Woahhhhhhhhh. Its been a while. I have been picking away at little bits here and there and in the last two days put in a bit more effort. I thought I’d better do an update as it’s a great way to motivate myself and actually see the progress.
Last time I left you with a photo of the engine bay painted. The car went back on the hoist then I finished making brake lines. I finished cleaning and painting the front brake calipers, mounted them up and cut/bent/swaged/flared and fitted the brake lines to suit.
I then decided the shiny new brake lines made the axle look very messy indeed so I just had to remove the lines and paint it. Overall it makes working on the underside so much nicer and looks good for the WOF test too. New seals in the freshly painted master cylinder and bench bleed it before bleeding the system. It was a slow process made faster by using a make shift pressure bleeder and bike track pump. It got even faster when I discovered the loose leaking union on the opposite side to where I was sitting. Brake pedal came up well and they feel good. There is a few years worth of rust to score off the discs on the first application though.
People size their wheel dish or lack of road clearance with a phone as a scale. Well here’s a new one- check out the size of my enormous axle…
While the car was up I ran some nice thick cable down to the front for the starter..
Oh btw..I had previously forgot to mention the rusty bits along the gutter drain lip over the rear tailgate (hatch..) opening.
Well. There was rusty bits. Now they are gone. It was a tricky lots to replace with compound curves but its important. Luckily it was solid around all the hinge area as I could see that being a right pita to fix.
So the only rusty bits left are some little bits on the doors and another patch on the tailgate (hatch…..) plus weld a check strap retainer back in place for the passenger door. Then I think I can safely put the welder away.
The rocker cover had ugly breather vent tubes sticking right out the top and this had to change. Chopped them off, altered the interior oil splash guard to suit a rear mounted exit pipe so I can hide the breather hose away. Then a flick of filler and a coat of finest spray can paint and it looks much better.
The old tube was a tad messy anyway..
Modded the splash shields..
Painted..
I had to modify the inlet manifold too. Same reasons- ugly outlets with no thought to a tidy engine bay. I removed both, welded them up and filed the lot smooth. I then machined up a new boss with a tapered thread to suit a different pcv valve and welded it in where it will work better with the new hose layout..
Hannah painted the engine and bell housing satin black. I refitted a cleaned up alternator Andre gave me. Cheers again Andre. The car previously had a generator fitted with an ugly control box. No no no. That wont do.
The alternator looked exactly like the ones in the Haynes manual but it had the lugs orientated wrong ie it was made to mount on the other side of the engine? Then I noticed its front half looked symmetrical. Spot the difference in these two photos…
Yep- undoing the front half and spinning it around 120 degrees allowed the alternator to mount on the side I wanted. Clever chaps.
So I altered the existing generator bracket…
and it all fits fine now. Yay- now I have 35amps of charge capacity to play with. I can probably find a suitable tape deck to run along with a really old inefficient amp. Then play suitable old 60/70’s music as I hold traffic up every where. Yes.
Then we slung the shiny clean 1159cc power plant back into its home. Painted the grill area black as well so to work in better with the planned GT grill. I remounted the cleaned and painted wiper rack but will need another tapered rubber seal thingee I’ve yet to source. Painted and fitted the hinges in place. Then I cleaned and stripped the Stromberg carb. It was dribbling out the bottom when I had been checking the engine ages back and I found some hardened perished O rings. That’ll go back together and then I’ll make a little alloy pulley to suit the cable pull offered by the later preferred Viva HC throttle pedal I’ll be fitting.
Hannah took the terrible old dash top rescue under her wing. She carefully filled the cracks and missing section in the replacement dash top I was given and made it very neat indeed. Big thanks to Hannah for her patience exceeds mine on those jobs.
Then last weekend she celecbrated her fantastic job by sailing a jump on her old Fat Chance mtb and landing in a not very Danny Macaskill sort of way. In fact landing on her face. So as a treat she got a helicopter ride…
https://youtu.be/vYX9GhhYcukHannah is healing well and I have lots of Viva jobs lined up for her to cheer her up.
I’ve painted the light brackets and swapped out one of the manky headlights for a good spare. Painted the back of the headlights to tidy them up. Next job will be the wiring and check, rebuild and add the Accuspark electronic ignition kit my Dad brought back home after a family holiday. Hopefully with that I may well be able to reliably sample the full 50bhp that this little engine might muster up!
That is a about it for now. Very happy to get that off my chest. I might just go out and do some more! It quite a fun part of a resto this. Pick up bit, clean it, paint it, fit it. Good music, good coffee, helpful fluffy cat and you’re sorted!
Here is a photo of how the engine bay is looking at this point in time..