Woke up this morning, looked out of the window and realised this is
one of those winter days why I don't SORN the car. So emergency
repairs was the order of the day.
First I just sprayed blue paint over the cracks to disguise the
damage. You may remember that originally the nose cone was mounted on
the two steel supports at the front of the car, but I had replaced that
with hinges so I didn't have to remove the grill to take off the nose
cone.
Those supports were so badly distorted after the crash they
could not be used for a direct mount, so I went down a different
route. I mounted a wooden batten (Much prefer wood to metal) and then
mounted a single bolt on another piece of wood that acts as a locating
'peg' for the bottom the the nose cone.
So drilled a hole in the middle of the bottom of the nose cone and put it on the car. Perfect fit, rock solid and looks perfect if you don't get too close And I can remove the nose cone just by unbolting the bolts at the back and lifting it off the locating bolt.
Next I tried to reshape the bonnet. Just about managed to get it to a
state where it will sit on the car and engage the latches, but it isn't
pretty. But at least I can drive her to a body shop and see what they think.
So with everything buttoned up she was ready to go.
Note the rectangular hole in the bonnet where there used be a louvred
vent. That was totally destroyed in the crash so I drilled the remains
out and I have a replacement on order from E-Bay arriving next week.
Originally I was going to do an instrumented run but the battery on my
netBook was flat, so I had to rely on 'feel'. So then, with fingers
crossed, I started out, conscious of the fact that she hadn't moved in
two months. Battery was down to 11.8V but she still started (just) .
I had originally intended to do a short test trip but she was going so
well, and I was enjoying myself so much that I finished up doing 30
miles. I kept to country roads but according to the speedo on my iPhone
I got up to 70mph at one point. I played safe by doing it in a clover
leaf pattern based around the house to give me an opportunity to bale
out if anything was wrong. I did 7 miles to the A1 and back, 11 miles
to Bourne and back then 12 miles around my test route to Grantham and
back.
The result was:
1. The front right indicator isn't working (easy fix)
2, One of the 4 bonnet latched came undone but there was no danger of the bonnet flying off.
3. Once she had warmed up the temperature remained rock solid.
A perfect temperature. This was a big surprise as all I had done was
top up the system when I fitted the new radiator and I expected to have
to play around 2-3 times to get rid of air locks and get it working
properly. But not only was it perfect, but when I checked the water
level a couple of hours later I had not lost any So really chuffed with
that.
So off to the recommended body shop next week and get quotes for
straightening the bonnet and doing a proper job on the nose cone breaks.
Today I finished off the fibreglass repair on the nose cone. I had
plenty of glass and resin so put double the amount needed on the main
cracks. It doesn't look pretty but boy is it strong. Total cost £9.99.
And I reinforced the top mounting holes so they are now really solid:
And here she is mounted back on the car.
Very pleased, as I now realise that of the five cracks, the main 2,
where the whole nose cone was broken right through, are underneath.
And once the number plate is mounted they are impossible to see unless
you lie on the floor. That means I can practice on those two before I
tackle the other three. You can see one of the others in this
picture, on the left side of the nose cone, about 12" long
There is also small one about 3" long on the top right of the nose-cone. As you can see, about half of it will be covered by the bonnet so that should be easy. I could even cover it with a sticker
The final crack is on the other side and is shown here. Again, not very visible unless you know it is there. So I am fairly
confident I can have an acceptable solution just by filling the cracks,
sanding them down, priming and then spray painting the affected areas.
I don't need to repaint the whole cone. Luckily I still have primer
and eclipse blue spray cans from my repair of the rear wing.
So that will just leave the bonnet to be straightened and she will be good to go.
Another nice day today so made the most of it. First I took her
outside and ran the engine up to temperature to check if there were any
coolant leaks under pressure. Initially it looked OK, but then I saw a
very small drip. Confusingly it was nowhere near any of the cooling
pipes, and a quick taste test showed it was petrol. It turned out to be
a leak where the fuel line goes into the pressure regulator.
Amazingly the jubilee clip was actually loose and took about 6 turns to
tighten up. I have absolutely no idea how long that leak has been
there, but it could have been months as I very rarely run the engine
with the bonnet off.
So a very useful exercise. and when I checked
later when the engine had cooled down the coolant was at the same level
in the expansion tank. Good news. I will still need to do some
more runs to confirm it, before I go on the 100 mile+ Stilton Cheese run
in April, but there is plenty of time.
And now the first phase of the nose cone repair. Having decided I
would need to 'wrap' the spare yellow one I realised that it would make more
sense to try and repair the old blue one and then wrap that one.
And
having learned my lesson on my first attempt at fibreglass repair that
you do NOT lay fibreglass on the outside as you will never get a decent
finish, I needed to lay lots of fibreglass on the inside of the nose
cone to provide structural strength, before using filler on the outside
which can be sanded down to get a decent finish. What is nice about
working on the inside of the cone is that it doesn't matter what it
looks like as it will never be seen. So did the first few cracks,
initially concentrating on the ones where the nose cone was actually
broken. Here are some photos of the result so far.
So the nose cone is now structurally sound. But there are still a
couple of places where I need to add some more fibreglass, and I want to
reinforce the mounting holes where the bolts were pulled through, and
as I have plenty of resin and fibreglass I will add quite a bit more
fibreglass to over-engineer it
So once that is all done it will be time to sand down the top surface
and use filler to finish it off. Not sure how it will finish up, but
if it is reasonable I may try painting it and see what it looks like.
I can always wrap it if it looks scruffy.
At long last the temperature in the garage won't give me hypothermia
so was able to get a session in. Now the new radiator is plumbed in I
topped up the cooling system and there is no static leak. I need to
check with the engine running to see if there is a leak under pressure,
so If it ever stops raining and I can get the car outside I will do
that.
You might recall I initially had a drip tray under the car, but it
was trashed when I drove over it. After that I just left a towel
underneath and chucked it away every few months. Not ideal, so decided
it was time for a new tray.
It's very deep-sided, so I chopped down the leading edge so I can slide
it under the sump (Still leaving enough to prevent overflow). And
screwed a handle to the back end to make sliding it in and out much
easier.
And to make sure I don't run over it, another laminated
reminder sign is added.
