Bandit2 - Page 13

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9 August 2013

As much as I hate the wind that blows here today I was very happy about it, cause it dried out the mud out the front of the shed enough that I could drive a car over it. And old Bandit2 has seen the light of day under its own steam today! Happy days. She started up beaut, I did a 1000 point turn to move her over enough to back it out of the shed. The low exhaust scraped a bit there, then out into the open. I managed to turn it around and drove it up to the house. I couldn't help myself, I had to give it a wash, and it looked much better after that. The brakes have gone all soft again, but I'm thinking that's because of the dodgy shoes we put in the left hand side. Before driving it out I'd given the headlights a wash and fitted them, taken the radiator out so I could fit the fan, flushed the dirty water out of that again, refitted it, and put the grill on.

19 August 2013

I was hoping to have taken the car for a fang around the local roads for a bit of a shakedown by now, but the delay on the rear brake shoes put paid to that. So while waiting for them I pulled the front door off and masked it up ready for paint. Got a couple of coats on it, and now the cans are empty, so that'll have to do. I'll have to rub it back carefully so I don't go through the paint again. The shoes finally turned up, after a phonecall. Turns out they made it from Qld to Sydney, and then no one knew where to next, so they sat for a week there. But got them chucked on, and glad I didn't drive it too much with the bodgy one in there, it was already making a line around the drum. I also gave the slot mags a bit more of a polish to try and sort them out. Still a bit scratched but better than they were. While doing the brake shoes I noticed the rear section of the exhaust had come apart, so I scrounged a new clamp and put it back together. I pulled the front bumper mounts off too, I'll probably never put the bumper back on. I got a tow strap coming and a new fire extinguisher turned up too. And I had a bit more of a play with the wiper switch too, and turns out they do work, so I managed to get them to park in the right spot. Glad I chucked new blades on before sliding them over the windscreen.

21 August 2013

More fiddling about has been done. I chucked on the tow strap and bolted in the extinguisher. I made up a few decent size washers/plates for both of them, just to make it a bit more sturdy. I also managed to pull the old busted bonnet release handle off and put my brand new one on. Better go nice and easy with that so it doesn't break too. Then tried to get the interior mirror to go back on, but its kinda stuffed. Jim in Sydney has another one that he's going to send down to me. And then a before picture of the drivers floor. I want to give that a bit of a tidy up and some paint too. I've also wet sanded the drivers door back, not too much so I don't go through to the white, the orange is pretty thin. Gave it a polish today, but it might need a bit more sanding with some 2000 grit before being finished.

22 August 2013

At lunchtime Carlyn came down and gave me a hand to hold the door while I got the bolts in it. I don't know how I did it by myself last time. But then I couldn't help myself, I had to fiddle about and get it shutting right. Not sure its as good as it was the first time I put it on, but its good enough. Then I chucked the mirror on, put some new trim clips in, put the door trim on, then all the handles. And now its done. I had a look at my spare interior lights too. Looks like those wires have been fiddled with as well, cause the connectors are wrong there. I also pulled out my spare badges for the front guards. I need to find some pins to hold them on and they can go on too. Now to take it for a drive up the road to see what its like. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow. Then if it drives well I can book it in for the exhaust and wheel alignment.

9 September 2013

Matt and I had another night of fiddling about last week. More tightening, and we stripped down the other Mk2 axle so we can start getting it ready. Matt also pulled apart the gauge cluster so he could have a look at getting the tacho working. He ended up taking the dash and all the centre console home with him to have a play with. Top bloke! I've taken the car for a few drives here and there. It feels pretty much ok to me and doesn't seem to get hot, and no major leaks. There is one from the gearbox, but I'll check that out later. So after a work trip to the Gold Coast for a week, I rang the exhaust place and they could fit me in straight up. So rather than get a permit I just went and grabbed the car trailer and loaded her up.

12 September 2013

Bit of a hectic day on Tuesday. Ran the car to the exhaust shop and unloaded it. Had a couple of issues with the exhaust getting caught on the number plate frame. A few blocks of wood sorted that. Then back home with the car trailer. At 11 they rang and said it was done. So I went back in to town at 12, loaded the car up at the exhaust shop, then drove down to tyrepower and unloaded it again. Then back home with the trailer again. Then 3:15 it was back into town again, dropped Tal, Flynn and Carlyn at the doctors. Maya and I went to pick the car up. Loaded it up once again. Then back home after picking the gang up again. And lastly unloaded once more. Phew! But we've got a shiny new exhaust on. Its a little quieter than the old one, but has a nice burble to it. Its a bit hard to hear the exhaust over the rest of the noise in the car. Then the whole tribe got a dose of the plague. So a few days of getting nothing done. I've only just got better enough to venture down and do a bit of polishing on the slot mags. I'll get the rear Formula Ford tyres on the wheels and then they'll be the track wheels. Much lighter than the steel ones. I still think the 185/60s are the perfect tyre size for a 13x7 wheel.

16 September 2013

I got the other 2 slot mags polished up a bit. They're not perfect but good enough. Then got the rear Formula Ford tyres put on those. Tried them on and was very happy how the car looked. But, damn-it, the wheels must have a different offset to the steels, and the smaller dia tyres rub on the arches. So the next plan is to get the other 2 front FF tyres I have and swap them onto the wheels. I'll take the steels along to the track as spares. Matt came round on Friday night and we had more of a play with the electricals and got the dash temporarily back in. Tried the tacho out, but it needs a couple more connections. Only a week to go, time for me to start getting nervous!

19 September 2013

Monday night in the typhoon that hit town I ducked over to Matts place for some home brew and wire fiddling. I was meant to be helping, but I ended up just drinking his beer and watching him do a top job on getting the gauge wires into a neat plug. Thanks again Matt if you're reading this, your beer is unreal as are your sidecutter crimping skills! Then it was up to me to do the other end in the car. Not as neat as Matts job, but they're in there. I tried putting the mirror onto the windscreen, got a kit with the wipes and the glue. Stuck the little metal thing on, all looked great. Left it for 24 hrs and then while screwing the mirror on the damn thing came off again. Bloody silicon causing problems I reckon. Then I wanted to get the switches into the dash, and the other mess sorted out behind there before mounting the centre console. I cut the bodged swithces off and used some plugs off my spare looms for the wipers and fan. I'm missing a wire for the tacho which is a pain, cause all the plugs are there behind the dash. Might have to skip that for this weekend. I fitted up the oil pressure T piece though, so I should be able to plug that into the gauge too. Hope it won't leak. And I flushed out the redback that has been living in the front of the car for a while.

20 September 2013

I continued on with getting the dash back together. I put my fan switch into the dash, and then ran into more issues. The back of the switch and the wires are right where the fan ducting needs to be. I didn't think of that when I was planning the switches. Not to worry, I got an old vent and cut a slot in it so it fitted. All good. Time to test fit the centre console. And of course the back of the gauges are right where the fan ducting goes too. So rather than come up with a plan I just pulled all the ducts out. Then I thought I'd better test the gauges before screwing everything together, so started the car up. And we have readings on all of them! I think the only accurate one is the volt meter. The fuel gauge is reading just above half, but there is only a splash of fuel in there at the moment. The oil pressure one works, but is only reading 20-30 psi. No idea what it should be reading. The temperature one steadily climbed and got to about 100 after 5 or 10 minutes of idling, so I'll have to double check that one when I take it for a drive. So panel is on now. I gave the inside a vacuum out and a wipe down to try and get rid of the dust. Next jobs, change oil, change water and try to stick this bloody mirror on again.

21 September 2013

And then it was Saturday. There was minimal fiddling to do, I'd pretty much sorted everything that I needed to. I screwed the dash back in, the tacho will have to wait. Later I noticed I'd forgotten to plug the speedo cable back in, but that doesn't matter for the track. I had a bit of a fiddle with the dizzy to try and advance the timing a bit. Then strapped in and took it for a final blat up and down the road. I went up the hill from our place a little bit, and grinned a little bit too. The car felt good with nice pointiness (is that a word) and good torque. So, time to lock it all in. Went and got the car trailer, loaded the car up, packed my boxes of spares and loaded all that. Then sat back and started to get nervous all over again!

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