May 2006

 

It might seem like I haven't been doing much, but in reality I have. I have bolted the floor to the X member, also hung the  the mufflers to the floor. I also had to reposition one of the seat cradle bolts as the nut was fouling with the chassis. That was not detected before as the chassis was dipped at that point. Now its straight, the floor is closer. I have also been going over the body fixing up obvious flaws. I hope to go over it with a fine tooth comb in the next couple of weeks. I will tell the painter that I will contact him when I'm sure its right. I don't want to rush the preparation  and have that as the reason why the end result is poor. It's going to be black remember!...no short cuts with that I'm afraid.

 

OK, a while back I mentioned I had to make a mechanism to activate the bear claw latch and I said I would show it in more detail when I disassemble the car. Well here it is. I only had about 10mm clearance to play with between the latch and mechanism, so things were tight.  I had to come up with something that would act as a mounting plate for the handle to screw into and incorporate the mechanism at the same time. This is what I came up with. You can see that I cut the original square shaft down. I then made a lever with a square drive to slip over it. I then made stops so the handle would have a minimum and maximum travel area. I then made the spring return so the handle would he horizontal at rest. The maximum stop would prevent over straining the pull bars and cables. The lever had to be removable so the handle could be removed when it was unscrewed. That required a split pin or something else to lock it in place when it was installed. You can see in the second pic that I had little room to slip my hand in and locate the hole with the split pin. Keep in mind that this is all behind a inner skin and no vision at all.

From the lever there is a pull bar that has an eyelet welded on the end. I used a bicycle brake cable to slip through the eyelet. The ball stop on the cable only allows the cable to slide in one direction. On the pull bar you can see a bracket. That is screwed to the inner skin and holds the bar in the right position ( horizontal ). You can also see a spring on the bell crank. That is attached to the bell crank and the other end clips into a hole in the inner skin. That just holds everything in the right position. I have used a 1/4" bolt with a hole drilled into it just near the head. The cable is slipped into the hole and a nut is tightened up to the bell crank. That is a means of adjustment so the handles operate at the desired position. The inner handle is set up the same way via another eyelet on a pull bar. Any handle could be used in this instance. I just wanted a flush unit off a Sigma. The bell crank is held to the inner skin via a bolt and two nyloc nuts with washers on each side of the bell crank.

This shows the overall thickness of the mechanism. The gap between the handle and plate is where the door would be. This has been in the car now for a couple of years and worked very well. I could pretty it up, but I can't see the need...It works well, and that's all that matters. Each handle is independent from each other. You can open the door from either side and not move the other handle. That overcomes the draw back with these bear claw latches.

Next pic I have started to spray Stone Guard inside all the panels. After that, I will paint the entire inside with 2 pac paint.

Before I paint the inside, I thought I would drill out the heater holes. I fitted grommets and slid in the brass pipes. I then cut the flexible hoses to length and fastened them on. I will need to get better clamps as the ones supplied are flimsy things that strip easily. Next pic is the inside view. I placed the heater unit in so I could get the holes at the exact position. There is not a lot of room for error.
Here is the inside after I painted it with Dupont 2 pack paint. This is a cheaper paint that sprayed well and set hard in about 15 minutes. I used just on a litre of paint ( and 500ml of hardener ). It covered really well. Best part is it's not as toxic as the other stuff I used on the rest of the car so far. ( CSI is the first brand I think. Distributed by Regal )

Here is an accidental tech tip. I have been spraying paint a lot over the past few months and didn't realise the overspray was settling on the body. This would have been a problem if the car was painted but it was waiting for final rub back, so no great concern. When I started to wet rub the body. I could see I had a nice, even guide coat to work with. This worked out great as I could easily see any imperfections. These two photos show the contrast between the rubbed back area and the un touched areas. The tip is to spray mist into the air and let is settle on the body. Spraying the normal guide coat with flat back was always a hit and miss thing for me. I could never get it even, so some areas got more sanding than others. This way, all get  the same treatment.

This may seem strange. Why am I showing a cork block?. Well this particular block has been with me well over 20 years and has seen plenty of action. I have tried all different varieties of blocks, but I keep gravitating back to my trusty old cork block. It has the right weight and feel for me. It is also harder than rubber so I can see highs and lows a lot better. I found rubber follows contours a lot easier and hides imperfection. In other hands, that may not be the case.

I have rubbed the primer back with 400 wet and dry on the initial stage. Once I have gone over the entire car and fixed all minor repairs, I will go over it again with 800. This pic ( sorry for being a bit out of focus ) shows that I use a flood light at an angle to see the imperfections a lot easier. That wasn't a problem a few years ago, seems age has now forced me to work around obstacles like this;-). Still, I am very pleased with the initial results. The panels that I thought would be a bit off ended up really good. Only small pin holes and nicks with a couple of high spots. I think I will have it all done next week end. I rang the painter and scheduled mid June, but it may be sooner.
From now on, the cover goes over the car. I don't want any more guide coats;-)

Here it is after a couple of weekends. I have gone over and over it. I found a few problems that I didn't locate before. It is a lot easier to feel and see the high and lows when its as smooth as a baby's bum. The 800 makes it close to gloss. All scratches and orange peel have been rubbed out.  I have done the best I can do. I'm not a perfectionist, but I do not rest knowing that something is not quite right, that's why it's taken me this long. Hmm..I think I just defined a perfectionist;-) I'm sure there are some small imperfections that I will find after it's been painted, but I won't get upset about it. After all, they will be hard to see when I'm cruising along with the wind in my hair :-)

Here is something revisited, for the 4th time!. Yep, the handbrake. It was set up to use the Honda lever and I intended to have custom cables made up. Ford rear, Honda front.  I just happened onto the Bob Drake web site and found a heap of goodies. I have found Bob Drake a good company to deal with. Good prices and quality with a short shipping delay.This Lokar set up took my eye ( as well as 200 other items...many I have bought as well, but I will show them during the assembly phase. ) I know I said at the start of the build that I use store bought as a last resort. The trouble I've found is that the 37 was missing plenty of it original items. What was there had seen better days.Trying to locate much of it it is near impossible. Also, having old stuff repaired and re chromed is too expensive. It's cheaper to buy new, and in some cases, the reproduction stuff is better than original. Buying the complete Lokar set up worked out a lot cheaper than getting custom made cables....and looks a lot better. To take advantage of the Lokar cables, it seemed logical to use their lever as well, as it mates directly to the cables, so I will cut out the Honda brackets and weld in the ones to suit the Lokar unit. I intend to run the cables through the floor and have the adjuster and union block incorporated into the seat plynth as well. I want a functional handbrake before its put on a trailer, just for added peace of mind.

 

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