Rewiring the buggy

18th May 2011
With the dash board mounting I knew I would have to start unraveling the mess that had once been my wiring loom. It was also apparent that new steering column position meant that my fuse box would have to be relocated to a new position. I spend some time trying to unravel the wiring and make it less like spaghetti junction. At this point I made a huge decision that I would disconnect the fuse box and untangle the wires running to the box. This i new would mean that I was certainly going to have to rewire the car and re route the cables.I decided that the best mounting position for the fuse box was on the steering column. I bent the brackets holding on the fuse box so that they could go under jubilee clips that could be tightened onto the tube. The picture right shows the fuse box with most of the connections disconnected . I started running the wiring up to the dash for lights and service wires . I Then decided that I needed to wire the car in a methodical method this meant that I would get certain functions up and running first and concentrate on just that item till it was fully functional. I found this mad the whole process less daunting. This was a slow process following a good color wiring diagram on the http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring website. Gradually the wiring started to go in with the side lights head lights and indicators all being wired up . I was able to tidy all the wiring and get what I thought was all the cars services running.

Fitting the buggy Dash

15th May 2011

With the chassis and body work now bolted up I was able to start thinking about the dashboard and steering assemble. I had previously mocked up the steering and dashboard before paint in an attempt to keep the paint work pristine. I'm going to revisit this so as to explain how the dashboard and steering assembly work together.

The new body height of 80mm above its original position meant that the dashboard and steering column met each other in a totally different position. I new this meant I would have to build a bracket off of the dash to connect the two and provide a secure bolting position. Luckily I had previously re-welded my bracket for my steering column on the other side of the tubing as my previous mount on the buggy for the steering column meant that this was already welded.

The hole in the body work of the buggy had also had to be altered and surprisingly was not just 80mm higher on the body. I can only surmise that this original hole was not exactly in line with the steering box and this was why it was out. I cut a new hole in line with the steering box providing a good angle for the steering column. This was achieved by placing a seat in the car and holding the wheel in a comfortable placement. This surprisingly coincided with a straight angle from the steering box. With the hole marked and cut the steering column could be passed through the bulk head and the bracket pushed up on to the dash frame which I had bolted onto the body. It could then be cramped in position with G cramps to the dash frame so that it could be welded .

The picture right shows the bracket welded onto the dash frame. The original whole on the dashboard has been filled and a new semicircle has been cut into the bottom of the dashboard. The dashboard whole filled and the dashboard painted to match the body work. The dashboard dials where then fitted to the dash along with the lights and instrumentation.

The dashboard was then bolted into the body work after the buggy's move to a new garage. The dashboard was bolted into the body work and the steering column and controls where all connected. The wiring harness was brought up to the dashboard and laid down ready to be reconnected.

Moving the buggy 2011

14th May 2010.

Yesterday turned into a completely manic day of work on the buggy in an attempt to have it moved to its new garage. The buggy was now bolted onto its floor pan and the steering and brakes were all up and running.

We towed the buggy with an A frame attached to the beam this soon became a problem as The car was to low to accommodate the A- frame. The solution was fairly east to get around as I adjusted the beam so that the buggy suspension was higher. The move was successful and the buggy spent the night in a nice dry warm garage.

I knew that if I was going to try to make it with the car to Bugjam 2011 that I would have a lot of work to do getting the buggy road worthy. I will try to write up this over the next month as time is going to be very tight.

I had already assembled the dashboard at home with the correct dials and would be able to fit the assembled dash in the next few days.

Final Body Work Lacquer and move to my new garage

13th May 2011

My painting of the body shell was drawing to an end and with more than 16 layers of SP2000 UPOL lacquer on the body work it was time to put on a top coat. This meant the whole body work needed flattening off and I called in support troupes to help me with this arduous task. My best friend Jon came to hand wielding his orbital sander pictured left. This worked surprisingly well as long as the area was washed continuously with water.

I decided that I was not getting a very good finish with the Lacquer coat using the Earlex Pro HV5000 as the needle size was to large being 2.0mm . I therefore decided to make use of my home built compressor which I had built earlier in this blog. I borrowed an Italian Asturo 1.8mm spray gun see pic left from a friend to use with my compressor and started spraying. I found the best results was achieved by spraying the gun to let the pressure build up out and this was at half trigger then when i wanted to spray pull the trigger in as I started a run of lacquer along the body work. This seemed to work well . I found I could also hold the gun on this short burst to blow out runs that I had created. I coated the body work with 600ml of lacquer thinned at 21:1 with a dash of thinners. I repeated this twice. The body work was left for four hours before it was bolted onto the chassis.

I bolted the chassis through the body lift kit in about 15 places so that it was held firmly to the chassis the car was then pulled from johns garage in the evening and towed with an A Frame behind his van. We arrived at the new garage before dusk.