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Build
Diary
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Having moved the car into the garage ready for work the first thing I noticed was the growing pool of oil under the car. Investigation revealed that the passenger side inner driveshaft boot was split. I strategically positioned a container to catch all the leakage but did no more about it this time. I'll have plenty of time before the end of the build to sort this out. |
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| One
of the main jobs I decided to tackle on this trip was to make and
install a headlining panel and bracket to hold the panel up at the
front, which would also double as a mount for the rear view mirror
and interior light. The bracket is simply a piece of aluminium cut
to shape and bent slightly at the front to match the rake of the windscreen
frame. A hole was cut in the centre of the bracket to accommodate
the connectors for the light and two smaller holes either side to
take the self-tapping screws that secure the light/mirror assembly. The headlining panel was constructed from a piece of plywood, cut to fit into the cabs roof space and covered with a thick, light grey material. Spray-on carpet glue was used to fix the material to the plywood. The panel was then offered up and secured at the rear on two small brackets previously fitted for the purpose. The front of the panel is supported by the light/mirror bracket, which is screwed to the top of the windscreen frame. To finish off, two more small holes were drilled at the back of the bracket and self-tapping screws screwed straight into the headlining panel. |
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| Another
of the main jobs I tackled was the problem of how to plumb in the
Mini heater for water and air. I have previously mentioned that I
decided to junk the Panda heater in favour of fitting a Mini item. In order to get water from the engine to the heater I'd need to go through the bulkhead so I bought some electrical bulkhead connectors that had a large enough internal diameter to fit 15mm copper pipe through. I cut two short lengths of copper pipe and threaded them through the connectors, then tightened them to make a waterproof seal. These will then be mounted in holes cut in the bulkhead. The hoses from the engine will be clamped to the pipe on the outside and two shorter hoses will then be clamped to the inside between the bulkhead and the heater. I also had the problem then of getting blown air from the Mini heater to the windscreen. I decided that the easiest solution to this would be to adapt the Panda heater box to the task. All I needed was the ducting for the windscreen so I completely stripped it down and removed all of the heater, fan and control mechanisms. This left me with a large, empty plastic box which I then cut down until I had only a small air chamber with the windscreen vents. Of course I was left with some large openings which I blocked with a combination of pieces of plastic cut from the unwanted parts of the heater, plywood and silicone sealant. |
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| A
bit more work was also done on the wiring, this time on the handbrake
and extra driving lights. I couldn't remember how the handbrake switch
was mounted when I stripped the car down originally so I sorted it
out as shown in the pictures below. This meant that I had to slightly
modify the handbrake lever by drilling a hole in it and fixing a bolt
of suitable length in position to act on the switch. I wired up the driving lights by the simple expedient of fitting a relay designed for the purpose. The relay takes a signal from the headlight cable, internally switching so that current is sent to the driving lights direct from the battery. This puts no extra load on the headlight circuit and so is safer and more reliable. |
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 Driving lights relay |
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| One of the consequences of not using the Panda heater was that there was a large hole in the bulkhead which was now useless. I cut a piece of aluminium and bent it to shape over a metal pipe before applying some silicone sealant around the edges and rivetting it into place. I doesn't matter that it looks terrible, it will be covered by the dashboard panel. | ||
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| Having
now constructed the heater ducting and the dashboard panel on the
last trip I decided to fit it all properly. First I had to cover the
dashboard panel to finish it off. For this I used dark grey carpet,
glued using spray-on carpet glue. The heater ducting was bolted in
and the gaps around the windscreen vents and bulkhead where the floor
blower was were sealed with silicone sealant. I fitted a grab handle
on the passenger side which also served to fasten the dashboard panel
down securely. The panel is secured at the drivers side by the fact
that the back of the instrument housing is bolted through it to the
structure. I now need to source something to cover the screen vents
and direct the air up the screen to finish the top part of the dashboard.
I finally fitted the Cinquecento steering wheel to get an idea of
the finished look. And that was it for this trip. |
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