Build Day 79

Build time today 6.0 hours - Total build time 235.0 hours.

Man time today 8.0 hours - Total man time 262.5 hours.

First task once I had returned the tap to Westfield was to complete the carpet fitting. Getting the driver foot well carpet in place was a little tricky as it is slightly too long to finish in front of the pedal mounts, I had to push the floor down a little to allow it to slide slightly under them. Once that was done it was a simple process to get the other carpets in place and make the holes for the seats. Then on to fitting the drivers harness, having tapped the holes the bolts went in without too much effort.

Before fitting the seats I decided it was sensible to drill the holes to fit the dash. First I had to find the pre-drilled holes in the dash. Starting in the centre I used a small Philips screwdriver to prod the back edge of the dash to locate all the mounting holes, marking them as I went. Once done I used a 4mm drill to clear the hole. I them located the dash making sure it was in the correct location before marking the fixing points for rivet nuts.

Next task was to fit the seats, passenger first, this was the seat we had tried previously and it went in without issue, A little silicon on the large washers under the floor and tightened up the nuts. Driver's next, off with the polythene and bauble wrap, only issue was a missing washer and nut, never mind easy to sort out later.

With the seats in place I re-attached the upper harness mount points through the seats and included the IVA compliant covers.
Quick test and on to the dash.

I first looked at the sequence the connector blocks were on the loom then amended the switch order to be the same. I though best to start like this even if I change at a latter date.

I had spent some time looking at the speedometer and tachometer connections, I had previously made some notes, I only need to find them. The harness as supplied is for VDO clocks and the ones fitted aren't VDO so I needed to add some adapters, or add spades etc, most of which were supplied. The tricky part was the  speedometer , where you have connectors on the speedometer plus wires coming out of the back of the  speedometer , the harness and the feed from the speed sensor. It was a matter of carefully matching the connections, checking you had it correct and checking again. Then on to the Tachometer, this was more straightforward and then the switches and other gauges, again more not difficult it was just a matter of finding the appropriate connector to match the wire colour on the harness.
A lot of spaghetti and something I am sure I can tied up further.

With the dash in place I next had a go a setting the speed calibration, I had obtained the correct setting from Westfield (hope it is correct anyway) and it was a matter of following the instructions, after a couple of attempts I entered what I hope to be the correct value,

With the dash wiring complete it was then onto securing it and sorting out the cover. This is fixed with Velcro so a matter of applying to the full length of both surfaces and putting in place.

Steering wheel came next, getting all the screws, washers and nuts on was not easy as I would have expected, it was though there is a slight warp in the steering mount, the wheel is ok and eventually it was secured and attached. I guess the wheel is not expensive and something to be replace with a better quality item in the not too distant future.

With it nearing completing I took it for a little drive (little being the operative word) with only the drive to manoeuvre on. though I did manage to leave a couple of nice black lines much to Oli's amusement. With it running I checked the various switches and instruments again. All seemed ok except for the headlights which worked on side lights but the right lights then dimmed when the main lights were activated. Bother (not the actual word used).

last little job for the day was to put the rear view mirror in place.