395 replies to this topic

[stuart bowes]

playing with the cables and found the best method will be as follows

 

cable connected to handle end. goes round back of window track

 

 

then operates upon the bar on the inside with the adjustable end easily accessible under the door card in case of cable stretch etc (unlikely to be honest)

 

 

however.. these particular cables turned out to be way too chunky and would keep snagging on the bottom of the window when going up and down, not to mention a bit too stiff for my liking

 

so I'm gonna have another look at either bike brake cables / motorbike brake cables / go kart accelerator cables, whatever i find that is about the right length and seems strong.. being a little thinner (and maybe a bit longer) will mean more flex and can possibly then just affix to the inside of the door skin by sticking the noise deadening over it, to keep away from the window..

 

for example https://www.ebay.co....:Bk9SR8T4v7voYQ

Edited by stuart bowes, 02 April 2023 - 08:47 PM.

[stuart bowes]

removed unnecessarily heavy duty spring from handle mech, and fitted new easy to replace lighter duty one.  handle actually feels a bit nicer to use as well now, just moves more freely

 

door panel fixing uses a rivnut which had to be power-filed down slightly at the back side to stop interference with the window glass (2-3mm or so)

 

 

this will reduce strain on the cable and thus less likely to cause stretching

 

then measured the amount of movement required to unlock

 

 

15mm.  more or less exactly the same as the metro handle

 

did a little quick sketch

 

 

and made a new bracket (subject to squaring up a bit more and trimming down later)

 

 

which goes here on the door (or possibly further to the left)

 

 

cable pencilled in (red / yellow) and a couple of little clamps holding it in place (green)

Edited by stuart bowes, 04 April 2023 - 09:39 AM.

[stuart bowes]

final position of that bracket which avoids window clashing (M4 rivnuts)

 

 

(have to excuse the beams of sunlight coming in to ruin my picture)

 

it is now pretty obvious I'm going to have to be a bit clever with the new door card, building it out a little (5mm maybe) to give enough space, but that's just very simple trimmings and fittings stuff for the end stage, worry about that later

 

now I have to wait for the new cables to arrive before I can get on with the next bit 

 

have also ordered a cheap remote central lock kit (with input to trigger with alarm system if adding later) and am planning making an extra cutout to the inside of the door for easier access / adjustment / replacement if necessary.  will nab a little 12v psu from work to play about with that and worry about the loom adjustments later on

Edited by stuart bowes, 04 April 2023 - 07:06 PM.

[stuart bowes]

new cables, much easier to fit but slightly more awkward in that there is no threaded section for the mounting of the sheath..

 

 

anyway pressing on..  modified the bracket to suit and that holds it quite nicely 

 

 

 

will push the flap bit down tighter once painted for the final fitting.  and one little cable p clip somewhere further back on the door will finish that off very securely

 

and then the bracket was welded to the push rod / bar / whatever you want to call it

 

 

Testing by hand, pulling the other end of the cable I can very easily operate the door mech, unlocking it with very little resistance, and it springs back nicely

 

it does of course mean that when you open it from the outside, the handle on the inside will move, which is not normal behaviour but really that doesn't strike me as being any sort of problem

Edited by stuart bowes, 08 April 2023 - 08:49 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Next job was getting the right cable routing which isn't quite the same as earlier comment

 

I chopped out a small piece of the bottom of the window track:

 

 

which allows space for the cable where I want it to be 

 

 

and tested that position with the window down, all good

 

 

those X's by the way were where I initially thought I might have to cut the window support rails down for space, turns out that isn't necessary which is preferable obviously

 

finally slightly reshaped one of the holes on the inner door panel, and rolled out the edge slightly to make sure there was no scrape damage to the cable sheathing

 

 

will obviously tidy all of that up when it comes to painting and finishing (plenty more work to do yet) with possibly a little bit of rubber edge trim around it or something

Edited by stuart bowes, 08 April 2023 - 09:09 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Then it was all about the bracket for the inside of the door skin (the back side of the external handle)

 

modelled in solidworks sheet metal, printed flat plan 1:1 and cut out

 

 

Cut out in steel and folded up 

 

 

Tested with washers as spacers to represent door skin thickness not that it would make any noticeable difference 

 

 

welded up the edges and smoothed off sufficiently bearing in mind no one will ever see it 

 

 

gave it a coat of primer 

 

 

found a suitable sized fixing for a small bracket to hook the end of the cable into securely

 

 

am now confident this will work, simple and strong enough to be reliable almost indefinitely and not rattle around while driving 

Edited by stuart bowes, 09 April 2023 - 08:49 PM.

[DoubleEh]

Beautiful solution to a complex problem, and using Solidworks to boot. Well done!

[stuart bowes]

Cheers, although it was slightly off and needs remaking lol (see below) but the theory does work out

 

I made the bracket for the end of the cable to attach to the handle, all fairly self explanatory from the pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then bench tested with the two parts of the door almost together, success!

 

 

Except, the cable drags slightly because the angle is slightly off as you can see in that picture far right, so I'm gonna remake that via a slight adjustment in solidworks, reprint, recut etc, probably won't bother with pics on that because it's the same as above really

 

eagle-eyes may notice I'm near the limit at the threaded end which leaves limited scope for adjustment later on, so I will increase the distance at the other end to add about 10-15mm while I'm at it

 

I also clamped the door skin on the frame and check the window clearance which failed, but that was a simple case of reversing and shortening the fixing bolt, no major dramas there

Edited by stuart bowes, 10 April 2023 - 09:18 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Also did about 2 hours welding and grinding the strengthening plates to the under side of boot floor (see top of page 8) but won't bother with pics, it's not very interesting, just a long gruelling process (welding upside down, laying under a fireproof blanket) which I hope to get finished off tomorrow and move onto the next step

 

this is the one job so far where I really wish I had a spit, everything else has been manageable

Edited by stuart bowes, 10 April 2023 - 06:54 PM.

[stuart bowes]

minor update, yes the new bracket design works very nicely and I was just about to tick that off as done 

 

but.. I modified it slightly with a little extra brace:

 

 

which supports the little plastic spindle that was flexing a little too much for my liking and seemed like it could be a point of future failure otherwise.  also of course stopping the flex makes for a more solid feeling positive action at the handle, it actually does feel very solid, not rattling around, springs back strongly, etc, very pleased with how it turned out 

 

 

and now it is done.  barring it being smoothed off a little more, painted, etc but that's not a concern for right now

 

meanwhile I've been playing with the remote central locking kit, trimmed out all the wires I don't need, bench tested and sized up the motors, now working on where that will fit in the door and how it operates the lock.. back to solid works..

Edited by stuart bowes, 11 April 2023 - 09:39 PM.

[stuart bowes]

I was playing around with solid works trying to create a clever slightly more original way of fitting the lock motor but it all ended up silly complicated and not quite working as well as I wanted, so I ended up realising there's no point reinventing the wheel is there

 

so the lock is being fitted the same way it usually is, some pics with the door skin off might be useful / interesting to someone I suppose

 

-----

 

I didn't have a central pivot position exactly where I wanted it., some people just put a bit of that meccano looking stuff across the hole but I wanted to make it more of a permanent fixture type setup

 

 

 

tidied it up enough for now (more later)

 

 

cleaning up the inside was a bit more tricky with the power file because of the window track but I'll get a careful grinder disc on that when finishing and painting later on

 

squared up the rest of that hole as well because it was looking a bit bodged up being cut at that angle

 

drilled pivot hole

 

 

got some 20x2 aluminium flat bar and marked it up

 

lever movement should be 2:1 motor to lock mech - the motors and slack in the linkage rods makes them pretty forgiving but I try and get it as close as possible

 

 

and linked it all up thusly (top two fixings nylock nuts because you don't want them spinning loose obviously)

 

 

checked window clearance, plenty of space:

 

 

and it looks like this on the outside

 

 

annoyingly it ended up slightly too low and you can see how it compares to where the locking rod is supposed to be:

 

 

it works perfectly fine but being a bit OCD I have ordered another length of aluminium bar (15x2 this time) and will remake that slightly to line up right (extending the lower section a little as well to compensate)

 

as you can see there is also a little hole for later to attach my new internal lock lever design to, that can go basically anywhere on the door I suppose but I have a plan in mind for all of that, comes much later during the interior design phase

 

other than that, door design phase complete.  just finishing and tidying, then the same again on the other side (minus the external key lock) and job's a goodun

Edited by stuart bowes, 13 April 2023 - 10:23 PM.

[stuart bowes]

very minor update, replaced that piece of flat bar for slightly narrower which looks better, and increased length slightly so actually it points slightly upwards which I think is going to be better for where I'm putting the lock lever later on

 

finished it a little nicer as well, rounded off the end a bit

 

 

so that's it for the door for now until I get that rear quarter on and can do the alignment and tack on the outer skin (after painting the insides and sticking on the sound deadening) and then obviously folding and crimping over the edges

 

In other news I decided that the bonnet is really too far gone despite efforts to bring it back to life, I've found one over in Bermondsey for £50 that I can hopefully pick up on Thursday, needs a little work but nothing like as bad

Edited by stuart bowes, 18 April 2023 - 06:59 PM.

[stuart bowes]

minor update, new bonnet collected, some slight crust starting to form around the edges but totally rescuable (much better than the original!) 

 

and a free boot door with it that I didn't really want, will stick it on the sale page maybe it'll be useful for someone

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 April 2023 - 10:44 PM.

[stuart bowes]

bonnet update

 

put on car and checked, not twisted or anything didn't think it was but worth a quick check

 

took off the chrome strip and first hint of good condition was the screws all came out easy without needing to be cut off or drilled

 

The all-important and trickier to deal with underside looked like this 

 

 

which is amazing for £50 I reckon

 

anyway I got the lethal angle grinder wire brush out and started work

 

had to cut a section out here where the bonnet stay clip was, because that's not gonnna be needed and the edges were a bit gnarly

 

 

also the top end bracket for the bonnet stay was removed and needed some repair work underneath so I power filed the grot out

 

 

after many hours of noise (sorry neighbours) it looked like this 

 

 

wirebrushed / kurusted / primered and painted inside the hole, and on the back of the new piece

 

 

 

obviously the welding will burn through that at the edges, but it's the best I can really do barring drilling out the spot welds on the bracing and having to put it back together again which I really didn't want to do

 

and after welding in and smoothing off it now looks like this 

 

 

then the repair of that little piece at the top, a bit fiddly due to being small

 

 

 

and kurusted anything that was slightly brown, some of which might actually have been old paint in fairness..  in the corners it did need a bit though, just surface rust really but try to catch it now before it gets any worse

 

 

That's gonna get a coat of etch, a quick spray of white for now (because I think the interior / engine bay is going to be a light colour) and go in the shed until needed. 

 

Leaving the top side brown for now obviously that side will be the one that gets the care and attention for the proper painting, may as well only strip and prime / paint once

 

the safety latch was a bit messy but I'm thinking leave the welded on part, clean and paint, but fit spring and lever from a new one because it'll just be nicer and fresh looking.  same for the little spring and latching post probably

Edited by stuart bowes, 22 April 2023 - 05:15 PM.

[stuart bowes]

rough idea of the colour scheme I have in mind at this point

 

 

 

with thanks to sh3dart / @gildredracing / @brigadechannel https://configurator...pers.com/demo/2

Edited by stuart bowes, 22 April 2023 - 09:48 PM.