Sunday 10 April 2011

Emily's first drive

Peter was true to his word and got the brackets back to me very quickly (along with the boss for my steering wheel, which also needed a spot of welding doing). Unfortunately, where he'd welded the bracket back together, it had bent significantly, and, since he'd also reinforced it, it was quite resistant to being bent back into shape. I hit it with a sledgehammer a bit, and got it usable, but it's still not where it should be. I'll probably solve this by making new holes in the bracket, rather than trying to bend the bracket any further. Anyway, the front cycle wings are now attached, and hopefully stronger than before.

I've also got a proper steering wheel now, which is a big improvement. It's detachable, so getting in and out is easier - hopefully there won't be any incidents with it detaching when it shouldn't detach. Emily is now able to get in (with the BMW wheel, she wasn't able to fit), so she had her first proper drive, finding it "a bit scary" but otherwise good, I think.

Ready to go. Ride height and indicators still need sorting.

Various jobs remain to be done, but the car is starting to come together. The windscreen makes it much more practical, and the reflections from the scuttle are not a big issue in practice. The most important thing, I think, will be the new throttle pedal that Peter has kindly offered as a free upgrade :-) This should reduce pedal travel significantly (currently I need to move my whole leg rather than just pivot at the ankle) and is also narrower, which will make life a bit easier. A proper suspension setup is also on my list, and of course vinyl wrapping the car and fitting the tonneau cover.

Very pleased with how it is turning out so far though.

Sunday 3 April 2011

First two breakdowns...

After getting the car road legal on Thursday, I forgot that (a) the car is low, and currently lower than it will be once I've set the ride height properly, and (b) the speed bumps at work are very harsh. On Friday I drove into work, and accidentally clipped a speed bump with the sump.

The sump - fortunately - was not significantly harmed (it lost a couple of cooling fins, but no leaks), but the resulting shock obviously moved the engine and gearbox, which had unfortunate consequences for the gear linkage. The gearstick pivots in an arm which runs between the gearbox and the chassis, for the purpose of providing a suitable pivot point - unfortunately, it doesn't have much ability to move and absorb impact, so it snapped instead. I'm going to try and find a way to add some rubber bushing to protect it in future.

Broken one on the left. Note (suspicious) old weld at the top.

Fortunately the local dealer was able to get one in for the next day for only £13, so not a massive problem. I left the car at work overnight and returned, with tools and parts, on Saturday to fix it.

It's interesting to note that the old arm had already been welded by the previous owner, so I wonder if it had snapped in a similar impact before, which might have weakened it?

Anyway, car fixed, I drove home in it with no problems... until the bracket holding a front cycle wing on snapped. Peter had previously mentioned that he'd seen failures with these brackets, but unfortunately he'd just given me some advice on welding it up to make it stronger, which I hadn't got round to doing. The cycle wing survived, but the car is now off the road until I get the brackets reinforced. Fortunately Peter said he could fit the welding in for me before he's off on holiday, so this should be sorted pretty soon.

This happened.

Causing this.

I took advantage of having the car not-really-drivable (no cycle wings at the front means a face full of gravel) to get on with the windscreen today. After an awful lot of faffing about bending and trimming the frame, and trying to bend the supporting brackets (which didn't want to bend on account of being incredibly strong), I managed to get the windscreen fitted in a reasonably neat way. It's not perfect - I over-trimmed the bottom part of the frame, leaving a few mm gap to the vertical part, and the supporting brackets aren't bent exactly as I would have liked, but from a distance it looks good.

The rubber still needs trimming.

Lots of Ackerman. Front numberplate is much too big... it could easily break and fall off. So easily.

The height of the screen seems about right, when sat in the driver's seat. My only concern is that the white scuttle is going to reflect quite badly - I may need to paint it black or something - but I will need to drive it a bit first to see if this will really be a significant issue. Anyway, this should allow me to drive without needing a helmet, which will be a nice improvement.