2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
Support from your friends
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I have been a way on holidays for a week, hence the lack of progress.
When I get home and check my emails I see this from an anonymous friend:
"dear andrew .Love seeing pictures of beautifully restored bits and pieces but when reality bites will they ever work.regards"
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
The brakes are done
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At the risk of offending fate, I think the brakes are finished.
All the hydraulic lines are in and connected. All the vacuum pipes as well. Reservoirs are mounted. All in all, it looks good.
What does WWW stand for?
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World's Worst Welder.
Stripped of paint, the floor of the heater box was a filligree of rust holes. Spurred on by my success with the clutch bracket I decided to patch it. Trying to TIG weld 40 year old rust was next to impossible. The result is ugly but servicable.
Sunday, 09 October 2011
Lots of fiddly little jobs
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Lots of little fettling jobs with the hydraulics.
Got the hand made vaccuum pipe installed across the firewall, and made a bracket for the brake servo reservoir bottle and welded it to the firewall blanking plate.
This is the first time I've used the TIG in anger and while it would be mendacious to say that it went without incident, I am quite happy with the result.
Saturday, 08 October 2011
Front suspension
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Craig and Jarrod came over this afternoon, and fired with enthusiasm and beer in equal parts we replaced the front upper and lower ball joints.
Getting the top joint circlip in did require a little thought but all in all a very successful afternoon's work.
Friday, 07 October 2011
Buried treasure
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About 20 years ago I sent my disassembled MGBGT to a friend who planned to reassemble it.
Along with it I sent 4 boxes of precious 1960's UNC and UNF nuts and bolts that i had scavenged from car wrecks and had replated.
Today they returned to me!! Oh joy! Better than dubloons.
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Tuesday, 04 October 2011
Friday, 30 September 2011
Another busy day.
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I had no work today and so have been able to devote the entire day to the car.
I went out early, bought some rubber to replace the perished strips in the wheel wells, picked up the latest box of parts from work and then headed home.
Rob arrived mid morning and we set to work on the windscreen. The screen seal was fossilised and quickly succumbed to a sharp chisel. The screen came out easily and the spot welded lips of the panels were revealed and completely rust free. I have never seen this before; usually the metal in this area looks like a rust coloured lace doily.
A bit of cursing and contortions and the dash came out too.
We then unpacked the new dash wiring loom and compared it to the existing wiring. It actually looks pretty similar although the devil will be in the detail, no doubt. Rob looked very confident.
Satisfied with the destruction Rob headed home, but I soldiered on.
The rubber strips were removed along with the rivets holding them in place. I repainted the metal strips and then put the whole lot back on. The rubber is a little uneven but it will suffice.
The parcel contained the new accelerator pedal and housing. I was able to reuse all of the old parts from the original LHD pedal box. Finally got it all together and bolted it in but the actuator arm connector to the linkage was on the wrong side. So out it all came, I ground off and welded the connector back onto the other side, polished and replated the arm and I now have an accelerator!
Annoyingly the captive nut holding the eccentric rest from the brand new linkage set fell off; not properly welded in. So that will have to come off and be welded and replated another day.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Electroplating
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Pulled out the Jane's Zinc plating kit and fired it up; a big success.
I'm still waiting on my old collection of GKN bolts to return to me, and in the meantime I hate putting rusty bolts back in. So after a quick clean with the wire wheel on the grinder I popped some into the plating solution; 5 mins hey presto!
They looked so good I replated the pedal blanking plate too.
So far I have got the pedal box assembled and ready to install. I put the steering column cover in first as access is rather tight. It is a repro from SC Parts. It is a really crappy plastic copy of the original, for which they charged me about $100. Needless to say I won't ever buy anything from them again.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Every cloud...
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A phone call from school put paid to all my other plans for today. Youngest son is sick; come and get him.
So I'm now unable to leave the house for the rest of the day.
Small boy settled in front of TV..out to the shed.
A couple of hours of sanding and painting bits, this time in lovely hammertone silver!
