The Neglected Blog Catch Up Post

Well, my last post was in April 2014 as I had just got the car road legal with a registration number from the DVLA. It's now January 2015........

So to help you if you are looking for anything specific, here is my contents:

Rear Diffuser
Windscreen Wipers
Half Hood Mk1
Half Hood Mk2
Doors
New Wheels

Well, first of all a little catch up with me. Since April I have graduated from Coventry University with a 2:1 in BEng Motorsport Engineering and moved straight on to a job working as a CAD Engineer for a company that as of January, gone bust, putting me out of a job...hence finding the time to catch up with the blog in between job hunting.

Anyway, despite being incredibly busy, the Zero has not been forgotten or even shut away. For the majority of the summer it was used as my daily driver to work and back. And that called for many modifications...best thing to do is take you in roughly a chronological order of the last 9ish months.

Rear Diffuser
My first major event in the Zero was the Stoneleigh Kit Car Show. As I was busy on the Saturday morning and afternoon so Saturday evening was spent fitting the rear diffuser to add that finishing touch to the rear end and then to wash the car for the first time.
Kit Spares has a stainless steel mounting bracket which suits the Zero perfectly and is shiney and all for a nice £25 +delivery...for something not easily visible...Off to B&Q for some steel 90degree angle, £5. Every little helps.

A simple job to do up on the ramps. Rivnuts into the lowered floor and through the side of the diffuser too that links in with some holes in the side panel overlap under the rear arches.

I kept intending to fit it properly with rivnuts through the bottom of the angle section into the diffuser, unfortunately I bought a rubbish rivnut tool so it had broken before I could properly get round to it. Although it was very secure for a long period until an altercation with a curb decided otherwise...

Windscreen Wipers



Obviously when using any car as a daily and having no alternative if the weather turned to rain, windscreen wipers would be a useful addition to the vehicle...plus the minor issue of it being a tad illegal running a windscreen with no wipers. My first issue was simply to fit wipers so it looked like they works whilst I sorted the motor. Last thing I needed was to be pulled over for not having any wipers. Unfortunately this ended up taking a back bench as I had not clearly labelled the wiper wiring from the MX5 and couldn't locate it easily as shown on the left...Furthermore the switch back from an intermittent set up to a 2-speed set up was proving too much for me to really get behind and make the time for. Especially as the sun was shining. This is something I will be returning to later.










Half Hood
Being dry is clearly more important that actually being able to see, I originally planned to buy the half hood from softbits for sevens at a hefty price of approximately £250. This was pretty much a guaranteed product to fit and work, however at £250 and tough times financially finishing university and starting a job, I needed a cheaper solution.

Rhocar to the rescue! Asking about at the monthly club meet, I spoke to a few people who had made their own and also those who had the half hood from Softbits. Clearly there was a major difference in material and quality, with the Softbits appearing more heavy duty. However the cost of making their own for similar performance (keeps you dry but neither are 100%) general consensus was that £20 should see it done.

So to ebay, bought some waterproof fabric on the cheap, not mohair or anything special, a PVC Vinyl in....you guessed it....ORANGE!

Measuring up got a few funny looks, but a quick clamp in place and marker pen gave the rough shape. End of the day I know its going to be crap, but it is a temporary fitting and can be modified a number of times before I hit the £250 I would have spent on the professional half hood.

 First trial fit of the cut product, looks naff but its only help on my the spring clamps.









However with the front on properly with the push button/poppers/buttons, it is beginning to take shape. Especially with the rear straps to aid adding tension to the roof to ensure it was tight at all times, however the sides would need extra straps to stop the back sliding about.
It still needed looking at as I didn't feel confident these would hold the roof on at speed...which after a quick test drive, I managed about 50mph before the roof came off of the front...more press stud buttons!

Eitherway, the second aim was to keep the roof lightweight enough to be able to fold/roll up and fit behind the seat. Safe to say that was the easiest part.

  First major test for the roof with added poppers was the trip from Castleford back to Coventry down the M1 in the rain. Needless to say it was not comfortable however the roof handled the motorway speeds of 70ish...plus the wind and keeping me dry....except overtaking a lorry or splashes from a puddle or being overtaken. Side spray is a bitch.

 Next mini-project. DOORS.

Vinyl Wrap Bonnet
Ok, so I know I said doors, but with a job and a bit of income, random purchases become rather common. Ebay is not your friend! However I ended up with some brushed steel effect 3D vinyl wrap. I had been toying with the idea of painting the aluminium panels for some time and couldn't decide what colour....or find the space to do so. Therefore, vinyl wrap.
The intention was to do the bonnet and scuttle, but again other things took up weekends to get the scuttle done as I still needed to use the car in the week for work, so just the bonnet was done.

It is difficult to see the brushed effect but at a distance it hides the imperfections which there are many. Job for two people on a large area (managed the tunnel top panels in a 4D silver carbon fibre effect on my own to give you an idea of manageable sizes)
TOP TIP: Use a hair drier to add heat to the wrap to aid application and your Rhocar Membership Card (or similar credit card style card) to apply and remove air bubbles.

Overall though, it has given me the final choice of colour to be a dark grey paint for the aluminium to go with the orange and black. I think this will give an excellent finish.

Doors
Wind, side spray and extra security. What ever the reason for doors, the extortionate price again can easily be beaten by doing it yourself! Think Kit Spares (to use as a Zero specific example again) cost £360 for a pair. This to me is quite a lot and from the feedback, not worth the money. 20mm x 3mm Mild steel ordered, leatherette ordered, welder to find (Big thanks to Richy for his welding services - Another point for Rhocar!)

A simple frame knocked up to the rough size of the space required. Tacked in place and test fitted to the car, reposition a few bars and try again. Couple of attempts got the shape and then it was welded fully into place.

I initially thought about sewing the leatherette on myself by hand but realised I had neither the skill or the time to do such a thing. Quick search on Google found Classic Car Trim, a pair of guys who in their spare time away from Aston Martin's upholstery department, do extra jobs on the side. These guys were brilliant and turned the doors around in an amazing time taking excellent care in their work.

 I opted for a two-tone design with grey on the outside and orange on the inside. Needless to say I was very pleased with the result.
 The windows I used was originally some thin see through PVC but the design of the doors and sewing limitations meant this was double glazed essentially but not airtight, causing issues seeing and also steaming up.



I then got hold of some door strip usually found on warehouses (that see through plastic stuff that hangs down sometimes on warehouses...i know what I mean) but that basically put in, was much better to see through and also as a single layer, had no issues fogging up. Sorted.

Fitted to the car with slide on hinges and the job is done. I love the new look and I'm amazed by the difference they make. You can actually hold a conversation in the car doing 60 no problems! Best upgrade yet and all together cost around £100-£150 all in.

The only issue with the doors was setting the roof. At this point I had made a 2nd roof, a Mk2 if you like, to reinforce the rear mounting and also beefed up the number of fasteners on the front to prevent the roof coming off at higher speeds and/or in strong winds. I just never took any pictures of the Mk2 Roof unfortunately but same material and revised rear design to improve the fit.

 It looks a bit scrappy, but as a Mk2 PVC prototype it has the desired effect. I have met some great guys who did the sewing for the doors, Aston Martin upholsterers and this in the spare time, love a challenge apparently...just building the funds and completing other projects before taking this new challenge to them. Roof Mk3 will probably be a top quality fabric and actually have a professional look about it. This works, and works well, its just not durable and is a bit too plastic for my liking.

 New Wheels
Well it was going to happen. Ever since the first day fitting the wheels I intended to fit bigger wheels, especially at the rear. This was due to the monumental arch gap the 14 inch wheels left.
I started with 185 wide 14 inch tyres which are great if you want to try get the back end out a bit at specially chosen locations. However, in the wet the car is a handful. Mostly my inexperience at RWD but its enough to make the drive unpleasant through worry, especially after losing the back end on a roundabout one wet morning at relatively low speed and sensible driving. Either way I lost all confidence in the car, both wet and dry, fearing for the back to snap around again.

I was on the look out to move up to 205s, maybe 215s however the price and style obviously matter. I had just started earning at this point and trying to rebuild my bank account. Then a friend of a friend was selling a set of 15inch 8Js. Haggled the price for mates rates and got a great deal for a set of wheels. Only thing now is to decide on the colour of the wheels if I decide to refurb them a bit.
A quick trail fit on the fronts. Sat on Stretched 195/45/15s I believe. Eitherway the tyres were shot so new ones were ordered.

I managed to find a deal online after getting quoted around £500 for 4 tyres and fitting. 2x 225/50/15s for the rear and 2x 205/50/15 for the front. All Toyo TR1 tyres. All I needed was them fitting, Hello Kwik Fit!

Unfortunately without the stretched tyres and slighty greater wall, the new tyres actually fouled the arch and were rubbing quite badly. So off came the arches.

I intended to refit the arches as they would fit, providing they were put on straight and true. It looked like they had been put on in the dark........well...they were...so not surprising really...

Anyway, the weekends rolled passed and the weather coming in again I didn't really find the time to put the arches back on. This was around the September/October time. With the insurance due in December and a forever growing list of jobs:

1. Front Arches
2. Exhaust Rattle
3. Fuel Gauge (float had come off...again)
4. Dead Speedo (Cable snapped...again)
5. Oil leak from the engine
6. Smell of Fuel in the cockpit
7. Coolant leak and therefore overheating
8. General untidy looking car (I am starting to find little things bugging me)
9. Want to respray all the aluminium panels
10. Improve cockpit (it really is quite bare!)
11. Windscreen Wipers

So I decided I was going to take the car off the road and strip it back, sort all the issues and whilst I'm there....drop in the Mazda Mk2 1.8 engine....146bhp stock over the current 115bhp. That should liven it up a bit....well....that was the original plan, new plans are already in progress!

Watch this space, something interesting is coming.

I shall leave you with my new favourite image of the Zero and my Punto, taken on the last day of the insurance.