Progress over the summer was relatively slow: I spent a lot of time out of doors as it seemed too nice outside to spend a lot of time in the shop. But, now that it’s getting colder during the day, I’m back to working on the roadster more diligently.
So far:
I’ve completed the cockpit and trunk aluminum:
and I’ve completed the rivet holes for the trunk Al. The lower and upper trunk sections had roughly 200 holes drilled, each:
I’ll not rivet the trunk Al until all of the electrical work is done as well as the installation of the fuel delivery system. The photo album on Al has a number of photos on the Al work.
I replaced the body attachment bolt system for the rear with threaded couplers (‘coupler nuts’) and threaded rods. This will make it easier to attach the body without lowering the fuel tank to get to the original attachment bolts. The ‘old’ system:
The newer attachment: The coupler nuts can remain in place while I remove the threaded rod for body fitment.
The next and perhaps the most challenging part of the build is the electrical system. I’ve been playing around for some time with the instrument gauge layout on the dash and now have a scheme that I like:
I’m sure that I’ll be modifying some parts of it as I work out the wiring details. I also decided to go with Classic Instruments gauges as they are beautiful and classic looking but they will require some modification of the Ron Francis dash wiring harness. I’ve also begun to lay out the wiring harnesses to get an idea of what I’ll need to do for such things as routing, grounding, connectors and additional wiring:
Below is the temporarily-installed fuse box:
Wiring is totally new to me so I’m taking the opportunity to learn some basic electronics:
I also thought it would be a good opportunity to learn the Arduino system so I got a SparkFun inventor's kit. Now I can switch an LED to different colors using the Arduino programming environment (C/C++) and Arduino board micro-controller : ha ,ha!
One of my goals in building the roadster was to learn some new things and I think the electrical part of the build will certainly help me to do that!