Wipers Fixed

The Stylus has always had a minor problemette with the wipers - they struggled to clear the centre of the sweep - yes, the bit I needed to look through. They would clear it after a couple of dozen sweeps & after 1/2 an hour or so it'd be fine. The Fury I built never had this problem & then one day I noticed the angle the Stylus' wiper spindles sat at. The builder had presumably used the angled sleeves that came with the wiper motor, so the spindles were almost horizontal, meaning there was spring pressure on the wipers at each end where the screen was 90deg to the spindle, but just about none in the middle where the screen sloped away.

So I removed the dash top - skinning several knuckles - removed & measured the angled sleeves & printed a couple of prototypes. That all seemed to work OK, the spindles sat perpendicular to the screen, so I re-printed the sleeves in polyurethane, I have two hardnesses, so I printed the face the nut screws onto in the hard one & mid-print swapped to the soft one for the face that seals to the bodywork. 

Having done all that a few times (starting with the wrong hardness, using the wrong print file etc) I had a set of parts that worked & after refitting, I squirted the screen, started the wipers and ........ perfect!

Wipe marks right to the very top of the very middle.

It looks pretty good, so tomorrow I'll put the dash top back on & skin a few more knuckles.

Winter Jobs

 Yes it's January & it's cold in the garage - but needs must.

With the rear axle looking fixed (hopefully) I took the car down off the stands & ramps & put just the front on stands to put some more anti-squeal shims on the front brake pads to get a quieter life (my girlfriend won't complain about the brake squeal). Obviously that's an easy enough job, but while I had my head in the wheel arch I noticed some corrosion at the rear lower corner where the paint had come away. Nothing serious, just a little surface rust on steel sheet 1.5mm thick, but I got out the rotary wire brushes & cleaned it back before running some polyurethane sealer up the join & giving is a thick coat of Car Builder Solutions' "Wonderseal". When it's cured off I shall over-spray it with black stone chip paint.

Yes, I know it looks a bit of a mess, but it's meant to, it protects the surface from stones, I used it in the Fury's wheel arches & never had a single star crack. the Stylus hasn't got any & has many star cracks.

Also getting done is the installation of new cameras. My lovely girlfriend bought me a pair of DJI "Action 4" cameras for Christmas & while they have the same fitting as the GoPro Hero 3+'s I've been using, there were a few tweaks.

Firstly the camera doesn't fit in a waterproof case - it is waterproof, except when the charging door is open. I had cut holes in the GoPro cases for the power lead, so they weren't waterproof either, but often it just rains a little bit, so I've drawn & printed a "shield" to keep light wetness away from the power plug & a tethered cap so I can close the charge door, run the camera off the battery & still keep the charge lead's business end dry. They are printed in TPU, so are soft & flexible, but extremely tough. Of course if it's proper rain, the hood will be up & either the camera arm will be folded across, filming through the windscreen, or the camera will be on the outside mount above the windscreen running on the battery.

Not a very clear picture of the power lead shield, cap & its' tether.

A clearer picture, but the shield's not on the plug in this one.

The cameras themselves seem pretty good, with stabilisation built & any number of different options. I will keep it simple, I only want the lowest setting it does as that's still better than the Hero 3+ that I was perfectly happy with. I'll be keeping those for the occasional views from the radiator intake / door mirror etc.

New Year - Brooklands Meet

 We trotted along to the New Year's Day meet at Brooklands as we had a little membership left. It was cold (but about to get colder) & having nothing else taxed, we went in the Cactus. as we arrived there were signs to a car park the other side of the main road, but I spurned them for the main "The Heights" parking, which nearly went wrong - we were one of the last cars in!

Having parked up & got in, we were faced with a whole bunch of Triumphs, but the volunteers were starting to struggle to get cars parked up, there was a queue all down the show car approach road & next to no space. This is a good thing as it means there are many many cars out there in garages & people enjoying them.

Not long after we ran into my Brother & Nephew attending their second car event of 2026, as they'd called in at "The Phoenix" at Hartley Witney on their way. they had come with a guy of my nephew's acquaintance who was driving a Lagonda, so when arriving at the gate they said "We're with the Lagonda" & found themselves parked in the prestigious area in the square in front of the club house - many |rolls, Bentleys, Lagondas, Delaheys with a stripped out Ford Model A & a '90s kit pick-up based on a Sierra.

As usual the truck got a lot of positive attention - not necessarily good as my brother was trying to find his phone & interested passers by were something of a distraction - he did find it in the end.

Nice Buick Riviera parked round the back of the trade stands.

A couple of Sevens

Not a Willys, It's a VW with a body kit, but very very well done, hats off to the creator.

Interesting Saaaab, the exhaust exit is just ahead of the front wheel.

Three Fulvias

Really liked this - I wouldn't want to have to park it though

This was interesting too, it's a Puma GT, production made in South Africa on a beetle floor pan.

Lotus Seven S2 from 1960, which makes it even older than me!

Austin Woody. I'm not going to speculate on which county it's named after.

The writing said it had been restored