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Monday, November 7, 2011

Ducting

Well, things are drifting in, the only parts really missing now are the wire bullet connectors and crimper, from British Wiring. Without the wiring complete, the heater hoses can't be connected, and the final connections need to be made behind the instrument panel before it can be closed up.

The high-quality 4" dia. heater intake ducting and 1 1/4" demister ducting arrived, from Aircraft Spruce Canada, as did some aluminum sheeting to rebuild the mudguard bracket in the wings. There are now just some battery terminals to come from them.

Once the above is taken care of, unless something else gets in the way, it will be time to start the old girl up!

Below: Most wiring done, including for the turn signal/indicator panel (although it's not attached). Demisting ducting in place. Have to modify the demister vents a little before they're installed, as they were designed for the flat, turn-knob vent openers, not the curved ones here. I had wondered why they didn't fit properly when I first had the vehicle. If you look veeery carefully, you can see that the horn button is now installed, too. White box on the dash contains the new dashboard plugs for the fan presently being refurbished by Peter at 3 Bros.; black object beside that is the Tiny-Tach that will help understand the engine a little more - still don't know where it will go.

The 4" ducting for the heater intake, still in its protective wrap, waiting to be trimmed. Brackets have to be made to hold it to the inside of the wing, as on the original. As well, a hole has to be cut into the mudguard to allow the duct through. Mudguard is under the duct, in this picture.

The complete heat distributor. The wire handle at left allows air to be directed either up to the demisters, down towards the driver's footwell, or a mixture of both. Door at right allows the passenger to regulate how much air is directed to their footwell. I'll need to source the paint that was used on the distributor, as handling and fitting has caused some small chipping.

Just the aluminum sheets, of different thicknesses, to rebuild the mudguard support brackets in the wings plus make the wing duct support brackets/straps.

Old versus new: The old 1/4" intake grill, left, and the new replacement, at right. The new one is glavanized, so hopefully won't rust quite as badly as the old!