Practically Classics Forum

Well she'll have to do anyway lads. I'm pleased with the dash, £14 on veneer and a bit of yacht varnish I had in makes all the difference.

Still got the motor Rob? and more to the point has she been out lately?

Thats much more bester.
Matthew

arceye wrote:Still got the motor Rob? and more to the point has she been out lately?

Yup still here, and it's had plenty of use the last 3 weeks as a friend borrowed it while I was abroad, can't say anything, but all will become clear in a month or 4

RM finished yet??

Good stuff Rob, I'm intrigued.......

Of course the RM's finished...........................

Not......................

In fact though I've been busy on her there isn't a lot to see from the last month or so, I'm trying to avoid having a shiny car that I can't use as all the other stuff needs doing. So I've been getting some of the interior sorted, and getting a couple of the electrics up and running such as the wiper motor. I've also made a Heath Robinson headliner out of upholstery vinyl to replace the much rotted and torn cloth one until the day comes when the car is fit enough to warrant the cost of a proper one. The whole idea always having been to get her back roadworthy and continue to improve over time whilst enjoying her.

I'll hopefully get some pics of progress up soon, I'm hoping by the time I get back to the gratifying stuff like doors and wings it will largely just be a case of bolting things back on and then be good to go, nice touches like chrome etc coming at a later date.

One thing I have an issue with though is the seats, the leather is in a bad state, dried and past its sell by date, I've been feeding it with Neetsfoot oil which is basically cows foot fat so as it won't actually drop to bits. Its going to be a long long time til I can go for re upholstery or a fresh set of seats, re colouring isn't really worth it as the stitching is fairly dried out too, so in the meantime I'm considering some crazy period seat covers if anyone has any suggestions

It just has to be leopard skin for those seat covers.

JPB wrote:It just has to be leopard skin for those seat covers.

Made of 100% genuine Nylon that causes the driver to fire 10ft bolts of lightening like a modern day version of Thor everytime they get out of the car

Well, times been flying by since my last update of the thread, There still isn't masses to see but as I mentioned before I've been at some of the more tedious tasks.

I fabbed up an exhaust system at last that now goes all the way to the back and sounds quite nice.

All Brake pipes are now copper, new flexi hoses are fitted, a couple of new wheel cylinders up front have also gone on and I just need to swap the back ones out for new cylinders I have now aquired. Prices were rather scary, even from the club front cylinders were £100 each, and back ones £65 each. Fortunately I was able to find a seller on evilbay with some at £40 each so that eased the blow.

After lots of brake pedal pumping, and, as was expected really, the master cylinder has developed a small weep, so that will now get new seals shortly when the bank manager (wife) tells me I can have some play cash.

Anyway, on to the bits of progress I have pictures for.

I have currently repaired the existing steering wheel which had suffered at rim to spokes, I'd rather have a fresh one but for the time being I have confidence in my repair which consisted of removing the rim material at the spokes and welding new plates in.



This was done to all three sections and I have a nice firm wheel that should stand up to proper use. The cut away areas were filled and then a stain varnish used to blend the repairs.

Filled ready for varnish



More unseen work was carried out, but basically as I mentioned in my last post I now have working windscreen wipers, horns and trafficators which will be a big help when I get to the final stages.

To get the horn and trafficators working I had to remove the centre switch unit from the steering wheel, repair / clean the switch gear and rewire it all. Not too bad but the unit is on a long tube that takes the wiring all the way through the steering box and is a bit of a pain to get out and work on.

This is the unit removed from the car



also they have a common fault, being adjustable in length it is actually two tubes that slide together, and are prone to cracking at the end of a slot at the joint, mine was no different so I had to carefully weld up the crack to stop it shearing off in the near future.



Any failure at that joint can short the wiring with fire a likely result.

Dashboard fitting was finished, and while the doors are off allowing good access the carpet cut and fitted and seats put in as I mentioned previously, final trimming up can be done later, and I'm still undecided on seat covers or just leaving the "patina" on show.









So, back to the never ending rust. The first door was stripped of glass, trim etc which all put up a good fight. I reckon Christmas will be on us by the time the doors are finished.

Stripped and ready for repair





Repairs to door skin underway courtesy of an old Morris Minor bonnet, I really must get one last sheet of steel...






welded and being cleaned up



New frame sections had to be made and fitted



Then after final rust removal the pitted areas that had been worst affected were given some rust treatment and allowed to dry.



A skim of filler to make good



And then, as the door stands tonight with the first colour coats over primer being used as a guide coat for final rubbing down. Soberingly it will probably see this weeks spare time out getting to a paint job I'm happy enough with.



The doors will get partially re assembled and put back on the car, but will remain without glass until I can persuade the earlier mentioned bank manager to release funds for new rubbers and rubbing strips to go with the required master cylinder kit.

Thats it for now, hopefully I'll be able to show you a car that at least has its door in place this year.

Good work, as for the seats, well I don't think you can beat a bit of patina, so if the frames and foam is OK I'd be tempted to just clean up, and at the very worst give them a quick colour wash to bring them back up a bit.

Excellent work Mr arceye,
nice work on repairing the door with recycled steel

I quite like the seats as they are,
but maybe a little tlc,clean and feed the leather would work a little magic.
Keep up the good work