Trying to Finish - Part 2

A couple of other little steps finished today pushing me closer to completion:

• Reassembled the front indicators and tested the indicator wiring.
• Used front indicators to confirm Hazard relay works OK.
• Rerouted water line connections for bleed line and EGR valve, and connected up new water lines from these back to expansion tank.
• Configured main water lines from thermostat back to the expansion tank 
• Machined up mounts for reversing lights.

I now need to wire in the side repeater indicators, so I can fit the scuttle, which will allow me to mount all the tanks and reservoirs, the windscreen and the wipers.

Once I fit the last R pin to the front uprights, I will also put the front mudguards in and then the nose cone.

Interior - Part 3

The carbon fibre centre panel is a tricky piece to fit. It holds an auxiliary power port and the wiper washer button. It would normally hold the heater controls, but I have chosen not to fit a heater. I have also chosen to use this panel to mount the original Focus cluster on, which I will explain later in this post. First task was to enlarge the holes to hold the switches and ports. This was done with a stepper bit and a sanding wheel in the Dremel. 


With that done, I turned to the mounting bracket for the original Focus. This is an idea borrowed from a fellow Birkin builder Maurice. The mount is a right angle aluminum bracket, bolted to the top of the carbon fibre panel. From here, two stainless steel bolts go through the front of the bracket, and secure the Focus cluster through the bottom.

An aluminum bracket is passed through the top of the Focus cluster, and it runs down the front and back of the cluster, and is clipped under the bottom. Then a wide piece of aluminum is fitted over the back of this bracket and secured to the bolts from the front. This makes the mount very solid and the cluster is held tightly in place. The circle on the left at the back is the warning chime speaker, which has been "modified" to lower the volume of the warning chimes. Because the front of the cluster has all the original LED warning lights, I have covered this with rubber, which is secured by the middle aluminum bracket and the two cable ties. The rubber sheeting also acts as a damper against vibration. The LEDs need to be covered otherwise I will get unwanted light from under the dash, and it will also bleed through gaps in the dash switches at night.

With the Focus cluster mounted, the next step was to mount the carbon fibre panel in the car with the cluster on top. Here is where I have stolen another idea from another fellow Birkin builder Andrew. I riveted two 90 degree brackets on the frame, and put rivnuts in those to receive screws through the carbon fibre panel. I used a trick Andrew posted on his build diary to line these two up so I could drill the holes through the carbon fibre. This worked a treat and very soon I had the panel secure in place, and the Focus cluster wired. This step has taken a long while to do and has been fairly fiddly, but I am pretty happy with the result. Its tidy and looks professional, not that you can see it from the cockpit!

Final position from above. I will probably reroute the cables back into the tunnel and bring them up through the carbon fibre panel into the cluster.

This what it looks like from the cockpit and behind. I will paint the bolt heads black.

This is what it looks like from the passenger foot well, before the scuttle goes on.

Interior - Part 2

After I loosened it (someone used Loctite initially!), Steve was able to remove the gear knob so that gear shift shroud could be fitted onto the tunnel. The gear knob was refitted, sans Loctite :) This now just leaves the carbon fibre centre panel to fit over the gap above the tunnel. You can see where the tunnel is bowed a little downwards, so I have riveted in a black strip of 3mm aluminum to hold the front of the tunnel straight.

I was also able to fit the interior side panels which need to go in before the scuttle is fitted, as the scuttle has right angle brackets under the dash that secure it and hold the side panels in simultaneously.

Interior - Part 1

As I am starting to wrap up, I am able to finish a few things off. In order to get the scuttle on, I need the Focus cluster mounted, which needs the carbon fibre panel mounted, which needs the transmission tunnel mounted!

Since I got all the transmission tunnel carpets in over the weekend, Monday night I was able to fit the transmission tunnel, and the handbrake boot....gear lever shroud will need to wait as I can't get the shift lever knob to budge ;)

The transmission tunnel was surprisingly easy....and I was ably assisted by my oldest son (who was going to help me build the car......).

With the tunnel in, I was also able to fit the rear bulkhead lining, but only using the top mounts. I have yet to drill and secure the panel at the bottom. This only leaves the seat belts to go back in, the seats, the main carpets and the carbon fibre centre panel to finish off the interior. 

Trying to Finish - Part 1

Happy New Year! I thought I had better update the diary as there has been some progress since the drive, although I have been limited to night time building and wet weekends only as a new pool and Christmas were priorities.


I have managed to prioritize my To Do list and I now know what needs to be done and in what order to get to engineering and rego. Also as an early Christmas present the NSW RTA was merged with the Maritime agency, to create the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) dept. They subsequently released a new certification scheme called the VSCCS the week before Christmas. This makes it somewhat more predictable to engineer and register an ICV now in NSW. This is not a short cut, as you still need to build a quality car to the current ADRs, but it makes the certification process more consistent. All good!


So what has been done since I drove it back in early December? Lots of deconstruction in order to finish things off. A quick summary of tasks completed, then some photos:

• Completely rerouted the engine looms and ECU loom to hide the wiring, and rerouted the fuel lines and evaporative lines. This has made the engine very tidy (photo below). Many thanks to Steve for his help with this.
• Modified the throttle mount angle and notched the pedal box frame for the drive by wire connector. The drive also proved the that I had moved the pedal box to far forward, so its now back where it started. Pedals are all now finished. Once the cable is secure the pedal box cover will go on.
• Removed the cooling expansion tank, and rerouted all the cooling lines to face backwards in preparation for the mounting of the expansion tank on the scuttle.
• Fitted all the interior carpets.
• Had the seatbelt lower mounting plates modified to be compliant with ADRs.
• Successfully tested all of the dash switches and wiring (so the scuttle can go on)
• Fitted all of the wiring penetrations with grommets, and checked all the wiring cable ties.
• R pinned all the front ball joints.
• Tested the reversing switch and lights.

I have also purchased all the lights and started preparing them for mounting, either by fabricating mounts, wiring up adapters or painting brackets.

A couple of photos of the progress.

Engine wiring tidied up and fuel lines rerouted.

Seat belt mounting plate that had to be replaced with a 90 degree pivot mount that has the forces in a direct line with the bracket. Hemco are replacing these this week.

This is the headlight mounts before the first modification.

This is the headlight mounts after the holes were machined larger to take the light stalks. I still need to machine down the height of the adapter so I can get some thread to bite underneath.

These are the front indicators and mounting stalks as I received them, all chromed up.

This is what they look like after 3 coats of satin black! I have decided no chrome on this car, so every chrome part is being either painted or etch primed and painted satin black.

This is the rear license plate light (painted black), fitted, wired and working. I suspect the fuel filler may have to be painted black as well :)