A dashing time and Bovingdon Autosolo

The workshop I sometimes use was free for a week, so I set about making a start on the dash. Previously it looked like this;

The left and right panels are from different Spitfires and there was a redundant hole for the hazard warning light on the middle panel. The panels were removed from the car and all the switches moved as required, on this centre panel you can see where the hazard light was.

I cut a piece of wood to fit in the redundant hole and left it overnight with glue and a clamp on it, which meant the following morning I could remove the thick varnish and previous layer of veneer.
The veneer came off quite easily, using a mix of sharp chisels and various grades of sandpaper discs on the angle grinder.

I'd bought some American walnut iron-on veneer the previous week, as apparently that was what they used originally. I'm no originality freak, but I'm just not all that keen on the burr or dark finishes you can see in some Triumphs.
Anyway, I followed the instructions which came with the veneer, leaving an edge all around the pieces, so the veneer is stuck onto the dash panels. As suggested, it was left for 24 hours for the adhesive to cure before I trim them to shape and give them their first coat of varnish.

Once cured, I could trim the veneer, this could be done using a very sharp knife, but it still took over an hour as any mistakes would be hard to hide.

Then I could start building up the layers of satin varnish, it had a total of five coats. In between varnishing, work started on modifying the wiring loom again, adding in wires for the rear fog light and wiring in the 12v lighter socket, map light and radio.
With the loom exposed I could also work out why the light for the ignition barrel was not working, it turned out that the original loom had two wires each from the fuse box for the roof and ignition barrel light and I had split them. This had the effect that the ignition barrel light would only come on when the ignition was on, not what you need really when it should come on as you open a door or switch them on on the dash.

The cured veneered and varnished dash pieces could then be fitted back into the car, followed by the gauges, steering column and gloveboxes. You can see in the picture below that a radio has been fitted also, originally I was not going to bother installing a radio, but as this is my only car I was starting to miss having one. I'm loathed to drill a hole in the bodywork for an aerial, but fortunately I noticed that my mobile phone has a FM radio built into it, which means I can connect it to the car radio instead.

All this work had to be completed by last Saturday at the latest as on the following day I was booked in for a Autosolo at Bovingdon, near Hemel Hempstead. Scrutineering ended at 8.45, so it meant I was on the road at 5.30 to get there in good time, but having travelled a few miles down the road I noticed that the indicators were not working, damn.
The next half an hour or so was spent checking fuses, switches and relays, trying to work out what was wrong. After a while I worked out that the flasher unit was not getting any power, despite the fuse being OK, so I found a piece of wire in my tool box to make a temporary connection, it worked so I could get on my way again.

It was my first attempt at a Autosolo, I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the early start and impromptu road-side repair. In my class I came 10th out of 15, though it probably would have been 12th if one car hadn't retired due to gearbox problems, but for a first try I can't complain at that.

The following day back home I could take another look at the indicators and with the wiring diagram at hand I managed to diagnose the problem fairly quickly. The power for the indicators passes through the hazard light switch, so they can be disconnected when the hazard lights are switched on, but the hazard light switch was not returning to the correct 'off' position, preventing a connection through for the indicators.
It was a quick fix to get everything working again by making an adjustment on the hazard light switch and a relief that I hadn't messed-up anything while working on the loom earlier in the week.

A change of face

Decided the job for a day last weekend was to sort out the rev counter, when I converted to Megajolt I fitted a rev counter from a 2500 saloon as it was electrically triggered, but it did not have indicator repeater and rear demist warning lamps built into it, unlike the original GT6 mechanical rev counter. As I have a couple of spare GT6 rev counters and knowing one of them was knackered, I set to pulling it and the saloon rev counter apart.

It all came to pieces quite easily, apart from the needle on the electronic counter, needing a bit more force to pull it free. First off, the mechanical dial face had to be re-drilled, as it's two mounting holes were 90 deg out. Then I could set about making new holes in the rear of the mechanical counter body for the connections and securing screws.

With it all installed, I tried it on the car, but the response to changing revs was not as smooth as it should have been and it was obviously not moving as high as it should have either. It turned out that I have bent the shaft slightly when trying to remove the pointer needle, but this was soon straightened out and the rev readings checked against the Megajolt on my computer.

Then it was just a matter of re-installing the glass and securing ring, changing the indicator bulb holder again and fitting it to the car.

It would have been even better if I could have had the right needle for the old dial, but unfortunately their spindles are different diameters. 

Waterworks

It's been a while again since I've updated this, but I have mainly just been out and about enjoying the drive, though I have done a bit of tinkering and preparation for other work on the car.
A problem I have had for a while was getting a good seal on the bottom hose to the water pump housing. Despite using Mikalor clamps, I still couldn't get a full seal, probably not helped by the lack of a bead on the pump housing connection. I put feelers out for another pump housing, while at the same time looking at the alloy housings sold by Chris Witor and just as I was about to give-up and chance of finding a second-hand one at a good cost, James came up with an alloy housing.
A few days later I had the alloy housing and the cast one removed from the car as I went to transfer it over.

Things were going OK until I went to fit the connector on the back of the housing for the bypass tube, the original fitting and housing had a NPT thread, but the alloy housing had a UNF thread. The UNF thread was ony 40thou (1mm) smaller, but it was enough to prevent the fitting going in, so in the end I had that fitting re-tapped to UNF and now it fits together like it should.

Just as I was waiting for the pump housing to be delivered, the water pump decided to fail, it's done 30 months this time, better than the 6 months of the last one, still not very good. This time I have gone for one from Fitchetts, in the hope it would be better than the usual County stuff that most other people sell.

The water pipe work around the front of the car has been tidied-up a bit also, as it was before;

In that picture you can see a black pipe between the radiator and engine, some of that has now been replaced by an alloy pipe, running below the radiator at the same time, the bottom hose to the water pump has been replaced with a 45deg piece. These two changes tidy it up quite a bit and should give more space for the air filter box and hoses, which will sit beneath the radiator.