Well, doesn't time fly? It has been a busy holiday season with family visiting us over both Christmas and New Year. So what progress has been made?
Well, in order to progress, I had to get the car back onto four wheels, which took a surprisingly long time. I was then able to wheel it out of the garage and take a couple of morale improving pictures whilst it was sunny! The Classic Bike Show was on at Newark so I took the opportunity to go as the show was closing in order to catch the Digital Speedos Stand. I bought a Koso DB02R with the extra light housing. The reason for this is because it comes with a mechanical drive that connects to the Fiesta speedo drive, thus removing the need for magnets and sensors - my Fiesta is an early pre-electronic speedo model. In theory, the light unit should be plug and play.
It comes with 8 warning light spaces and a dozen symbols so that you can mix and match.
The downside is that it is essentially a motorbike unit so there is no rear fog symbol and no brake failure symbol, both IVA requirements. As it has been too cold to get in the garage, I got some inkjet printer clear acetate (thanks Mum!) and downloaded a free vector graphics programme from the internet; I then spent an afternoon creating the symbols that I wanted, within a hexagon so that they match the Koso ones.
I imported these into a Pages document and scaled them to the correct size, then hit print. The first run was a disaster but after a while playing with printer settings, I got some pleasing results. Mounting the Koso unit was quite easy. The Sierra column has a threaded moulding where the column stalks bolt on. I am mounting the Fiesta stalks through this and so have made a small aluminium bracket to hold the speedo, using the bike fittings provided. The downside of this is that the unit sits where the Fiesta hazard switch goes. it also isn't quite central so I think i will probably remake it!
I then spent a day or so playing with the hazard switch from the original Rover trying to work out how to make it work properly. Eventually I found a dual pole toggle switch given to me ages ago and have come up with a circuit that uses this instead, albeit with some diodes, as suggested to me on Locostbuilders!
Well, what a busy year so far! An unexpected promotion in my new job rapidly stunted progress, couples with freezing weather that meant even if I had time, I couldn't face the garage! However, lots of mental effort has been expended! For ages I have being keeping an eye out for a suitable cover for the back of my Fiat Coupe rear lights. I wanted a nice streamlined pod look, but couldn't find anything to match! Then I realised that a large drinks bottle was exactly the right size! A bit of trimming and it's a perfect fit! I have trialled some paint and so far it had given it a durable finish, so good news there! The other problem that had been bugging me was how to locate the air filter. I picked up a k&n from eBay and hoped to use it with the standard intake trunking. Trouble is it is getting really tight round that end of the car and it was really difficult to find a decent spot. Eventually, as ever I have had to compromise and it has ended up a bit closer to the wheel than I would like, and in the path of the hot air from the radiator fan. I think maybe some shielding to prevent water ingress and direct the hot,sit away might be needed! Anyway, I made a bracket for it and welded it on, so all is secure! I also mocked up the radiator hosing to route it around the trunking - hope it all works!!!
A second day of minor progress too! I had spent a while planning where to put the side repeaters. My preferred location, in the angle between the upper chassis rail and the diagonal, by the drivers knees, did not meet the IVA visibility limits. After much thought, I have discovered that there is a very generous limit on how far from the front of the vehicle they can go, so I have put them at the back - just held on with a magnetic clamp here!!
