S3 109 Safari project......

steve24v said:

Some nice work going into this. As for seals, I've used old inner tubes before (too tight to buy anything), wheelbarrow ones are a good size for most things

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Thanks, yes I’ve used inner tubes too where aluminium meets steel to prevent differential corrosion. Very cheap and effective! The original heater box seal was much thicker, so that’s why I used 5mm thick neoprene. I couldn’t find original seals anywhere, so that’s why I bought a sheet online. Was only a few pounds, so cost effective too.

Made a bit more progress this weekend. I built the clutch pedal box up with a new cylinder after painting. Nice to get another lump bolted on .

Thought I would assemble the top dashboard support panel ready for the dash top to go on next week. I’m considering dying the black vinyl dash top before I fit it as there are some marks on the surface. I’ll see what’s available first though. Also fitted a door strap retainer bracket. Every small part fitted is a win .
Bought a second hand Ingersol Rand drill today at a Sunday market to replace my broken one. Amazing what you can buy for a fiver! Works perfectly too despite the fact it looks ancient .

I purchased the vinyl dye for the dashboard and plastics to see if I can give the surface of the dash a better finish as there are some rusty marks and sun damage you can see in the photos. I cleaned and prepared the surface ready for the dye.

After two coats of dye it seemed to cover the marks and discolouration really well, although it’s a bit shinier than I was expecting.

I gave the plastic vents a couple of coats too. Before and after….

Once dried I thought the best place to keep it safe was bolted to the bulkhead

I bought an early 110 throttle pedal, thinking it would be a straight fit, but as usual it wasn’t .
You can see a gap at the top and bottom as the angles are all wrong.

I thought the best thing to do was tweak the mounting plate with a vice and a big hammer after dismantling it.

As the two mounting holes that are on the apex of the bend are not really useable now, I drilled another 4 further down to give it some additional support. As you can see it looks a bit better suited to the shape of the footwell now.

I dissembled the pedal assembly again to clean it down, Kurust it and paint it. I might need to tweak the pedal length or angle to get the pedal ratio correct, but I’ll see how it feels once it’s all assembled. I also might need to put larger washers or a support plate behind the footwell to make it more resistant to flexing and potential failure.

Its all these little bits that take the time, but are worth it in the long run!

It's looking good.
So nice to be reassembling.

codfather79 said:

It's looking good.
So nice to be reassembling.

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Thanks - yes this is the rewarding bit, rather than being up to my armpits in rust

Made some decent progress today. Started with the clutch pipe. They are so cheap to buy new, it’s hardly worth trying to reuse old ones. Once this was fitted, I bolted the dash binnacle support on.

I thought I would refurbish the vent flap controls and install the flaps. This took a bit of time but I think it was worth it. Also, I had put off tackling the mess of spaghetti that makes up the wiring loom for the bulkhead for long enough. I stripped the complete loom from the old bulkhead, and to be fair, it doesn’t look too bad. Once I pulled it all out, I checked it then threaded it through the bulkhead screwing the grommet plates back on. Next time I will run the wiring correctly and get it all bolted back in. I will also need to check the instruments to make sure that they are all fit for reuse.

Thought I would get the tdi throttle pedal painted, reassembled and fitted. Another wee job done

When I was routing the wiring to the near side of the dash, I got another unwelcome surprise. There was no wiring for the wiper motor. Looks like someone snipped off the wiring for the plug before I bought the car. Anyway, spare loom to the rescue, or so I thought. Checked the plug, and even though it was there the pins were rotten too! Must be a common issue. Also checked the corresponding pins in wiper motor, and they were rotten too . So, after a bit of research, it’s actually the wiper parking switch, which is replaceable and is a standard Lucas item. Also, there is a repair kit for the plug, so I ordered both. After fitting the parking switch, I went to fit the terminals back on and they are rotten too! What a nightmare…. Anyway I’ll need to extend the wiring and fit new terminals next time. Just shows how a 2 second job turns into a half hour job.

After snipping off the three spade connectors which go from the park switch to the motor, I extended the wiring as there was not enough spare length to get new connectors back on to the switch. I used standard female spades, squeezed them in a bit as they were a little wider than original. As a precaution I put some heat shrink over them to prevent any likelihood of a cross circuit.

After that, I connected up the cut end of the dash loom to the wiring I salvaged from the spare loom. I soldered it and applied heat shrink. Then, methodically, I snipped each wire one by one off the old multi plug, and fitted the new terminals into the new plug.