April 14th 2013 - Wheelarch Infill Panel

Most Westfield build diaries I've read go on about these "mystery" panels which aren't mentioned in the manual.  Well I'm not sure if they are or not, but thanks to their coverage in the aforementioned diaries I didn't even open the manual.

After jacking up one side of the car and taking off the wheel, it was obvious that the panels would fit perfectly in the gap between the body and the aluminium car side facing the front of the car.  All that was needed was to bend the panel to match the curve of the wheel arch, then pop-rivet this in place before repeating the exercise on the other side.  This may have seemed a bit tricky at the start of the build, but at this stage it was as simple as could be:

In-fill panel in place on the near side

I'll probably seal the edges the next time I get the silicone out.

April 7th 2013 - The Finishing Off List

Started working down the "Finishing Off" list today by removing the nose cone to fit a blanking plug (bolt) into the top of the radiator.  Whilst there, I decided to fit the battery and its earth connection. The manual says to fit the latter to one of the steering rack mounting bolts, but (a) the steering rack is attached using M8 bolts and the hole in the earth strap is only M5 and (b) I didn't fancy undoing and re-torquing the steering rack.  Instead I attached it to one of the bolts which holds the lower nose cone bracket (after filing off the powder coat to ensure a good connection):

That done I put an M5 bolt in the top of the radiator and refitted (and realigned (again)) the nose cone.

I then re-fitted and tightened the exhaust and drilled a couple of holes in the grille aperture so it can be attached with tie-wraps.  With hindsight, this would have been easier and tidier done with the nose cone off, but I think it'll need to come off at some point so I can re-do it then.

For once it wasn't snowing, so I took the opportunity to move outside for the first time this year for a photo of what looks like a finished car (but isn't (quite)):

March 24th 2013 - Steering Column Cover Panel

Today's karting event was called off due to snow (after we'd made the effort to get there) so a little bit of bonus time on the build.

Next on the diminishing list of tasks was the small plastic panel which fits over the steering column and pedals.  I trimmed this down a bit at the front so it sits flush with the chassis rail and fastened it down with 4 5.5mm rivet nuts & bolts in case it (or the bulkhead) needs to be removed at any time.  Simple job, but progress nonetheless.

March 17th 2013 - Carpets

Carpets in a kit car?  Is the usual question when I go through the diminishing "to do" list, but as the main use of the car will be on the road comfort is more important than a tenth of a second on the track.  That's also why it has a windscreen, a heater and will probably have doors and a hood.

The passenger side carpets were already done, so it was out with the driver's seat (again) and torquing up of the seat belt mountings.

It was now time to fit the tunnel carpet, so I removed the gear knob and put the carpet in place.  To get it to go all the way forward I had to cut out a rectangular section at the front to go around the dashboard wiring where it comes up through the tunnel, but apart from that it went on very easily, with  couple of bits of Velcro to hold it in place in the foot wells.

I then made another cutout to go around the seat belt mounting, the seat, replaced the gear knob and that was that.  Other builders moan about carpet fitting, but I can't see what the fuss is - especially as they fit so well without the need to trim the edges.

The car really does look finished now, the only remaining visible jobs being the rear view mirror, the side repeaters and the grille.  I might even get some full-car shots outside if it ever stops raining!

March 16th 2013 - Windscreen Fillet

Westfield gave me some advice on toggle switch connections and said the "mystery" mini-loom is for the heated windscreen (which I won't be using), so I finished the dash wiring, put the scuttle and windscreen back on and reconnected the heater, wiper motor and washer fluid pipe.  I didn't seal t down just yet in case it needs to come off again.  I may leave it that way until after its passed its IVA test.

I then moved on to the windscreen fillet.  This is a thin strip of fibreglass intended to make the area around the wipers neater and more weatherproof.

To fit the fillet I removed one of the windscreen pillars, the wiper spindles and the top hat-shaped plastic bushes below them:

These latter items will hold the fillet in place, so I had to drill out the pre-marked holes on the fillet to the smaller diameter of the bush.  This resulted in the job being almost done.... except that it then required lots of filing of the ends and the lower edge to get it to sit properly between the scuttle ant the screen.  Eventually it fitted, but again I didn't seal it down just in case....

Having been a bit dubious about how it would look, the end result actually looks very neat.

March 2nd 2013 - Dash Wiring

I decided to tackle the dash wiring today, so removed the windscreen and scuttle to ease access to the loom.  I debated leaving them on, but the cables seem a bit on the short side and the scuttle will need sealing down anyway.

Scuttle removed ready to start wiring

 I labelled the loom ages ago, so plugging the wires onto the gauges and rocker switches was straightforward.... except for having to swap the rocker switch locations to allow the wires to reach.

The toggle switches were a different matter:  Firstly, there was no way the cables for the horn were going to reach to the location indicated in the manual, so I had to open up a new hole above the headlamp dip switch, leaving an unwanted hole where it used to be.  I'll have to find something else (even if its a dummy switch) to go in there.

The next problem was that the manual very helpfully says which colour wire goes to which numbered terminal on all three switches (horn, headlamp dip and indicators).  This would be fine if the switches actually had numbers on the terminals!

Most wires connected

I need to call Westfield before I put everything back together anyway, as I'm a bit concerned that the small "mystery" wiring loom may need to connect to the loom behind the dash in some way as it has a mini push-button attached.

"Mystery" loom not mentioned in the manual!

February 16th 2013 - Passenger side interior finishing

A mixture of things today, with the aim of finishing the passenger side interior.  First up was the propshaft to diff bolts:  These have been temporarily fitted for ages but now needed to have threadlock applied and be tightened to the correct torque.  Other builders have cursed this task due to the apparent need to crawl around under the car.  I didn't need to do this, however - I just:

1. Jacked up one rear wheel
2. Removed the two rearmost cover panels
3. Slackened the handbrake cable
4. Unfastened the handbrake lever
5. Attached a long extension bar to the torque wrench and an adapter to allow the use of a 3/8 drive socket
6. Turned the rear wheel to move the first bolt to the top
7. Lowered the wheel back down

This allowed easy access and just needed the car to be jacked up again for each of the four bolts to be accessed and torqued.  On each one I used an old red touch up paint to put a line across the bolt and flange as a reminder that it's been torqued and to allow any loosening to be spotted.

Next task was to finish off in the footwell:

1. Drilling out the gearbox filler access hole (see earlier entries) to 25mm to allow a grommet to be fitted.
2.  Making a hole for the washer pipe to pass through to the washer bottle - a 9.5mm hole with an open rubber grommet.

Passenger footwell - gearbox filler grommet on the right

 The carpet under the seat went in next, after blanking the holes for the standard seats with some 9mm grommets.  To get the holes for the seat mountings in the right place I jacked the car up, weighted the carpet down, then used the conveniently-handy red touch up paint to mark through from the underside.

under-seat carpet with seat mounting holes visible

Before putting the seat back in, the seatbelt mounting needed fitting and torquing.  Whilst doing this I temporarily fitted the tunnel carpet so I could make a cut-out for the seatbelt to allow the carpet to be fitted/removed without taking the seat out:

seat belt mounting passes through tunnel carpet - note vertical cut to allow easy fitting

The seat then went in, along with the footwell carpet:

Footwell carpet in but not yet secured

Dark now (I didn't get to start until mid-afternoon) but surprisingly warm for mid February, so I decided to fit the expansion bottle for the cooling system so that the scuttle can be fixed permanently next time.  This was simply a matter of mounting the bottle to its bracket using two 5mm bolts, then fixing the bracket to the scuttle, again using a 5mm bolt and nyloc nut.  Its location was determined by the cooling system metal pipework and the need for the expansion bottle top not to foul the bonnet.  The pipe angles on the metal pipe still seem as wrong as they do at the other end (see earlier entry), but hopefully Westfield will have a solution that doesn't involve trying to bend the (steel) pipe!

Expansion bottle in place.  Definitely dark now!