BRAVE or just FOOLISH RM RESTO

[arceye]

A little more sanding allowed for a coat of red oxide to protect things until I reach the same stage on the near side, this will be gone over eventually with a high build primer and flatted off until good enough for top coats.



A little bit more of the nearside dissapears, and a lot more debris is added to the floor beneath it. Its ready for wood and metalwork now. Although this side was much better than the drivers side it was soft enough to warrant replacing some of the wood while I have the chance, a lot had to be removed really anyway in order to do a proper job of the metalwork.

[hillminx]

just read from beggining, excellent work so far, looking forward to following your great work
thanks chris.

[arceye]

Thanks Chris, as long as it keeps moving forward most weeks I'll be a happy man.

This week I've let in some new timber starting with the vertical section of the bottom runner / sill



This then got covered with a sheet metal channel section as per the original, I'm not absolutely sure why though it will protect it a little I suppose.



With the channel section on I was able to re fit the old Cill timber that carries the steel sill and makes up the inner sill / door shut section.

This left me ready for welding in some new metal to the bottom of the inner A panel along with fabricating a new body mount. My old friend hammerite got another outing to protect it all.





I then set about shaping the new A post, which reminds me I really need a new hand saw, this was the end result.



This was then glued and screwed in place





So at least now I have some solid timber, I need to make up a couple more sections and figure out the curved section that meets the sill board then I'll be able to get back to some metalwork. I think though that I might need to clear a bit of floor space again first so I actually have some room to work.

[pryantcc]

Superb work arceye, fascinating to follow your progress. I particularly admire your "give it a go" attitude. I'm of a similar mind, it's not rocket science, some thought, some time and some money will see most jobs done well enough! I often think when I see timber work being done on these type of cars how much of a bore it must have been for the original chippies putting it all together with all slot headed screws and just a screwdriver, no battery drills in those days!

[rich.]

you are a brave man... are you near gloucester/forest of dean area? i know a chap who has had several cars like that..
what bike is that??

[arceye]

Cheers chaps, thank you for the nice comments. I'm not one for trailer queens so it makes it a tad easier to get a satisfactory result when youre not looking for any prizes, if I get a nice usable every day type car at the end it will all be worthwhile.

I know how the old chippies must have felt, all my screws are put in by hand but probably only because I can never remember to charge the cordless

Anyway, nothing got done today thanks to a bit of a pre Xmas rush, but hopefully that means a few more pennies for Rusty the Riley

Rich, The red bike is a BSA c15 wearing an early sixties eyebrow tank and tin for that classic look, it started life as a 68 ss model but had an engine change and the old chrome tin being too far gone got to wear some more classic stuff, unfortunately even though I aquired it with its number plates and tax disc I can't get the original number due to the old local office getting the frame one digit out, so it will have to go the dating certificate route but I'll wait for spring for that one. The other bike on the drivers side of the car is the sons soon to be L plate transport, only a suzuki 125 but its a proper easy rider look bike and really rather nice. I'm up on the North coast of Scotland about 20 miles west of John O Groats so not near gloucester, if any of you decide to do an end to ender let me know and I'll try to take a look when you get here, might even spring for a Latte

[alfaSleep]

I'm up on the North coast of Scotland about 20 miles west of John O Groats so not near gloucester, if any of you decide to do an end to ender let me know and I'll try to take a look when you get here, might even spring for a Latte

I drove up to Inverness, a week or two ago, from home on Tyneside....... Scotland is a BIG place when yrr doing it!!

Fab resto...... my IMPs were 'rolling restos' & I got odd bits, fettled to fit, from the breakers...ah! 2 be skint

alfaSleep

[arceye]

Nice one Alfa, all the way to the big city you should have kept going. I'm only a hundred and twenty mile further north but deffo seems much further on these roads.
When the Riley eventually gets done I plan on a road trip across the North Coast and down the West Coast to Applecross over the pass of the cattle. Hopefully...

Anyway, I'm a bit further on, but as usual behind where I'd hoped to be, this time I can blame it on my deciding to "aquire" angina (or so the experts tell me), I'd been blaming chest pains on stress and crawling about round cars but finally had to give in and go to the docs, I won't go into detail as this is supposed to be about the car, but for now I'm on Nitrate tablets to help the blood flow but christ the headache they give is really slowing me down, supposed to ease after a while though so hopefully I'll pick up the pace.

So, wood frame is done for this section



What I have found is that this side has also sagged on its door pillar and the front body mount being shot as it was I've been unable to gain the correct gaps to the door, so its been a bit of a compromise between finding a height for the centre door pillar that allows the back door to open and shut, and the panel gaps for the front door. For now the door pillar is jacked to the position I have decided is best ready for a new bracket welding on to fix it firmly in place, I Have to plate a fair bit of the A panel anyway so I can alter it slightly to get the correct gap for the front door shut.
In the meantime I've re hung the A panel which can now be repaired in situ, and started on replacing the windscreen surround.





Note the nice shiny new filter mask, much to everyones amusement I'd been refusing to use it as i was saving it for spraying and fumier work, as a nod and a wink to my health I relented and its been seeing some serious use, its that or give up the fags completely I suppose

I've been able to save a little more of the original steel for this side though it still needs plenty of new stuff. I have a sheet on order from a local engineering firm as I'm almost out, I'll need this soon as once the surround and A panel are done I'm going to replace all the inner return sections for the door shuts. I'll also have to get into the front door as the latch doesn't work so I won't be able to set up the door catch until this is resolved.

The snow and ice has arrived now, so I figured it was time to drop the water out of the cooling system from initial testing, I hadn't added anti freeze due to needing new hoses so I couldn't put it off any longer.

The system is empty now, I have a gallon of antifreeze ready, so it was time to find some hoses, Ebay provided a new kevlar reinforced top hose which I thought would have been harder to find, the bottom hose is actually a bent steel pipe which had a couple of pin holes in that I'd welded for testing the engine, I can't leave this on long term as it is bound to give up the ghost sometime, so I've ordered some supposedly flexible radiator hose that has an inner coil that should hopefully allow me to route it the same as the original steel pipe.

The top hose is on



Hopefully the length for the bottom one will arrive shortly and I can get Rusty filled up with a nice mix of antifreeze to safeguard her through the winter.

[JPB]

Applecross is the most awesome place in the summer. I last visited back in August of 1997.
That road is something else though! A friend from New Zealand was with me in a very heavily laden Reliant Rebel 750 estate that I had at the time and the only way I could avoid bogging the engine down was to take a good run from the bottom. The poor wee thing was sitting at a steady 7,500rpm in 2nd (They're very low geared so that equates to about 20mph) when we spotted the German tour bus heading down towards us. I put my foot down and just made it to the next passing place before the bus, which didn't slow down as it passed us with about an inch to spare.
The first night on the camp site in the field above the Applecross Inn was spent replacing a very blue clutch!
One heck of a place though and I still have the scars from some of the more severe midge bites that were collected during the night in the tent.
Licensing hours were a concept yet to reach the Inn at that time and once the clutch had been sorted, we spent many happy hours at the bar which was - and still may be for all I know - owned by a lovely family who'd escaped from something called "Wolverhampton" to take on the running of the Inn.
On the road in front of the inn, there were tents erected all along the shore and we drove all the way back over the pass on fumes as the petrol at the Applecross forecourt was a then-staggering £5 per gallon. Made it all the way out through Kyle and over the bridge though, then pitched camp near Portree on the Isle of Skye. The next evening when I tried to start the car to go down to Portree itself for an Indian takeaway, I found that the petrol had actually run out.
The cost of the Taxi along to Portree to get a can full from their Shell station was pretty steep and we worked out that buying fuel in Applecross would actually have been the cheaper option!

Great work on the Riley, but take a spare clutch kit and flywheel when you drive down to Wester Ross. Just in case you happen to need to stop and restart on that wretched hill.

Whatever you do though, don't work too hard, your health is worth more than even the most interesting and charismatic of Classic cars so take care of yourself first and foremost.

[arceye]

John, that road to Applecross is just something else isn't it, I'll admit to only having driven it in a modern up to now but have fond memories of being a passenger on family holidays in the seventies. I remember my Great Uncle in a Commer caravanette in front of us losing his gear on one of the bends, and of his door opening ready to jump My dad jumped out of our Bedford and managed to help get the gear and the van round. Theres guard rails now in places but its still pretty cool. The cost of fuel up here is bad enough, £146.9 a litre for derv today, but the West coast can be really bad in places.

So, I got the new bottom hose and fitted that, should have took a picture as its quite good stuff and can be routed quite tightly, no matter how hard I bent it I couldn't get it to kink.

The screen surround is finished though again will need a nice skim of filler to make good



And the door post is fixed back at a nice height, now good and firm ready for the A panel to be repaired and all the fiddly little return sections for the door shuts.



There are a lot of channel sections need making up as every internal return around the timber frame needs re doing, so it may be a while until the next update.