The garage
Still no progress on the car but my nice new garage has now been built.
Now all I have to do is seal it. Insulate it. wire it out fit benches and move all my tools and equipment from the old tin shed then bring the car up to re-start working on it.
I am shattered just thinking about it.
The garage
Thanks Paul
It will take time with the house move and all that but i'll get there in the end. I was hoping to have the car on the road this summer but the best laid plans and all that, As you say I'll have a much nicer environment to work in.
Cheers
Derek
Merry Christmas every one. I am hoping to re start work on the car in the new year.
I'v finally got the car into the new garage.
Unfortunately standing in a damp garage for the last 10 months hasn't helped things. The brakes are binding badly and some of the electrics have stopped working so i decided as I will have to strip the front suspension down again I will upgrade at the same time to that end I have bought drilled and grooved front disks and EBC pads also bought a pair of nice shiny s/s top suspension mounts. I also want to change the wheel spacers as the ones I have are 30mm universal ones so I;m looking for a set of dedicated ones. on the up side I finally managed to get the correct rubber for the windscreen (only took me a year to find it) so I've started work on the screen frame again, and i have made the upper mount for the rear view mirror first attempt failed as you can see second attempt not so bad but there may be a third?
Hopefully i,ll get a lot more work done this year as well as the house restoration work.
bye for now be back soon.
Barber I'll try.
Re started work on the screen frame the chrome paint I used reacted with the primer and went soft I had to use paint stripper to get it of it's now back in etch primer.
I'v also made some brackets for the boot stay.
Back soon.
Yesterday I borrowed my friends metal shrinking/stretching machine to make a lip for the boot aperture.
before.
After
Not too bad its now ready to be bonded and riveted when my new riveter arrives my old air one died a few weeks ago so iv'e sent for a standard hand one.
I also sprayed the screen frame and fitted the screen it was a very right fit due to some distortion during welding as usual I messed up and managed to mark the frame so it will need some flatting back and spraying again
I finished the boot stay this week the load spreading plates and the bracket are simply bonded on with Tiger seal.
The one inside the boot is bolted. It all seems to work OK I wanted a nice smooth boot lid of course I'v taken it all apart again now to flat it down and etch prime it also working on the doors which are a bit of a pig I keep finding voids on the edges
I got a bit fed up with that today so I painted the Garage with another coat of ducks back
well yet again I got fed up with filling in and flatting back so i decided to have a go at the seized brakes
after trying for a whole day to free up the calipers i gave in and ordered some new ones. I fitted the nice new disks crass drilled and vented, I didn't realize until I fitted the first one to the hub that these things are handed.
The outward side of the grove points towards the rear of the car.
i don't like the spacers much but the decent ones are about £200 a set and no one seems to have them at the moment anyway so i'll have to stick to what i'v got for now.
looking forward to Stonleigh tomorrow I'll try to pop over to see u if i can.
Cheers for now.
Stonleigh
Sorry I missed everyone at Stonleigh but I just couldn't find the pitch wandered round for ages but no luck just me being dull i think.
I have fitted the new calipers and ETB brake pads but haven't bled them yet (I need to rope in the wife for that)
And managed to do some more flatting down
and managed to get some etch primer on the bonnet.
Though knowing this car I'll probably have to rub it all down again
ray2:
I also found a couple of company's that can make me some decent wheel spacers I am waiting for the quotes not too expensive I hope.
As fast as I flat one bit of bodywork I find another that needs filling and flatting I think they are breeding
reggers:
It took me a week to finally get the whole car covered in a coat of etch paint from rattle cans
Unfortunately a friend who was going to spray the car for me may now not be able to so I now have to chose, find another (cheap) sprayer or invest the money I was going to spend on a decent compressor and spray gun and spray it myself something I have never done before Hmmmm
Thanks for the input gents I have managed to persuade my friend to spray the car for me probably some time in August he's not a professional but can get decent results hopefully it will all go to plan. until then I will carry on with all the other jobs yet to be done i will keep you updated.
cheers
deggsy
Thanks gents good advice I was looking into all that when I thought I would have to do it myself hopefully now with my friend agreeing to spray it I should get a half decent job? I have decided to go for a deep cream color which should go with the green seats odd that I have to chose the color to go with the upholstery should be the other way around but beggars can't be choosers as they say.
Cheers
deggsy
rear driveshafts
I am back on the mechanical bits this week I am fitting the longer driveshafts from a spitfire 1500 they are about 20 mm longer than than the herald ones I replaced the wheel bearings and trunnion bushes I also had to fit the smaller driveshaft flanges for the herald diff new universal joints were fitted at the same time.
I had one small hiccup I bought a pair of adjustable radius arms off a Vitesse as the herald ones were now too short only when I went to fit them did I realize the bushes are larger
so dismantle it all and start again I had to spread the brackets wider to accept the wider bush and then drill through to accept the larger bolt. If you do it the other way around the bolt holes wont line up
All done now but i will have to get the rear wheels tracking sorted when it's on the road and the front ass well of course. Ho I have to make some extension plates for the handbrake cables as they are now too short.
Until next time cheers
Paul Yes it most certainly is I Fitted the hand brake extension plates today and bled the brakes again the car is back down on it's wheels now and the longer drive shafts make the wheels fill the rear arches a lot better.
It's just doing as many of the small jobs whilst waiting for the paint job which wont be for a few months yet.
almost there tough. phew
Thanks for the encouraging comments almost there just waiting for the spray job then i can put it all back together.
Hi All whilst waiting for the paint job I decided to follow Paul's lead and do some paneling namely a hard half tonneau cover if that's what its called?
I started off with a very thick piece of cardboard.
cut it to approximately the shape I wanted then fixed a piece of 15mm x 15mm mild steel folded angle as the center support
and I must admit it looks ok so far? now I have to get some more angle for the curved supports for which I will need to borrow the metal shrink / stretchy thingy again and I'll pick up a sheet of aluminium some time next week
Then I can look forward to installing hundreds of pop rivets
Molleur
Thanks for the reply yes it will be removable i'll be using some sort of clips.
cheers
Deggsy
hard cover
Almost finished now all the supports and alloy sheet have been made and drilled fixed with over 200 pop rivets.
The panel was then etch primed and all the rivets heads filled and flatted to look like old fashion rivets rather than the pop ones.
Etch primed again then the same process for the end fillets.
The fillets will be removable, ready for painting now I have left six rivets out into which i will fit some m4x30mm button head bolts which will have tabs on them to hold the panel in place if that isn't secure enough then i'll fit some boot locks
Cheers back soon.
Yep took me the best part of two days and there are still a few that have to be re done. doh!
Not a lot been happening lately but I finally took the plunge and bought a compressor the car is now up on ramps ready to be flatted back for primer. I have also been cleaning the garage ready for painting the car
I am hoping to start spraying it next week if all goes well
I will post photos when done.