Cycle Wings

After the bonnet the job I was least looking forward to was fitting the cycle wings.  It did indeed turn out to be quite involved.

First off I needed to clear the threads in the front uprights - these were rusty and also had some paint in them.  I hadn't realised when renewing the uprights that these threaded holes would be needed.  A second hand 8mm tap from a local tool shop did the job easily.

Spacer tubes need to be cut to mount the cycle wing vertical arms the correct distance from the tyres.  This is a bit of trial and error and I found it easiest to use washers to calculate the length prior to cutting the tubes.

With the stays mounted in the correct position I could start to fit the cycle wings themselves.  They don't just bolt on unfortunately.  The horizontal arms of the stays need to be bent up into the curvature of the cycle wings.  To work out how far to bend them I tried spacers of different thickness.  A couple of pencil rubbers turned out to be perfect for the job.

Then the stays were bent in the vice, ensuring that the upper part remained parallel with the tyre.  Due to the bending of the stays some of the powder coating flaked off.  Some Hammerite was applied to prevent rusting.

The cycle wings were then trial fitted using an axle stand as a height reference.  The current IVA manual states that the cycle wings must extend at least 50 degrees to the rear and 30 degrees to the front.  The rear was nearly 90 degrees so that was okay.  The front was harder to measure.  In the end the geometry of the wheel came to the rescue.  There are 12 spokes.  360 degrees divided by 12 equals 30 degrees per spoke.  With one spoke vertical I could easily determine that I had about 45 degrees coverage to the front.

A length of bicycle inner tube (700c x 23) was pulled over the horizontal arms to protect the fibreglass from the metal edges.  Holes were drilled in the cycle wings and stays and then dome head bolts used to secure them together.

19mm holes were drilled to accommodate the LED side repeaters.  I had to be careful here as it is quite close to the edge and I didn't want to split the cycle wing.  The repeaters are mounted by inserting the rubber collar into the hole and then pushing the light through, making sure the 'TOP" marking was uppermost.  Due to the curvature of the cycle wing shoulder the rubber did not want to sit fully flat with the (curved) surface.  A little persuasion from Mr Super Glue did the trick.

Finally, the wiring for the side repeaters was extended to reach the inside of the car.  This was cabled tied to the cycle wings stays and under the cycle wings cable tie mounts were attached using Grip Fill.  Before fitting the side repeaters I tested them on the car battery.  They are reassuringly bright.  One oddity is that the black lead is not negative, but positive!  White is negative.

In the end I am quite pleased with result, but the cycle wings are quite a lot of effort from start to finish.

Exhaust Clamp Tested and Rad Fan Switch Changed

Ran the engine again, this time with the silencer clamped to the cat pipe.  No leaks, so that job is done.

The radiator fan switch supplied by Tiger activates at 84oC.  This is a bit low for the Zetec on fuel injection so I always thought that I'd have to change it over to the higher setting.  Anyway, when I looked at the higher setting it was about 147oC so obviously no use!  I bought a replacement switch (Intermotor 50102 - for Peugeot 205/Citroen BX C15).  The lower setting comes on at 93oC and goes off at 88oC.  The higher setting is 97oC/92oC.  I installed it on the radiator and checked it in operation.  It seems to work okay.

As I have no thermostat installed I need the fan to operate at the correct temperature.  While running the engine with the car stationary the Tiger ali radiator seems to be very efficient at cooling.  I'll have to see how it performs when the engine is working harder on the road.  I may have to watch out for over-cooling, especially in the colder months.

Bonnet and Nose Cone Finished

Finally after much drilling, filing and swearing I've finished fitting the bonnet and nose cone.

The nose cone needed some cut-outs making for the lower front wishbone as well as the steering arm.  Bolts were added on each side and one underneath to mount it to the chassis.  I used epoxy to add a washer to the outside of the body around each hole.  This tidied up some rough edges (where the fibreglass started to split due to it being thinner in certain parts) and also spreads the clamping forces more evenly.  The lower bracket had to be extended to reach the lower part of the nose cone.  I think this is due to the fact that the nose cone sits slightly forward of its normal position to accommodate the Tiger alloy radiator, which is already inclined to the maximum.

With the nose cone in place this provided a reference for the bonnet.  This had to be cut quite a bit, very carefully, at the scuttle end.  In its natural position there was the usual huge gap on the drivers side, between the bonnet and the body side panel - maybe 25mm or more at the scuttle end.  I evened this up and now I have a small, but even, tapered gap each side.  The only down side is that the bonnet is trying to rotate back to its natural rest position.  This causes the front of the bonnet to rise up where the inlet bulge is.  This wouldn't be so bad on the version of the bonnet without the bulge because the spring clamps would pull it back down.  However, this is not the case with the asymmetric bonnet that I need to house the throttle bodies and air filters.  Hopefully it will settle after being clamped in position for an extended time.  If not, I might have to look at other solutions.  Possibly a couple of dowels and locating holes between the bonnet front and nose cone rear.  Anyway, I am glad this chore is over.

Tiger has made a good job of reworking the main body tub.  It is a big improvement over the previous version.  It is just a shame the bonnet and nose cone are not yet up to the same standard.

Self tapping screws were sprayed with satin black Rustoleum paint and used to fix the grille to the nose cone.

Exhaust Clamp

Prior to the second engine run I tried renewing the joint between the collector and the silencer with high temperature silicon sealant.  Unfortunately, this did not hold either.  So I bought an exhaust clamp from ebay, which I think is normally fitted to motorbike silencers.  I avoided the normal chunky u-bolt type clamp as this looks a bit clumsy and has more sharp edges to cause radius issues at IVA test time.

To make the join I first cut a 30mm slot on each side of the end of the silencer pipe.  Then aided with some more silicon sealant I clamped the collector and silencer together.  All seems good, but I'll only know when I next run the engine.  Fingers crossed.