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Brakes are broken..

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Once the decision is made, action is easy.

First the pedal box, complete with brake and clutch MC comes out.  Then the booster.  Finally off come the front calipers.

Calipers look fine but the pedal box is full of what looks like crystals of dried brake fliud and both MCs are leaking.

Brake fliud also pours out of the vacuum hose ports of the booster. Apparently this is bad.

The lot are off the the local brake place tomorrow.

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Them's the brakes...not

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A very busy week at work has prevented me from any play in the shed.  Rob rang me yesterday; hadn't heard from me; was I dead?

Back brake bleeding commenced and took under 30 mins.  Shock removal was easy and the little one man brake bleeder worked well.  Did the clutch slave cylinder too for good measure.

Once I got to the front brakes though it all went bad.  No pedal after first flush of RHS front and the fluid reservoir level isn't going down so the master cylinder isn't filling.  Sometimes the piston can jam when it is pushed to full travel, maybe the filler hole is blocked or maybe all the seals are shot.  Regardless of the reason the MC will come out and be rebuilt.

Started her up after not running for a week.  First go off the key with full choke, runs beautifully.  The fanbelt is squeaky still; time for a new one.

Martin is out there now with his buff, giving her a bit of a makeover.  2 hours later and he's finished.  And the paint is beautiful!  Sure there are chips and blemishes and a few bubbles but he is a genius.  The car looks lovely.

A couple of hours later Rob, and then Ron arrive.  There is much poking and prodding but the general consensus seems to be that the car is pretty sound.

I turn my back and the bonnet is off!  Just like that.

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Retiring?

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Old tyres are about to be retired.  Once the rims are cleaned and re-tyred Rob can have his wheels back.

Eventually I'll put 6" wheels on the car but for the time being the 5" wheels will do.

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Bleedin' brakes!

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Rob kindly has lent me his old wheels with usable tyres.  Mine are off to be detyred, cleaned and retyred.

Spent 4 hours today trying to bleed rear brakes. I had to make an adapter for my jack to fit into the hole in the base of the IRS so I could jack the car up on the diff. This took around 90 minutes of welding and machining until it worked as I wanted.  I finally got the bugger jacked up safely, but was unable to remove the shock absorber; essentially I was too stupid to realise that the bottom bolt holds both shocks on. So don't worry, absolutely no brakes were bled in the making of today's blog.

Car looks nice with Rob's wheels on it anyway.

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Paint everywhere, Sir?

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Note to self.  Do NOT store paint in plastic urine specimen bottles; they dissolve and paint goes everywhere.

First SNG Barratt order in by phone.  Took 25 mins for 5 items.  Lots of being called “Sir”.

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Brass for brass

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Off to get my special triple eared knockoff spanner this afternoon pro the princely sum of, wait for it, $128!  This makes brass worth about $500 per kilo.

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RTFM.

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Quick photo shoot.  I received all the original Jag manuals today.

 

 

After reading the Owner's Manual, I opened the choke full and turned the motor over with no throttle, as per instructions.  Started in about 5 sec from cold.  Maaarvelous.

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Start with something simple

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Plan today is to sort out the indicators ( not working) and change the oil.  

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The Jag Arrives...

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I am understandable very keen to pick up car after over a week of waiting. Jarrod arrives at 10am and we set off to Aldgate.

Agreed pickup was 11m but we get there at 1015; doh.

Gaynor rings poor Alan, who is having coffee with the boys at Chris’s place which seems to be where E-type types congregate on a Saturday.

Alan rushes home to find us manhandling his beloved. The car silly, not Gaynor!

After a short time tow truck arrives, we load the car on and off we go.

By 1110am she’s being unloaded at my house. A few tense moments and she’s in the purpose-built shed.

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Happy birthday to me

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It's my birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to go and look at a new toy.

Rob takes me to meet Alan, who has a Series 1.5 E type Jaguar for sale.

Within a few minutes I'm pretty sure that this is the car for me.  The body looks straight, panel fit is good and most importantly everything is there, attached to the car.

Alan hooks up a battery and the engine turns over, coughs a bit but won't run.  Nevertheless that alone is pretty positive.

 

Half an hour and a handshake later the car is mine.

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