Gelcoat Repairs - Part 2 & WSCC Dorset Area Meet

Another sunny day so plenty of opportunity to get out in the car and also take it to the WSCC Dorset meet this evening but I needed to finish off the gelcoat repairs.


Rubbing down with 800 then 1200 wet and dry using plenty of water and then finishing off with cutting paste.   

Results were patchy, the boot surround looks very good but the nose repairs appear to have tiny bubbles in them overall I'm happy enough for a first attempt!

Tricia and I managed to get out for an hour and filled the tank ready for this evening.

3 Westfield's outside the pub with many attendees still awaiting tax discs from the DVLA post a winter SORN.  Plenty of discussions and planning for events over the summer ranging from, gel/flowcoat repairs, evening group blats, weekends away, Stoneleigh and trackdays.  A cold drive back to Yeovil, I should have taken a couple of minutes to put the 1/2 hood on before heading home.

Gelcoat Repairs - Part 1

Two repairs required - 1st at the back of the car where the boot dowel goes into the bodywork and 2nd on both sides of the nose where the original indicator stalks were mounted.





The first step was to fibre glass the inside of the nose, one sheet of standard fibre glass and one sheet of  fibre glass tissue slightly bigger than the standard. 

While the fibre glass was going off I prepared the boot surround with the Dremmel and then added the gelcoat mixed with 2% wax and 2% hardener.













Using the wax should allow the gelcoat to harden without sealing it with tape but I used tape to ensure that there was plenty of gelcoat to wet & dry back.

Then the same again for both sides of the nose.

Now leave over night and start with the wet & dry and polish - hopefully I'll be finished in time to go to the Dorset WSCC meet tomorrow evening.

Headlight Installed - eventually

After a weekend away in Yorkshire I managed to get out to the garage to install the Venom Headlights. I'd done some research and also got advice from Paul & Joe Bromley who fitted them as part of their original build. The wiring is relatively straight forward with the only tricky bit was to rewire the dipped/main beam switch to ensure that the main beam bulbs retained power when the high beam electro-mechanical shield is lifted and to remain legal the DRLs have to switch off automatically when the side lights/dipped/main beam are switched on.  I bought a special DRL switcher and I also replaced the indicator relay with an LED compatible one to ensure that the indicators flashed at the correct rate (eventually fixed with a CF14 LED Relay).
First thing was to mount the lights, I found that the alignment adjusted was masked by the cowling so I went down to Screwfix and picked up some stainless M16 washers to use as spacers.



I wanted to use the original loom connectors so I wired up the indicators and gave them a test with the hazard flashers - all okay

I made a bracket for the DRL switcher and mounted it on the chassis by the O/S headlight and indicator loom to minimise the additional wiring. The sensor wire was connected to the side light supply and I took the DRL power from the fuse box.  DRL switched on at ignition position II

DRL 100% when the ignition is at II and head/side lights are off.








Dipped/Main bean and the DRLs at 50% power for sidelights.  All okay but when I tested the indicators they flashed at double rate so I need to investigate further (eventually fixed with a CF14 LED Relay).  Tricia and I went out for a run  that had to be cut short because the headlights started to come loose.  Once we'd got home I fabricated a 24mm spanner with a cut out for the cable and  tightened everything up.  James and I then went out for another drive with no problems.  Now just have to repair the gelcoat and refit the front grill.

Venom 5 in 1 Headlamps

First things first - the sun was shining and it was the first warmish day for a while (8 degC) so Tricia and I went for a blat and the car broke through 800 miles.

At the start of the month I attended my first WSCC Dorset Area meeting - the weather wasn't good so I didn't take the Westfield and I was in good company as only one person turned up in their's. It was a good couple of hours with general discussion on a range of topics from rolling roll performance charts, new build (a Westfield & a garage), a convoy to Stoneleigh and camping, Top Gear, Land Rovers, inflatable tents etc etc and the ages ranged from late 20s to retirees so a very mixed bunch.  Next month the clocks will have moved to summertime so I'll take the car.

Upgraditis has struck again; I was looking at options to install Day Running Lights and I really like Paul & Joe's headlights so I decided to go for them.  I'm now trying to work out how to wire them up and make it all neat and tidy.  I may have to wait until the weather wars up because I will also have to do some fibre glass and gelcoat repairs to the nose cone once the front indicator pods are removed and I still need to sort the chip in the boot area.

First Blat in the Rain

With the half hood fitted and the forecast rain appearing to be drizzle I decided to have my first run out in questionable weather.  First leg was taking James out to West Coker then over to Yetminster to pick up Allanah from dance.  Once back home, Tricia had finished work and we went for drive out to East Chinnock to look at a new estate car for her then back home and Myles and I went out for another drive North of Yeovil.

All agreed that the half hood is a success - keeping out the weather, noise and also turning the heater into something other than ballast.  Ingress/egress was a challenge for most and very entertaining as we each worked out the best way for each of us.

Best of all the 3 central instruments fogged up and then eventually cleared having got quite warm hopefully on a longer run the rev counter and speedo will clear too.

Another 50ish miles covered and no need for woolly hats/gloves/coats..........................

Budget Review - a sobering event

After much discussion with Tricia about the cost of the car I thought it was time to check overall spend against the original budget which was £18,000.  Tricia has maintained all along that I would spend at least £20,000 and I have constantly denied that it was even close.

So here's the damage:

(the kit & options bought from Westfield during a 15% discount)

Sport FW Special Edition	£13,217.54
Chassis build stands	£48.50
Westfield Front & Rear Calipers - upgrade	£303.82
205 T1R tyres - upgrade	£65.09
Heater Kit	£217.01
4 Point Harness	£56.41
12V Socket	£10.62
Wide Track Wishbones - upgrade	£173.61
Sport Turbo Seats - upgrade	£260.41
RAC Rollover Bar - upgrade	£96.23
Throttle Body - upgrade	£1,190.00	*
Carbon Effect Headlight - upgrade	£83.33
Hood Trim	£26.27
Side Screens	£253.01
Tools	£950.00	*
Cockpit Cover	£54.95
Copper Grease	£6.47
Rivnuts	£12.50
Stainless Allen Bolts	£13.90
Tool Oil	£8.20
Hi Level Rear Brake Light	£36.00
Alloy Steering Rack Clamp	£28.20
Heat Shrink tubing	£4.09
LED Indicator Repeaters	£12.00
Convoluted Tubing	£20.96
Rear Diffuser	£110.00
Cable Ties	£7.00
Sikaflex	£11.00
Fibre Glass Repair	£8.00
Plastic Bolts	£5.90
Thread Lock	£3.00
Torque stripe	£6.00
Carbon Fibre Stone Guards	£168.00
1/2 Hood	£306.00
Alpha D steering wheel & Q/Release	£325.00
Misc consumables	£50.00
IVA	£450.00
IVA Fuel	£60.00
Private Registration	£405.00   *
Registration	£275.00   *
build insurance	£218.95
Petrol (3 Mar 12)	£45.00
Van Hire (9 May 12)	£88.00
Van diesel	£60.00
MOT & Alignment	£130.00
1st Years insurance	£167.00	*
Grand Total	£20,047.96

So, on the face of it Tricia is claiming victory however, I believe all the *d items shouldn't count as the TB upgrade was an addition due to an unexpected bonus payment, I needed 2/3rds of the tools, she has a private number plate on her car, road fund licence and insurance shouldn't count hence I claim that the final figure is £20,047.96 minus £2,673.50 therefore £17,374.46 and therefore I'm under budget.  The final compromise is that the TBs and 2/3rds of the tools still count but, I can exclude the rest, hence the final cost against budget is £18,877.96, there is probably >£100 that I've failed to record! and therefore.......................... we we're both right and wrong by roughly the same margin.

However, so far it's been worth every penny with 700 miles of fun so far plus a trip to France/Belgium planned for the summer and, to put it into context, it's less than the depreciation so far on Tricia's tin top!

Finally, Myles decided to change the background on the blog. He thinks its Mount Everest and that the rain drops make the Westfield look better! :) (or perhaps more realistic!!!!!)

Half Hood Fitted

When I got home there was a big parcel sitting in the hall so off to the garage with Myles to fit the Half Hood.

The hood included everything needed to fit it including the tools to install the female popper clips. First we fitted the popper male to the inside of the screen and then offered up the screen channel.  Once on place with the central popper clipped we marked the position of the front outer poppers and then removed the hood, driiled and fitted the poppers.

Next I worked out the position of the internal support bars and cut the both to length and Myles installed them.  We then refitted the hood and after a bit of effort to get it into position over the roll bar support strut upper mounts it was in place. 

We drilled and riveted the side poppers and the thumb locks.  After a bit of playing we got it looking reasonably evenly tensioned.  After  a discussion with Nick at softbitsforsevens he's going to send us new Y straps that are 50mm shorter so that we can increase the tension and the velcro will also lay flat.





Finally we removed the hood, fitted the side screens and then refitted the hood for the complete weather fit.  Myles got in and out of the car making it look easy enough, then I tried and it's going to take a bit of practise before I look anything close to elegant!

About 2 hours work in all but a good result overall, hopefully I won't be needed too much over the summer.