Wiper Issues and Power Socket

As anyone who rebuilds cars will tell you - sometimes things go well and sometimes they don't! I've had a number of things that haven't worked out recently. Firstly, the baffled sump I nearly finished had to be abandoned because it had issues with the screen touching the crank. Then there were issues with the trim I bought for the bottom of the hardtop which I managed to cock up fitting. It looked like a horrific water trap too so I ended up ripping most of it off! To top it all off, I found a puddle of water in the passenger footwell!

It was pretty easy to find the source of the water leak. The passenger side windscreen wiper mount was loose and the rubber seal was missing, allowing the recent 'summer weather' to pour in! The wiper and nut came off pretty easily but the chromed pedestal needed a bit of leverage from a screwdriver. I made a new seal from a sheet of silicone.

The old seal on the drivers side was literally dust and no use as a pattern so I drew around one of the spindles to make a pattern.


The only hitch was refitting the passenger side nut. The reason the whole thing was loose in the first place was because someone had overtightened the nut and ruined the thread. Unfortunately the thread looked pretty unusual and, as I'd got no idea what it was, there was no option other than to buy a new wheelbox. Hopefully that'll arrive soon!

Over the weekend I also installed a power socket. It's fitted to a metal bracket on the passenger side of the dash. I originally built the bracket for an extinguisher pull handle but never got around to fitting a plumbed in fire extinguisher! With the help of a conical drill bit set from Machine Mart I enlarged the hole enough to take a VW power socket I bought from eBay. I originally finished the bracket by polishing it but this time I sprayed it using wrinkle finish paint. Wiring was simply a case of hooking it up to a purple wire in the 'always on' circuit that I picked up from the hazards relay and earthing the other terminal. Done!