MadaboutKitcars

Have you ever had an overheating problem, or does it run okay as is?

Good picture Dave, my rad is about the same I would think.
I have had a good think about it, and I don't have a lot of room for a header tank, and I don't have a flip bonnet either.

I figure out that with the bleed valve in the thermostat housing, if I needed to fill the complete cooling system from scratch, I would fill using the current rad cap, which would give me around 90%+ of the water required, and then replace the cap and top the rest up, (heater hose mainly) using the Heath-Robinson
bleed valve come filler-cap I am currently fabricating!

The system still has the safety valve in the current cap, which will allow water to escape into the overflow bottle if required to do so.

I have now finished and fitted the alternative to a header tank,

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Thursday

I have just fitted the new thermostat housing complete with its bleed valve.
At the same time, I put a new top hose on, and finally fitted the fan temperature sensor inside the top hose.

I have not run up the engine and tested it all yet, but the main work on the cooling system is now done.

I do not see any reason why it should not all function correctly.

Teething problems we are all bound to have!

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You are doing alright Paul!
To start with I didn't think I had a plumbing problem, til it was pointed out. The work seems to propagate and go on forever.

We will get there though.

Friday

Having lowered the car so much at the rear, and disturbed all the suspension geometry somewhat, it became obvious to me that the toe in toe out would have to be adjusted. This is best done by all accounts, when the car is finished and sits at its final weight etc etc.

It then occurred to me that at that stage, that I would have to strip out some of the interior, including the seats, to actually get at the two nuts, which when loose enough, allow you to fanny around playing with shims, trying to get the correct toe in etc. Oh what joy!

Mmmmmm. I don't f*****g think so.

I decide after a bit of research, to go for adjustable radius arms, which allow you to do all the toe adjustments under the car, a bit like doing the tracking at the front, with just a spanner or two.

I thought they were a bit pricey, but would save me a lot of heartache in the end.

Wow! they arrived just now, and I was blown away by the quality, finish and the whole package was just terrific. I was SO impressed. I almost felt like going for a J Arther.

The adjuster has a left and right hand thread, so by just turning the centre nut one way or the other, the radius arm is made longer or shorter, thus altering the rear wheel toe in toe out.

Just what the doctor ordered, apart from making life a lot easier for me, they will look fabulous on the car, and the Mot man is bound to be as impressed as I was when he claps his mince pies on them.
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Very impressive engineering perhaps, but a rather un-impressive way of spelling "impressive"

Yes Ox, they are from Jigsaw, and do not come with any bushes or bolts. I bought those separately, from another company.

A bit of a must-have really!

Mk2

I did buy a Mk2 Gary, in fact I still have it,

You can just see it top centre in this picture!

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You'll have to enlarge on that one Gary, I'm not quite sure where we are going here! :-)

That's interesting Gary, would they have fit the Mk4 Spit?

I would guess they are bound to be a different length.

WCA wrote "Jaguars are not the only MK2.."

They are in my garden WCA.

Did they come from Triumph with those arms fitted Gary?

That's brilliant, wonder why they did not put them on all the cars,
it surely would not have added that much to the total cost?

Buggering about inside the car and messing with shims seems so ridiculous, against the alternative.

Well Paul, these days, I don't think Any Mary Poppins would be allowed, (polically correctly speaking) in case it should perhaps
offend some illegal Barklays bankers!

Sunday

Popped over to Shelsey Walsh Hill Climb today, they had a vintage day there.
Some interesting cars in the paddock, including the 24 Liter Napier Bentley!
Now there's an engine for you WCA!

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This vehicle was not actually there, but I could not resist the temptation to post it!

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Tuesday

Today I had lots of admin to do, but after that, I thought I would have go at fitting the adjustable rear radius arms.

The first nut and bolt came off in less than a minute, (the rearward one)

Hooray! easy job, or so I though then.

The second one took two f*****g hours. Boo Hoo.

In the end, I cut both ends off the bolt and it still was hard to remove.

Naturally I ended up with hand wounds gushing blood all over the place.

I seem totally incapable of performing the simplest engineering task without

some sort of injury usually accompanied by lots of bleeding.

In my kitchen, the micro-pors dispenser is out on permanent display, much to the amusement of my son.

It has to be, it seems to be used on a daily basis.

Still at the end of play, I got the one side done. Total of two hour and 20 minutes!

You can imagine how much I am looking forward to doing the other side.

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Today

Thanks for the encouragement fellah's. it really does seem to help!

They say an athlete will work 1.5 times more if watched, and two times harder
if cheered on, so that kind of proves the theory.

Those adjustable rear arms at £118 don't at first seem a bad bargain Dave,
but by the time the Vat and carriage is added, plus they don't come with bushes, they have to be separately, the total looks more like £180 ish.

BUT, I still would not be without them.

I have owned over the years several Spitfires, and 6 or 7 GT 6's, and so
far have NEVER EVER needed to adjust the rear toe in/out!

But having so radically altered the rear suspension on this car, I know I will HAVE to get the toe in done when its finished, hence the extra work and expense.

Also today

I went out to the build to do battle with the drivers side radius arm, but before that, as the car was still on jacks for the passengers one, I decided now was a good time to fit the inner wheel arch.

This would be useful, as it will strengthen the body shell, and also prevent the car from filling up with water, should I be unlucky enough to get caught in the rain.

It did not fit as I wanted it too, so I cut it in half and then filled in the gaps later.

The whole thing was firmly fixed in place with stainless self tappers, then all
glassed over for extra strength and waterproofing.

I've still got the big battle ahead though............

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Even more tiday

I went to get the remaining rear radius arm off the car, and the new adjustable one in place.

I felt a bit like Saddam Hussein must have felt waffling on about the "mother of all battles" because it just didn't happen.

I took the nut off, and the bolt was seized solid like the other side, so I sawed it of both ends, also like the other side.

I managed to get away without personal injury this time, mainly as the sharp exhaust I hacked my hand on, was on the other side of the car.

My saw however, did not fare so well and was broken, but I have three saws,
so could complete the job.

The arm is on the car now, so that's another major step forward.

I have the inner wheel arch in position, but have had enough for the day,
and will attack that job when I'm fresh.


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Bloody hell Chris, I must have been "Mr Naive 2014" to have ever imagined finishing the car for Stoneleigh!!!

There is so much still to do, I certainly do not need a list, I think if I had a list of things to do, I would lose heart and stick the car on ebay!

Having said that, eventually I will run out of things to do, and it'll be done.

It is so difficult to put a time frame on it, due to all the unseen extra work that just seems to keep popping up.