Practically Classics Forum

Good to see plenty of progress. Taking the doors back to bare metal was definitely the right move. I had to take my Dolomite back to bare metal and I uncovered excessive filler on sound metal all because of a few dents that could've easily been pushed out.

These dents won't push out so easily because of the creases, there was still no need for the amount of filler. It's a bit scary doing it too, you don't know what you're going to find! On the other side I know the doors are in worse condition on the bottom edges but there's none of the microblistering so maybe they'll be nice and solid and free of filler... we shall see.

I want to get this side done before I brave the other side, I'll feel a lot happier when all the little arch patches are finished and the paint is on everything this side, that'll be a big milestone for me with this car.

Today I'm feeling much better and that meant some Princess time again. Mike was volunteered to hold the doors while I bolted them on, it's a horrible job to try and do solo and I'm grateful for the help. That was after the sill filler work was finished and given a coat of top colour so I could get the doors on. Getting the front door aligned was surprisingly easy and it now lines up and shuts much better that it ever has in my ownership. I got enough primer on both doors to see what I'm working with and some filler work started. The rear door needs the arch-door gap tweaking at the bottom corner as the repair is ever so slightly wrong and the door-sill gap isn't quite as even as I wanted it, but not bad for a first attempt at this sort of work and satisfactory enough for me to work with it. The repair is going to need much less filler than I expected it to which is quite rewarding.


Rather than cover both doors with filler as was previously done I've just focused on the areas that need it which are much smaller than previous restoration would suggest. It's nice to see the swage line showing through crisply now for the whole side of this car. I've done what I can with the lower section of the front door to line it up with the new sill better, it will need some filler as the old patch repairs have warped things because of the way they welded them on. Other than that, it's not too shabby really.


I couldn't hang around to do more filler and paint today. I'm just happy to have the doors back on the car. Getting the bodywork straight on this side is going to be fairly easy now, it won't be perfect, it will just be solid and tidy. Perfection can come later.

All good stuff

Thank you!

Today is the day I finally finished all the welding on the passenger side of the car that needs doing. Feels good to have reached this point even with the filler work and paint ahead of me. The wing bottom I chopped off was an historic repair which needed to be repaired so I repaired it and put it back where I chopped it off.


The rear arch repair was trickier. I only really have a hammer and a vice for shaping panels and no stretcher/shrinker or fancy tools. I wanted to do it in one piece if I could and did manage that. The patch moved as I was tacking it in so it's not as flush as I'd hoped but not far off. After realigning the rear door the panel gaps aren't too bad and I don't need to reweld the bottom corner for an acceptable fit now.


I repaired the inner arch before the outer arch patch went on. I did take the wheel off to do that repair, access wasn't great otherwise. Before you say it, I know that arch edge looks bad, that's because it's not finished. I need to fold the whole arch lip under so it clears the tyres I need to put on the Lotus alloys. The arch return isn't in great condition and I'd rather do this than than spoil a repair panel.


Now there's just a lot of patient filling and sanding to do so all of this work is made presentable before the top coat of paint can go on, something I had no time to do today. I checked the car over to see where the key areas were that I needed to focus on next and with the exception of the rear panel (which is my next target because it's less fiddly and more fun) there's only a few small bits needed on the driver's side of the car. The driver's front door needs quite a lot of work, the corner is made entirely of gaffa tape and has been for a while, it's also rotted out part of the bottom of the door skin so it'll be a similar repair as that on the rear passenger door I expect.


The rear driver's door isn't as bad as I remembered it. This panel still isn't great, it's done the same thing as the back door on the other side so it'll be a good amount of work to put right. I'd forgotten that I'd already repaired the sill-arch area and got top coat on before it went outside, I just didn't finish the filling work so I'll revisit that.


The rear of the driver's side arch needs a blanking plate for the old bumper hole and a small patch letting in at the bottom of the arch, these are both really easy jobs. This panel is a bit of a state too, it needs old paint and probably filler taking out of it to sort it all out.



The bodywork is nearly sorted and I'm really happy about that, it doesn't feel so insurmountable a project as it did earlier in the year. My brother put a misleading decal on the boot lid as motivation.

I have no history for a cambelt change with the Rover, as previously mentioned, and it has done many, many miles.  I therefore determined that while I had the pennies to do it I really ought to and Mike and I set to this weekend to do just that.  I'd ordered a Gates timing belt and tensioner on the recommendation of a friend that rebuilds K Series engines, a Draper cam locking tool, a waterpump and a thermostat (neither of which I can remember the brand of) and aforementioned friend sent me two replacement inlet manifold gaskets.  I've never done this job before so I was entrusting most of it to Mike as he has, on the MG TF no less so this should be much easier to do given that access is better on the 400.

First job was dropping the coolant out, something that I'm getting to be a dab hand at given how many times I've done this to flush the system.  Easiest location I've found is the bottom hose where it joins the rail under the radiator.


Then the expansion bottle needs removing and the power steering reservoir moving out of the way but not removing from the car (I want to change the fluid at some point, I just don't have any in stock).  The hoses that attach to the reservoir are gungy and have been since I got the car, the back of the power steering pump is also gungy.  I don't know if this is down to a leak or something historic that's since been fixed so this was mostly cleaned up to see what new appears.


Next was to remove the cam cover to see what we'd got.  No obvious markings on the belt in this position which we would later learn is a Gates belt, so it's had a timing belt at least once in its life which is something.


The car was jacked up, the driver's side front wheel removed, the partial undertray partially unfastened from the car and then the auxilliary belts were removed.  The power steering belt looked fairly new with minimal wear.


The alternator belt, however, was in very poor condition.  I will be replacing this when I next get paid.


With the lower cambelt cover removed you can see and get access to the crank pulley.  It's not too messy under here, there's some oil on the sump but it's unclear if it's coming from a historic leak further up or is the sump seal itself.


Before removing the old belt by cutting through it, the camshafts were correctly positioned and the locking tool applied.


New and old cambelts, the new one is the darker one.  The belt didn't have any obvious damage other than the teeth being worn compared to the new one so it likely still had some life in it.  I really wish I knew when it was done so I could have said whether or not it was due.


Inlet manifold next which had started leaking again.  The reason for it leaking was quite simply that the gasket that was bought new from Rimmers last year had shrunk and was no longer sealing properly.  This would explain a few minor issues the car was having that I could never really pinpoint.




A new one was fitted which is much more snug.


Before that could go back on the car there were some other items to attend to.  We got the old tensioner off and found it had some surface rust and made a shushing noise on rotation very similar to the one I kept hearing when driving the car and could never pinpoint.


The old waterpump seemed in good fettle.  We fitted the new one because I'd bought it and it seems to be common practice to fit a new pump when you do the cambelt.


The thermostat was also changed.  This looks to be the original thermostat for the car and has no jiggle pin like the new one.  Also, the seal on it was deformed (and I have suspected a leak from this area for a while), one side was covered in K-Seal glitter and one side was just a bit gungy.  It's good to know this is now replaced really.




As we carried on with the job it was getting darker and later and eventually colder.

Before fitting the new cambelt, the waterpump was put on with its new O ring and a bit of sealant.


The tensioner was also fitted, just not fully tightened so we could adjust it properly.  The spring was particularly fiddly and difficult to locate, an important component for the manual tensioner as fitted to this car.




With a slight jiggle of things Mike got the belt around the crank pulley and all was running quite smoothly.


Now that everything on the cambelt side was located, the tensioner was fully tightened and everything checked as much as it could be.  We then moved on to the back of the engine to refit the thermostat and housing.  You can see where the inlet manifold has been leaking too.  The thermostat housing is the black-ish lump at the end of the rusty coolant pipe.


The inlet manifold was cleaned of as much of the gunge as it could be, the mating surfaces of it and the block thoroughly cleaned and after this picture was taken, a smear of suitable sealant used over the green gasket to hopefully prevent it from leaking again.


With everything buttoned up, new plain water put in and then we attempted to start the car.  Then the key fob decided it didn't want to work which these are prone to whenever the battery is disconnected.  Random pressing of the keyfob buttons eventually saw it spring back to life and we could start the car.  A little bit of cranking to get a full head of fuel and then... it ran.  No drama, no fuss.  Much quieter than before with some of the unidentifiable little noises now gone which makes me think something on the cambelt side of things was on the way out.  Then I heard what seemed like a ticking, which steadily became a dripping and then started to just be water pouring out of the thermostat housing.

I was not a happy bunny about that.  Still, the important job was done and Mike has volunteered to remove the thermostat housing and coolant pipe, clean it all up and refit it so that it seals properly and keeps the water in.  Happy that the dangerous bit went smoothly enough, the car was given a wash which it was due for and since Mike was doing the carpets in the Supra, I got him to do my boot carpet too which came up fairly well.


Best of all, I managed to get the roof aerial to go from this, where it's been stuck for the past year with me regularly dosing it with WD40...


...to this!


It's still a bit stiff to operate but getting better with use.  Having the aerial retractable means I don't have to fit the new one I bought which, if I'm honest, is a massive relief as I as dreading that job.  That's your lot for this Rover update, I'll let you all know when it's watertight and I'm using it again.

All good stuff, but you need to stop using WD40 as a penetrating oil or lubricant - it isn't very good at either job. It's best as a Water Dispersant (that's what the WD stands for) but it dries out and leaves a sticky residue over time, and this can end up making things worse in some instances - such as aerials, if you use it on an electric aerial for example it can make it work initially, then when it dries out it will make it even more sticky and stiff. Use an oil for a lubricant - I recommend GT40 if you like spraying oil on things (as I do!)

Cheers

I've heard this about WD40 and other penetrating oils (I tend to use Plus Gas for more stubborn stuff) but never encountered the problem. The aerial works much better now so I'm quite happy with it.

---

Minor issues after everything was buttoned together in that the thermostat housing was leaking. That meant removing it so Mike repainted the scabby coolant pipe and degreased the plastic thermostat housing. It's a bit of a fiddle to refit.


Once refitted the housing leaked again so it had to come off, be resealed and put back on the car. This time it didn't leak, happily, and the car gets up to temperature quickly enough. Heaters are lovely and hot too. It's another job that's not so easy, especially getting the bolt in that goes through the housing and dipstick holder into the block.


All was good, we ran the car up to temperature, made sure there were no air locks anywhere and no leaks and then I took it for a drive around the block. Drove incredibly smoothly which was unexpected. Put the car away for the night ready to use it tomorrow. Picked up my new spark leads to replace the broken ones (that were fairly new, but of rubbish quality even though I didn't pay for rubbish quality) and the alternator belt while out in the Applause. Got the new leads fitted, turned the key and was greeted with a fountain of fuel in the engine bay.

Turns out that when the fuel rail was plugged back in the O ring got snagged. Why it chose to leak today and not yesterday I can't guess, but this is what came off.


Luckily, my brother had the injectors from a breaker Picasso which had identical O rings and that solved the problem for free. Now all the fluids stay where they should, the car runs and drives smoothly and I'm looking forward to the next few small jobs to get things in even better shape. It's looking much smarter under the bonnet and as things have been de-grimed it's a lot nicer to work under there.



Next up is going to be an oil change and putting bio-degreaser through the coolant to get the last of the grime out before coolant goes in. Once I manage to get the new front strut split down properly I can get those on, I've got a backbox to go on too so that I can replace the blowing one. Then I want to get a new pair of tyres to match the front and a new catalytic converter once I know the inlet manifold gasket is doing its job properly so I don't poison a new catalytic converter. It's all niggly service things now which is nice, and quite a bit of cosmetic stuff to make it as nice as I want it to be.

vulgalour wrote:I've heard this about WD40 and other penetrating oils (I tend to use Plus Gas for more stubborn stuff) but never encountered the problem. The aerial works much better now so I'm quite happy with it.

You say "other" penetrating oils - I say again, WD40 isn't a penetrating oil.

You may be happy with the aerial now, but in a few months it will have dried out and left a sticky residue which will more than likely leave the aerial working less well (i.e. less smoothly) than if you'd used nothing. You may not have encountered this problem before, but many of us have, frequently. If you want it to stay working nicely, use an oil/grease product like GT40. The ingrediants of WD40 include some sort of fish-oil based product, which goes sticky and tacky over time, you need something that includes normal mineral lubricating oils.