What's in the workshop this week, Pelikanblau edition

[MikkiJayne]

The electronics are still kicking my arse so had a break and did some other things. I've been a bit lax on the photos so we're missing a few 'finished' shots, but I'll catch up on those later.

The stupid plastic rivets in the two strut top covers really annoy me since you either destroy them getting them apart, or lose the pin of the rivet. So instead, a little upgrade to improve ease of use:

Open out the hole to 7mm



Insert an M5 rivnut



Affix in place with an M5 bolt. Much better I did the same on the other side with the cover behind the header tank



Next, repair the driver's side lower dash. Its quite common for the pocket to have broken off the main panel since its only plastic welded in a couple of places.



After a wipe with acetone, heat up the plastic with the hot air gun. This helps the glue bond



Stick it back together with hot-melt glue









Same problem with the steering column surround - I think someone had forcibly removed this to fit some aftermarket electronics.



Good one on the left. Unfortunately left and right hand drive are different so I can't just swap them so hot-glued the original back together then improved the fitment of the mic for the phone handsfree kit.



The wire was previously wedged in the broken trim. Peel back the felt and cut a slot for the wire



Feed in the wire and stick the bracket down then put the felt back and its much neater.



There needs to be a special place in hell for the bloke who invented scotchlock connectors The only fix for this is to cut it and crimp it back together. Its too thick to solder properly. There were half a dozen in this state.



Tidied up the wiring in the dash



A nice thing about single-DIN cars is there is space for modules under the climate control. TPMS on the left, noise filter for the radio on the right.



Surplus wiring removed plus a pile of nasty scotchlocks.