FHC resto nr. 173; Choosing the back axle

While spending time in the shed over the past few days I also used the opportunity to select a back axle for the ’76 car. The choice was between one 3.90:1 CWP axles and three 3.45:1 CWP axles. As the original Dolomite Sprint uses a 3.45:1 diff ratio and I really like that ratio on a quick touring car (fitted to the DHC) the choice was narrowed down to three axles. Partly inspired because I want to keep the 3.90:1 axles for ‘t Kreng! So the choice was narrowed down to three;

• CL 11314: from a European spec. Solihull FHC with 72.492 km on the odometer;
• CL 11955: from a European spec. Solihull FHC with 87.173 km on the odometer;
• CL 12290: from a California PI spec. Solihull DHC with 71.823 km on the odometer;

Turned out the choice was pretty easy as there was one axle with absolutely no noticeable play or back lash. This one, and the first one in the list above:

It didn’t look very good from the outside at first glance. But on closer inspection and after it was cleaned a bit, it turned out all the “outside” hardware was in very good condition.

Next job will be attacking the outside with a selection of wire brushes on my angle grinder, followed by a rust converter, primer and satin gloss black paint.

FHC resto nr. 172; Fitting the parcel shelf

One of those tasks that has been haunting me for several years now: installing the aftermarket fiberglass- parcel shelf. And it's been even longer since it was beautifully covered by the late Lambert Craenen, a local old school car upholsterer.

So I'd decided to tackle this job during my current holiday and install it. So, full of good spirits, I headed to the shed last Monday! But after a few frustrating hours, I had to admit my defeat and throw in the towel. The fit of the parcel shelf was so poor that I couldn't install it on my own: While trying to align the front of the parcel shelf with the mounting holes, it went wrong. I had to stretch the shelf so much that it put too much strain on the four screws securing it to the rear to the body underneath the rear window. The result was that all four screws including the plastic distance pieces, were pulled cleanly out of their respective mounting holes. Time to call in the help of a good friend and come up with a solution to fit the shelf.

In the end I decided to tackle the problem with long flat Allen headed M5 bolts together with longer distance pieces for the rear mount. The lower front edge was fitted using the original mounting method. It was still a struggle to get everything in place but we manged it in the end. And it was well worth it, as the pictures in this post prove. Special thanks go to Jos for assisting me today!

Out and about with ‘t Kreng

It’s already been a few weeks ago since I changed the hydraulic fluid in the brake and clutch circuits of ‘t Kreng. But I hadn’t had the opportunity to test the car after the bleeding session. Luckily last Saturday Roger and I had planned to do the (hopefully!?) final reconnaissance of the route for this year’s edition of our “Nachtrit”.

Though I did have some reservations on choosing ‘t Kreng as the car for this tour, I ultimately decided to go for it! And glad I did, as it was a fabulous ±450 kilometres long drive from door to door. And circa 300 kilometres of these were driven on, mostly Belgian, country lanes and back roads.

It was jolly good fun. So much so I did forget to take some pictures from time to time! It was also a stark reminder of how good this car still handles after all those years since she was restored.

Lunch stop in the small village of Barvaux-sur-Ourthe.

Route de Saint-Antoine in Fays

And when I returned home I thought it would be nice to check how these ±450 kilometres would show on the hydraulic fluid of the clutch system. Well here’s the answer. The picture I took directly after bleeding:

And for comparison the picture I took upon returning home with just over 450 kilometres later. Already looking slightly murky. And it clearly shows to me why the hydraulic systems need regular fluid changes:

The cooling system again performed faultlessly!

FHC resto nr. 171; A few rectifications

It’s six months since I last worked on the ’76 car. And as you can read in my blog, there are several reasons for this: ‘t Kreng's water pump, the work on the DHC, and my regular work of course. But with a few weeks holiday ahead of me I decided it would be nice if I could finish the rear of the car’s interior. Time to pull the cover of the car and start to work. But first there were a few (small) jobs that needed rectifying. Starting with the mounting hardware for the brake balance pressure reducing valve. While fitting the steering column I found out I had used the wrong bolt to fit the valve. It was the bolt for the column’s G-clamp, which is longer than the one for the valve. As I had prepared only one bolt of the correct length it was taken from the valve and used on the steering column. But that meant I needed to prepare new fasteners for the valve. Luckily I had a few rusty spares lying around. And with the help of a friend’s blasting cabinet, a blow torch and a small container filled with oil, it was blackened and fitted. Looks quite nice.

Next job that needed rectifying were four small holes in the cabin floor. These needed their rubber plugs fitted. Something I forgot when I fitted the sound deadening pads almost 10 years ago. First Idea was to just open up the holes and insert the blanking plugs. But that didn’t work. The combination of the steel panel, the underbody protection and the sound deadening pads was too thick to fit the blanking plugs. Time to borrow a professional (and very sharp) hollow punch set from a friend to remove the sound deadening pads around the holes. These punches are designed to cut through material when hit with a (big) hammer. Not a good idea on steel panels. But being very sharp punches, they could cut through the sound deadening by simply pushing and turning them through the sound deadening pads. This way a ring was cut loose from the sound deadening pads. And this remaining ring could then be removed quite easily using a pen knife and a small sharp screw driver. And this removed enough material for the blanking plugs to be fitted. Some clear wax oil was used for rust protection.

The last correction concerned the carpet over the transmission tunnel. When I fitted it over the 2024 Christmas period, I wasn’t impressed in the way the carpet ballooned coming down from the top of the transmission tunnel. So I decided to use some fancy high strength “gecko” tape to glue the carpet to the top and the sides of the transmission tunnel. And this worked very well. And it enabled me to perforate the carpet to fit the plastic carpet protector and the mounting bolts for the seats.

The last tasks for this productive afternoon were the preparations for mounting the parcel shelf. A job I've been putting off for a while now, because I'm afraid I'll make a mistake with the dimensions for the holes I need to drill. Measure three times, drill once! The fact that the guy who covered the parcel shelf has died since he delivered this quite nice job, didn’t help! Also checked and corrected the sound deadening panel I made and which fits between the parcel shelf and the rear window. More on that later!