chrishawley
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Posts posted by chrishawley
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So much that could be said on this matter. Please regard any comments here as ‘my experience’ and not authoritative.
For ease of discussion I attach a schematic with the fixing points labelled 1 thru 6.
• AFAIK you didn’t have to weld the scuttle-to-chassis brackets at position #2. So position #2 is an initial guide. I don’t think you welded near #5 so that’s a guide for the rear. But these positions are not datums as the holes are oversize. To look right when finished the lips of the rear wheel arches have to have a symmetrical relationship with the wheels/tyres. So (assuming suspension all tickety boo) a vertical straight edge off both rear wheels assists in estimating if the body is centred.
•Are the scuttle support brackets welded in (position #1)? If not then it may be a case of trial fitting the tub, getting a position for the brackets and then removing the tub again to weld. Drilling the floor pan correctly at #1 can only really be done from underneath. I did it by trial fitting, marking up then removing tub to drill.
•If you have a standard fitting kit then as well as fasteners the will be rubber pads and ali spacers. But I’ve never found a convincing chapter-and-verse on the fitment of the rubbers and spacers. My best guess is: rubbers at #2, #5, #6 and the Ali spacers anywhere as required to take up gaps or persuade the tub into shape.
• The floor cross members (#3, #4) can be a nightmare. The steel pressings themselves may require welded revisions in order to fit. Then there's getting bolts to align (UNF 5/16. 3", pointed). If your crossmember sections have crush tubes already welded in place then in some ways that's easier: The hole in the floor pan itself can be estimated and cut wide (e.g. stepper drill), the position of the section is then dictated by the bolts and welded revisions made to fit in with those. Well worth checking in advance that the captive plates on the chassis at this point are present, free moving and with good threads.* Biggest mistake I’ve made is to view fitting the tub as an isolated procedure. Rather than provisionally/lighty fitting the tub and then fitting up bonnet and doors to establish the body fit as a whole. In future I’ll ensure good all round fit before committing the tub to a fixed position.
Lastly for now: Include the horseshoe (over transmission) as a part of a provisional fit for the tub. The horseshoe’s fitting between dash and floor has minimal wiggle room and helps to guide/confirm that the body is entered (as well as needing to just fit).
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Here's a Spit which is correct enough to be a guide.
It's two separate pieces: one for the heelboard, one for the deck.
But absent on many repro carpets is the thick plastic beading sewn in to the leading edge of the deck carpet and which is a push fit over the lip at the front of the deck. Without this, or a facsimile of it, it can look a mess.
The heelboard section on my GT6 annoyed me greatly because of the compromises needed to get it to fit (nip, tuck, glue). But since I put the seats in I've not seen it again (!). Hence happy.
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On 08/06/2022 at 20:01, Woody2000 said:
but not sure about the oil pump drive and dizzy
You may be the other side of this now, but just in case.
The basic procedures are set out in the ops manuals and Haynes so I won't repeat those. Add on points are: The 2000/2500 manual does not make it clear that the oil pump/dist. drive needs to be removed to extract the camshaft. Clearer in the GT6/Vitesse manual. Removing dist. and drive distrupts the ignition timing even if camshaft not being removed. So, put marks on body of dist. and its pedestal so it can be refitted in the same orientation. Note which direction rotor arm is pointing in (so that when all reassembled it points roughly the same). Undo pinch clamp and extract dist. Remove distributor pedestal (two bolts) noting the presence of gaskets and shims (if any, endfloat may beed to be checked on refitting). Note position of slot in face of the drive and that it is offset from centre. Extract drive (magnet on stick or similar). Refitting is reverse of above except that when dropping the drive back in it has to rotate to mesh with the teeth on the cam so has to be fed in 'wrong' to allow for it to be 'right' as it rotates into position.
That way there's a chance of preserving an approximate timing. But only if the crankshaft is not moved and that a new cam is going in in the same timing orientation (to the crank) as the one that's come out. So best to set engine to TDC on No.1 firing before starting the work and keep it there. But from what you've said there's no 100% evidence, thus far, that the camshaft timing is correct.
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Lengths of bits of string!!!! But heres a few thoughts:
• I did a respray on the wife's Copen last month. Very little correcting, filling or priming was required but it was nonethless £300 on materials and 40 hours work. So 'trade' that would have been £1500 for an easy job.
• In your locality you can expect there will be many small business and one-man-shows who do refinishing at reasonable rates. But the good ones don't advertise because they don't need to. Only way to find them is to ask around. But NEVER acceed to requests for money up front 'for materials'. That's a 'walk away' scenario.
• Refinishing a resto need careful planning. The most expensive respray is the one that has to be done twice. It is oh-so-easy to respray a car then find that the doors don't fit, or the bumpers don't align, or the screen won't go in etc etc etc or whatever. Trial fitting of everything is much to be recommended.
• How much of a respray? A 'doors shut' respray (i.e. just the outer, visible panels) is one thing. But if it includes inside of bonnet, boot area, reverse of boot lid, door returns, bulkhead, scuttle then costs escalate rapidly. For example spraying the inside of a bonnet on a Spitfire is considerably more difficult than spraying the outside.
But I guess that £2k is a realistic minimum budget. But that could easily expand depending on requirements.
PS When the body is fitted up could you share some photos?
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4-cyl engine. Excellent low milege condition. Ready to fit. 'Cept: Previous operative had brutally cross threaded spark plug #3. Once extracted, a new plug could not be inserted. On the off chance I tried an M14 x 1.25 tap to see if the threads would 'pick up'. Nope. Rather, the damaged thread just stipped off the wall.
So, what are the options in terms of repair and thread inserts? The head's on the engine and it would be nice not to have to remove it, but removal is perfectly possible if need be. All points of view would be appreciated. I'm reasonably conversant with helicoils (etc) but never had to do a spark plug before.
Don't mind forking out on good kit as much a needed.
Thanks in advance.
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2 hours ago, Chris A said:
seems to get brighter/more frequent as the revs/speed rise - up to a point over 50mph it seems to stop
......is that with the wire connected to the oil pressure switch? Or disconnected from it?
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Ah yes, a photo does does not necessarily give the full picture.
tubes: where the bolts on the brackets go through the chassis. The hole on the outer face and hole on the inner face has a little tube running between - fixed in place. Such that as the bracket is tightened up the inner face of the chassis does not just 'crush'. But could only be an issue if repairs had been made in this area - which they haven't - which is good.
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As above, but just to ask: On the upper pin of the damper have you got the correct dome cap under the nut? It helps the bush to keep its shape. Also, although the nut (or originally two plain nuts, locked) holds the assembly together it doesn't need to be particularyly tight. Relaxing the nut a bit may reduce 'muffin-ness' but that necessitates removing the unit from the car and using the compressor again.
Picking up on Mathew's point; I'm not quite fully convinced that all is ok with the rear wishbone bracket. From the 'photo it does look like it's not sitting square and the eye of the arm is not sitting centrally in the wings of the bracket. The eyes don't necessarily sit dead central in the brackets but the 'photo seems to suggest that the eye is tight up at the rear.
Was remedial welding required in the ares of either of the brackets? And were the crush tubes inside the chassis rail present and correct?
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Going back to the top of this thread: The answer is 5/8 UNF which is 18 tpi. Here's a photo of a Dolomite 1500 where there (original) connector is 3/8UNF (18 tpi, I checked) on both the engine side and the filter side. Anything that's (in this context) 16 tpi has to be 3/4 UNF (16 tpi in UNC would be comparatively tiny).
For questionable situations I suppose one could say 'if in doubt....measure'.
i've never had reason to think about this before. On the strength a pervious posting in 2016 I bough a job lot of NOS Unipart GFE442s which will (lierally!) be a lifetimes supply.
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It’s a long, looonngg, time since I owned a MkI so please treat any comments below as ‘thoughts’ rather than opinions.
For sure, the green light in the dash is (meant to be) the direction indicator warning light. It should pick up its feed from the third terminal of the flasher unit (the wire colour of which is unspecified on the wiring diagram). But PO has made it a common connection to the whites on the back of the ignition switch. But does what is now an ignition-switched twelve volt feed terminate to earth at the bulb or does it have a forward feed to something? For example; if PO has done an alternator conversion has he used this as the alternator charge light?
I’m a bit bamboozled by the modern relay. It’s a switchover relay with terminals 87 and 87a. As far as I can see from the photo it only has three wires going to it. For an SOR to function it would have five connections usually. Or could just have four if it were just being used as a make-break relay. But if only three I don’t see what it can be doing other than just being a passive conductor of current. If abused, it could well be faulty by now.
There would be sooo much to be said for removing that relay. But an added complication is then that the relay currently has purple wires connected to it. But AFAIK there were no purple wires on these looms other than PY to the horns. So that leaves a question about what has been modded. (Although the captive wires on the column switches often had colours that did not correspond to the colours of the wire to which there were connected).
How about the fuse box? On the bottom fuse I can see two red wires which would be the feed out to front and rear side lights. But I can’t see anything going in on the other side of the fuse, in particular an RedGreen coming from the master light switch. Is it floating free somewhere?
Lastly, as already mentioned, the voltage stabiliser. Some electronic VSs will burn out if not earthed. For the time being this could be removed just to exclude one more factor. Simply connect the two green cables to the green/light green one to bypass it. The effect will be that fuel can temp gauges will tend to read high but a new one can be popped in at any stage when the more major problems are sorted.
But, like I say, ‘thoughts, not opinions.
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15 hours ago, Neil Clark said:
What are the square black boxes etc on the wiring diagram between the headlights and the switch?
Little black boxes on the wiring diag. are bullet connectors. A 'fat' recentangle is double connector (two in, two out all common) and skinny recentangle is a single bullet connector. BCs are, of course, very common failure point.
Having the correct interconnections between master light switch and column has been mentioned above. But perhaps worth highlighting that the column switch recieves +ve power in twofold manner: once via the master switch and once via a fused connection commoned off the back of the ignition switch unfused live (brown).
Maybe worth checking the condition of the column switch. Can become quite corroded internally and not infrequently the soldered connections on the back are either broken or hanging on by a gnats, giving variable behaviour.
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Following from a previous thread: It just so happens I've been given some Mini front shocks so thought I might give them a try on them back of the GT6 which currently has bracket conversion but with standard 'Spitfire' shocks.
First: Could I get a reality check on some dimensions? Would I be right in thinking that a 'standard' shock has a closed-open range of (approx) 255 to 320mm? The Mini shocks I've got measure 215 to 325mm. So on that basis it's an inch and a half extra travel on upward deflection but no change where downward deflection is concerned. Have I got that right?
Second: The bushes in the eyes of Mini shocks are 3/8 inch. And the GT6 requires 1/2 inch. I can always get bespoke bush turned up if need be, but I wondered if there's a nifty or off the peg method to save me the effort. Any ideas?
(The only non-standard feature on my rear is 3/4 inch lowering block which corrects the height to about what it should be (about 610 mm ground to lip of wheel arch). But it's a new rebuild so I'm expecting some settling over time. )
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Just to embellish Clive's answer a bit:
If all has gone well then 95%, say, of the shine shoud be evident at the compounding stage leaving a polish with only a little work to do: a single application just to brighten the finish.
Similarly; the more any defects (nibs, orange peel, fisheyes, scracthing etc) are corrected at the wet'n'dry stage the less work the compound has to do. An ideal situation is where the flatting stage has yeilded a defect free, even, satin, finsh and then a single going over with compound will suffice.
The 'dose' of G3 or G3 is probably about half to one teaspoon per sq foot (ish)
Do let us know how you get on.
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I like Autoglym SRP: It's really a final polish but does have a very fine cutting action as well. But it's a big jump from 1500 or even 2000 grit wet'n'dry to a final polish. So to get a fair finish in a realistic amount of time an intermediate mopping step with G6 or G3 would be a usual thing to do. So, yup, G3 after the wet'n'dry.
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I'm mindful though that the final finishing of paint is a whole art in itself and every operator (pro and amateur alike) has 'what works for them' according to requirements, resources, budget etc etc. A mate of mine is an automotive painter knocking out several jobs a day and his standard process is:
1200 wet'n'dry by hand > G6 by mop > 3M Finesse by mop > Any wax by hand
I'd be interested ot know what other processes members use.
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Possibly 'Best Buy' would be 1kg of G3 at £15
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113803020298?epid=1228449864&hash=item1a7f30480a:g:A1YAAOSw5ZRdEK2M
G3 is a somewhat finer grade than G6 but still pukkah stuff. 1kg will do a whole car.
Beware cheapies claiming 'quantum nanotechnology infused with sustainable gravitational waves...etc' - likely to be false economy.
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Yup. Wood much too severe. I use:
• flats (not tips) of fingers for for general, light, correction
• foam block for faster work on wider areas (upcycled from an old foam kneeling pad cut to handy shapes/sizes)
• water-soaked cork block for ocassional 'severe' situations (e.g nibs. runs, sags)
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There is so, sooo, much that could be said on this topic and a wide range of practices according to experience and operator preferences. But to tackle a just a few points:
Electric polishers ('mops') are pretty much a standard requirement for getting a bright finish when refinishing. But an essential feature is that the tool must be powerful enough not to stall on the worked surface or burning results. A professional Rupes polisher is £300 - £500 and a £27 tool may not perform up to this level.
While 1200, 1500, 2000 (etc) grit abrasive discs can be used (with a suitable soft interface pad) on a mop, this is precarious without considerble experience. Safer to stick with hand flatting and not risk sanding through to primer (or basecoat, if applicable). Avoidance of scoring marks when flatting involves: absolute cleanliness, cicular motion, constantly soaking-wet paper and rinsing the paper in a bucket of very soapy water every thirty seconds.
Having flatted to the desired degree then comes mopping. First step is a flat, hard, foam pad with a fairly severe-cutting compund. The advertising blurb for the polisher you've chosen rather sidesteps the fact that a litre of cutting compound will cost about as much as the tool. Farecla G6 is a widely accepted standard. Starting tips for cutting include: liberal application of compound to the work (not the pad), working on limited areas at a time (e.g 1 sq foot), mop head to be continually rewetted by dunking in fresh clean water then spinning off and consistent moderate pressure into the work.
The finish can then be titivated using a fine grade compound (such as Farecla G10 or 3M Finesse but more ££s) on a soft mop; but quite often the finish with G6 wil be nice enough to proceed directy to hand finishing with one's favorite wax polish.
2-pack cuts and polishes best while still soft (e.g. 24 - 48 hours after application). Older, fully hardened, paint is more challenging and harder work.
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The door strap is really important. If it lets go (as it's on the very cusp of doing) a freely swinging door can result in a lot of secondary damage (as well as being unsafe).
It's been subject to prior bodgery: There's evidence of prior use of a welder and there is recent paint on the edges of the ripped metal (i.e it's received paint with the failure already evident). Close inspection of the photo show not only rust crawling up behind the upper hinge plate but also a crack extending down behind the lower plate (again with paint in the crack). All repairable - but intricate and time consuming and potentially £££s if not DIY.
But before embarking on repairs I'd have a serious look at the front seam (door skin lip to door frame). It looks markedly decayed, but has been painted nonetheless. It may be that more general repair is needed or to source a door in better condition (do you have a paint code or paint name for the current colour of the car?)
On an easier note: Have you sorted the oil leak? If not, have you excluded a leak from crankshaft seal on the timing chain cover? Usually evident after a hot run and a teardrop may be visble, as the car cools, which may either drip to the ground or track around the sump gasket.
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On 17/05/2022 at 18:41, Mike said:
It won’t win.
it can’t win.
I had a comparable situation this week: Square-head plug with the 7/16th square rounded off to something indeterminate. Although super-tight, the real problem was gaining a purchase.
Cutting a long story short; I got lucky with a 12mm (bi-hex) ring end of a combination spanner. With a couple of stout hammer blows it was possible to drive the 12mm ring right to the base of what remained of the square head. A steel tube slid over the spanner then provided the degree of leverage required.
Partly luck here: had the plug been any less mullered the 12mm ring wouldn't have gone on at all; had it been any more mullered then it'd been too loose a fit.
Poss worth a try if the only other alternative is having to remove the sump.
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Comparing 185/60 r13 (say) 155/80/ r13 that's about a 5% reduction in rolling radius; so what was for example 4000rpm will now be 4200. The body of the car would be lowered by about half an inch in relation to the ground.
But if the underlying concern is something unstable about the rear suspension there may be matters to consider other than tyres. For example if 'twitch' at the rear takes the form of 'bunnyhopping' or 'sidestepping' then examination of the toe-in would be warranted. Which would be either a DIY job or a laser alignment jod depending on one's resources, skills, wallet and opinion.
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Ditto all of the above.
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I've had both at one time or another. The FG one had the virtue of being cheap and kept the car on the road against a limited budget. But that was the only virtue.
The worst aspect of FG bonnet was that, lacking the heft and relative rigidity of the steel one, it was prone to flex and lift at speed. Sure, this could apply equally well to a steel bonnet if fitted poorly, but FG was particularly problematic.
The general fit was not too bad at all, but the appearance was not nice: The FG always looked like what it was - the economy option. For example; in order to have louvres for the scuttle air intake and for the bonnet latches it's DIY fretwork which leaves coarse cut egdes.
And perhaps to take into account the greater challenges in painting fibreglass as compare to steel. For example; cracks in the gelcoat or inadvertently sanding through the gelcoat requiring significant expertise to correct.
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Just wondering which aspects of the procedure you need extra information on. If one takes sections 3.122 to 3.126 in conjunction with 4.121 to 4.126 (of the 512947 op.s manual) are those sufficiently comprehensive? Or am I missing what's missing?
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12 hours ago, Pdv said:
Fuel pump working fine as checked fuel at the pipe entering the carburettor and fresh fuel lnto carburettor float chamber.
Did that include direct observation of the fuel level in the float chamber? i.e float chamber reomved for inspection?
I'd be guessing that an uppermost cause of non-start after work on fuel lines is an obstructed needle valve in the carb due to general detritus or rubber shards. Easy diagnosis but does involve removal of carb and partial disassembly. If carb has not been apart in years then a new float chamber gasket will be needed on reassembly.
Does throttle air valve fall with a nice click on to the bridge? If not, and the top cover has been removed recently and all is clean, slacken the four retaininng screws and gradually and sequentially retighten, repeatedly checking for free fall of the valve.
Spitfire 1500. Temperature gradient across radiator. How much?
in Cooling System
Posted
Current efforts are to investigate poor running problems when hot. Spit 1500 mostly standard but has both mechanical and electronic ignitions (switchable) and Dolomite 1300 radiator.
But to ask about just a specific aspect for now: At a guessimate, how hot should the bottom rad hose be when compared to the top? Ambient temp was 30 degrees today but my impression that the 'out' from the rad wasn't very much less hot than the 'in'. Don't have an IR thermometer so can't be more specific than that. Let's say that the bottom was 'fresh-cup-of -tea hot'. So should I be suspecting that the rad is not clearing very much heat?
Tommorrow I'll replace the water pump and viscous coupling as I know the VC is well-iffy in any case. But it would be halpful, or even helpful, to have a clue of what is a 'normal' temp at te bottom of a rad.
Thnx in advance.