Initial Drive Issues Fixed and Video

Dateline - 05/14/2017 - Didn't work on the car on Saturday because I did a 20+ mile bike ride on Vashon Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashon,_Washington), but did do some work on Sunday.  Wanted to focus on getting the issues we found driving the car, which was, no speedo, backup lights on when in park and flickering light on oil pressure gauge.

I decided to tackle the backup lights first.  This required that I take the shift lever boot cover and B&M plastic surround out so that I could get to the switches that are mounted on the shift lever.  It's fiddly work and requires taking the top part of the shift lever apart.  It's just two bolts and a clip and a spring, but it's still a bit of a PITA.  Once I had access to the switch I needed to do some troubleshooting.  There are two micro switches ganged together, one controls the backup lights (top one) and the other controls the ignition cutout (bottom).  The switches ride against the side of the shift mechanism which has lobes to close the switches depending on what gear you are in.  Easy system in principle, but it is very critical that the switches be the right distance from the shift body.  Well, they weren't.  Way to close.  In fact, both switches were engaged almost all the time.  I needed to get in with a big screw driver and lever the switches away from the body.  Once I got them the correct distance, all was well.  but this took several attempts to get it correct.

The second problem was that I had hooked the hot wire that goes to the LED lights on the dash and the one in the B&M console to the switched side of the backup lights.  Since the switch was on all the time, I never noticed the problem.  It was only after I got the switches working correctly that I noticed that the lights didn't work correctly.  That was an easy fix; just move the lead from one side of the switch to the other.  Done and done!

Next was the speedo.  I wasn't looking forward to this because I was pretty sure I had to take the dash apart!  Grrrrr.  Getting the dash out isn't that hard.  I needed to take the dash cover off, which just pulls out, take three screws out, and the dash comes right apart.  But once I put it together, I really didn't want to take it apart again!

Once I got to the back of speedo, I was able to troubleshoot.  I jacked up the rear of the car so that I could put it into gear and also get under it to get to the sender, which is right next to the exhaust.  I started tracing wires and realized that I forgot to hook the hot wire to the sender.  The wire was run correctly, I just didn't connect it at the speedo.  Two hours of troubleshooting (mainly because I had to wait for the exhaust to cool down), five minute fix!  Speedo now works.  Took about 10 minutes to put the dash back together,  

Before I put the dash pad back on, I looked at the oil pressure gauge light.  Of course, once I had everything apart, it worked fine and I could not get it to flicker!  So there is a loose wire someplace, but I've no idea where.  It will reoccur at some point.

So, now that the speedo is working, I need to calibrate it.  They have a really cool way to do this.  You press and hold the trip reset button then start the car.  The needle will move all the way to the right and hold at full.  You drive the car to the start of a measured two mile run.  Stop the car and press the button again.  The needle moves to half deflection.  You drive the two miles and stop, then press the button one more time.  Voila, it's calibrated.  It doesn't make any difference how fast you go or if you stop as long as you don't turn the power off.  It is measuring the number of pulses delivered by the sender unit over a two mile length.  The thing that will really impact the calibration is how accurate your measured two mile distance is.  Pretty cool! Fortunately, I have a couple of those "Your Speed Is" signs around that I can test the accuracy!

One thing I noticed while under the car is the power steering rack is REALLY leaking oil.  I mean, a lot of oil.  Looks like I need to replace that before I get to doing any serious driving!

So, as was promised in the last post, I have some video of the car.  Check these out on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/RR2jBWBEI0I

https://youtu.be/LhAyTAt73So

https://youtu.be/OaES8EjuT9A

https://youtu.be/wufkXPSvDPg

Thanks Matt for the video.

On the Road!

Dateline - 05/06/2017 - After almost seven years of being garage bound, the Jag finally drove under it's own power this weekend!!!!!!!  Matt and Karen came over to help me bleed the brakes on the car, which was a three hour job!  What a PITA!  But once we got it done, we took it out and drove it around the neighborhood!  Boy what a difference in driving experience.  Let's just say, it's not my Subaru WRX!  I have to remember that I'm driving a 1960's car!  I've got a video I'm going to post a little later, but here are just a few of the pictures that Matt took:

So there are a few kinks to work out.  My speedo isn't working.  The backup lights are on when I'm in park, and I have one bulb in the oil pressure gauge that has a faulty connection (flickers on and off).  Everything else is working fine!

On Sunday, I put in the new seat belts that I ordered last week.  Of course, it wasn't easy because the front passenger seat hit the auto retracter, which is just behind the seat on the rocker panel.  The driver side was fine.  So I had to fiddle with the height of the seat, eventually requiring me to pull the seat out completely and drill some new holes in the seat mounting bracket.

I also got the back seat belts installed, which required removing the seat cushions and drilling holes in the back firewall to mount the belts.  Nice that I used Velcro to hold the cushions on.  Rrrrriiiiiip!  They are out!  Fiddly work, but once it was done, it worked fine.

Back Seats are Done!!!

Dateline - Week of April 24, 2017 -  Spent every night last week sewing upholstery for the back seats.  Honestly, I'm gland I'm done for a while.  That was a lot of work!  Here are the seat pieces fully done.

Next was installation.  Easy to say, not so easy to do!  The plan was to mount the bottom bolsters, mount the back bolsters, glue Velcro strips on the the bolster frames then put in the cushions.  Easy! NOT! The outside bottom bolsters were pretty easy.  Position, mark, drill bolt down.  The inside bolsters, different story.  They are directly over the mufflers!  I had about 1.5" to get my hands into.  Not fun.  Plus, I had to reach the top of the bolts too.  So I took a long screwdriver and zip stripped the wrench to it so I could reach!

The back bolsters were easier to install, but I still had the reach issue because I had to reach in the car and into the trunk.  So, lots of extensions on the socket wrench and the extension on the wrench got the job done.

Passenger back seat installed

Passenger back seat deal

Last was epoxying the Velcro and letting it dry.  Since I had already sewn the opposite side of the the Velcro the to cushions, all I had to do was mark were the Velcro needed to be and glue it down.  Here is the result:

Driver side back seat showing Velcro glued to the seat frames

And finally, installation of the cushions:

Back seats installed

Back seats installed

I still have to figure out what I'm going to do with the area between the seats and the open area along the wheel well hump.  But I think that will wait. I'm doing with upholstery, at least for a week.

On Sunday I worked on some odds and ends.  There are panels that needed to be installed in the front wheel wells that I thought I would install.  Unfortunately, I needed to do some more prep work in the wheel wells first, so they didn't get installed.  But the hardware did get sand blasted and tin plated (I really like my tin plating setup!).

While I had the front tires off, I took some time to clean up the front headlight/side marker wiring.

Finally, I did some work on the fender cross members.  There are bars that run from the middle of the firewall to each fender to keep the fenders and front scuttle from shaking.  These are right in plan view but are some of the worst welding done on the car.  Sharp edges, nasty welds...yuk!  So I got out the angle grinder and my metal files and went to work cleaning them up.  I also put both through the sandblaster.  I still don't like the welds, so I think I'm going to treat them to some bondo.  No since doing all the nice work in engine bay to slap on a couple of nasty looking pieces of metal!

So, next weekend is the scheduled first drive!  Very exciting!

Seats, Tires and Gas

Dateline - 04/22/2017 - Another weekend of working on the back seats.  Did a lot of upholstery this weekend.  I finished 3.5 of the four side bolsters.  These take about four hours a piece when you take into account creating the templates, lay out, cutting, sewing, fitting, gluing and finishing.  It's just a lot of work.  To be honest, I'm going to be glad when I'm done!  Here are pictures:

I also got new tires for the car this weekend.  I got Bridgstone tires at Costco.  I figured that there wasn't a lot of reason to get expensive tires since I'm going to end up using them up doing burnouts! ;-)  I bought five because the old spare was in pretty bad shape (Like "A Christmas Story, "My old man's spare tires were actually only tires in the academic sense.  They were round, they had once been made of rubber.") and since the spare tire is on a nice chrome rim, I figured I could rotate it along with all the rest.

I spent a good portion of the day on Saturday cleaning and shining chrome wheels.  They really needed the time and attention.  The chrome, like the chrome on most of the car, is good but starting to pit and rust.  I cleaned them up, but they really need to be rechromed at some point.  Something that is not going to happen anytime in the future.

I also worked on the gas leak in the trunk.  I think it may be caused by using fuel line that is too large, so I bought a smaller size (5/16" instead of 3/8") and pulled all the fuel lines.  It is a good thing the gas tanks have drain plugs because, since they sit higher then the fuel feed, there is a strong siphon effect that wants to drain the tank into the trunk.  There was no gas in the right tank but about three gallons in the left one that I had to drain.  More used gas!  Hopefully this will fix the gas leak!  It was never very much, but it sure filled the trunk with gas fumes.

Another Weekend Working On Seats

Dateline - 04/15/2017 - Continued work on the back seats this week.  Worked on the upholstery for the passenger side seats and in doing so, I used the last of my material!  So I had to buy another three yards.  That should be enough to finish off the car...I hope!

Saturday I spent working on the bolsters.  Much easier to do the second set since I had a set that was already complete, I just needed to reverse them.  It still takes time.  It's a lot of cutting and gluing and trimming and gluing and cutting and fitting, but eventually you end up with all the pieces.  I did manage to dull the blades of my electric carving knife to the point that they barely cut now!  I can't get replacement blades for the knife so I'll end up throwing it away.  It's a shame really.  The handle and motor are fine.  It only cost $11, it's just such a waste.  Oh to live in a "throw away" world!

On Sunday I worked on the metal backing plates that are attached to the foam.  These are what will be bolted to the car body to hold the bolsters in place.  In those will be glued the Velcro that will hold the seat bottom and back in place.  It should all go together nicely, and I can remove the seat bottom and back easily if need be.

Here are pictures of all the seat parts sitting on the floor.  The different black and red paint doesn't mean anything.  I ran out of red, so used black.  Trying to use up some of these rattle cans I have lying around!

Once I get the rest of the material, I can start on rest of the upholstery.  In the meantime I need to get ready to drive the car in about three weeks, so time to put tires on order!

Back Seat is Coming Along

Dateline - 04/08/2017 - Continued to work on the back seat this weekend.  I finished the bottom cushion and the thigh bolsters.  Then I sandblasted the sheet steel backings to get them clean and to have a little tooth, then glued the upper and thigh bolsters to their respective metal backing.  I then painted the exposed bare metal to prevent rust.

In the afternoon and evening on Saturday, I started the upholstery work. First, let me say how nice it is to have good tools!  A good pair of sharp sheers, a 24" transparent quilting ruler with guides, a good pair of snips, a magnetic guide for the sewing machine, an magnetic LED light so I can see what I'm sewing, the digital variable speed motor on the sewing machine, and most of all, basting tape! What a difference!  It was an actual pleasure to do the upholstery instead of a challenge!

So, I started with the easiest piece first, the upper seat cushion.  Using paper patterns, I cut the material and using the basting tape, was able to put everything together so that all I had to do was run it through the machine.

After sewing and fitting, I realized that I'm going to need a little filler foam so that you don't feel the seams.  So using some headliner material that I had left over from the XK-8 headliner repair, I cut pieces to fit and glued them in.

I also needed a back panel so that I can close everything up.  I didn't want to use my expensive upholstery material, so I used some vinyl I had from another project that worked perfectly.  It's not the same color, but it's on the back, so no one will notice.

I plan to close everything up with Velcro, which I have on order.  Once that comes in, I can sew it into the cover and call it done.

Next I worked on the bottom seat cushion.  Same process as the top cushion only there was no need for sewing flat seams on this one.  However, the shape was more complex than the top cushion, which provided it's own set of challenges.  Here are pictures:

Upper seat cushion with sewn cover.  Note foam backed headliner material on head rest.

Upholstered upper and lower set cushions in situ

Upholstered upper and lower set cushions in situ

Next, with be the bolsters.  Stay tuned...

More Back Seat Work

Dateline - 04/02/2017 - Over the week, I received my 9" electric carving knife and a large role of rebond foam, so I went to work turning the pink foam forms into soft foam seat cushions.  First though, I needed to created the metal backing plates.  I bought four pieces of 8" x 18" 22 gauge sheet metal at the hardware store.  Three of the four pieces needed to be cut to shape, so I created templates out of paper, transferred them to the metal, and got out the trusty saber saw.  Two hours later, I had all four metal frames ready to go.  They will need to be painted, but I will do that after I mount the rebond foam to them.

Creating the foam cushions was an easy, if somewhat slow process.  I bought both 2" and 1" foam so I was able to use the appropriate thickness that avoided a lot of piecing.  All the foam was glued together with 3M 77 adhesive.  The electric knife really made cutting the foam easy.  It just chops right through without complaint.  

I'm really glad I made all the pink foam forms ahead of time because I could really see how the layers fit together and could easily mark them out on the rebond.  That saved a lot of foam from being wasted! To do the other side, which is reversed, all I have to do it separate the layers of the forms and draw them upside down on rebond.  Should be pretty straight forward.

I got the back and two upright bolsters done before I called it a day.  Here are pictures of the work:

Note in the two bottom pictures you can see the bottom bolsters with the paper patterns I made for the upholstery which I mentioned in the last post.  I got all my tools for the upholstery work last week also, so I'm ready to go with that as soon as I get the foam done!

I've also worked on some of the remaining instrumentation.  The center "Information Center" piece has gone through lots of transitions.  I bought some black ABS and printed the information center again on the 3D printer.  Then, I tried out a method for "chroming" it using fingernail polish and rub on chrome flakes.  It had real promise, but it just has a little too much "glitter."  I'm still looking for a chrome method that will work.  I don't want to paint it black since all the other gauges have chrome bezels.  I may just have to sent it out to be chromed.  Considering the time and money I've already spent, it probably would have been cheaper to do it already!