Practically Classics Forum

Thought I would start a long term project blog on the Riley. It came to me in the spring this year (2011)

Left in a leaky council garage for umpteen years with no ventilation has near done for it, though on the upside it had been left on Jacks and the chassis is solid, running gear free and the car is at least complete although the engine was stuck solid.

I have done a little since then but not a lot due to trying to get the mini I had to evict from the garage to accomodate it finished outside over the summer. Hopefully things will start to progress soon and I will update as and when I can.





There was a roof on there before the trailer got to 30 MPH



I'll leave it at that for now as the pictures seem to be missing a load from the right hand side when uploading from photobucket, so advice on posting photos much welcomed

Good man!

I look forward VERY MUCH to watching this resto unfold, as I absolutely LOVE these cars, I'd like to have one some day.

If you get stuck for parts, let me know, as the local vintage club I'm in has a few major Riley boffins, and one of them runs a business supplying spares, often getting them re-manufactured when needed.

Re. your photos - go into your profile and change your "theme" from default to Subsilver2 and the whole of the photo will show. However, you could use a slightly smaller resolution when you take the pictures, as even with Subsilver2 the photos are very large and I'm having to scroll sideways to see the whole thing. Or just re-size them in Photobucket of course.

You're a good, good man, keep up the work and LOTS of pics please.

Cheers mate!

Cheers Luxo, I'll have a play in photobucket later when it gets too dark and cold to do anything better.

So with a bit of luck I'll be able to bring it up to where we are now (not very far) in glorious technicolour detail

Sussed it now, will add more later this evening, Thanks again.

O.K, in the capacious boot we have... amongst other things a nice old tin of GUNK, Easy Start, and a full tin of British Leyland WD40, things are looking up. Notice also the two original Jacks that had been holding the front end off the ground for years and still worked perfectly.





On the downside on the drivers side the A pillar timber has totally gone as has most of the metal, the main central door pillar that hinges both front and rear door has lost its mount at the bottom meaning this side of the structure is about an inch low. As will have been seen in an earlier photo the timber sill has let go and dropped the steel sill (running boards had been deleted for this model year 1954)

The inside is also looking just a little tired but again at least is complete

Well, you've certainly got your work cut out there, but he who dares! I look forward to seeing this progress, even if it will be a few years down the line. At least it's all there which is always a bonus. GOOD LUCK!

I looked at that and thought "It don't look too bad", then common sense kicked in and I thought "I hope that guys got a few kilos of welding wire and some big cylinders"

Braver than me, but respect for taking it on

Cheers chaps,

Has to be a case of eternal optimist going on,

Anyway, Mini evicted into the never ending rain and Riley ensconsed in garage, it took several weeks to dry out....

Then being relieved of some of its bits, though storage is a problem given size of wings etc so I think its going to be a case of an area at a time.



The garage had been quite tidy not long before that photo

Some fresh timber let in along with a little new metal, a new bracket for the bottom of the center door post and some judicious use of a trolley jack sees the drivers side sat back at the right hight. I refabricated the front body mount from thicker than original stuff, the same goes for the lower half of the inner panel it meets.




My rustic joinery work will be covered with panels, and as well as the traditional nailing on of the individual panels I will also be joining them together with a little weld just to gain some extra strength.

That done the weather dried up and I have thrown all my spare time at the little mini except for getting a bit of a look at the engine.

Despite the mini taking another set back, and thanks to the awful weather and early dark I've been able to start a bit more on the Riley. Putting the 16 year old son in charge of mini engine removal in the aformentioned wet and wind has also helped a bit

Anyway, despite several months of various concoctions of wd40, diesel, engine oil etc being added to the bores, attempts at rocking the rear wheels back and forth while in gear and the back end jacked up, despite jumping on the cranking handle and swearing at the block, and despite several contemplative ciggies staring at the thing in an effort to free it with mind over matter the engine has stood firm and refused to budge from its long time resting position.

So, as the front end is off the car its a good time to see if the engine shows promise, or if it will need to be pulled which may as well happen while I'm at this stage.

So off with the head, this is actually a bit of a pain, with ancillaries off and with all the head bolts undone the head refuses to go anywhere above a couple of mm up from the block. The reason for this is the two hot spot tubes running through the engine block from exhaust manifold to inlet manifold, all designed to warm the engine up quickly and apparently more harm than good.

With inlet and exhaust manifold off ( almost every exhaust stud snapped in process) the tubes come out with the exhaust manifold and the head comes off.



Call me rough if you wish, but with nothing to lose a whittled down fence post fits down the bores, a couple of light taps to each piston crown sees a fraction of movement on the crank handle, another couple and the thing frees up.

The two holes you see in the side of the block at the centre are the hot spot tube passages.



The bores are good with no wear, pistons are standard size and all feels well, Im a little concerned about some deterioration around the water passages of the block but hopefull theres enough good meat left to get a good seal with the gasket. I think some Hylomar blue may help with that.....

So, the plan is to re-assemble and try it, if it seems o.k then I'll see how it goes. The odd head stud is due to the head studs sitting in the water ways, which stuffed the threads in the block at that one so I resorted to a helicoil.

A new old stock head gasket is on its way from Ebay, for half of the £82.50 plus vat quoted elsewhere

Snapped exhaust manifold studs are also out of the head, I welded nuts on them and the heat freed them up enough to be undone, Hot spot tubes have been removed from the manifold and the manifold plugged at these points as they serve no purpose in these days of antifreeze and are just a legacy from the engine design of the 1920's and are reckoned to cause overheating of the back two cylinders.

So when the head gasket gets here we'll see how it goes...fingers crossed.