Stealthy Indicators

Ever since I have had the car the indicators have been a problem.  The car is not fitted with an indicator canceller (or if is fitted it doesn't work), the flasher light on the console is very difficult to see, the buzzer is buried deep inside the dashboard and you cannot see the indicator lights.  So I have spent many a long period driving along blissfully unaware that the indicators were flashing.  

The previous owner had fitted an extra lamp on the dashboard to help, but I found my right hand obscured it.

 So I moved it to the centre console, hoping it would be easier to see.  But I still kept missing it as it was very dim (using a multi-meter I found it was only getting about 4 volts) and with the sun shining on it it was almost invisible.

After a chat at Donington I bought a new, large, indicator light and an industrial strength buzzer unit.  So out came the panel and some more wires added to the rats nest.   And I wired the bulb across the buzzer unit rather than the existing flasher so that it gets the full 12V.

This is the result.  A large blindingly bright bulb right in my sightline and the extra-noisy buzzer unit mounted outside on the steering column so it isn't deadened by the dashboard or carpet. 

Surely that will solve the problem ? 

Only time will tell.  I'll report back. 

Rear View Mirror - revisited

A few months ago I fitted a nice rear view mirror to the scuttle to replace the one stuck on the windscreen that was vibrating too much.

 Although it worked well it was a bit low and with the wet weather gear rolled up at the back I couldn't see much.

I did think of mounting it on a piece of wood to lift it up but eventually decided on a more elegant solution.

An extending one.   Much better view now.

Cooling System - revisited

The journey to Donington and back again showed up the limitations of my cooling system re-designs.   Pottering along at 50-60mph, as I normally do, and the temperature was perfect.  But once I started accelerating hard and doing 70mph + as I had to on the Memorial Run, I found she overheated again.  Also my legs go very hot as the air was coming out in the footwell.   A number of people on the Club Forum have pointed out that people always concentrate on getting the maximum air flow through the radiator, forgetting that you also have to provide somewhere for the air to escape as well.  So I think my problem is that while I have enough air going through the radiator but at speed it cannot escape from the engine bay so just backs up and slows down the flow through the radiator.

So I need to figure out an escape route for the air.  

I already have lots of small louvres in the bonnet but apparently they are not man enough for the job.

I could try putting some larger louvres in the side panels

or a large hole in the top of the bonnet.

More research needed.

Oil Leak - revisited

During the repairs needed for the MOT the mechanic tried to repair the leak in the sump.  Unfortunately, although he did quite a bit of welding/brazing he eventually had to admit defeat.  He has reduced the leak to a tablespoonful a week, so I still need the high tech solution while the garage is in the garage, but the leak is so small I think I will just live with it.

 
The only long-term solution would be a new sump and I really don't think I need to spend that amount of money just to prevent a small drip.

Donington Kit Car Show

A good weekend at the Donington Kit Car Show.   Decided to try camping over the weekend again so loaded up the car:

Very successful any particularly nice to be cooking my own breakfast on a camping stove for the first time in 45 years.   The Club had a good turn out and I reckon there were 20-25 men, many with families who stayed overnight.   This was the car park next to the tents:

In the evening the Club had organised a 'run-out' in memory of the previous Chairman who had, unfortunately, died suddenly a few months ago.   His wife and children have continued to be involved with the Club and were given rides on the run.  In the event 26 cars started (the sight of 26 cars arriving simultaneously at a Motorway Service station for petrol was a sight to behold.) We drove for an hour and 22 of the cars successfully arrived at a chip shop in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.  Here we are at the Car Park with plenty of admiring looks from the locals.

 

Unfortunately it started to rain just before the return journey so we had to drive back in the dark with pouring rain.   Didn't enjoy it all.

The show itself had all the usual stands, from part suppliers to kit car producers.  This was one of my favourites, a car from GBS who took over Robin Hood.   Fully turbocharged and a monster !!

Maybe later.

Stamford Car Show

Although I had only been back in the country for only 36 hours I decided to take the car to the Stamford Car Show, which is one of the biggest shows around where I live.   Two other members of the Robin Hood Club also came.  Their cars were beautifully turned out, making mine look decidedly scruffy.

In my defence it has been a very busy 36 hours so I hadn't had a chance to smarten her up. What made it worse was that I was placed between an immaculate Corvette

and an equally immaculate 1936 Auburn Boat Tail Speeder.  This was probably the most photographed of the 500+ cars at the Show so I suspect I will be in lots of people photos, but in the background.

Overall, apart from mine, this was my favourite car.  A Stingray Corvette.  According to the owner it handles appallingly and is a pig to drive, but who cares :-)

MOT passed

While I was away on holiday I left the car with a local classic car enthusiast to do some repairs and get the car through the MOT.   He replaced the rear bushes and fixed the steering UV joint and had to replace a rear wheel bearing that was grumbling.   And she passed the MOT so all my concerns about the emissions were unwarranted.  And he thinks he may have fixed the sump oil leak with some judicious welding.

Now I just need to get back off holiday to start driving her again.

Summer Holiday

Off on summer holiday now so Blog will go quiet till late August.

Lonely

Car in for rear bushes to be replaced and steering UV joint fixed and then MOT.   Feels most odd going into the garage and she isn't there, just a great big hole.

He is also going to fix the leaking sump so hopefully the patch in the middle of the floor will be no more.

Just have to be patient.  Luckily it is raining so wouldn't be out anyway.

Lincolnshire June Meeting

I decided that the June meeting of the Lincolnshire chapter of the Club would be local and we arranged for the lads to attend the Castle Bytham annual Midsummer Fair (http://www.midsummerfair.co.uk/),  Street Market, Dog Show, Music, Beer/BBQ tent, Morris Dancers, American Civil War reenactment, Duck Race, Battle of Britain flypast......  Everything that you expect from a small English village fair.

Great day, perfect weather (again) and we got 8 cars on the display.  As usual, very popular with the visitors, especially the Dads and the young boys.

I was lucky it was only 3 miles as the steering is now very dodgy and definitely not up to a long journey.  

I even managed to get good weather for the third meeting in a row,  Great day all around.








And we even had a march past from the Civil War team.

Steering Rack

Spent the morning dropping the steering rack out.

Rather pleased with myself as never tackled anything that major.  Took me 1.5 hrs with nicely skinned knuckles but managed it in the end.

Bad news is that there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it.  There is no play in the steering box itself and it all seems fine, so the problem must lie elsewhere, 

Maybe the Universal Joint that connects the steering column to the steering box.  





I have a spare one of those, but according to the original designer one end is welded to the steering column so I will have to get an expert to tackle that.







Postscript:   I replaced both the bolts (which were bent) with new high tensile bolts and nyloc nuts and it is now certain that the UV joint is worn and will need replacing. 
 

Grounded :-(

Having had no major problems in the first year it was inevitable something would happen.   After a 90+ mile run with apparently no problems I woke up this morning to find that the steering wheel has lots of play in it, I can turn it +/-10 degs with no sign of movement in the wheels.  My suspicion is that something has broken in the steering box as the spindle is turning but the rack is not moving.

Time to take it off and have a look.

Rear View Mirror

When I first bought the car it had a very solid rear view mirror stuck to the top of the windscreen. Once I had got used to the fact that a car that looked as though it was 100yds back was actually 10 yds behind me, it was fine. Unfortunately one day it disappeared. I have no idea what happened, I never found it. 

So I went through a few stick on ones, but the windscreen vibrates quite a lot and they all fell off.  I eventually used super glue and managed to get one to stick but the vibration meant that the image was very blurred.  I could tell if someone was behind me but not what it was.

I checked to see what other owners had done and most of them used mirrors mounted on the scuttle, so I have gone that way.  Nice mirror, very stable and although the view is not so good (the folded hood gets in the way) it is a great improvement.

Note in the top left corner I have fitted a GoPro camera. The first attempt at a video is here

Cooling System (5) - Really finished

After all the work I had done on the Cooling System (See previous posts), I was 95% satisfied.   The only minor point was that she was running a bit hotter than I would have liked (Needle below the red but on the 'a' of 'Normal'.

After a chat about it with another owner (Kerry) he pointed out that because of the basic design of the front that a high percentage of the air coming through the grille was going around the radiator rather than through it.

 

His suggested solution was to 'block' of the back of the nosecone to force the air through the radiator.    No sooner said than done.

This blocks off 90% of the open area and should dramatically increase the air flow through the radiator.  Made from plywood and held together and secured with Meccano !!   (I knew that old set would come in useful sometime)

A quick 6 mile run showed that she does run appreciably cooler, with the needle between the 'r' and 'm' of 'Normal' now and fairly close to the ideal 12 o.clock position.  I need to do a long run on a really hot day to really confirm it has improved the system but I am quietly confident.   It certainly can't do any harm.

Dashboard Project - Phase Five

Added the next improvement to the dashboard.

Before it looked like this:

At the top we had 4 warning lights: Indicators, Oil Pressure, Alternator Warning and Cooling Fan, and the hazard lights all mounted independently.

So I have combined them into a single removable panel and added two further warning lights : Full Beam and Handbrake Warning/Low brake fluid (Not wired in yet) and a clock.

Looks very smart.

Pre-MOT Check

Although the MOT is over a month away I decided it would be sensible to get her checked out. Took her in to a local chap who is a Classic Car mechanic and offers pre-MOT checks.  Very encouraging, with only one real problem. This was what he told me:

1.  Indicators inoperable
This was a bit of a surprise as they had been working when I delivered the car to him.   Very quickly found the cause though, when I took the Flasher Unit out it was dripping with water.  It had been raining when I delivered the car and it then sat in rain for a few hours.  Obviously there is a leak in the scuttle just above the flasher relay.  Sod's law.   I tried drying it out on the radiator but that didn't help, but then half way round the run I did this afternoon (separate e-mail) they suddenly started working again, so obviously it just needed to dry out. I have put it inside a plastic bag for now although it is unlikely to happen again.

  2.  Front brake flexi hoses catch the suspension
He is right, they do sort of hang there and foul the suspension on full lock.  I decided a couple of cable ties to secure them out of the way of the suspension would solve it.

3.  Front off-side wheel arch loose
This is my rubber mounted idea with the replacement cycle wing.  He said it wouldn't be a failure but just to be on the safe side have replaced the rubber mount with a steel mount for the purposes of the MOT.

 4.  Rear shock absorbers damp- clean off & monitor
I knew this would happen as I had been underneath and they both appear to be leaking a bit.  But he says they are fine at the moment and something to just bear in mind.  I have a long term plan to replace all the shock absorbers anyway with some decent ones.

5.  Play in off-side and near-side rear swinging arm bushes
This is the biggie.  He showed me how the bushes are worn and the trailing arms are twisting independently.  At the moment they are marginal and he said if only one side was like that it would just be an advisory.  But with both worn he wasn't confident it would pass.  So we discussed it and agreed it made sense to replace them as they would need doing before the next MOT anyway.


6.  Wipers marking the windscreen
Fixed by a bit of judicious bending


7.  Exhaust blowing- this needs sorting before an emissions test can be carried out.
She started blowing again a few days ago so I needed to fix it.  It was my fault anyway as when I fixed the original blow I didn't surround the join with a decent bit of steel to support it.   So because it is only mounted at the engine and the back the whole thing flexes and vibrates and has disturbed my fix.   So tried to make a stronger mount this time but I think it needs a piece of steel to be machined.   So it was the same short-term fix as 6 months ago, but this time using a slightly stronger can (mushy peas as it happens).

He has ordered a set of bushes for the rear suspension, so I just need to drop the car off with him next month.  And he has promised I can watch/help so I can better understand how the car is put together.

Very pleased there were no show stoppers.

Second Lincolnshire Meeting

After the success of the inaugural meeting it was time for another one.  Although I had floated the idea of an evening at a pub in April, most people were busy and a few said they after a full day at work they just didn't fancy a long drive to a pub where they couldn't drink anyway.  So the general consensus was that the family Sunday lunch was the way to go.

The only member who hadn't been able to attend the first meeting lived near Lincoln so I decided to use a pub very near him called the Woodcocks.

Once again a huge success, particularly with the weather as I again picked the hottest day of the year so far.  Very nice pub, very efficient, good food and a lovely setup.  We managed 25 people, including 10 cars that we managed to line up together in the car park.  As usual, the centre of attraction :-)

Great day out.   For me it was a 90 mile round journey, but I did it all on country back roads apart from an unavoidable short stretch on a couple of A roads.   Car behaved impeccably.

Too good a day to miss

With a few days to go it was obvious that Saturday 17th May was going to be absolutely glorious, hottest day so far and perfectly clear.  So the Leicester 'chapter' of the Robin Hood Club decided on a last minute run out and invited all along.  The start point was only 45 mins from me so I couldn't resist.   Joined up with 5 other cars for a 90 min run through the back roads of Leicester and Rutland, with the occasional rest stop.  

Great fun, although it was about 5-10 mph outside my comfort zone and the front and back ends got very 'lively' on more than occasion.  Also got airborne over one bridge and felt the sump guard 'kiss' the ground on touchdown.

And finishing up at a pub of course.

Came back on a shortcut which was simply a single line on the satnav.  Got slightly concerned when I had to cross a cattle grid, but luckily road remained tarmaced and with enough room for one car with the occasional passing place.

Memorable day.
 

Raising Rear Ride Height

Having raised the front ride height about 1" to stop the sump grounding I felt that I ought to balance it out by raising the rear about the same.  But having recently done a fair number of miles on the motorway system at speeds up to 70mph the handling seemed fine, so I have decided that this task is unnecessary and will be removed from the list.

Cooling System (4) - Finished ?

Over the last week I have covered almost 200 miles and I was really pleased to see that the engine comes up to temperature very quickly, albeit slightly higher than I wanted (The needle sits on the 'A' of 'Normal' on the gauge) then stays there throughout the trips.  Fairly extended waits at traffic lights have no effect and it was only 2 occasions, in traffic queues, that the temperature started to rise.  On both occasions my new adjustable thermostat kicked in, started the fan, and the temperature quickly dropped back to normal.

So I am happy now that the previous expansion bottle cap was either weak or had failed and the new stronger one is better.  And that the other problems were all caused by air locks in the system, which have now bubbled out.

One other thought is that we have previously been over filling the system, which has caused the excess water to overflow from the expansion bottle.  Only time will tell.

So for now I think we have it fixed.  

Stoneleigh Kit Car Show

The Stoneleigh Kit Car Show marks the beginning of the season, when most people have put their cars back on the road after the winter (Not in my case of course).  So this year I attended for the first time.   It was huge, and I reckon there must have been well over 1000 cars on display, as well as 4 exhibition halls full of manufacturers stands and spare part and tool stalls.

Here are some shots of the Robin Hood stand where we had over 100 cars.

Including me

I also decided to stay overnight to take full advantage of the Show.  So for the first time in nearly 45 years I spent the night under canvas.

 Turned out to be surprisingly comfortable and I enjoyed it.

I particularly liked this car.  A very rare example of the 'gold' Superspec, limited edition model.







Looking forward to next year already