Assembly 2009

So here we are once again. Another year has gone by and the spring weather is here so I can roll Josephine out into the workshop - that's the driveway for those engineeringly challenged people who don't have a double garage.

I'm aiming for this to be the final year of the build and want to have Josephine in for her mSVA test sometime early-to-mid summer.

Now what did I do over winter? Not much as usual!

I bought some motorcycle air filters to replace the crap piper-x socks I'd wasted £20 on. These came off e-bay where there were loads to choose from. Apparently it's just a matter of searching for 45mm air filter instead of 43mm air filter which I had done originally (or something like that anyway).

My list of things to do then is:

• • Seats

  • Seatbelts

  • Bodywork

  • Fuel filler

  • Lights

  • Tidy electrics

  • Exhausts

  • Mudguards

The seat templates I cut from 12mm ply and sent off to the local auto-trimmers. The back rest used the ply for support, had 2 inches of foam applied and is covered in black vinyl. The base seat is simply 2 inches of covered foam, after all it's just going to be a floor cushion.

I'd cut the back rest part of the seat, so that it sits ontop of the base and needs to depress the base a half inch or so in order to fit under the edge of the bodywork / cockpit. This makes the backrest secure when it's in position and I hope will mean that I don't need to use a hinge mechanism. I like to keep things clean and imple!

The seats.

The seat turned out well and cost me £150 in total.

The seatbelts I bought from e-bay. Where would we be without the internet? As I think I mentioned earlier, I've decided to use 3 point, fixed seatbelts which fix to the chassis without any need to weld extra mounting plates. The build manual says that the inertia real seatbelts would fit, but I couldn't see how (to my satisfaction). And as I said, I like to keep things clean and simple.

With the seats and seatbelts done I moved onto the bodywork. Tony had cut his bodypanels from the ali sheet at the end of last year, so I borrowed these to trace around. It saved loads of time not having to use the paper templates, plus arranging them on the full sheets off ali gave a really efficient cutting arrangement.

TOP TIP: let your neighbour do things first, then copy. Easy peezey. On a serious note, having the 2 of us building a hopper has made things easier, in that we have both learned from each other's techniques and mistakes as the build has progressed. It's also gee'd us both on. So go on, talk to your neighbour and convince him that he must build a hopper too.

With my ali sheets marked out I set about cutting them out. I cut them using an air driven nibbler which a friend has. Thsi wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be. In fact it was no easier than the grinder & file method I'd used up to now.

TOP TIP: your grinder is your friend. Cherish it. If someone was to ask what the most useful tool is in building a hopper I'd have to say it's a grinder.

With the panels cut I set about riveting them to the chassis. I was suprised how quickly and easily the panels went on. Much easier than the internal bulkheads had been. The only fiddley one was the rear top panel which needed fitting, marking, removing, cutting, refitting, remarking, etc, etc to get it right. Anyway, 3 weekends saw this done.

Bodywork completed.

I'd decided from the start of my build advanture that I didn't want to use wooden capping pieces to the cockpit / chassis sides. Instead I wanted to mould the ali sheet around the side chassis rails. However, the panels I'd cut were not high enough to do this. Bugger! My solution, which I'm more than happy with, was to use copper (from the bolier used for the front cowl) as a rolled edge over the side chassis rails. This looks like suede at the moment, but once polished should look good.

The bonnet panel was rivetted to the copper boiler top and eased into a curve over the chassis. Again all fairly easy and staright forward. I'm fastening the bonnet down with DZUS fasteners form e-bay. I'm in 2 minds about having leather bonnet straps as I like the look without. However, my wife likes leather straps (Ohh, err missus!) so....

Rolled copper cockpit edge.

That was the bodywork pretty much done. Chrome effect edge trim from, you guessed it, e-bay made Josephine look very plush. I was well happy.

I'd decided not to rivet the rear panel to the chassis top rails as I liked the look of the clean smooth top. However, a visit to Duncan (of Silver Surfer fame) to collect some fuel filler pipe changed my mind on the subject. Duncan pointed out the the rivets were essential for structural reasons. That is, the rear panel being riveted to the chassis cross members essentially triangulates the seatbelt fixing points and makes them secure. Obvious when pointed out. So once home I immediately rivetted my rear panel.

With the bodywork done I set about making a license plate mounting plate and alternator belt cover. I'd seen some copper effect bird feeders in a local store for £1.99. They had a nice domed top and the wire mesh was stainless steel. I incorporated these elements into my cover and am well happy with the result.

Front grill cover.

The lights were easy once I'd come up with a suitable fixing method at the front. I wasn't happy with the idea of using some angle iron to form a bracket, so I wracked my brain for a solution. Bingo! Use a 12mm anchor bolt. I bought 2 and fitted them. Just the job. They look good and took no fabrication.

The front indicators were made from cheap trailer indicator units and 2 of the £1.99 birdfeeders I'd used earlier for my front license plate mounting plate / cover.

Front Lights.

The wires for the front lighting is run through stainless flexible electrical conduit (shower hose at the rear) which I bought from Whitehouse Fexible Hoses. Thanks go to Duncan for the supplier contact. I had fixed the hoses into the bodywork before I fixed my exhausts and guess what? Yep, the hoses were right in the way of the exhausts. Bugger! I had to reposition the hoses in the bodywork which meant that I had to patch the old holes. I used a copper patch for this to make a feature of them. Every mark tells a story, just like the lines on your face!

The rear light use the original units from the Dyane donor mounted on a formed mounting plate. I used 7 core trailer cable for this section of the loom.

Rear Lights.

That's it for now. Just the exhausts and mudguards to fit. I'll update with pictures once these are done.

Some photo's of the more or less complete car.

First Drive. Off to weld mudguard brackets.

Mudguards fitted.

Side view of fitted mudguard.

Rear view mudguard.

I've just got to balance the carb's and add some edge trim & plastic bolt covers in order to go for MSVA now. At least I think that's all. I'll post a couple of finished car photo's once I'm ready for MSVA.

Okay, so what's happened since my last web update? Oh yes that's right Josephine's passed her mSVA! Hurray!!! She's also been taxed & registered and is now on the road. But I'm getting ahead of myself and no doubt you all want to know the hows and wherefores of how she got to that stage. Well if you're sitting comfortably here we go....

Thanks to Sambike and his colourtune gizzmo & instruction I managed to balance & tune the carb's. So I applied for my mSVA which was then arranged for 1 pm July 27th down at Beverley VOSA test centre.

I got up at 7 on the morning of the 27th and pottered around making sure I had all the tools, etc that I thought I'd need for the mSVA. Set off for Beverley at 10am.

(One thing I had noticed the night before, during a quick check over, the exhaust manifold has a hairline crack up the left hand side tube. I thought I'd replace it by borrowing Tony's, but on inspection his was the same. So it's a batch fabrication fault - I think from when the pipes have been bent to shape. So I need to ring Phil for a replacement. Edit> Just rang Phil and he's sending out 2 new manifolds & wants us to send ours back in due course).

Josephine went great, big smile from me & all I passed. She sounded great with a nice burble when I take my foot off the accelerator.

Then 20 miles in, my mudguard lost a bolt, so I stopped to replace it with a rivet. Some passers by stopped to have a photo next to the car.

10 miles later the rivet worked through the mudguard and started flapping. Replaced it with a bolt and washers.

Once at Beverley, took a couple of detours (ie. got a litttle lost). Then lost a bolt from the mudguard bracket, so stopped and replaced it. I took this opportunity to ask for directions from a nice lady who was trimming her garden hedge.

Arrived at the test centre at 12:30ish.

Map of the route to mSVA.

The test started at 1 and to cut a long story short, she failed. Nothing too serious - headlights weren't working as they should (my own fault, the way I wired them), an indicator just decided to stop, radius on end can, radius on side mirror, etc. The only fail of note was that the tester wasn't happy with the use of alloy rivets to the seatbelt hoops - he wants them in steel.

Anyway, following a fail you have 6 months to have a re-test & the tester said that they'll then only look at the points it failed on. Any longer & its a full test again.

So, leaving the test centre I called into a petrol station and she stalled and then wouldn't start. No spark!!!!

After lots of tinkering, help from passers, etc, she wouldn't go (so I'm thinking condensor or coil failure, but.... ).

So I needed a tow home, some 70 miles or so away. Many thanks go to my mate Chappie who arrived like a knight in shining armour with my A-frame at 7.05. I arrived back home & put her back in the garage by 9:30.

So began my pembling adventures!

Once back home I immediately set to working through my list of fails and getting Josephine to running again. New coil, plugs & points got her up and running again. The list of fails were fairly easy to deal with and the jobs got ticked off over a couple of weekends. The only trickey one being that I needed to ease my steering off a little, so I needed to remove my kingpins and grind a little off one of the packing washers (which I remembered had been a little, shall we say, snug when I'd fitted them). This was a little harder than I remembered them being when I replaced them 3 years ago, but was going okay until I hit my thumb, broke into a sweat, and spent some time deciding whether to faint or just carry on swearing. Anyway, after half an hour rolling around on the floor I finally got on with the job and before long it was done.

In addressing my headlights I discovered that I'd connected the hi-beam live to earth & the earth to the live. Doh! Easy to fix, but in doing so I decided to remove the push button switch for hi-beam from the dash & just use the rotary light switch to do all the lighting. This left a hole in the dash! What to fill the gap with? I decided that I'd use the donor vehicles petrol guage. So I had to cut it from the circuit board it was attached to and make a mounting box for it. All fairly straight forward, but it means that I'm now not using the electronic low level indicator gizzmo that I'd spent ages researching & making. Doh! Oh, well nothing learned is wasted I suppose.

The only other thing I changed was my mudguard brackets. The horizontal bar that I'd had welded across from the vertical bracket restricted my turning circle too much for my liking. So I cut the horizontal bar off and fashioned a simple 'L' bracket which fits onto the front suspension arms pivot plate & attaches to the mudguard spats (which the observant ones out there will have noticed have been trimmed back to allow them to accomodate with the new brackets). This set up is much better as its more robust, vibrates less and allows the wheels to turn fully.

new mudguard bracket.

With everything done from my list of fails I applied for an mSVA retest date, 7th Sept at 1pm.

Josephine drove to Beverley and back without missing a beat - so the new bits worked a treat (as they should). Weather was great, a bit blusterey and some fog over Blakey Ridge on the way there, but the rest was all blue skies.

Half an hour ticking off from the list of fails from last time and all was done.

It's an mSVA pass! Who's that handsome chap?

With the mSVA out of the way, I called into the DVLA offices at Stockton with paperwork in hand to apply for tax & registration. I dealt with a lovely woman at the DVLA who looked at my ID, took my forms, insurance, Pembleton kit receipt, msva certificate & a cheque for £66 (It seems you don't pay the £55 registration fee as you already have a registration document from the donor car. Bonus!).

She then apologised because, as Stockton is a small DVLA office, they have to come to your home do the inspection. Another bonus! Now I don't have to worry about getting Josephine to the DVLA office.

She also said that I should get an age related plate, dependant on the inspection; but...

However, the home inspection might take 2 to 3 weeks, so it will be another month or so before I'm on the road.

Oh silly me I forgot to mention that after the mSVA the front engine guard 'fell off' as did some other mSVA required bits and bob's. Then the shoe fairies fitted an MGA rear view mirror, 2 Brooklands screens and a glove box lid. Imagine my suprise when I opened the garage door the following morning.

On Monday 5th October the DVLA inspection was carried out. All was okay and an age related plate was agreed. The paperwork just had to be done. 2 days later I had the paperwork and went to get some reg plates the next day. Friday, I had the plates on ready for a drive on Saturday.

Today as I write this it's Saturday. I've been for a drive out with my wife as co-pilot. Job done, let the adventures begin.

Oh yes, I had to alter my mudguards after my drive out. Their back edges were too close to the ground and touched down around a couple of tight turns. They're now 4 inches shorther so that shouldn't happen again.

I guess you're never really finished building a Pembleton Grasshopper!