Wiring & Painting

Well I've been working hard but a little slack with the updates.

Got the old loom out which I was planning on replacing.



It has various burnt connectors and burnt wiring:



Also some butchery by the previous owners:





But once I pulled all the tape off, most of it wasn't that bad, so I decided to patch it up and keep it.



Most of the wiring in the rear end was butchered and half burnt out. I'm amazed it ever work while I had it on the road. So I replaced that with wire whose colour matched as close as possible (without the coloured traces). Also wired in relays for the headlights.

It was pretty easy to get it all working again. A bit of stuffing around buying wire and connectors chewed up some time. Now to get some fuel and fire her up.

First to mount the fuel tank. The tank mounts into the beaver panel on the vans. And I had created a new one from scratch. So out with the square drill to get some holes for the plastic things that you can screw into:





Rode the deadly treadly to the petrol station to get a few litres of fuel. Whacked it in and she was firing but not nicely. Fiddled with the timing and got the leads in the right orders and she roared into life. Too easy.

Meanwhile, cleanup and prep all the doors.





Engine bay nearing done.



Tried to bleed up the brakes with no success. Then the master cylinder started leaking fluid into the cabin. I had put a kit through it a couple of years back. Time for a new one. That arrived during the week and I fitted it up. Brakes are better, but need more bleeding.

Also installed the windscreen. Left the seal in the sun for a while, and it was pretty easy. Haven't put the locking strip in yet.

Today was top coating the doors and bonnet, and fiddly bits like door hinges and seam covers:



Lets see where this stripe should go shall we:



Rear doors before the clear coat:



As usual for my luck, some white came through the masking, as you can see on the lower left door there. Had to mask the white and redo some of the blue.

Getting closer...

[26th Nov 2006]