Monster Munch!

Apart from the fact that I dropped the car on the jack and it munched and went straight through my brand new radiator Im stillreasonably chirpy......

BUT OK, so I'd already read many many peoples comments and blogs saying 'the last 5% of the build takes 95% of the time' but bugger me its true!! Ive been back round the car and re-routed a lot of wiring after reading many peoples IVA fail sheets. The good thing is that I am more experienced now than I was and when I looked at some of my wiring even I wouldnt have given it a pass. Now its sorted!

Im 42 yrs old and I rebuilt my first car at 15 yrs old, Ive rebuilt many more since but NEVER have I had to take my laptop over to it.............. very frustrating indeed. I tried to upload the OMEX start map and seem to have an RS232 and USB issue!!!! What has that got to do with anything petrol headed ???

NOT LONG NOW........(He hopes)

Oil pressure guage and fuse box

The ETB Digidash OPG needs an adaptor to fit the Zetec, when I got it I was concerned at the tightness of the thread so phoned ETB. They told me the nature of the thread is to seal the joint and so is designed this way and to only wind it in 4 or 5 turns...

So now its fitted in the Zetecs original location for what was the oil warning light. The good thing about this sensor is that it does both pressure and the warning light.

I'd been thinking a lot over the last few months of how to tidy all this wiring behind the dash. It took me a good hour of messing around and scratching my head about where it was all going to go and just before thinking 'Sod it Ive had enough' I came up with my own bracket...

I mocked it up as a pattern and it worked really well and was tempted to use the mock up (below) but that was me being lazy so I made a new one from the pattern/mock up, sorry I forgot to take a photo before fitting but its just a tidier version of the one below.

A very tidy and accessible solution and Im very pleased!

Dash fitment

More work on the Digidash and got it all powered up and sorted some wiring issues with the premier loom. Basically the main beam switch had been wired to the dip relay resulting in no warning light.

Id trial fitted the actual dashboard and wasnt entirely happy with the fitting so having rivnutted the back panel I decided to use some plastic spacers to bring the dash forward a little

Then araldited them in place to save fiddling around

I marked one of the drill wholes on on one bottom corner and then on the other side I passed a rivot pin through the hole with tippex on it to get an accurate drill hole for this side

I had some problems with fuel guage reading reverse so removed the Smiths sender and sure enough it was the right resistance but read in the opposite direction. I modified the ETB sender to fit my tank using the suggested block connector. After removing the old one I made a sticky stick from fuel pipe and masking tape to remove any swarf from the tank

New sender now fitted

and dash now reads correctly. Next one was the brake light warning not coming on which was an easy fix. Although the handbrake switch looked like it was connecting with the handbrake in the off position it actually needed a little bit more so a couple of washers were placed and problem solved 

Nearly there now, dash needs a bit more adjustment and is then ready for final fitting which will happen when I've finished tidying things up behind the dashboard

ECU and Digidash

Started work on the dashboard and ETB digidash...

Ive used the template I found online at ETB and marked out the dash...

Quite a bit of wiring involved and stuff that needed to be fathomed out....

Omex 600 now in place and wired in....

I have to take my hat off to the boys at both ETB and Omex, they've been top notch!!

Graphics

The wrap on the exterior is now finished and I moved on to my graphic concept.....

Which I think has worked out really well.....

unleash the beast........!!

Digidash and ECU next and we're good to go!! :-)

Light Fantastic!

A few minor changes and now everything electrical on the  car is working!

A video update for my mate in the Cayman Islands, no commentary this time Mick enjoy the silence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdPuPNuc5S0

Bonnet (again)

As previously mentioned I wasnt 100% happy with my original attempt at wrapping the bonnet so this weekend I did again with some help from my mate Frampy. It was much easier as 2 man job and it now looks amazing!

Also I got the horn working. It took a while to work out that it has switched earth and not a switched live!

Having filled and attempted brake bleeding last week I knew there was air getting in the system somewhere and having checked all the pipe unions I left it a week and found the leak. It wasnt any of the actual brake pipes but the brake light sensor which I removed wrapped in PTFE and refitted it and all is good now!