Robin Hood Diary April
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 Robin Hood

April

Friday 1-4-11

No work on car. Tidied up a bit more of garage and car.  Finished painting of the gearbox.

Saturday 2-4-11

No work on car. Need brakes, P clips and parts.

Monday 4-4-11

Fetched calipers and discs from GBS - No pads yet though. Also got a missing coolant tube and more P clips and the clutch release arm from Atom £15.

Tuesday 5-4-11

Painted clutch release arm and calipers.

Wednesday 6-4-11

Fixed front brakes, discs and temporary wooden(?) brake pads (Not IVA friendly I think !).  Tried the brakes. Noticed that the reservoir was on backwards. First meeting with the owners club RHOCar at the Fox House. Long way to go!

Thursday 7-4-11

Turned reservoir round, bled brakes many times.  Even removed rear calipers and inverted to allow the air out which is really "required".  I "think" they are done, they feel better now. Put wheels on and on ground again and tidied up. The steering column finally broke at the crack so needs swapping .

Friday 8-4-11

No work on car. I have an idea about fuel lines and wiring. Punched out a malformed hole in stainless steel rear panel using a punch tool. This proved to be another very well used tool as it produces a neat clean hole compared to a drill.

Saturday 9-4-11

Test fit of the rear panel.  What an awkward piece that is ! It will be on and off the car many times, so much so that I get it down to less than a minute ! Cut fuel pipes to length on tank.  Marked correct location for the tank. Need to refit the fuel filter with a proper clip.  Found a few brake leaks and fixed them.

Sunday 10-4-11

Found yet another brake leak around the stop switch and tightened it down some more. Also cut larger spacer for brake pedal and no free play found afterwards.

Monday 11-4-11

No work on car. Bending of ledges so that the tank could fit better. Rang GBS regarding parts - need to hear from them tomorrow.

Tuesday 12-4-11

No work on car. Rang GBS and found that the scuttle and front brake pads are ready to pick up.

Wednesday 13-4-11

Drilled and pinned the rear panel and now see how it fits onto the car.

Thursday 14-4-11

Picked up the brake pads and scuttle and a replacement steering column. The replacement steering column cost an unnecessary £25 ! Painted the rest of hubs and fitted a fuel pipe to the tank. Refitted the fuel filter with a better clip.

Friday 15-4-11

Brakes back on with the the pads permanently now and touched up with new paint where the drips from bleeding the brakes stripped it off. Rear diff cover plate drilled to fit over the differential in the boot space.  Four holes and rivnuts installed for the plate.

Saturday 16-4-11

Fuel pipes connected at the rear and secured in place. The fuel ank is now connected in place but not bonded in yet. The rear panel is now riveted at the rear quarters to hold the shape. The wheels are back on. Found a possible problem with wiring loom.  Is the fuel sender cable too short? Fixed brake and clutch pedal in place. I will need to drill out clutch pedal to enable the clevis pin through. (I also found later that the pedal also needs a notch cut into the back to allow the clevis to move freely)

Monday 18-4-11

Punched some holes in rear panel to fit the shroud on the back panel. This part eventually goes on and off so often it became second nature and I got it down to less then a minute. Tried to build scuttle and found that the tabs don't line up so something has been  incorrectly cut at the factory.  I managed to work around this problem using some cut off strips of aluminium. Attached the dash panel parts together.  I think I can move the loom farther back to allow the fuel sender more length in the cable.
 

Tuesday 19-4-11

Moved the cable loom farther back and re attached the chassis ground under the differential panel. Connected the brake switch into the loom. Drilled some holes in bottom of rear panel where it attaches to the underside. Now need some courage to commit bonding of the tank in place.

Wednesday 20-4-11

Check that the tank is connected fully.  Ring GBS. Drilled some more holes in back panel and test fit of the Reversing and Fog lights. Drilled out gearbox for the long M12 bolt (adjuster for clutch pedal release arm). Refitted the fuel pipes on tank. Added plastic guards on handbrake cable (These were later moved as I was never really happy with the route the cable had taken).
 

Thursday 21-4-11

Pick up some bits from GBS £49.50. No work on car. Bought new thrust bearing £35

Friday 22-4-11

Panel beating today.  Bent corners of the scuttle and inserted last 4 rivnuts from the box.  Ordered some more rivnuts.

Saturday 23-4-11

Bent and drilled the scuttle, firewall and dashboard parts.  Re-riveted and bonded rear panel. I discovered that the tank needs drilling for the fuel sender, so out it comes again!
 

Easter Sunday 24-4-11

No work on car.

Easter Monday 25-4-11

Bonded the scuttle and firewall and dashboard panels together. Drilled out the old lock barrel which proved to take quite some time ! Also fitted the steering column to the car.

Tuesday 26-4-11

Tried re fitting dash panel onto the scuttle. I had problems lining all the holes up. I needed a little bit of brute force here.  This panel is something I am not really happy with.  (Later on I decided to go for the GRP option dashboard so this bit eventually ends up on the scrap pile ).

Wednesday 27-4-11

Bought a Sierra steering wheel for the IVA test as the one supplied will not pass the test. Cleaned it up to remove years of dirt and mold spots and attached it. I found out the the reason the car squeaked when pushing it on the floor is that the steering geometry was way off ! So I straightened out the steering geometry as the current Toe-in was what was causing all that squeaking when moving the car in and out of the garage. Now it's much quieter ! (And easier to push too). Fitted some more rivnuts.  Hammered dash rivets flat that were protruding underneath.

Thursday 28-4-11

Cut and glued the rear light fittings so that they don't point upwards (IVA requirement). Added some more bonding and sealed the last holes in the floor of the rear panel.

Friday 29-4-11 (Royal Wedding day)

No work on car.

Saturday 30-4-11

Tidied up the car and put tools away.  They quickly get untidy. Also another removal of the scuttle and some more bonding on it. Another part that would prove to be on and off the car very often. Cleaned out holes on rear panel. Some more bonding. Drilled holes to fit battery panel (rivet holes - not the ones for the actual battery). Attached another IVA strip to off side front wheel area that I missed earlier. Put the drivers seat in to test out the fit. Started to bend dash board panel into shape.