Build day 21

Rear Shockies

As commented yesterday I have swapped to jack stands.

 And to finish off the effort yesterday - the rear shockies are in.

 

Next episode - wheels and tires.

Build day 20

Diff

I'll warn you, for the Birkin, fitting the diff with enough of the suspension in to mount the uprights and therefore the brake callipers to check for leaks in the brake lines is...interesting. I found that with the front mounting bracket attached, I had so much difficulty manoeuvring the diff into place that I took it back off and mounted it after getting the diff  in situ.
My method of diff jockeying was to slide the front end in under the cross bracing until I had the rear end in, tip and manoeuvre the rear end across until I could get the front end through the cockpit back wall and then tip back and feed the diff into place; all the time trying not to damage the brake lines. (and not the first time - shoulders are going to be sore in the morning.)
And of course there are spacers between the bolt holes of  front mounting bracket and the car chassis and these spacers sit on top of a welded-in threaded tube that don't sit flush with the chassis. Fiddly-ness/frustration rating: extreme.

Attaching the mounting bracket with the diff in situ (but rotated 90 degrees CW)

Diff mounted with the speed sensor attached

Half Shafts

The half shafts weren't quite so bad; although it took a lot of swearing to get the splines to seat all the way home. I detached the uprights from the top wishbone and the front mounting point of each bottom wishbone to fit the outer splines to the disc but they are in. (Hint: the longer one goes on the right; the Subaru diff is asymmetric.)

Right

Left

Diff in place with half shafts

The extra weight of the diff has finally done it in for my build trestles (all chocked up with bricks at the moment) so tomorrow I will be going into Beenleigh to buy some jack stands.

Build day 19

Scuttle

With the dash wired, I fitted the scuttle and the upholstery panels. I added a largish washer to each of the tonneau snap studs at the ends of the dash padding - without these they were buried in the padding and vinyl...

Rear Brakelines

...which let me mount the reservoirs for the brakes and clutch.

Scuttle and hydraulics reservoirs

Plumbed!

 I think this is a bit of a milestone... completed and working rear brakes.

I had some trouble with the bleed nipple - it was a bit short so although the Nylex 6mm clear tube sealed over the nipple, any movement and it would pop off. Anyway, filled the reservoir and allow the fluid to drain through - once I had fluid out at the calliper I started pumping the brakes to bleed them. At the same time I was checking for leaks in the lines - one at a banjo bolt and one at a connection from the steel tube to rubber brake line. Since the car is still on horses I pumped from on top of the pedal box. I will have to bleed the brakes again once it has wheels and is on the ground but I'm satisfied that the lines don't leak and I can go on to fitting the diff and finishing the rear suspension.

...and filled!

Build day 18

(Actually it's probably more like day 18, 19 and 20 but if I had planned better I think I could have done in the two days I've blogged.)

Dash

It's been a struggle but I'm finally finished with rewiring the dash (for now). The worst of it has been constantly finding something else I've forgotten and therefore another trip to Jaycar's. I also struggled with conduit sizes; I originally thought one smaller flexi-conduit for each "function" (like one for lamp wires, one for switch wires, one for earth wires and one for power wires etc) would make things easier but it made the job look like a black octopus was in a tactical engagement with a unit of insurgent zip-ties. So I have three conduits; the wiring for the Speedhut gauges power and lights, the sense wires for the gauges, and the rest (lamps, switches, and their power and earths).

The whole rear of the dash

Detail of the gauges sense wires connector

Detail of the Speedo, Tacho and Oil pressure rears

The Speedhut gauges came with an electronics module for dimming the gauges' illumination; I mounted it in a jiffy box along with a small distribution block for the ignition power and gauge illumination power and mounted the seat belt timer on its lid (first photo). I also bolted another block direct to the car's frame for earth. You can blame my years at Telecom for all this; it's like instinctive.

Jiffy box with gauges' dimmer electronics module and power/earth distribution

One tip I'd like to pass on - if using flexi-conduit (the sort that's ribbed and split) if you use a longer zip-tie and double it around either side of a wire or wires feeding out it, keeps them in place.