Sunday 18 June 2017

FHC resto nr. 57; Various small jobs

Over the past few weeks I have been busy with various small jobs on the '76 FHC. To start with some work on the heater. First of all, the newly coated flaps that hide inside the heater were fitted with a new foam backing ...



But while trawling through the various parts of the heater I was reminded of the fact that the original design of the connection, between the heater matrix and the rest of the coolant system, is not very impressive. To put it mildly! And the fact that the rubber seals between matrix and pipes are made from unobtanium these days doesn't help either ...


So I visited H&S Speed equipment again. It's the same local firm that provided me with a new alloy radiator for the DHC shortly before the 10 Countries Run in 2013. And they will eventually supply the new radiator for this car, but that is one of the last parts that will be needed. But as they are specialised in all kind of alloy motorsport products they should be able to help me here. And they could! This means that the heater's matrix will be fabricated in alloy, using an of the shelf matrix block. But also normal ø16mm pipe ends, to get rid of the unreliable push connections. Sadly it won't be ready till the middle of July. The only disadvantage of a small local firm with a good reputation!

Also resumed preparing the parts that will (hopefully soon) be sent of for galvanising. Initial plan here was to have them all treated in an oven to remove oily grime and other muck before shot blasting and galvanising. But I was advised not to use this heat (±425°C) treatment for any springs or spring clips as it could damage the structure of the steel used for these parts. So some parts will need a different approach here. Not these parts, these are ready to be sent of for coating ...



But before that is going ahead, this seemingly small batch of parts needs to be sorted and prepared ...


And to end this write up, a major part of the time this weekend was spent in front of the television, watching Le 24 Heures du Mans. And during those many hours I also spend some time on the fluid reservoir from one of the brake's master cylinder from the spares hoard. Not overly difficult but fairly time consuming to get it cleaned properly ... 




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