1934 Ford Model B pickup

Which brings us perfectly up to date.
Yesterday I was messing with the power steering.

I've bought a column from a Vauxhall Agila - similar to a Corsa one, but smaller and recommended by Retropower.
I temporarily wired it up on the bench, to understand how it works.
Just as well I did as it needs 50A cables to power it !!
But for the proof of concept, running quite happily off a Milwaukee 12V power tool battery.



The £30 kit to control it is pretty neat, they give you the white multiplug on the right, and the spade terminals, ready to accept the fat wires of your choice. On top of the column ECU is the little control box, with an adjuster.



The motor is very quiet, but spinning the wheel with no-load, the system takes around 1amp. If I grab the UJ to apply some resistance, I can get that up to 5amps. So I'm sure it is doing its thing.

I plan to splice that column onto the original column, to retain period correct steering wheel and steering lock etc.
I've stripped off all the Vauxhall stuff, to make it easier to store for a year or two.
I'll just wire the multiplug into the loom I'm currently gathering parts for.

Thanks for looking.

If not there's a guy on the TR Register forum who's done a similar job. I can dig out the link if that helps.

That's a well trodden path for the rally boys. Probably lots of info out there about fitting that.

There are a lot of choices out there, the Corsa C has the motor in a slightly different place, I have a new Corsa C one which is for driving school cars so its a heavy duty motor so if you need any dimensions let me know

I've been trying to catch up on the project creep over the Christmas holidays.

The offside of the bullhead didn't need too much work.
I did get a nice simple bracket for the coil, and welded in a couple of captive nuts for mounting.



The offside needed more work as there were way more holes.
But the metalwork went largely to plan.
I added a bracket for the fuel pressure regulator, seemed the quickest and easiest solution, to weld this into place.
Not like it is ever going to need to come off.



I'm not aiming for perfection here, as to do a proper job on painting the bulkhead, the engine needs to come out, and that is project creep taken too far.
But a quick skim of filler doesn't take too many resources.



Blocked back, and with some quick'n'dirty masking ready for some aerosol primer/satin black.



The inside of the bulkhead is a little messier currently, but it is almost ready for paint/soundproofing.



Originally there were a nut/bolt going through the bulhead to hold on the interior trim.
I've changed these to captive studs, for a cleaner look.
On the top right, I'm going to add a panel for the electrical components.
So this has beefier fittings, to hold the panel, but also to act as earth.

Thanks for looking.

Useful looking tool that. I like it.

The inside of the bulkhead has had plenty of attention too.
First stage after a clean up was the slather on some zinc rich paint.
Just brushed on, no need for a perfect finish here.



Then some bitumen based sound/heat proofing, and start looming in the electrical system.
The wiring around the column has been left a little long, to give me some wiggle room, when installing the powered column.



The original soundproofing was quite thick, so I added another layer, this time a close-cell foam about 10mm thick.
This was cut around the loom to the multiplugs, and gives a nice levelling up.



Then the GRP trim could be fitted onto the captive studs I've added.
The panel is a bit battered, but will do for now, I may well trim it in carpet at some point in the future.



I've designed an electrical panel, when the dash is in place, it should be 99% invisible.



Now I can continue the looming and termination, but I need to make sure I leave clear paths for the cowl vent, and the control rods for the choke and hand throttle.
That'll keep me out of mischief for a while.

Spent all my free time this weekend wiring the fusebox and relays.
1/2 decent wiring takes ages.
It still needs a final tidy up, once I've tested the circuits, but this is pretty close to the finished job.



The bunch of central cables will go to the dash.
The cables on the right I need to route to the battery box some how.

I really like that design of fuse box, I've used them on the Morris too.
The large connections at each end are 110A cables, the fuse box also acts as a bus-bar feeding all the positive feeds out of the top, and all the negative feeds out of the bottom.
I've not brought all the earths back to the fuse box, for example horns and headlamps, I'll earth closer to the front of the vehicle.

The large relay is switched from the ignition switch, and provides power to the fusebox.
Making off the large cables is a joy with my £30 hydraulic crimpers



Finsihed off with some glue-lined heatshrink - job done.

Thanks for looking

There is some modern stuff I want to mount nicely hidden.
Namely a couple of boxes that provide USB charging, and a GPS speedo unit.
I may well have different gearboxes, and wheels/tyres in the future, so a GPS speedo makes that easy.

There are, for sure easier ways of doing this, but my way means 99% of it can be done in the house rather than the freezing garage.

The area on the back of the dash I want to use for mounting is far from flat.
So I drew a grid so I could take some approx measurements.
Then 3D printed a couple of blocks following those contours, but with a flat mounting surface.
I put thread inserts into the ASA plastic, they just melt into place with a soldering iron.



Fitted up - just with double sided tape for now. I will bond them on with Sikaflex or similar later.
The contouring didn't have to be perfect, the Sikaflex will fill in the gaps too.



I obviously only have one GPS speedo, but I've done his'n'her USB chargers. It was easy to mirror the the design, and give me a couple of spare captive threads for whatever the future may bring.

Thanks for looking.