Lighting and Dash part 2

Ok, these updates are really getting behind. Job change with work and just wanting to get on with the build as opposed to talking about it is my excuse.

So where were we? 

I ordered the gauges back in Novemeber to take advantage of a Black Friday special discount front Speedhut. Due to my non standard approach of using the OEM Engine ECU  and having John at Speartech keep the canbus cabling in for gauge use I can then keep all the OEM sensors on the engine and therefore use the OEM output for gauges.

Speedhut do a great set of products that include GM canbus gauges that can be customised totally to your design. This is what turned up mid January....

First impressions count and these are packed really well and look excellent quality. I had them add the km/h to make obeying French speed limits easier when abroad. I also had their branding removed, and kept the font/gauge styling pretty similar to the original Smiths gauges. 

The other joyous things with this system is that all the gauges daisy chain the ECU signal between them, so it's one signal connection, power and lighting and then you get this...

The lights are on...

And below with the engine running too

At this point a work colleague seeing the above photo said... Those look like my old Golf mk3 gauges and the penny dropped... I've replicated my old VW Passat 4-Motion gauges with the blue and red scheme. Hmm. How to get out of this with least embarrassment? No answer. They are extensively easy on my eyes and I'm happy. Move on.

So after much measuring and fiddling about, the above arrangement is my final that I'm happy with and its time to start cutting the glass fibre again :-(

This measure a gazillion times and cut once might just have something to it though...

And after a short but necessary work trip to Houston Texas (great V8 soundtrack out there though) and the above is achieved. The masking tape tabs are mimicking the material thickness of dash covering. 

And back in situ and all lit up. I think I like this look a lot!

Next up my other Black Friday purchase that I ordered at the same time to be discussed - the oil pan swap!

Shiny Stuff part 3

Yes, there is no end to how much shiny stuff you can have on a Cobra! There might even be a part 4.

Now, unknown to you readers I have been spending a fair bit of time deliberating over screws. Yes it's possible I have one or more loose ones however until that's proven just bear with me.

The roll bar legs need escutcheons where they pass through the body. These escutcheons are very shiny pieces of stainless steel. Having eventually decided on the size (heads big enough to cover the countersinking but retro flat blade drive) the trick was then to get them to look right.

As they come these screws are a bit dull.

Compared to the shiny escutcheon definitely needs work.

So holding my 20 year old drill in the vice with polish stuff and a bit of prep work with 400 grit wet and dry with wd40 to lubricate and hey presto...
 

Shiny screw heads!

And a few more...

And a lot more!

Finally now all packed up below. I'm now at that stage that once something is fitted it then comes off again ready for paint as these things won't go on again until final assembly time. 

Lighting and dash pt1

Happy New Year blog readers... Another year has started and happily much time was spent in the garage over the Christmas break (and I think all the family are happy with that!).

With the physical installation of the lights on the body it's time to get the wiring installed... I have been dreading this bit a little just because it's a lot of faffing, fiddling, squeezing myself into difficult angles etc. 

As I already had the engine loom installed due to it being the OEM GM one I originally decided to make the loom myself. Having costed up the raw materials it worked out less to get a generic loom made up of the bits I needed and then finish it off myself. 

The key thing with this whether it's a generic or AK made loom is to lay it all out and identify everything and get familiar with the colour coding and then tackle the installation and testing methodically.

Because my lighting loom is generic I completed continuity testing on all the main circuits before putting it anywhere near the car for both functional and switching (when relays used) circuits - this helped sort a couple of undocumented issues which were easily resolved.

Of course being totally methodical does not totally eliminate mistakes - spot the one below - so chuffed I was with connecting up the side repeaters and testing them I'd failed to spot the plug is larger than the hole...

Argghh £&@£&£!!!

Easily resolved I moved onto the headlights. Once I'd deciphered how the BMW column stalk wiring worked, it was a case of completing the relay wiring for headlight switching to make sure the dipped beam goes off as full beam comes on. The result below. 

I'll need to adjust the aim of these because first MOT/IVA test. I've read most testers are quite relaxed about letting you sort these there and then against the machine that tests them so you know you're getting it right.

One of the things about using the Savage type aluminium switches on the dash are that the leds are very bright. Someone on the Pistonheads forum designed a series of circuits to help manage this depending on the sophistication you're looking for. Being a fool I went for the most complex one that allows you to dim the the overall output (adjustable) and also manage the contrast between the switched being activated (bright) and dim for nighttime driving as activated by the sidelights being turned on.

Thankfully this was pretty straightforward and the circuit works brilliantly - I just need to box up and attach to dash permanently.

I shall follow up with a lighting part 2 post when I've got everything else reconnected and post a picture of the switches in action too.

The other thing prior to putting in the loom was to get the dash fitting well around the steering column. 

I finally realised my column needed a bit more trimming before I could be sure it was in the intended position... See below

And then you go at it really slowly trimming away the dash fibreglass to get a close fit all the way round the cowling of the column. Dremel with mini drum sander tool worked a treat for this. I used two pieces of threaded stud rod that I had nuts tightened against the column mounting positions so I could then raise them up and down easily without removing entire thing to allow you to offer up after each pass of the sander.

The 1mm gap around the cowling allows for whatever I cover the dash in after all the holes / instrument trial fitting is complete.