And So It Begins....

[SanRemo78]

My next struggle is deciding on the Accusump installation.. Not that's I've spent any money on one yet but have been taking advice from Chris (Betabuoy) and I've got my head around the mechanical installation, the control valving, the oil cooler sandwich plate and an additional dash warning gauge. What I haven't found yet is somewhere for it to live permanently. The initial hope was that it could be installed on the original radiator mounting brackets but that's not going to happen, not enough clearance. I'm down to an install   on top of the engine subframe, horizontal near the alternator. I'm not sure about that yet as it's susceptible to potential damage from the alternator. The next possibility is underneath the battery tray, possibly underneath the washer bottle. There are also two vertical possibilities outboard of the strut tower to front crossmember but I think that there won't be enough room with the control valve and pressure gauge attached. The Accusump blurb does say these can be mounted elsewhere and plumbed in.

I have a funny feeling this won't get resolved until I drop the engine in.... And I'm not sure I'm at that stage yet.

Unless anyone out there has any ideas?

[WestonE]

I had brackets made to fit it vertically in front of the battery tray. It goes there neatly with one tweak which is a 90 degree adapter for the gauge on top. It actually mounts onto the structural metal running along the side of the engine bay.

[SanRemo78]

Tried it there Eric but that spot will be occupied by the air con dryer I think... If it doesn't fit underneath the washer bottle I may relocate that to the scuttle and mount it next to the battery. I probably need to put the engine and box in to finalise this part of the build even if it has to come out again!

[lancialulu]

Tried it there Eric but that spot will be occupied by the air con dryer I think... If it doesn't fit underneath the washer bottle I may relocate that to the scuttle and mount it next to the battery. I probably need to put the engine and box in to finalise this part of the build even if it has to come out again!

I believe Chris had the benefit of relocating his battery (to the boot..)

[SanRemo78]

Now that's a possibility Tim. Given that I plan a wiring loom that's custom made I could relocate the battery there along with the fuseboxes and relays? That might lead to some big bundles running down the sides of the car though? Starter cable too... Hmm, maybe!

[betabuoy]

Guy,
I certainly created some space by relocating the battery to the boot; otherwise, I generally kept my rewire to the standard loom pattern but with a modern fuse box hidden at the back of the passenger footwell (as opposed to cooking everything above the exhaust manifold 😂).
Chris

[SanRemo78]

Can I ask whereabouts in the boot Chris? I suspect left side behind the wheel arch! What did you use to keep it in place?

Since I'm starting the wiring loom from scratch I think that the majority of the fuses and relays (it might not have any if I go with the company I'm considering!) or control boxes could happily live in the boot. I have zero intention of leaving the fusebox and relays to be slowly roasted by the exhaust! Not having the fusebox in the engine bay will also improve access to the exhaust manifold.

The washer bottle is another slight issue for me. I've cleaned and polished the exterior of the one that came with the car but, like the expansion tank, nothing makes a difference, it still looks grubby. So, if the battery tray gets removed I see a plan coming together to make a custom one and have it anodised a nice bright blue so it matches the Accusump...

[betabuoy]

Guy,
Boot LHS works very well for the battery.
I threw out the old washer bottle in favour of an after market item for flexibility. Incorporated fitting this amongst a series of brackets made for the Accusump.
Also ditched the expansion tank for a powder-coated alloy version.
Hope this helps?
Chris

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Chris, that helps a great deal as usual!

Sorry to the Austin 7 suffered a mechanical mishap on it's 100th Birthday. I'm sure you have it stripped, repaired and running like a sewing machine in the not too distant future!

Guy

[Nigel]

Guy,
I used an original Beta battery tray, on top of suitable brackets, when I
did this mod. Use of the normal battery clamp added to the advantage.

I would advise against placing the fuse/relay stuff so far away from what its
doing. I understand that your pax footwell may be filled with a/c bits, consider below
the pax seat as a possible position, or even on the floor just forward of either seat
(with suitable protection)

Nigel

[SanRemo78]

It's bloody freezing in the garage! Other than a little tidying up to make sure it was fit for inspection when Carl popped over at the weekend not a lot has happened. I have discussed mounting the air con compressor with Geoff Turton and designed a suitable set of brackets to carry it that should isolate the noise and vibrations from the pump from getting into the body shell. All the necessary parts are here so I'm hoping we can fabricate them later this week before getting them powder coated and installed in a couple of weeks.

And it felt like Christmas today when a parcel from Mark arrived! He sent me a few bits ordered before Christmas but also included the requested clear front indicator lenses I've been looking for for a while. I'll be using these with orange bulbs (maybe) if I don't like the switchover halo rings that are in the front lights otherwise it'll probably just be doubled up sidelights or switchover BAY15 white/orange LEDs.

Also included in the box were a pair of sun visors. I've got a pair already but they're mismatched new old stock ones I don't want to destroy. I'm going to retrim these old ones in Alcantara to match the headlining I've done already. In order to do this I needed to dismantle them in such way so I could find out how the were originally made. Fortunately it's not rocket science. Careful scrutiny revealed a French Seam at the top of the visor (If that's the right term for a fold of material stitched over on each side and then sewn along it's length to a matching side) and a simple seam around the remaining sides. There's a simple steel frame inside covered by some high density foam. This is failing on the ones Mark sent so needs replacing and I won't be replicating the vanity mirror mount or the little pocket on the drivers side. The frames need a little rust treatment and the outer stems cleaning up and painting black again but this is all straightforward work that can be done in a nice warm living room.

[SanRemo78]

Bracketry delayed by the passing of a pet in the fabricators family.... Know how that goes, I can wait.

In the meantime this trimming lark isn't as easy as people think! The frames are sorted out, de-rusted, welded, primed and painted. I got some stiff card and softer foam to pad them out and made a cover from the originals as a pattern but, unsurprisingly, the first one, being a trial and error one, turned out to be an error. Fit is fair around most of the perimeter with the corners probably needing to be hand sewn to get a better fit but I totally screwed up the part around the inner catch on this one, not enough material to sew it together and too much on the other side. 6/10 for this one if I'm being generous, I may undo it and see if I can move the stitches slightly tomorrow.

It took an hour or two to get the sewing machine working too but that's just me trying to remember where I left the instructions and having given up looking for them, experimenting to get it working sort of okay!

[Ferrit]

And so today has been spent on housework in preparation for visitors but once that was done it was time to try something new! After the success of treating plastics on the Panda I decided to drag the centre console out and give it a clean. I actually have a spare one so started on that as it looked worse than the original as an experiment. I washed both with a stiff brush and washing up liquid before hosing them off and then applied the Owarol Polytrol with a toothbrush, working it into the surface and buffing it off before it became sticky. It's worked beautifully on the spare one but not so well on the original, I might give that a second treatment but if it doesn't work it looks like the spare one is going in the car! Really happy with how it turned out. Photo below shows the finished one and the original before i had a go at it. The original didn't change colour much...

Next practice piece will be a spare door mirror body. It should work just as well on them!

Guy

I tried this with my console upper part this weekend, it now looks worse!  Muddy brown sort of colour.  I might leave alone for the time being and look at painting in the summer

[Carlwil10]

Well done for trying guy, ive had a go at some trimming  before and find it quite frustrating. Definitely practice makes perfect with this kind of thing. Im sure you'll get it.

[Nigel]

I've also used Owatrol on my exterior plastics i.e. C pillar and
mirrors, and had a really good result.

No real prep but I did clean any oil/grease/dirt carefully.

N

[SanRemo78]

Where do the weeks go? A week last week with Gerry and I'm off again tomorrow for a few days to help resolve phone issues down there so time has been hard to find for the Beta for a while. But there is progress. Not much. The bracket to support the air con compressor was designed and fabricated and is now back from the powder coaters and bolted onto the inner wing. The compressor sits in a tray and has been (temporarily) bolted in place to ensure I can get at all the fixing bolts to tighten them up. All that is left to do to complete the mechanical installation is to carve a rubber pad to support the inner edge of the tray and then start the plumbing of the system.

I'm getting to the point where I think I need to install the engine (again, temporarily) so that I can check for clearances everywhere and make decisions on the installation of the Accusump and battery (which I'd prefer to keep in the engine bay rather than the boot) at this point. In the end I went for the mid sized Accusump, it's still got a 2 quart/4 pint capacity so should be perfectly adequate for the car and should be an easier fit. I ended up getting this from a company in California together with the right electrical control valve (thank you Chris for letting me bounce ideas off you!) but it took forever to arrive, landing here about 6 weeks after purchase. Needless to say Duty and Taxes had to be paid but it saved about £100 buying it from Demon Thieves!

Anyway, photos attached, powder coated brackets for the air con pump, assembled brackets and installation. Should be sufficient to isolate any vibrations and noise from the cabin. I hope!

[SanRemo78]

And with the pump bolted in...

And with that, once the lower rubber is done, it's back to attempts to trim sun visors. And find a new home for the ignition coil.
Guy

[SanRemo78]

Another piece of the HVAC system ready for installation this week will be the heavily modified heater box. I need to complete some minor wiring for the linear actuators to a suitable plug and find some black draught excluder to replace what had turned to dust and disappeared leaving only a little glue residue on the top of the box. The same applied to the inlet door but I had something suitable to replace that in stock.

The heater box came from Nigel (thank you) and is the standard factory air conditioning one. If you look at the pictures below you'll see the recirculation flap behind the wiring guide channel, it's linked to the top flap so that it opens as the other closes. There's a new heater core in the casing with a new valve and seal from Mark. Again, pictures below show the actuators in open and closed positions I ended up with three 25mm throw and and one 30mm throw actuators, I could utilise the original mechanical linkage parts for most of the applications but one needed a plate making to shorten the pivot distance to give enough movement to fully open and close the flap that redirects air from the cabin vents to the upper and screen vents.

[SanRemo78]

And the other side. As described the right actuator opens and closes the redirect flap. The left one moves the heater core blanking plate and forces air underneath the core, no point in pumping cold air through a (possibly) warm heater that further restricts the flow of air.

There's a new three speed SPAL fan in the casing too, before I install the box for the last time I need to bench test this with the new three speed switch to ensure it all works correctly. And for that I need to download the switch wiring diagram so I can jury rig a loom, then it's just an 8 connection plug and socket and 4 nuts to being installed.

Eric advised me to enlarge the drain on the box in case it floods with condensate. I hope I'm not going to regret this but after a lot of looking and poking I decided that the existing air con condenser was too risky to try removing to access the base of the case. I could just move it enough to thoroughly clean the case of years of accumulated debris so I'm hoping that that plus opening up the end of the rubber drain pipe will suffice. If not then I'll have a small job to do....

Must put a small shopping list together for this weekends Practical Classic Show...

[SanRemo78]

There are a few redundant plastic brackets on the casing that I'll probably cut off and one metal cable bracket that I'll have to leave in place. It's riveted on from inside and getting at the rivet heads is impossible unless the air con core is removed. Trimming unwanted parts might make routing wiring easier later. I am not looking forward to that aspect of the build but it's looming large (sorry - pun intended) on the horizon. I may have to put the drivetrain in before embarking on that task though...