I've been wiring the dashboard, and enjoying it, since I get to do it at home and not freeze in a cold garage. Meanwhile the shop has been industriously working along on the bodywork, with the result that the headlight mounting points are in (they needed to fabricate flat sections that the Marchal headlight mounts will bolt to, and drill holes for the headlight adjusting screws so that they can be aimed.
Has anyone wired their headlights WITHOUT using a relay? The Marchal lamps' bulbs draw enough that I think the prudent thing would be relays for the high beam, low beam, and driving lamps. It seems risky to do it any other way. The labeled harness wires will then become the primary side of each relay circuit, since the harness doesn't seem to have relays in it.
We had to backtrack and (again!) modify the rear bodywork to clear the battery. We didn't realize that when there is actually a battery in the battery box, plus the fiberglass cover over it that I got from Cushman, the rear bodywork sits on the cover. Safir Mark V cars seem to have had the battery on the right side of the car; my Mark I tub has it on the left (which will also mean running a starter cable over to that side as well; can't wait to see where we can fit THAT in). Consequently the bodywork interferes with the top of the battery cover. This week we sawed a 3x3 section out of that area and rebuilt that part of the rear clip in order that when it comes down and seats there is enough room for the battery and its hold-downs.
The rear clip also interferes with the outboard fuel pump mounting area, possibly. I won't know until I have my fuel pumps from Andrew, but I'll figure out a way to get them in there, so help me.
We have been "almost done" with the rear bodywork about six times now and each time we think we are finished, something else comes up. If the bodywork mods we are now doing clear the battery, then the only thing left is to drill the holes for the pins that secure the leading edge of the bodywork up on top (because the angle of the bracket is wrong and the tub is already painted, we have elected to make up angled spacers of stainless tubing stock which will correct the pin angle so that the rear bodywork can smoothly go up and down) Then maybe it's off to the paint shop. I hope. All the lights have been fitted (not that there are so many, are there; I passed on backup lights since you can't see out the back of the car anyway, who needs them), the louvered grilles all fit, and the exhaust pipes come more or less out of the center of that rectangular opening in the middle of the back. So, maybe- just maybe- in a week or two the first part of the exterior of my car will get filled, primed, and the black inner finish applied. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
