I managed quite a time on the old girl over the holidays. The engine bay side of the bulkhead came out pretty well. The coil install is much neater than it was before. But only now, am I noticing the broken cab mount - add that onto the list....
The drivers side came out good too. The paint is a little blotchy, but it was cold in the garage, I'll give it a blow over when the weather warms up a little.
I've been itching to replace the horrible copper fuel lines. The Stromberg carb is very fussy on fuel pressure, and needs 2.5psi max. My electric pump is a little higher than that. So, a fuel pressure regulator, 50's style clear red fuel line, and a pressure gauge on the carb. I still need to strip out, and replace the line to the tank. But already so much better.
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.
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.
Interesting - alas just tried a bullet, and no it doesn't work with those dies supplied. If you could make your own dies - then I suppose so. But they are quite big - access would have to be decent.
Interesting - alas just tried a bullet, and no it doesn't work with those dies supplied. If you could make your own dies - then I suppose so. But they are quite big - access would have to be decent.
I had the GPS speedo, and a GPS antenna/sender, but I wasn't 100% sure how it all worked. So I hooked it up temporarily in the daily and went for a drive.
The sender has 3 different wires, one outputs 16,000 pulses per mile, the others 8,000 and 4,000. I found out by chance my Autometer speedo comes from the factory calibrated to 16,000 - happy days.
I used used some Wago connectors and a Milwaukee 12V battery to smash it together for the test drive.
It worked perfectly, but there is also a manual calibration, where you drive for 2 miles, had I not been so lucky.
I wasn't so rash as to take a picture at ~70mph !! The sensor has a little button that replays the peak speed for that journey. That is a bit of fun, I'll have to find a spot behind the dash for that little button.
One unknown off the list without getting cold in the garage - this is a theme this week
I've been flitting around with jobs, that don't see me freezing in the garage.
Calling these headlamp "reflectors" would be pushing it, thanks to the matt silver paint. What looks like rust around the edges is a combination of cork gasket, and something like Hermetite Red.
I originally started this, to 3D model some sidelamp holders. But decided to clean them up too. They came up well.
For £8 I got a roll of chrome film - enough to do 5 or 6 headlamps. Thought it would be worth a try.
With my level of skill, one pair of hands and the cold, it was never going to be pretty. So I'm scrapping that idea and looking into getting them resilvered. The Headlights are original Ford items and one of my favourite pieces on the vehicle, so I want them right.
Not particularly photogenic this update, but progress is progress.
The off-side kick panel had two layers of sound insulation applied. The wiring was secured, and the two fat cables run through the cab floor, ready to be routed along the chassis to battery box Before I covered that lot up with the kick panel, I slathered some Dinitrol into the cab seams. I believe that is the first rustproofing this truck has ever recieved !!
I'd previously made all the connections to the warning lights and switches. But now was the time of the gauges. I wanted some slack on the wiring, so I could pop the gauges out of the dash for servicing/maintenace. The slack will be a lot less once I tie all the loom together behind the dash.
A lot ot of the gauges and warning are daisy-chained together for power and earth connections. Two 1mm thinwall cables fit perfectly into a non-insulated crimp. Perfect for the daisy-chain and a lot more period correct than the insulated ones.
Uninsulated crimps need a lot more care to assemble them, and a really good pair of crimpers, but the result is satisfying.
With the vast majority of dash wiring in place, it was time to test a few things. Trusty Milwaukee 12V power pack was hooked up and with a mulitmeter I tested everything. I managed to swap over two wires in one of the multiplug - no big deal. But everything else works - apart from the GPS speedo sensor - which I completely forgot to wire up !! The time spent drawing out a proper wiring diagram on the computer paid dividends.
Horrible picture, as I turned the lights out in the garage, so you can get the effect.
The dash lights are incandescent, they look like bright LEDs - but no.
The chrome film on the headlamps trick is something I am going to try on the outer casing of my 304 rear lamps. Difference being once I have them fully prepared I will probably give them to a lad in my last work place whose son does that sort of thing. Hopefully it will turn out well. I think your headlamps are doable with the correct film and maybe a bit of heat. Your dash is looking good.
Post by toomanyprojects on Jan 23, 2024 10:13:45 GMT
Looking good indeed.
I must confess I've been tempted with one of those home plating kits given I've multiple projects that I know it will come in handy for. Although I appreciate having the room for alchemy is not always available, plus you then have the kit lying about, so for one-off jobs I suspect it's probably not worth it.
I do actually have all the kit to do nickel plating, but I've only used it once, and like you say it takes up a bit of space in storage. Alas I'm not sure nickel is good enough for headlamp reflectors, as some say even chrome really isn't good enough either, and nickel is going to be a little yellower.
Time to delve into the belly of the beast, or less poetically, remove the floor to help with the wiring. Cars of this age just have a plywood floor, and once the fire extinguiser is out of the way, it is simple to pull up, as the fasteners have long since disappeared !!
At the top of the shot are the "big" cables. I use 110A flexible welding cable.
One from the alternator
One from the fusebox/ignition relay
A smaller 10# cable for the power steering.
The big red cable was from a previous round of electrics, and goes to the starter.
The 110A cables are a little big as the fuse box and alternator are rated for 75 and 63A respectively, but it is better to go larger.
These lead into the seat box, and onto a buss bar, I hate screwing multiple connections to studs, so this whilst a little OTT works for me. On the left is a modern starter motor solenoid - again I'd fitted this in a previous bodge removal session. Aluminium box is for the battery.
On the off-side there is a little protection. Left to right
Battery master switch - fitted by previous owner - cuts off everything, which I'm happy with
A 70A fuse - this protects the run from the battery to the fusebox, fusebox is rated for 75A - hence the choice of fuse.
A 50 A contact breaker. The power steering can potentially take up to 50A - doubt it will take anything like that with skinny tires, but we'll see
It was proving very difficult to find fuses in 50 and 70A, or affordable contact breakers in 50 and 70A, which is why I went for one of each.
All of this is a little OTT, but it will be hidden 100% once the seat and floor go back in, and adds a lot of safety over 1934 wiring which has been attacked by a number of less than skillful people.
So now, when I turn the iginiton key - the dash and switches comes to life - which is huge progress.
Now I need to run the wiring to the front/back to hook up the lights/engine etc. But work on that is progressing well, just waiting for an order of wires - I've run out of some colours.