Hiya again,
Been pretty active with the Dai in the past weeks, have settled into this new job nicely and can put more attention (and money) into this thing.
Way back in November, I cleared the shelves of my local suoercheap of their Wattyl HD primer and Gloss white, TWICE. All in an effort to have a good suply of paint for my flaking steel wheels. Ive tried white knight previously but figured id give the Wattyl a go. My dad has land rover parts from the 90s that still look good and my expectation is I’ll have to re coat these wheels after i take them rallying. 2 cans of primer and 2 if colour did inside and out side of 4 13" rims, bit patchy on the inside. Treated the wheels with phosphoric acid and penitrol to ensure no further rust and deflated the tyres to mask with wheelie bin bags lol.
While the paint was drying, I printed off a bunch of nut covers (hehehehe) just to hide the tired wheel nuts with the freshy painted wheels. I could probably make some new centre caps for the rear too.
Next I started on the silly single wiper mod. After deleting the rear wiper and plugging the hole with a nut, bolt and o-ring, I decided it would be funny to copy the DTM, BTCC and ATCC single wiper design, the CORRECT way ofc. I pulled out the tired wiper assembly, which due to terrible grounding was barely wiping a wet window, repainted and rust proofed the bracket and made sure it was still full of grease. In order to increase the wing of the centre wiper, geometrically, the wiper motor arm must be extended or the wiper arm must be shortened, I chose the former and blobbed in a calculated 6mm extension to the motor arm. Its relatively simple to calculate this in a CAD software. In fusion360 you can draw up all the lengths, set a few constraints and play with the angles and lengths. I made a cardboard template of how far I wanted the wiper to move on the windscreen, then matched that in CAD. I’m pretty sure its still legal as it wipes the whole window, the wrong police officer might not like the vertical “Aerodynamic” position. You must also straighten the wiper blade if it has a kink like below.
Another quick fix that has since broken again, so still needs work, is the horn. I was never happy with the original SAAS one and possibly due to missing parts, it never fitted well in my wheel. So i printed off a 2 piece clip with bezel to hold a 6A rated Jaycar push button.
Its a bit ugly but it works, could do with some more insulation on the back side as the button sometimes grounds on the boss kit.
More printed parts:
I had the idea ages back to put motorcycle bar end mirrors on the fenders like 70s Corollas and 240?260zeds. I’ve always had a soft spot for that styling. Enter the Ebay special “Black CNC Round Bar End Mirrors”. They have 2 potions that they can be mounted in, I personally like the “Up and Over” but the sideways “Out and Up” looks cool too. Drilling into the quarter panel was a bit scary and choosing how far forward they should sit was a bit of an internal debate but I’m happy with the outcome. They have a m6 hex/cap screw on the inside that normally pulls a cone into an expanding clamp inside the handle bars (like a dyna bolt) I’ve got it clamping the mirror to the guard with a fender washer and a 3d printed spacer. You can see a surprising amount with them (Not that any 80s car has blind spots or good mirrors in the first place). I’m yet to remove the original mirrors, not sure what my plan is there, maybe a piece of steel, welded nuts and body filler. Bolt it in on the inside for security then sand the filler to the contour it needs to be. Easy to revert in case i get defected too!
Onto some fun stuff!
I started on the door cards this month too! Fully stripped out the doors, taking all the vinyl trim etc off (IN THE BIN). If you’re ever faced with that goo-ey silastic sikaflex adhesive that holds the plastic weather sheeting on inside the door, you know, the stuff that sticks to everything and never actually sets. Forget kero, acetone, MEK, metho etc, mineral turps was the stuff! Absolute life saver! took me an hour but I mostly removed it all, or at least enough that I could RIvNut all the old trim clip holes and start creating carboard templates.
Still waiting for the metal shops to open again in the new year but I’ll be getting them to rough cut some 1mm Ali sheet on their guillotine, then I can trace my templates and bolt up the templates (should be easy right?). My plan is stainless washers and button head hex drive bolts. Should look pretty cool against the brushed Aluminium.
I printed off some prototype webbing triangle things in PLA too. These would hold 25mm webbing (probably hot pink) and bolt them too the door. I tried pretty hard to snap them and it looks like 5mm is enough plastic to more then close the door.
Another part for the door is the latch release. I plan on using a loop of wire or a T handle that runs through a printed fairlead (with brass insert to prevent erosion). I don’t know if i like the chamfered edges but its a proof of design at least.
On Boxing day, I made some mud flaps. these are 3mm rubber mats from Bunnings for 6 bucks each. Arguably too thin but we’ll see. Simply removed the old arch liner, RivNuts in a few holes with the rubber being held tight by fender washers and socket head cap screws. Might regret the choice of screws as I know how bad they can strip with dirt and rust but at least I can grab them with vicegrips. I should probably put some conduit on the exposed wiring under the guard and ziptie it out of harms way. I’ll run the body harness in the bay at a later date,
I also riveted the dead pedal/foot rest I built during spare time at aviation college. Yes, that’s 6061 T5 and 2024 T4 Alclad at about 60 thou thick. Dimple holes for shits and giggles but should help with grip. It fits perfectly next to the clutch and exhaust tunnel. I’m yet to decide if ill put in the heel plate, but who can say no to sexy race car parts?
And lastly… absolute deal of the year (apart from the car). A freshhh Cobra Monaco popped up for sale on Marketplace, scored it for $250 vs $585 brand new! An engineer has agreed to write it up for $350, If anyone knows a decent mod plate mob in brissy/logan please let me know. I like engineers that are happy to advise you on bracket design more than the “here’s a blue plate mate” type.
Yet another long post, I need to do better! Merry Christmas everybody and happy new year!
-Mr Lawless
