Motor Coupler "nipped up".

One of the things on my to-do list was to tighten the M12 bolt that holds the motor coupler to the 38mm motor shaft (after it had been taken off then put back on again). I was reticent to use anything that would scratch the nice red paint job on the coupler.

So last night we fired up the controller, reduced the maximum RPM to around 50 RPM and I put a torque wrench on the bolt while William (13 yr old son) pressed the accelerator until I said "STOP" - at around 70NM.

Ya gotta love motors that develop torque at 0 RPM.
Sorry, no pictures, I was a tad busy and it was too cold under the car to do a set-up shot.


I also wasted some time copying the front footwell trim cardboard to corflute to find out the fit was terrible (the original was the problem).

The blue is what I cut away to make it fit and the red is what I have to add.

I'll do them again.

Door seals Installed

The weekend plus about an hour last night saw all the door seals installed. Not one of them shuts easily but I hope that all that is required is to re-adjust the hinges and latches. The spray painter had the doors perfectly lined up with the front and back wings which looked great, but the rubber stops them closing easily.

Another item that was fitted are the Vogue's "kewl" flesh tunnels (see two posts ago).
The screw on bit didn't fit but a little Sikaflex on the underside holds them in nicely and allows a tiny bit of flexibility should the posts end up on a slight angle.

All Side trim Installed

All the side trim is on. The only trim left are the two thin pieces that go around the fins at the rear of the Vogue. One of them has a slight dent that I can't get out and I know I have a couple of pieces under the house, so I'll check them out before putting the "fin trim" on.

I also touched up the rear pillars (just behind the rear doors) with black enamel where they were scratched while installing the rear 1/4 light windows.

The Super Snipe (daily driver at the moment) got an oil change (yukky business), topped up battery and equalise charge (the battery is about 5 years old is is getting a little tired), and a  general engine checkover. The list of little things with the Snipe is growing so it adds to the reasons to get the Vogue on the road as quickly as reasonably possible.

I only had Saturday to work on the Vogue as Sunday was a family outing. I hope I get some time during the week to finish the vinyl parts of the interior now that the rear pillars are ready. I also now have the door rubbers so I can start installing those.

The Vogue is coming up to it's third year anniversary of arriving home after the respray (20th July).

Ear Metal for the Vogue

Here is my latest eBay purchase for the Vogue.

They are called "flesh tunnels" and are for folk who like to expand their ear piecings for decorative purposes.
Why do I want them. Well, I've always wanted to get my ears....NO - that's not the reason.

In this picture I have highlighted the hole where the internal button/post for locking and unlocking the Vogue door pokes through the upper part of the door. The post (not shown) is about 7mm diameter with a mushroom type head. The hole shown is about 10-11mm. (The outer weatherstrip doesn't look like that any more.)

The Vogue originally used a stainless steel "eyelet" of some form which are hopelessly unusable. I haven't been able to get eyelets anywhere near close enough to fit. I contemplated getting some machined up but on my eBay searches for eyelets, ear decorations kept turning up - it was a sign!
I bought four for under AU$5 so if the inner diameter isn't large enough - not too much lost.

The lower flange on the flesh tunnels unscrew so fitting should be easy.

(Added this image later - 15th Jun 2012)

All Windows Installed - permanently

I was a bit concerned tonight when I realised that the three day weekend was over and I could not remember what I did on Saturday. (We drove to Shepparton on Sunday to visit a relative - 400Km round trip). Then I remembered - on Saturday I installed all the sliding windows. I also deinstalled the drivers window and changed the outside weatherstrip to match the new stuff I bought for the rear windows. It wasn't just that it looked a little bit different. When I cleaned the window the weatherstrip did the same as the rear one (previous post) - it disappeared down into the door when the glass was pushed down. The window regulators are not installed yet.

Monday afternoon I selected the two best "Vogue" badges (I have a few so it took a while to clean them all up to find the best two) and mounted those. I also installed the rear Stainless Steel trim (rear wings) that goes midway up the car.

I only have the front two trim pieces and the two thin (stressful) pieces that follow the line of the rear fins left to put on (in the way of trim).

Here's a pic. Not a great image due to the fluorescent lighting and phone camera. You can see the place for one of the last missing trim strips yet to go on the front wings.

On the inside I just need a slightly warmer day to paint the scratches on the inside part of the rear pillars (gained during rear 1/4 light window installation), then I can continue with gluing in the vinyl trim.

New doorseal and weatherstrip

I bought new window weatherstrip today and ordered door seal from Adelaide yesterday.
The weatherstrip is better than the one I used on the driver front door so I might redo it if there is a noticable difference.

Door Weatherstrip does not fit

I bought the rubber doorseal for all four doors from a supplier in England together with the carpet near the end of 2011. Unfortunately the doorseal doesn't fit. It does fit in the channel on the door but the door will not close - the leading edge fouls against the car body on all doors.
Here is a sketch indicating why.

Blue is the door.
Black is the sponge rubber seal.
Green is te car's body.

I have a feeling it's going on eBay!

If that wasn't enough - the rear window outer weatherstrip is a problem too. I already had two pieces for the front but had to buy two for the rear doors at around $40 $30 each.
This is the front door - this one works well.

This is the rear door - note the height that the weatherstrip goes up the glass compared to the picture above.

And here is the problem. This is what happens when you wind the window down. The weatherstrip follows the glass down into the door.

I have only cut one of the rear weatherstrips so with any luck I can get a changeover or a refund.

On the good side, I have finished preparing all the vinyl trim and will begin to install it in the car. I have one more piece of trim to do - the section in-between the front and back doors. It has my modified inside lights and the seatbelt mount. We are going to do this piece in headlining fabric down to the bottom of the glass then blue velour to the bottom of the door - it's black vinyl under that.

Parcel Shelf disassembled

I found the parcel shelf and dragged it out from under the house. It is in worse condition than I remembered.

I don't think it deteriorated too much while stored as it was wrapped securely in polythene sheet. Xena thought it smelled odd though.

I removed the vinyl on the shelf section then detached the front - probably the only part that I'll keep.

 The red vinyl was quite loose on the front and the reason was the completely deteriorated foam underneath.
Scrape, scrape - off it comes.

Now to decide whether to make a new cardboard section or do something different.