build diary

November 13, 2004:
The windshield will be held to the side braces by this steel insert inside the channel.
entry 685
The first part of a side brace is ready.
I'm not sure if I'll expand this to use four screws instead of three.
entry 686
This is how I'll fasten the two sections of the windshield frame together.
The rivet heat will be hidden behind the bracket when it's installed. The "book" method wouldn't have worked on my 1/16" channel. Ignore the poor fit of my test item, please!
entry 687

November 14, 2004:
Well, the windshield frame is finished and the side braces are ready to go.
I started over with my setup for fastening the side braces to the frame because I just couldn't get the finish I wanted. A note - countersunk fasteners are not very tolerant of any sort of mistake! Your eye can easily pick out an off-center fastener. Some careful cutting and measuring has given me an acceptable fit now. The side braces are done and look good. They took a little bit of tweaking in terms of angles to allow them to sit flat on the sides of the car but it did go fairly quickly. I started to install the glass - and hit a problem. The glass must be very slightly larger than the plywood. Enough that my tight tolerances were too tight but not enough to notice when you lay the glass on the wood! Once the inner tube was added, it was obvious that there was no way to install the frame around it. So I have two options - make the glass slightly smaller or make the frame bigger. I'll ask the glass shop tomorrow if it's possible to grind this down, and how. I'm happy with how everything else turned out but I had really hoped to drive the car today with the new windshield. Oh well...
entry 688

Test fitting the completed frame.
Bill's suggestion? "Bigger holes in the wood so you can see where you're going."
entry 689
Starting to build the side braces.
entry 690
The side braces, ready for paint.
entry 691
To install the windshield into the frame, I think I'll use inner tube.
It's easy to remove and gives a good fit. Two 26" tubes are needed for the whole windshield.
entry 692

November 16, 2004:
The windshield is done!
I'm a little too excited about this, methinks, but for some reason it feels like the car is done. It's not - it needs wipers to be legal - but I can drive without goggles and the car looks better balanced. I'm still not sure if the glass should be 1" shorter but it works.

It turned out that the easiest way to get the glass to fit was to cut a new piece. It cost about the same as making a new frame and was much faster. Once again The Glass Brokerage in Grand Junction came through, working hard to make the perfect piece of glass and turning it around the same day. All for $30. Have I mentioned how much I like doing business with them? I'll be bringing the car by to show it off today because they're curious about what they've been working on.

With the new piece of glass, it was a matter of minutes to fit it inside the frame. The fitment is perfect with nice tight joints. Whew! I had been worried about that. I used a razor blade to cut away the extra inner tube, bolted up the side brackets and drilled a few holes in the scuttle. Voila, a windshield and a car that looks better! Funny, I'd never thought it needed the glass before but it's well balanced visually.

Driving the car with the glass in place is really nice. I have lots of visibility without the top cutting off any of my vision and I can comfortably drive without glasses. There's still turbulence - of course - but it's manageable. I had a great drive in to work today in crisp conditions and a big stupid grin on my face.
entry 693

The new windshield glass is installed in the frame.
Now I have to trim the leftover inner tube.
entry 694
To protect the paint on the scuttle, some leftover inner tube was glued to the inside of the side brackets.
entry 695
A detail of the windshield installed.
Some of the contouring of the side brackets can be seen here. The countersunk bolts make for a clean installation.
entry 696
A side view of the brackets.
I'm very happy with the symmetry here.
entry 697
The car looks better with the windshield - that was a bit of a suprise.
entry 698
Not exciting, but required.
A licence plate light.
entry 699

November 17, 2004:
Much excitement!
The December 2004 issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine is here. There's a two page article on my build in it to accompany the latest update on their own car. Everyone, run out and buy a copy then email GRM to tell them how much you like it! I am honored. I've compared notes with the GRM crew on a couple of things and persistent readers know that their frame was built at the same time as mine. There's not much new information in the article but it still feels good to have it in print. As if I didn't have a big enough grin on my face from the drive to work already...
entry 700

I'm excited about this one.
There's a two-page article on my Seven in the December 2004 issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine.
entry 701

November 24, 2004:
For those who want to skip to the end of a build, Grassroots is selling their "2 day" car.
Contact the good folks there for more information. As for myself, I'm gathering parts to build the wipers. All I need now is the cable to drive them and that's pretty easy to hunt down. I'm also considering building another windshield that's a bit lower but that's not too high on the priority list. Instead, I'll finish the wipers once all the parts have arrived and then move on to a couple of other things I wanted to try - an LED strip tachometer and an investigation into the effects of bump steer come to mind.
entry 702

November 27, 2004:
I've determined that my Seven causes rain.
It's amazing, every time I want to take it out! This isn't good, as instead of driving the car I'm spending all my time thinking of cool projects. I've just purchased the last pieces I need for the wipers off eBayand in the process, picked up some extra bits I'd already purchased! I now have 6 working "wheelboxes" instead of the two I actually need. I guess I could sell some. Still, my total investment in the wipers will be under $50 so that's not bad. The research for the LED tach is coming along well - Datatool makes one that's actually pretty close to what I want for a final result, but there are some small differences. Besides, I'd rather spend the $85 or so on something else. So I'll look into my own. So while I'm looking around for wiper cables from old British cars, I'm also looking for good sources for LM3914 LED controllers and the like. As my friend Eric has pointed out, I also need to make a grille for the car. He seems quite adamant about this so I'd better get on it...
entry 703

November 28, 2004:
It's stopped raining.
Instead, we have a fairly good snowfall. Enough that they've actually closed access to the flat-top mesa on the edge of town due to avalanche danger! 3 feet of snow over a weekend does that I guess. So I'm still inside and thinking of things to do. Of course there's the obvious, such as the wipers and grilles. But in the course of doing some research for an article, I started thinking about the potential of putting on a dry sump. It would be great to have the increased ground clearance and it would give a bit of a power boost and prevent oil starvation. But it's not cheap. Maybe I'll just raise the bottom of the oil pan by 1" or so instead. I wonder how that would work?

A bit more on the LED tach. It would actually be a two-stage setup, using an LM2917 to convert the frequency to a voltage, then an LM3914 or two to convert that to a series of LEDs. I'm at the dreaming stage right now, trying to figure how many LEDs I should have and when they should come on. Right now, I'm thinking of having them start at 4,000 rpm and light up one every 500 rpm, with a change to every 250 rpm above 6000 rpm. Or maybe something different. I don't want too many LEDs, as I'll probably want to be able to glance down and see how many are lit up. Also, the superbright LEDs get expensive in a hurry. $2.50 doesn't seem thatbad until you realise that I'll probably want 10 or 11. A couple of decent websites have me started: bike-oriented and from a Mini site. I'll probably add a couple of things to it such as autodimming ability. We'll see how carried away I become. I'd forgotten that DigiKey was a good source for things like this. I've also decided that the Hawker Genesis batteries would be an interesting addition to the Seven - they have a tiny model called the G13EP that puts out reasonable power and only weighs 10.5 lbs instead of the 25lbs of the stock battery. Not good for extended cranking but I can deal with that. They're even pretty cheap, only $45. Given that I'm currently running with a cast-off battery, this might be something I need eventually. I can use one of my myriad other batteries (such as the spare giant Land Rover battery I have) to jump it if I ever need to abuse the starter. See, it's bad when it starts raining...
entry 704

November 29, 2004:
Well, some of the wiper bits I wanted arrived today.
They're from a Series III Land Rover, but it appears that the outer diameter of the wheelbox is greater. This means I can't use the nice Midget angled bits that I have. No worries, there are a set of MGB wheelboxes on the way which should complete the set. Weird parts from everywhere.

No new progress on the tach front, but I have been looking at the oil pan. I think I'll cut 1" off the bottom and possibly add an Accusump to the system. It's not going to be an easy job as the pan is cast aluminum (time for some good cleaning!) and there's no simple cut to be made. Still, it'll give me some needed ground clearance. Luckily there are extra pans around the Flyin' Miata shop so I can do this without having to take the car off the road. Well, if it stops snowing anyhow.
entry 705

Random wiper parts!
These are from a Land Rover. Hmm, the diameter of the threaded section is smaller than my Midget parts. Good thing I have some of those arriving soon.
entry 706
The oil pan surgery.
Cut along the pink line...
entry 707
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