0025 On the road at last !

0025 On the road at last.
13th August 2020
Everything finally comes together !

Clementine on the road

First thing required to get Clementine on the road was to get Third Party Insurance and a Safety Certificate.  So on Monday I went down to RACQ and arranged the insurance.   Then, instead of getting a temporary permit to drive the car to an inspection station, I found someone through Steve at Classic Car Clinic who does on-site inspections, and at 11 am on Tuesday 11th, Matt arrived to inspect the car. We went through the car, and he checked everything underneath, and half an hour later I had my Safety Certificate.
 

As soon as I had the certificate, and armed with not only the old South Australian number plates but also all the required forms (duly completed), I went down to the Department of Transport and stood in line.  Not too crowded, so half an hour later (and $500 poorer!), Clementine was registered, 10 months since I had brought her home, and a lot of heartache later !!    I was just SO chuffed - More so than after the rebuild of the Healey, because this time I had done most of the work myself.  Admittedly I had the engine and gearbox rebuilt by experts, and the painting was outsourced, but virtually everything else I had done myself, and that made the project so very satisfying, and a real accomplishment for me.  So when I walked out with my Registration certificate, I was on cloud nine !

That afternoon I had my first real drive on the road in Clementine, and we went over to pick up some plants from friends Dean and Judy
who are about to set off around Australia on their motorcycle and sidecar.  Everything on the VW seemed to work really well, but the steering was terrible - There was so much play in it that I could hardly keep the car in between the white lines !!  Not good - But after picking up the plants, and Janet having a quick ride in Dean's sidecar, we made it home safely, and I made a booking to go down to CCC first thing in the morning to adjust the steering. I did spend a couple of hours trying to adjust the steering box to reduce the play, but one of the lock nuts was 40 mm socket, and I just didn't have a key that big.

Janet climbs abourd !

So by 8 am the next morning I was on my way, and when I arrived, we jacked the car up and got to work.  10 minutes later, all was done, and there was no play in the steering wheel !  It was so much better as I drove home that I decided to detour to see Matt down at Action Tyres to see if he could fit me in for a wheel alignment with his specialist John.  Surprisingly they weren't too busy, and after they had finished one other car, Clementine was up on the rack.  The toe was excessive, which is hardly surprising because when I built the front suspension and steering, I had just eye balled everything to get it as close as I could.   Once John had finished getting everything where it should be, I asked if it was difficult (some cars are hard to reach everything), and he said that because everything was new and shiny under there, it had actually been very easy.  So, another job done, and this time, driving home, the car was a delight to drive - It actually went where I steered it, and didn't wander all over the road !

Side lights now indicators

Once home, I had a few other issues to sort out, so first thing was to take out the driver's seat again !
  Since it was all greased and sliding easily, the seat came out quite quickly, and I could get on with the wiring.  Not too exciting, but all things I needed to do. First up, the car has side lights which originally were used for parking, but as this is no longer a legal requirement, I had decided to rewire them into side indicators, making the turn signals much more visible.  I traced the wiring for the two indicators, then spliced in the wires from the side lights - All working fine.  I will need to either get some yellow paint to colour the perspex covers, or get yellow bulbs.

Bus bar fitted & covered

With that job done, I needed to hook up the bus bar so I can easily add items such as power sockets to charge phone, runs GPS's, and play my music - Maybe even add a radio.  So first of all I wired up a keyed power line from the fuse box, and tried to work out where to place the bus bar.  There really is very little space on a VW dash, but I eventually decided to put it underneath the dash - Out of the way but not too difficult to reach.  I then bolted it in place, and hooked up the power wire - All good.
The bulb in the new oil pressure gauge had stopped working, so I pulled it out and found the wire clip had got bent - Once straightened it worked fine again.  The bulbs in the original VW instruments are really dim so I pulled one out and went on line to try to find some brighter LED's that might "shed some better light" on the issue !  Found some on line, and have them ordered, and while I was on the shops site, I also ordered some LED stop / brake lights as well as indicator bulbs.  These should all not only be a bit brighter, but also use less power - An important consideration due to my relatively low output generator. 

New power outlet mounted under dash

I had searched for a decent cigarette lighter/power bank for several days, and not found any that were really good.  Eventualy I found one on line that was available ex Jaycar locally, and I went over to buy one. It has 3 sockets, but also 4 USB ports, which is the most I have seen, and is absolutely perfect. I cut off the standard lead and wired it permanently into the bus bar - Tested it and it worked perfectly.  I also have a GPS speedo because I don't trust the standard speedo, plus it is in mph anyway.
I then turned my attention to the windscreen washer system.  The VW system is weird in that you have to pressurize the bottle to 40

Water pump under bottle

psi, and this then supposedly pumps the water out.  However they are notoriously unreliable as well as weak, so after a great deal of trying, I gave up and went down and bought a cheap electric washer pump and a small push button switch.  I managed to install the pump hidden underneath the original water bottle, so it is unseen.  I mounted the small switch just below the wiper button for ease of access, and all seems to work OK, although it may need a non return valve in order to ensure immediate water supply each time.

Orchids in the trees

The weather has been excellent this winter, and although we are still in winter, we suddenly have all sorts of orchids and iris flowering, and they are spectacular.  Hopefully they will last for a while in true orchid manner.

My sidecar friend Dean and his wife have rented out their house

Dean & Judy set off on their trip

and are setting off around Australia for a year.  So we offered them a bed and supper on their last night, and they came over, parked the bike safely in the garage, and had a very pleasant evening before they set off north.  However, it turned out that they had a bit more to do than expected in packing up their house for rental, so they actually came back for a 2nd night !!  They were of course supposed to be travelling around The Americas at the moment, but the virus has put an end to that, at least for the moment, so they are doing a lap of Australia first.

Now it is just a question of getting used to the VW, making sure everything is working as planned. and doing a few longer runs.  It is all a bit difficult at the moment due to the travel restrictions with the virus, so I am not sure where we will be able to go, but I need to build up some confidence in her if I am going to do a longer trip like to Tasmania or something.   

LED bulbs for brakes

 

Stop press.   4 weeks have now passed since I added to this blog, and mostly I have been driving Clementine around almost every day, and thoroughly enjoying her.   I found some LED bulbs on line and purchased 3 types - a couple of red brake bulbs, a couple of  amber bulbs for the side lights / now indicators, and also some tiny instrument bulbs to hopefully make the older speedo and fuel guage a little brighter at night.  Brake lights don't seem any brighter, the side / indicator amber bulbs work well behind the clear perspex cover, and I haven't had time to fit the instrument bulbs yet !    But they seem to be a success so far.

  Other than that, not much going on - For once !  After so much non stop activity on the car for so long, it is difficult to stop - But I am trying hard.  I have been reading again, while Janet has been busy in the garden.  She acquired a "worm farm" recently, and once we had stocked it with worms (supposedly 1000 in the box, but I wasn't about to count them !) she started feeding them with all our kitchen scraps.  And in return, they produce all this "worm wee" which she drains off, and puts on the garden, and the flowers seem to love it !  Everything is growing profusely - And we have orchids coming out all over the place !  So I have to admit that the worm farm does seem to be working !!

Fox Friday stocks !

And in the meantime, we are having some glorious sunsets,  and Benn and Sarah are keeping our fridge well stocked with their Fox Friday beer from their brewery in Hobart.  With the virus seemingly under control, in this part of the world anyway, we are even considering a short camping trip away in the near future, so lots to look forward to.   Life is good ! 

Sunset outside our house

Rest of the photos are here :-  https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLT4Xy39ZebdpYhH6