after the SVA. Gave the battery a bit of a charge and left it for 1 1/2 hrs charging away. Came back and found the battery has just started to leak acid over the battery tray. Quick wipe round and wash down in water and off to buy a new battery.

 

Nobody could have said anything to upset me, when we started the car and started to test the lights. All worked first time and the dials started too. Revs seemed ok, oil pressure seemed a bit low but after reading up what it should be it is ok. Water temperature is rising to around 80 degs and this seems to be ok.

 

Did some improvements on the cooling system and replaced some worn out piping for copper piping and new rubber piping. The dash board is in place and the steering wheel surround was cut to fit better into the dash board. A new connector replaced the two Ford connectors that controlled the injectors and sensors (8 pins). The female pins were not making proper connection and we started to fire on only two cylinders.  

 

There is only one more problem that I have to deal with and that is the cooling fan and switch which has not come on yet. I'll have to call in a favour for someone to check out the wiring and find out why it does not work.