FHC resto nr. 126; Boot area wiring

Over the past few days I have been busying myself with the finishing touches for the boot area wiring. This consisted mainly of cleaning the last connectors of the body harness and refurbishing the licence plate harness. With the (meanwhile) correct tools, the remaining connectors of both harnesses could be taken apart and cleaned. And were necessary they were replaced.

The same applied for the PVC cover of the number plate light harness. Removing the two pin connector block made this an equally easy job.

But of course something had to throw a spanner or two in the works. In this case the boot light wiring and switch. First problem that arose were the wires that should go towards the switch and boot light. One connection (to the switch) was easy. But I couldn’t remember were the other (purple/red) wire should connect to. Luckily I had a TR7 at hand to check this. And that clearly showed why I couldn’t remember were said wire connected to!

So the connector in question was duly covered with a piece of heat shrink tubing.

And that brought me to the main issue. The boot light switch. A few months ago I had fitted a later model switch, because the early round type was no longer available. But that needed a different connector. This would be convenient as it would allow me to renew the PVC cover for these wires too! But while I was studying this area in the ’76 car and comparing it with the DHC I noticed something was “wrong”. Spot the difference!

Clearly there is no aperture for a light there. The opening where the boot light is situated on later cars, is far too big for the boot light that is listed in my parts manuals and that is fitted to my two other cars (1980 and 1981) The strange thing is that in the early (1975-1978) parts manuals there is no mention of this light not being fitted to early cars. It seems that the earlier cars didn’t have a boot lid light fitted. Which is pretty strange as the body shell has a small bracket welded in for an early (round type) switch. A quick search on the internet didn’t provide an unambiguous answer. But it looks to me that the very early TR7’s didn’t have a boot light fitted. And that is when I stumbled upon a correct early boot light switch for the cars bracket!

Not yet decided what to do here, though I am toying with the idea of fitting a period aftermarket light. Or fabricate an adapter plate to cover the larger hole in the boot lid and use the boot light I prepared earlier? Choices!

So I switched my attention to some vital parts for the rear light clusters. This meant searching through my stock of (used) bulb holders and giving the chosen ones a good clean:

And searching the stock in the attic for the corresponding bulbs. I bought these when I restored ‘t Kreng in the mid 90’s of the previous century. And so far none of them has failed. So no need to spend money on modern replacements.

Final search was for a pair of bumper cover retainer plates (ZKC2251). These will be used to locate the base of the rear light covers to the boot floor.

And as I use this blog as a reference source when working on my cars, I thought it a good idea to draw a few simple diagrams, showing how the various wires connect to the rear light units and the tank sender unit.

To be continued … 

FHC resto nr. 125; Gear lever gaiter finisher

Nearly finished another of the many very small jobs that take so much time to complete, but also are really good fun to do! In this case I had a go at remanufacturing the finisher/ferrule that sits in the top of the gear lever gaiter. The reason for this little project was the fact that this is how my best spare item looked, when I retrieved it from the parts stock; it just fell apart at the lightest touch!

And this is a part that hasn’t been available through the normal TR7 specialists for some time. Luckily the remains were large enough to provide me with all the measurements, necessary to reproduce a dimensional drawing of this finisher. Including some small personal touches of course!

The (AutoCAD) file was then used to produce a three dimensional model of the part, which in its final version looks like this on the computer screen:

This digital 3D model was then converted into a STL-file which in turn was used to produce the eventual finished product, using a friends 3D-printer. But before that we did a “standard plastic” test print, which turned out to be not entirely what I had expected. But that was my own fault. I had set the file’s resolution (FACETRES command in AutoCAD) at its lowest setting, were I thought I had it at its highest resolution setting. So very easy to rectify.

The final product was than printed using black ABS filament. The printed item already looks pretty good in real life. But it still needs additional treatment to give it a smooth and polished finish. Sadly getting the correct products is a bit of a problem with the current corona measures. But so far quite pleased with the result!

p.s. after I received the test print I found out that this part is still available (and rather cheap!), under its Spitfire part number (ZKC301). Though that looks like a remanufactured part, so probably poor rubber quality!?