That was a year that was..

[Bfg]

On 15/06/2021 at 21:53, Badwolf said:

On a different thread about work done on cars, I have just posted the question...who do you trust the do the work correctly?  Pete, I think you have an answer in your neck of the woods. They may be expensive/reasonable/cheap, but it sounds like they are good and that you will be satisfied. If so, it will be a brilliant outcome for you and a great recommendation for the lads at M&T. I'm pleased for you.

M&T are 170 miles away from me. They're in Wolverhampton and as you know I'm in Ipswich, Suffolk ..just down the road from your good self.

Mark is very accommodating to my  particular  peculiar needs.  However, I also try to keep a tight reign on the final bill, firstly by listening carefully to what's being said and then by summing up whether I need them to do any particular job or not. 

As an example ;  I wanted TR6 rear-deck body-mounts (on the step, just behind the seats) added to 4A chassis.  Mark advised that the underside of the TR6 body also has extra body mountings brackets (similar to those from the sills) and so all-together my having those two extra mounts were going to add up to another big chunk of money.  After consideration I've decided to have the mounting brackets fitted to the chassis ..but not to have the body modified with those surprisingly expensive TR6 brackets. This decision also saves the labour cost of M&T fitting those brackets and their locally re-painting those areas.  

Why should I want those mounts anyway ?  ..because if I fit a roll-over bar then I'll want to land the RO-bar onto the chassis and not just onto the body tub.  If, and that is still an "if" because I don't know for certain I'll fit a RO-bar, then I can simply insert appropriate packing above the body mount and then sandwich the body's rear-deck between the chassis mount and the RO-bar.  This way I get what I want but save £-hundreds in additional cost.  

Do I trust they do their work correctly ?  Well yes, literally with my life !  Once the chassis swap is done - I'll be driving the car from their premises and five minutes later I'll be on a very busy stretch of the West Midlands M6 for the 170 mile return trip.  Tbh., I'll be pretty pissed off if the car is the cause of an accident, or if I have issues with what's been done ..so the car has to go back.

Pete.

[Bfg]

A quick pictorial update from Mark today ; 

   

             

^ Parts solvent cleaned and jet washed. New nylocks and bolts are being used where Mark thinks best.  You and I might have cleaned the old ones up on a wire-wheel but replacing them is probably better value with a commercial operation. 

    

^ The bottom T-shirt being drilled, to help avoid a big puddle of water sitting in there, now that those plates have end upturns on them.

   

^ Like the 4A's tunnel-bridge, the bottoms of the rear diff support bridge were temporarily cut short ..so the 5.3mm thick vertical web plate used could pass uninterrupted along the rear chassis legs.  Those pieces have now been reinstated and the bottom flanges of the diff bridge have been closed in as box section.  I specifically asked for it to wrapped under the chassis rail, which M&T have kindly done for me. They have of course been drilled for drainage through their bottom corner.  The closed in box section rear diff-bridge together with a final corner gusset.

^ M&T skilled craftsman at work.  He's adding TR6 type body mounts onto the diff bridge / rear suspension's spring turret. I wanted these because I had ideas of fit a roll-over bar, and if so - then I very much prefer to tie that bar into the chassis. There's not much opportunity to do that with the standard TR4A chassis, which doesn't have these brackets.

   

^ aside from the top T-shirt the welding is now all done. The bare metal primed and the edges seam sealed.  I'm very pleased with their work. 

^ I supplied the paint and agreed a price with Mark to roll it on. I might add that their preferred way would be to spend more time prepping the chassis for paint and then spray-applying two-pack in satin-black ..for a very durable show-car finish.   Alas, I have to be very watchful of the final cost and for a road car., I'm very happy with a hand painted / rolled finish.  I asked for this paint to be applied as thin as practical, and despite doing so - he's done a great job in achieving an even covering. Credit to Mark., it's neater than I might have hoped for.  Hopefully the cooler temperatures after last night's rain helped with the working times.  

Oh yes, I am aware that semi-satin black is standard Triumph, but I wanted silver because my tired old eyes can then better see if anything is amiss ..fastenings working loose, reoccurrence of rust, &/or oil leaks, etc.  Boat and caravan / trailer chassis are very often bright galvanised or silver painted ..but car manufacturer usually prefer not to highlight the fact that their cars leaked as 'original' direct from the factory.  Any who frown might like to reflect on Triumph's works race TR4 chassis, which was I believe painted brilliant white, as indeed it seems TR Enterprises TR4 FIA Race car was < here >. 

Once the paint on this side of the chassis has gone hard, then the chassis will of course be flipped for the top faces likewise painted.  Thereafter mechanical reassembly commences.   

I'm well pleased,

Pete.

 

[Bordfunker]

Pete, that is full on weld porn there!

Looks like it should be a hell of a lot stronger than standard.

Karl

[Colin Lindsay]

17 hours ago, Bfg said:

Oh yes, I am aware that semi-satin black is standard Triumph, but I wanted silver because my tired old eyes can then better see if anything is amiss ..fastenings working loose, reoccurrence of rust, &/or oil leaks, etc.  Boat and caravan / trailer chassis are very often bright galvanised or silver painted ..but car manufacturer usually prefer not to highlight the fact that their cars leaked as 'original' direct from the factory.  Any who frown might like to reflect on Triumph's works race TR4 chassis, which was I believe painted brilliant white, as indeed it seems TR Enterprises TR4 FIA Race car was < here >. 

The first GT6 were painted white in order to show up stress cracks and fractures more easily. 

[Bfg]

Thanks Colin I didn't know that.  bit worrying really as you'd hope the development and testing was done before they produced the cars. !

 

Latest update  from Mark this afternoon showing the chassis upturned and painted, the threaded holes tapped clean and the new body mounting kit laid out. 

Looking really good . . .

Pete

 

[Peter Truman]

Job well done good to start a new life with a good  foundation, enjoy

[Bfg]

Thanks.  The ETA's not been advised, but according to some a chassis swap can be done in a weekend.  The body shell's LH sill is to be replaced once the body is on this chassis so the door gap can be better set. And I've asked them to remove the hump over the differential.  Mark mentioned that the gearbox rebuild has happened and didn't say anything out of the ordinary was found, so no delay there as far as I know. Hopefully they've just had to replace the layshaft bearings, etc, and it will be good to go for another fifty years..  There's no other tasks of a major nature, as although the road springs will be replaced ..that's just a matter of substituting the old for less tired ones during reassembly. Likewise with brake pipes and that sort of thing. Wheel studs are also to be replaced.  But I hope it's a fun ride for them now. 

Pete.

[Badwolf]

Pete - This is looking really good. I am really pleased especially after your previous setbacks.

Which paint did you go with in the end?

[Bfg]

Thanks all.. 

^  I stuck with POR-15 which I've been happy with in the past, and as applied to the foot well of this car.  Although that suffered from silicon contamination it applied well over old paint and the primer already in the car.   Seems like POR-15 is a Marmite like product. 

 

Katie, as bought, shook through her steering above 55mph.  My friend Rich who gave me a lift to collect the car was surprised when I joined the A14 dual-carriageway that I slowed down to let a lorry pass.  That's because I was concerned a wheel was falling off !   I stopped and checked that was not the case and thereafter assumed the wire wheels were way out of balance. This supposition being reinforced by the lack of balancing weights on the rims. I suspect this was because there were rubber white-wall-tyre embellishers sandwiched between the rim & the tyre and so clip-on balance weights couldn't be fitted.  

I subsequently removed the white-wall embellishment, and also checked and coppaslipped each wheel's fitting on its hub.  Because three of the five (inc the spare wheel) had 27 year old tyres fitted, and because I want pressed steel wheels - I wasn't going to spend money on having those balanced.  I did try swapping the wheels on their axles, front to back, and that very slightly lessened the shake through the steering wheel but still they shaked n' rattled the whole car ..and me, all the way to Wolverhampton.  

The TR4 / 4A wire wheels are 4-1/2J but standard TR2 - 4A pressed-steel wheels were 4J.   I bought a set of four pressed-steel-wheels, believing they were 4 1/2J's off a TR250 / TR5, but wherever that thought came from ..I was mistaken - I had bought a set of 4J's.  I emphasis that this was not the seller's fault, it was my own. oops .  I only discovered it - after I had removed their old tyres. 

 

In the meantime., M&T Classics had, as I asked, swapped out the cut-short wheel-studs in my car's hubs for standard length studs. 

^ Standard studs are too long for wire wheels, because the wire-wheel's inner hub are held away from sitting down onto the male-conical splined adapter. For the wheel to rest on the end of too long studs would be very dangerous.  The studs on Katie  had been cut short, several of them by too much ..Also not good.

I'd heard that wheel spacers can be used inbetween the half-shaft hub and the wire-wheel adapters. Mark very kindly tried this for me . . .

^ Things loosely assembled with a 6mm (1/4") spacer.  If the wire wheel's inner hub now clears those studs - then using the wire wheels is fine and will be safe.  Handy to get us back from Wolverhampton. 

However, as my preference is for pressed steel wheels, that would be a temporary fix.  Although my wire-wheels appear to be in good order - it didn't make sense to have new tyres fitted to them (and to have those balanced) where I'll be changing them. 

While weighing up my options, of the wires with spacers or the (..not 4-1/2J / TR5 ) wheels I'd mistakenly bought ..and having those blasted and painted - I spotted that Jim Lowry had a set of pressed steel wheels for a TR4.  Although also 4j x 15., they appeared to be straight and cosmetically 'tidy'.  Jim's price was very fair, with their cost (for the set of five) being much the same as I could have a set of wheels blasted and painted for.

Yesterday I drove down to Chelmsford to buy and collect them. Their condition is fine for my purpose of having a nice driver rather than show car. . .

^ the four wheels appear to have been painted and clear lacquered, and were clearly very nice when fitted, but have minor blemishes from balance weights having been clipped onto / removed from the rims.  I'll touch-in those places, as much as anything to hopefully prevent their chipped clear lacquer from flaking. The fifth wheel is likewise in silver but hadn't been clear lacquered. It's suffering from a few scrapes and some surface rust particularly on its inside ..perhaps cosmetic damage from tools rattling around in it, in the boot.  Again I'll tidy that up before having its tyre fitted. 

I'd bought three new tyres, as I hoped to re-use two off the wire wheels, but that's not convenient now the car's up in Wolverhampton.  Today I've ordered two more, so by the end of this week I hope to have a full set of round and balanced  wheels to replace the wires.

As an aside, Jim very kindly showed me some of his own cars .. and we had a great time chatting about each (..for 2-1/2 hours !).  Some of his car sales have been questioned / criticized by contributors of the TR forum, but he is in fact a really nice chap and comes across as being very conscientious in retaining, as far as possible, each car's original parts, their history (..whatever that may be) and patina.  The cars I saw (He's presently using a TR2, which I didn't see, but he otherwise showed me late 1950, early 60's MG's including a twin-cam MGA presently being worked on, and a Lotus Elite) each appear to have been rebuilt ..with an historic FIA scrutineer's eye to putting things back together properly / sorted ..rather than to glitzy or showroom standards.  In short, they seemed to be excellent cars to use and enjoy - as they had been designed to be used.  It was great to meet him and have a really enjoyable conversation.

Cheers, Pete.

 

[Bfg]

On 11/06/2021 at 12:14, Bfg said:

Further updates from M&T Classics, Wolverhampton. . .

Sent to me on Saturday, which was followed up by a very positive phone conversation to say what he'd seen and reflections on the general condition

. . .  Body off

^ chassis and mechanicals now accessible for inspection and further dismantling

^ This is the area of rear outrigger / diff & damper mounting bridge, I clean off from underneath, which more clearly shows the cracks I could see.  There may be something obscure about my spraying zinc/cold galvanising paint on this, but even for a short while I couldn't leave bare metal showing.

^ Body mounting washers &/or rubbers were missing and the body tub was chafing against the chassis in several places. Most would have just caused annoying rattles and squeaks, but this is the rear suspension spring turret.  In the bottom-right of the photo you can see a groove worn mostly through that spring cup by the rear inner-wing's flange.  Before very long that spring-cup would have cracked through. 

^ This is one of the differential's mounting studs pulling out of the bridge (which also serves as the rear suspension spring turret).   I had seen this from under the car but, with restricted access, all I could see was weld splatter over weld splatter ..which I just knew would not have penetrated the metal to hold the pin secure.   My Tr4 engine has just 105bhp and 128 ft.lb of torque (on a good day) ..which is considerably less than a tuned Tr5 or Tr6, but still.. just the torque through the drive-train, pulling and twisting at these pins, cause their mountings to crack and rip out (.. so common on each IRS TR model - that it is a usual place to reinforce).

The cracks around the chassis rear legs were imo repairable in-situ with the body on, particularly if i replaced that bridge, but it was seeing this attempt at welding from the underside of the car which led to the decision to have the body lifted off and to do the job properly.  

^ Outriggers and rear-end-of-the sill body mounts in surprisingly excellent condition and the suspension was (subsequent to the original restoration) fitted with poly-bushes.   Body to chassis contact is evident in various places ...more clanking / vibration noises !   And unfortunately, the trailing arm poly-bushes were assembled dry (no silicon grease ?) and their bolts without Coppaslip ..so are seized.  Together these may account for the distinctive creaking noises from the car's suspension.   The bolts will have to be cut out and the poly-bushes replaced.  more cost !

 

   

^ the gearbox is out to reveal the new clutch I'd fitted.  The gearbox has been dropped off to the same gearbox specialist (Classic Transmissions if I recall)  who rebuild my old Jaguar gearbox some years back.  A very nice gentleman / old-boy will do a quick rebuild for us, as I'm aware of noises which point to the lay-shaft bearings being on their way out.  It's opportune to do this now, while the engine is out rather than to go through the hassles and to pay the labour cost later.  Hopefully by catching it early, it will have avoided damage to the gears themselves.  Mark is being very helpful and aware of my financial limitations, and is not charging to deliver the gearbox to the specialist (..on his way home).  It was booked in advance and because M&T use the same gentleman all the time, the task ought to fit-in with our chassis-swap schedule. 

The front half of the chassis is again in good shape but the (again usual) reinforcements to the suspension mounts hadn't been done.  They have, of course, been done on the replacement chassis. 

All in all then, steady progress and a positive report. 

Pete.

 

OK.,  NOW SOLD    FOR SALE - TR4A chassis  (easily modified to TR5 or TR6 spec).     Just a thought ..and I have OK'ed it with Mark before I suggest this..  it is available for collection from Wolverhampton, or in a few weeks time, from Ipswich, Suffolk  

I don't wish to discuss prices on an open forum,  but as a starting point the chassis replacement I've just bought cost me £2,550 and that had also been welded (those being aside from the modifications I subsequently asked for).  A new replacement chassis from CTM is I believe in the region of £6,700 + collection costs, with present delivery being ; six months to one year.  

Emotion of the moment of discovery aside., an impartial look at these photos would suggest that my car's chassis condition is generally very good.  However, its damage would have been difficult to repair properly from underneath with the body on, as indeed it would have been nigh-on-impossible to do the stiffening-mods I specifically asked for.  Having seen numerous other blogs of TR4A - TR6 chassis ..in far worse condition, being successfully repaired.., if I had the space to do so, then I would have lifted the body off my car, repaired the chassis and refitted it.

And had I taken on a project TR, as I had originally hoped to do, then again my intent was to first restore 'a spare' chassis and then to transfer assemblies across, one at a time as they were reconditioned.  Much easier IMO than taking everything off and then being confronted with a huge mixed-up jigsaw puzzle of loose parts.  I've been there done that with motorcycles ..which take up very much less space.

Personally speaking, I would have locally cut out the old poorer-quality repairs (..which have only lasted 22 years road-use since restoration) and inset new metal. And then with shiny clean metal (clear access is the key here) and the chassis rotated to a position where welding is easy - I would have every confidence that the repaired structure would be both strong and would have been barely discernible.  Btw., I had been offered a replacement rear diff mount (after-market tubular section) and so would have fitted that. 

Mark is going to send me other photos, now that the chassis is completely stripped down, but as far as I'm aware there is no evidence of accident damage nor of any place where the chassis has rusted (not even pin-holes) through. That is unusual, even with many US cars where the T-shirt plate conceals rust and the trailing-arm outriggers need replacing.  The rear legs of this chassis may  have drooped (can't really tell because some body mounting rubbers or spacers were missing - the cause of surface chafing), but either way I honestly believe that this would have been easily corrected in the course of general repairs (dimensions in the workshop manual).

Anyway., these things are for you to determine for yourself.  I can forward Mark's photos of the chassis, as it is now, to anyone who is seriously interested in buying.

Please contact me in person via a PM. NOW SOLD

Cheers, Pete.

 

[Bfg]

On 21/06/2021 at 13:59, Bfg said:

Thanks all.. 

Katie, as bought, shook through her steering above 55mph.  My friend Rich who gave me a lift to collect the car was surprised when I joined the A14 dual-carriageway that I slowed down to let a lorry pass.  That's because I was concerned a wheel was falling off !   I stopped and checked that was not the case and thereafter assumed the wire wheels were way out of balance. This supposition being reinforced by the lack of balancing weights on the rims. I suspect this was because there were rubber white-wall-tyre embellishers sandwiched between the rim & the tyre and so clip-on balance weights couldn't be fitted.  

I subsequently removed the white-wall embellishment, and also checked and coppaslipped each wheel's fitting on its hub.  Because three of the five (inc the spare wheel) had 27 year old tyres fitted, and because I want pressed steel wheels - I wasn't going to spend money on having those balanced.  I did try swapping the wheels on their axles, front to back, and that very slightly lessened the shake through the steering wheel but still they shaked n' rattled the whole car ..and me, all the way to Wolverhampton.  

 

In the meantime., M&T Classics had, as I asked, swapped out the cut-short wheel-studs in my car's hubs for standard length studs. 

^ Standard studs are too long for wire wheels, because the wire-wheel's inner hub are held away from sitting down onto the male-conical splined adapter. For the wheel to rest on the end of too long studs would be very dangerous.  The studs on Katie  had been cut short, several of them by too much ..Also not good.

I'd heard that wheel spacers can be used inbetween the half-shaft hub and the wire-wheel adapters. Mark very kindly tried this for me . . .

^ Things loosely assembled with a 6mm (1/4") spacer.  If the wire wheel's inner hub now clears those studs - then using the wire wheels is fine and will be safe.  Handy to get us back from Wolverhampton. 

However, as my preference is for pressed steel wheels, that would be a temporary fix.  Although my wire-wheels appear to be in good order - it didn't make sense to have new tyres fitted to them (and to have those balanced) where I'll be changing them.

 

 

So..,   NOW SOLD   FOR SALE - 4-1/2J x 15" painted wire wheels, x5 with Spinners, and Splined hubs for the TR 2 - 4A, and their special domed nuts, and possibly x2 good Maxxis tyres  (, dated 2013).  The three other tyres are old & worn.

 

 

 

^ As collected (in March, when the car was clean and wore the white-wall-tyre embellishers) ..available for collection from Wolverhampton, or in a few weeks time, from Ipswich, Suffolk  

I don't wish to discuss prices on an open forum,  but I'm sure anyone who has look will have a good idea of the value of a set of five, sound wire 15" wheels together with x4 the splined-hubs and spinners.  I'm not in a position to give them away but I'm open to sensible offers.

Emotion of their being out of balance when I first collected the car aside., an impartial look at this photos shows that although not concourse they are still very respectable. The spinners have been dented (hammered rather than using a block of timber to protect the ears) but still they are very serviceable. They too have been over painted with silver paint.  

I have not had the wheels balanced but as far as I'm aware there are no broken or loose spokes, dented rims, nor is there any rust.

Again., these things are for you to determine for yourself.

Please contact me in person via a PM. NOW SOLD

Cheers, Pete.

[Bfg]

  

SOLD  FOR SALE  - Triumph TR2 - 4A pressed-steel wheels, 4J x15" for restoration . . .

  

On 05/03/2021 at 17:12, openroad said:

Four wheels, need Blasting etc , but not curbed or bashed about. On knackered Tyres. !

Collection only please from Nottinghamshire. 

Price is £75 only.

Conrad.

These x4 wheels, now with then tyres removed, are again offered for sale  by me., Bfg, in Ipswich, Suffolk.  Same price as I paid ..£75.  There are in fact a couple of dents in the rims but I'm sure they would tap out easily enough before blasting and repaint. 

cheers,

Pete

 

[Bfg]

A quick update from Mark on Tuesday :

    

^ Mark advised that previously there were 'an assortment' of bolts in the assembly of suspension components, some seemingly original while other parts had metric bolts.  I gather those have been corrected and now most bolts and all nylocs are new..  M & T are very kindly fitting replacement springs front n' back ..to level the car for me.  Although they look it, the springs are not in fact new, but they are off cars which specifically sat level n' true before being stripped for parts. 

I ought to emphasis that M & T usual practice is to work to very high standards, and that includes plating, painting or powder-coating parts before fitting. it is only because Mark is trying to work within my financial limitations that he conceded to not do so on this occasion.  I will paint those suspension and other parts when I get the car home.       

In these photos I must admit, the chassis looks a little odd in silver.  Still when the engine is in and body on, cross brace, steering rack and radiator in place, there's not a lot of it to see under bonnet, and I'm sure it'll look fine. 

     

^ I understand new poly-bushes replaced the old, which had been assembled dry and so one side was seized.

All in all looking good, with some tidy reassembly happening and copious use of silicon grease or Coppaslip as & where appropriate ..and I'm sure very precisely too 

 _ _ _

He's also sent me a report on the gearbox coming back from Ken at Classic Transmissions . .

^ just some of the bits left over.  Shafts were replaced too. 

    

^ oops..,  these don't look great.  

    

^ not the ideal for sealing against oil leaks.                           And the spring is from the overdrive.

   

^  Excellent service.    And all being well it'll be both quieter, smooth and oil tight than previously.

- - -

And finally another quick update from M&T this Friday :

 

^ And very nice too.

All looking so clean .. 

Excellent progress and all to a very high standard of engineering.  I'm now happily anticipating driving a totally transformed TR. 

Have a good evening all,

Pete.

 

[AndyTV8]

Super, glad things are progressing for you

....... Andy 

[Badwolf]

I love it when the old parts are returned after work has been done. In the 70s I knew a great mechanic (long since retired) who always returned the car with the old parts in the boot wrapped in newspaper. Gives you confidence that the work has actually been done. The day he replaced the diff on my old Hillman Husky (Minx version, not Imp) we told him not to bother returning the old knackered one!!

[Pete Lewis]

my first car was a phase 5 side valve minx 1953  i sort of modified it a good bit and it would shear crownwheel bolts and shear half shafts too frequently and run the rev conter must have off the 7k scale 

great fun in its day pre owned by a fireman at the airport so it was sprayed fire engine red ha 

Pete

 

[Badwolf]

Get an account set up with your local recycling scrap yard. Made several hundred pounds over the years, but don't bother now. Loads of money when we stripped out all the lead pipe from the house when upgrading the plumbing, added to all the old metal from the cars, garage etc, it was realty worth it at the time. Come to think of it, I still have the bucket of lead that I used for the adhesive tests last year. That was 50 pounds weight....hummmm!!!!

[Bfg]

Just a few more . . .

 

    ...now the same on both sides !

 

All looking good to me..

Pete.

 

[Badwolf]

Looking so nice.

[Bfg]

Quick update from Mark on Tuesday ..

 

   

Body tub back on and I'm told all the body-mount holes lined up beautifully ..and with even shimming its sitting nicely square.

Oh dear, Katie  looks to have lost a lot of weight.

^ Doors being fitted and carefully aligned.

I'm to give Mark a call this morning, and hopefully he'll share further news of excellent progress.

Pete

[Badwolf]

Pete - Looking better every day, but I'm not to sure about aligning the doors before the wings are fitted but I'm sure Mark has his own system. Keep on looking up.

[Bfg]

Friday update  from Mark and his Team . . .

^ drain pipe fitted and led through the front wheel-arch splash closure.  x4 wing fitting kits include new bolts, the correct clip-nuts & seals.

      

^ Door hanging and panel alignment, relative to the sill and each other.  The check strap has been replaced and it now clicks to hold the door open. That's a nice bonus

^ Chassis rear legs are sitting evenly level, both relative to datum floor and to the rear valance panel.

I might add that a whole bundle of work has happened ..but was barely noticed or reported on, such as correctly greasing each suspension and steering pivot and their reassembly with new bolts ..fitted with coppaslip.  Similarly refitting the whole IRS drive-train and the brakes happened in a blink - even though the cut-short wire-wheel studs were replaced, which necessitated the brake calipers coming off.  Those have of course been refitted as have the hydraulic systems. And when did any of those jobs just take five-minutes ! ?  

All in all steady progress has, and is constantly being made, but most of that work is in the smaller details.  I'm really glad to have a conscientious mechanic, who is experienced with TR's, ensure things are in both good order and done correctly. 

Bidding you a good weekend,

Pete.

 

[Bfg]

Good morning all,

earlier in the week, Katie  was reassembled enough to have been restarted again.     I did have a call from Mark to clarify elements of this car's non-standard wiring. This came down to a stray earth wire not having been noted when the car was stripped, and the hi-torque starter motor having its own solenoid, so the original one on the bulkhead is redundant but for its role as a connection (all wires going onto one just terminal).   Later in the day he had the car driving around the yard, albeit without panels or door on the near side.  That was to check the functional operation of everything mechanical, fluid and electrical.

The very uneven (14mm top - 3mm bottom) near-side door gap was where I'd started my investigation, which led me to note the cracked chassis.  With the body tub now correctly fitted to a solid chassis, Mark and his team are tackling that side's sill..  it having rust, being in slightly the wrong place, it being detached from the foot-well side panel, the A-post and B-posts, and its rear corner gusset plate being cracked. . .   We made the decision to cut this side's outer sill off ..to see what, if anything else, needed repair or replacing.

   

^ 20 years ago, was polyurethane foam (cavity wall insulation) thought to help keep water out, and so rust at bay ? ..or was it in there as an attempt to stiffen the structure, or to lessen noise transmission ? 

  

^ The front end cap had rusted through and then of course any road-water spray goes inside the sill.  The car's footwell / floors have a down-turned flange which serves as the lower half of the inner sill, and being thin sheet steel that's been welded - is a place to rust quickly.  From under the car it didn't look at all too bad, but I knew they would need cleaning up and probably patching sometime soon.  There was of course under-seal to conceal the worse. I do hate that stuff.

Mark sent me these photos yesterday evening together with the note ;

" Removed old sill, door jam stiffener and end caps, cleaned up edges and inner sill treated and etch primed.  As thought it will require bottom 1 inch on inner sill and rear pillar bottom repairing but other edges all pretty good."

Having seen what was what he could then give me a fixed cost for this work.  We spoke this morning to confirm what was needed. . .

   

^ I don't have the budget to replace everything and so the bottom 1" or so of the down-turned flange will be replaced with new steel, as will other localised areas.  The rest mostly cleaned up OK, and so M&T are treating them for rust and applying etch primer. 

^ a replacement outer sill, end caps and rear corner gusset will be fitted.  These are better quality replacement parts rather than NOS original Stanparts ..which are beyond my budget. 

Mark sounded surprisingly confident that they'll be able to get the sill and door gaps as even as the other side, which he says are just a little big but within 1mm or so of being even. I'll be very happy with that ..as it avoids their reshaping panels, including the doors &/or wings, which of course would soon run up the costs and necessitate repainting too. 

Mark is on holiday next week, for one week, but this and other finishing up tasks will done by their team while he is away. All being well we're looking at the car being done and ready for collection or about the 20th of this month.

Pete.  

[Bfg]

Friday update from Mark., showing the replacement outer sill now welded in place, which will hopefully align the door to sill and door to wing gaps very much better. . .

 

   

 

   

Next he says " Will get filler work done, re-prime and seal joints"

Mark is now away for 10 days holiday, so his team will be getting on with this, and getting the door and panels, including the bonnet, back on and adjusted as correct as they might (..without getting into reshaping the doors or wings).  Then it's things like the rear lights, gearbox tunnel cover, and a dozen or two of minor details, plus of course wax injecting inside the structure, to ready the car for collection on or soon after the 20th.  For budgetry reasons, I'll paint the sill and the door shuts when I get the car back here.

Again it's looking good, but now it'll be much better held together, which of course relates both to safety, the general feel of driving the car ...and to lessening the number of rattles !

Two more new Continental tyres arrived here yesterday so I now have a full set of five.!  Those are to fitted and balanced onto the pressed steel wheels I bought. And I'll take these up with me when I go to collect Katie  and will swap them over before we drive back.   I once bought a pair of motorcycle tyres (at the same time), but this is the first time I've ever bought a full set, or owned a car with new tyres all around.  

I guess I really ought to contact the insurance company to advise them of the chassis mods too ..and possibly to discus a change in insured value.

Bidding you a good weekend ..and some nice weather ?

Pete.

 

[thescrapman]

Pete

I think you have more repaired and strengthened rather that modified the chassis. Modified has so many other connotations, many of which could be mis-construed.

Perhaps replaced with a rebuilt chassis that has been strengthened at the known weak points?

And definitely up the value.