2012
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Engine's in!
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The "boys" arrived bright and early and it only took an hour to get the engine in.
Looks fabulous!
Sunday, 09 September 2012
Seat re-upholstery.
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While I'm waiting for the engine I've stripped the seats, ready for Alan Smith to re cover them. He did an excellent job with the trim so he gets the job. Alan suggested that I buy the covers foams and seat diaphragms from Aldridge Motor Trimmers.
Excellent choice; really easy to deal with and the covers look excellent.
Hopefully Alan will be able to get then all together for me soon.
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Saturday, 08 September 2012
Engine nearly finished
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Chris has just about finished the engine. Very exciting.
Sunday, 02 September 2012
Steering rack back on..again...
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I have finally mastered the incomprehensible structure that is the steering rack mounting system.
Last time I didn't change the mounts and left them in place, but I have now replaced the (probably perfectly srervicable) metalastic mounts with uprated ones.
The odd bolt placement now makes sense to me, although I still have no idea why there are spacers on one side but nuts on the other.
Saturday, 01 September 2012
Back together we go...again...
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First day of spring. Nice sunny day. Afternoon spent putting bits back into the engine bay. Very satisfying and really looks good.
Friday, 31 August 2012
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Paint's on!
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Trying to paint in winter is lousy. It's been cold and rainy for weeks.
I had lined up my mate Andrew, a spray painter of 20 years' experience, to help me paint the frames.
Andrew's a quiet sort and I think he quickly decided that I would just make a horrible mess of the job, so he came over today and put on undercoat, colour and gloss clear topcoat in just over 2 hours. It looks superb.
I'll give it a couple of days to go off properly and then I can start hanging bits back on again!
Back from the machine shop
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The block, head and crank came back from the machine shop last week looking lovely.
I was initially a little shocked at the $5000 bill, made up of $1500 on the head, $1000 for top hat liners, another $1500 on the block itself and around $1000 for the crank, rods and balancing. However when I looked through the invoice I really have got a lot for my money. Everything is clean, straight, balanced and back to proper tolerances.
I decided early on to replace everything else, and I've spent around $2000 on new parts. Around $2500 in labour and I have a $10000 engine.
All things being equal though I should never have to touch the engine again.
Monday, 13 August 2012
Hibernation and reflections on plating.
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Well as with all unicorns, Carl turned out to be mostly a mythical creature.
The quality of the zinc plating was substandard but was as expensive as the good platers. And, some of the more difficult to replace bolts were lost. Happily though I did get some extra parts that weren't from my car at all, so that was maybe compensation.
I ended up getting all the zinc replated elsewhere, and it now looks good.
The powder coating was good, however there was a "misunderstanding" with the original quote. When I said "that's for everything?" I understood it to mean that the quote included all of the chrome and zinc plating and the powder coating. Sadly it seems the quote I was given was for the chrome alone, making it the total about 30% more than expected.
The final nail in the coffin though was when I went to pick up the chrome to discover that the holes in the overriders for the Amco bars hadn't been welded up as discussed.
I asked them to give me a call when they had fixed this. As the chroming has taken the best part of 2 months I won't be looking for them much before Christmas..
Here is the reassembled front suspension in all its glory. Now if it would only warm up enough to enable me to paint I could start putting the car back together.
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Happy Anniversary!
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Tomorrow marks one year to the day since I bought this car.
To celebrate, I have removed even more from under the bonnet. Well, actually I have now removed everything from under the bonnet.
I sanded back the tops of the engine frames; they feel nice and flat. A bit more painting to be done and reassembly can commence.
