Brake Pipes

At the end of the last post, I had just got to the point of fitting the copper brake pipes on the rear of the car and I was starting to run the pipe to the front.  The problem was that I didn't have a brake master cylinder to run the pipes to, so I was a bit stuck.  Anyway, this weekend, I took a trip up to the factory to get some more parts.  It was very quiet up there as most of the team were at the Autosport International Show, where GBS had a stand.  Anyway, I was still able to get some parts and have a look at a car in the workshop.  I wanted to have a look and see where the brake pipes were being run and also the fuel pipes and the wiring loom.  I took loads of photos for reference and had a chat with John Hall about the new GRP dashboard.  It does look nice and would fit the dials perfectly.  I still have to decide which way I want to go with the dash, there are so many options.

On a side note, my son-in-law, Stuart, rang me the other night as the Top Gear Caterham Challenge was on 'Dave'.  He wanted me to have a look at the Caterham that The Stig was driving as that was almost the colour that we had spoken about when I first talked about getting the Zero.  Anyway, he confirmed that he and his friend are still very keen to get involved with the build and want to paint the car for me as a project for themselves.  They are both experts in painting GRP and metal and I have no doubt will do an amazing job.  Seeing the Top Gear program pretty much made up my mind for me on the colour (Ford Imperial Blue) but I still have to decide on what to do with the interior.  I would like to do some sort of blue and tan interior like below.  This is on a Tiger 6, but I think it looks amazing.

Anyway, back to the build.  I fitted the newly purchased master cylinder and continued to run the brake pipe from the back.  I followed the routing on the factory car and it seems to fit OK.  I did the same for the 2 front pipes.  It seems that looking at different blogs and Photobucket accounts, that everyone seems to run these things differently, there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way of doing it.  I made one error in that I was trying to get a fairly tight bend in a pipe and did the one thing you should never do when bending brake pipes. Yes, I used pliers!!  The net result was a kink in the pipe.  Fortunately, it was near the end of the run and there was enough spare on the pipe to allow me to cut out the kink and re-flare a new end and finish the job.  Cost me a bit of embarrassment and £20 for the brake flaring tool!  Anyway, as you can see below, it doesn't look too bad, and is pretty much in line with car I saw at the factory.  It all gets hidden under the scuttle and in the pedal box, so as long as the pipes are not kinked in any way, it will do the job.

Next thing to do was to try and fit the steering column, but first I had to try and get the old key barrel out so I could fit the new one.  This was not easy but after drilling out the lug and generally hacking the old barrel out, it is ready to fit the new one, but not yet.  I fitted the steering column but found it is not straight.  If I can't figure out where the slight bow is, I will have to get another column, so there is no point fitting the key barrel just yet.

I also fitted the passenger foot well panels.  I decided not to bother fitting the first part to the outside to make a bit of extra foot room, as it is not as crucial for the passenger to be able to get both feet side by side like it is the driver.  I am happy with the finished result.  It is almost a shame that it all gets covered up with carpet!  All the clamps are just so the panel glues to the chassis.  This part will get riveted when I fit the rest of the tunnel panel, but that won't be until the prop shaft is fitted, and that is a long way off yet.

Finally, I was tyring to work out where every thing went, with relation to the scuttle etc, so I thought I would trial fit the side panel.  This has all of the holes cut in it which will make lining things up really easy, I hope.  Anyway, it fits really well as you can see below.

That is it for this weekend.  I probably won't touch the car until next weekend and then I have a week off work to do some more, so I hope to make some good progress.  Sitting here thinking about it, I am not sure what the next steps are going to be, so I am going to have to start making myself a list of jobs to be done, so I can plan the week.

Until next time!