Progress has been a bit slow recently. I've been spending quite a lot of time sitting staring, thinking about stuff, (while drinking tea and eating chocy biscuits lol) fuel tank design&location.
I did a bit more with the steering column the other day but uncovered another slight issue which I was kind of half expecting.
As I've moved the wheel position down and centralised to suit my seat I knew it would have an effect on the angles the Uj's run at.
Without going into too much detail, the more of an angle you put a UJ under the more it's speed fluctuates, ie with a constant speed on the input (steering wheel) the output (rack) will have a fast and a slow phase. This translates into non linear steering, ie turn the steering wheel 45 degs and the rack will move "x" amount, turn it a further 45degs and it will move "x" amount +/- if it's not too much of a difference your not likely to feel it but I think i'm right on the edge of what's acceptable.
My bluepeter steering angle measuring device lol actually works quite well, can only do 180deg sweep though due to how it's mounted but thats enough.
Column currently looks like this
Quite close!
Steering rack raised 20mm
Looks like i'm going to have to put another UJ in the column, directly below the top one, this will half the angle each joint sees and cancel out the speed fluctuations but it means ordering another UJ from the Netherlands and ill have to make a lower column support with bearing or it'll wobble about all over the shop.
Also had a bit of an issue with the seam sealer I used on the boot floor, as in it never cured! Turned out the tube I used was out of date :dapprove: can't believe I never noticed, normally quite observant with stuff like that but on this occasion I never thought to check. I phoned the manufacturer who confirmed that this stuff doesnt set if it's too far out of date, this tube was out by over a year.
I had only just bought it from the car shop at the start of the week so needless to say I went back to see them and they were very apologetic, turned out the other 5 tubes of the same stuff were all out of date too. They gave me a tube of the expensive stuff (x3 the price) which I will be using on everything from now on.
Upshot of that c*ck up was 3.5hrs spent with lots of thinners and lots of rags to remove the old stuff, god awful mess just doesnt describe it! I then had to re-prime everything and then re-seal it, gave it a coat of white high build primer last night, looks pretty good.
I haven't swaged any of the holes in the tailgate, wasnt room to get it in anywhere i've put holes. Just looked and I dont have any pictures of it but basically i've peppered the top of it with holes, on the basis that they will be covered by the spoiler so it shouldnt leak, much
I've not put any holes in the bit at the bottom, assume your talking about where the latch mechanism goes? I've actually been considering chopping that off completely! I weighed the tailgate a few weeks ago, got it written down in my book, was about 5.5kgs i think, will check next time i'm there.
Think it's safe to say this car might have a few drafts but I can live with that lol
