Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[dozeydustman]

I’m not entirey sure how the selector works with an invacar, but I think there would be some way of installing a micro switch that the lever presses when reverse is engaged to power a reverse lamp. Maybe even a magnet and reed switch?

[LightBulbFun]

I’m not entirey sure how the selector works with an invacar, but I think there would be some way of installing a micro switch that the lever presses when reverse is engaged to power a reverse lamp. Maybe even a magnet and reed switch?

 

thats what im thinking was done

 

from what iv seen the gear selector is just a 3 position lever that goes in a straight line (regardless if its on the floor by the driver seat or sticking out from the dash)

 

im not entirely privy to how all the linkages are setup however

[PhilA]

More likely would be a switch similar to the one on my gears; rotary design with an arm.

 

Off-load they are engaged electrically, spring loaded and operated by a length of bank-counter-biro chain so that if it jams it doesn't impede operation of the selector and doesn't have to be 100% in line.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Given where the gear selector is I'll probably go for the simple solution - a microswitch attached to the seat base which will be activated when the selector is in the neutral position.  I've not put much thought into it yet as it's definitely just on the wish list at this point.

 

While I didn't actually have the opportunity to do anything to the car today, two very important parts have now arrived.

 

While my wallet may now be £200 lighter, I've got three nice new tyres on the wheels.

 

I'm really happy with how in period those tyres look.

 

The other thing to turn up is this bundle of fuel hose.

 

 

It's worth noting that I've kind of lost patience with hoses starting to disintegrate virtually as soon as they're fitted, so I may have resorted to slight overkill.

 

 

Let's see how that lasts shall we?  Only downside is that with the pipe walls being about twice the thickness of the ones on there I'm going to need to get a bunch more hose clips.

 

I'll get the wheels back on tomorrow (she's currently sitting on three very flat tyres) and get the fuel hoses routed properly so that's all ready for the fuel tank when it turns up - which should with a bit of luck be in the next couple of days.

 

So a short update this one, but quite important items to have ticked off.

[LightBulbFun]

Very cool

 

 

I love the look of a set of fresh tyres

 

interesting how the back wheels where painted orange, from the pictures iv seen when it came to 10 inch wheels most Model 70s just ran on Silver (unpainted?) wheels sometimes with hubcaps

 

(this is assuming those wheels didn't come off another car at some point of course)

 

hope the fuel hosing holds up, I was thinking about comments of how modern stuff is crap, when Broadswords Jag issues turned out to be failing fuel hose

[SiC]

I blame you for going now to look at battery disconnect switches.

 

Though, really I need a kill switch that does both battery and alternator connections. Pushing that would shut eveything down, even if the engine is running.

 

Phil

FIA battery isolator is what you are looking for.

 

E.g. https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/battery-isolator-switch-removeable-key-with-ignition-isolation.html

[Zelandeth]

interesting how the back wheels where painted orange, from the pictures iv seen when it came to 10 inch wheels most Model 70s just ran on Silver (unpainted?) wheels sometimes with hubcaps

 

(this is assuming those wheels didn't come off another car at some point of course)

 

They're not original to the car. I got a pile of wheels, both 10 and 12 inch with KP, and I've used the three best ones. TP would most likely have been on 12" wheels originally just like TWC.

 

As for fuel hose, older stuff tends to break down due to the ethanol content in many modern fuels. New stuff though just seems by and large to be utter rubbish. The hoses I fitted when I got KP (so a year ago to within a couple of weeks) has started to perish noticeably.

 

Marine stuff is subject to far tighter rules than automotive hose for obvious reasons. A fuel hose fails on your car and younger stranded at the side of the road, it's inconvenient - even though fire is obviously a risk. A fuel hose fails ten miles off the coast in the North Sea, that's a far, far more serious situation.

 

I'm probably going to go over all the hoses on the Lada with similar stuff for peace of mind if this seems to hold up as well as hoped.

[LightBulbFun]

Ah yeah sorry I meant another car as in another model of car rather then off a model 70

 

you would think even Car fuel hose would not be so bad considering the big safety risk...

 

(as for the Lada, it would not be autoshite if you weren't investing money into a car your trying to flog for already less then what it owes you  )

 

(reminds me do you plan to do up the Lada exhaust when you do the Vans?)

[Zelandeth]

Well my take with the Lada is that (owing me money or not) it's not a cheap car, so the smaller the to do list it comes with the better. Plus I fully intend to use it until it sells.

 

Exhaust wise it will probably just get a standard one fitted. There's a difference between fitting £15 or so of fuel hoses and other parts already in stock and spending £3-400 quid on a stainless exhaust. I can get a full system from Lada for about £50 as I recall - even if it won't have the correct tail pipe as the estate specific ones are really hard to find apparently.

 

The one on the van will be very much not off the shelf as I'm planning to totally change the routing and reducing the length of the system by about 80%.

[LightBulbFun]

yeah it was just a little bit of light hearted humour

 

is it possible to transfer over the tail pipe from the existing exhaust or is that also knackered?

 

it will be interesting to see (and hear    ) how the the van does with 80% less exhaust

 

(I wonder why it was done the original way it was?)

[Daviemck2006]

I think you will feel the need to paint at least the rusty silver wheel before fitting it Zel!

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[LightBulbFun]

if its the front wheel under the nose/body work

 

how about painting it bright neon green or something and see how long it takes for someone to notice? 

[Zelandeth]

Not this time, Davie!

 

I'll Probably get the tyres taken back off at some point so I can tidy them up properly. However not just now for the simple reason that if one of the wheel cylinders decides to leak I would rather it did it on old wrecked paint than paint I had just put on there.

 

Focus is generally sticking with stuff actually between me and the road right now.

 

I think you will feel the need to paint at least the rusty silver wheel before fitting it Zel!

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

So much for finishing the fuel system today. The hose I've been sent is the wrong size, so I'll need to wait for the supplier to post out a replacement now. Annoying.

[LightBulbFun]

So much for finishing the fuel system today. The hose I've been sent is the wrong size, so I'll need to wait for the supplier to post out a replacement now. Annoying.

 

do you have any of the crap stuff left?

 

maybe you could temporally finish the fuel system off in that, and then replace it once the new stuff arrives

 

(plus it will give you a chance to get all your measurements down pat )

[Zelandeth]

Yeah, though there's really no point... it's usable for shuffling the car around as it is with the fuel can tied to the back of the car. No point in running it all the way to the front of the car unless the fuel tank were to magically appear this afternoon, would just be making work for the sake of it.

[Zelandeth]

So where did we get to this afternoon?

 

Well firstly these obviously needed to be fitted to the car.

 

 

I'm still getting far too much enjoyment from finding something that looks this period appropriate yet with production date only a month ago.

 

On the car they of course look the part.  Albeit rather tricky to get photos of in the garage given how cramped it is.

 

 

If I get time tomorrow I might try to get her out of the garage to get a better photo.

 

Next up (which I'm afraid I forgot to get any photos of) was trying to convince the left and right indicators to flash at vaguely sane speeds.  As it was before indicating right was fine, but left resulted in it generally staying on, blinking out very briefly about once every twenty seconds.  The flasher is a thermal type, so is sensitive to the overall current flow through both sides being pretty close to ensure that the flash rate is the same.  Thankfully a fresh new set of lamps (GE branded) has restored sanity.  I hadn't realised how badly blackened the offside front lamp was before.

 

The last task for today was to do something about the crack and hole in the nearside door top.  If you look back at some of the interior photo you might see that there's a hole just above the rear latch on the nearside door.  In itself this wasn't too big an issue - but the problem was that this allowed quite a bit of flexing to go on - to a slightly unnerving extent when there was tension on the latch.

 

This is a repair which will require a bit of finesse to be done tidily...so I've just strapped it together with a bit of metal band for now.

 

 

It's ugly as all hell, but the door no longer flexes horribly when the door is shut.  This will be getting sorted properly in due course,  but I wanted to do something in the interim so I could at least get the door closures adjusted properly.

 

Oh, almost forgot...While fitting the wheels with the new tyres on, I also adjusted the free play in the brakes.  The offside rear in particular had a mile of slack in it, so that seems to have vastly improved the amount of dead travel there was in the brakes.  Hopefully get it out the garage soon to see if that theory is correct.

 

Here is a photo I snapped earlier with you in mind, Dez.

 

 

You just don't get warning lights like this any more...

[Zelandeth]

Today I've been running around all over Hell and it feels like my feet have finally touched the floor for the first time all day as of about ten minutes ago.

I'm hoping that after dinner I might actually get a chance to spend an hour in the garage.  Not least because this lot is now sitting in the corner.

 

The eBay seller gets major points from me for how they handled the foul up and me getting the wrong hose.  The replacement arrived this morning, and they have been nothing but professional and efficient in their communication.

 

Sounds like we've got a moderately busy weekend coming up as well, so we'll have to see how much time I have to play with.

[Zelandeth]

Given that the arrival of the fuel tank is surely imminent now, my attention is definitely firmly focused on the "stuff I need done before the first road test" list at the moment.

High on that list was "sort the handbrake."  Two reasons for this, firstly: that it's the only way to secure the car when parked.  Secondly: It's the only backup you have in the event of a failure of the single circuit hydraulic braking system, as the CVT drive system and centrifugal clutch means that you have no engine braking available to help you bleed speed in an emergency.

Having totally dismantled every brake drum on the car, I knew that the mechanism there was working fine, and I'd established that the cable between the handle on the dash and the cantilever assembly under the car was free (helped by the precense of a grease nipple I imagine), however no amount of my hanging my entire body weight off it could make it move.  This was due to the rod with pulls on the cable to the drums having seized into a bush where it passes through the mid chassis crossmember.  A combination of battering things with a 4lb lump hammer and general violence got that freed off.  I think the handbrake is now actually working, though it will be easier to tell that once I've got it out the garage next.  The adjusters are all free though so it shouldn't be a problem to adjust stuff.

The rear valance/bumper was next on the list.  This essentially doubles as a shield to keep people clear of the exhaust, so needs to be in place in some form.  

I've now started to put together the framework for this and also put some strapping in place to shore up the rear quarter on the nearside which has a bunch of cracks in it.

The plethora of bolts and rivets you can see here are now tying all the bits of bodywork here together via straps on the other side of the panel.



There will be glass fibre repairs done here as well, matting most likely applied from behind the panel, but actually having things tied together now will make that a lot easier.  The whole corner is now reasonably rigid rather than distinctly floppy (to the extent that it used to wobble comedically when the engine was idling).

Getting there, bit by bit.

[LightBulbFun]

very cool stuff happy to see the finally bit of the braking system is now functional and that rear body work repairs is starting

 

I imagine once everything is roughly fibre glassed in place (at least to the degree it can hold itself together) then all the screws at least, can/will come out?

[Zelandeth]

That's the plan. Once the matting is in place the rivets can be drilled out, the holes left will be covered up when the surface gets the filler treatment which it will obviously need anyway.

 

This corner is probably the worst bit on the car as the damage covers quite a large area and some quite an awkward structure. The body at the front is comparatively simple as it's just a big hollow box, there's a lot more going on back here.

[Zelandeth]

Actually some decent progress made today for a change.

 

Having reversed out of the garage it was far easier to get at the fuel lines.

 

Ten minutes later all of the old fuel lines were off.  Had to cut it into a couple of pieces to remove it.

 

 

No idea what this hose is made of...Absolute pain to cut whatever it is!

 

My guess as to how much hose I needed was correct pretty much to the inch.  In case you wondered, you need five metres of hose.  Tail is here waiting for the fuel tank up front.

 

 

Speaking of the fuel tank, had an email from the company who have been making it for me to say that it's now ready for collection.  A shame that you'll never see it once it's on the car.

 

 

Fuel lines all finished up in the engine bay now as well.

 

 

The other task of the afternoon has been to start building up a framework to support the rear bumper as I come to actually build it up.

 

 

Just waiting on a response from a friend to see if I can rearrange a visit we'd got planned for tomorrow to see if I can rearrange it - if that can be moved easily I'll hopefully go and get the fuel tank tomorrow and get it fitted.

 

Then we might be looking at a (very, very, very, very) local road test...

[LightBulbFun]

that fuel tank looks amazing! #shinyandchrome   (well ally in this case )

 

glad to see the fuel lines ran without any problems

[mrbenn]

Some serious work gone into that tank, looks a lovely job.

[Zelandeth]

They do look to have done a nice job of the tank.

 

Looks like I should be able to get it picked up tomorrow.

 

I think once it's hooked up we can do a test run. I established on the driveway today that while we've more travel in the brakes than I'd ideally like, the rears are more than capable of locking up if asked, so I definitely have brakes.

 

I reckon a couple of laps round our block will be done then I'll recheck the adjustment of the brakes as I imagine things will settle a bit. Will be the first real test for the drive system, I reckon the belt is a bit loose but I guess we'll see. It definitely worked with the car on the axle stands but that's different to having actual load on the system.

[dollywobbler]

It does seem that they should be looser than you might expect. I might have a play with the tension again on mine. Too loose and you get a real snatch as drive taken up.

[Zelandeth]

Spot the difference...

 

 

Probably not going to have time to fit it today sadly.

[egg]

How many litres/gallons is it Zel?

[Zelandeth]

Original is 4.5 gallon according to the documentation. New one is probably fractionally smaller due to how things worked out when the metal was actually folded, but I'd say in the real world the difference is probably negligible.

[dozeydustman]

Tank looks excellent!