DHC report nr. 70; After the frost

After having finished the headlamp units it was time to give the headlamp motors a good clean and a bit of matt black paint. As they were working properly when I took them of the car, and the original rubber like coating was still in pretty good condition on all the joints, I didn’t dismantle them. Only thing I did was lubricate the mechanism where necessary and change the old connectors;

For new waterproof ones and new sleeves as an extra protection for the cables;

And with the connectors sorted, the headlamp motors could be put back in the headlamp mechanism, ready to go back into the car;

Also repaired and strengthened the mounting points of the rubber headlamp surrounds, using a special and fairly strong glue like sealant;

With the frost and snow of the last few weeks gone and temperatures again on the positive side of the scale I returned to the car this weekend to restart the work on the DHC. First thing to do was connect the fuel tank to the fuel pipe, and mount the exhaust/brake line brackets to the rear bulkhead.

For those of you who think I am building a V8, don’t worry I am not. It’s just that BL thought it efficient to use some TR8 parts on a TR7. In that same spirit I made a bracket for a universal in line fuel filter, using the bracket from a coil. Very convenient as the mounting studs for a coil are still on the bulkhead close to where the fuel pipe enters the engine bay;

And fitted even more soundproofing, the original pads for the rear bulk head this time;

Next job will be fitting the wiring loom to the front area of the car and over the heater unit to the left hand side of the interior. Hopefully the temperature will go up a bit making that job easier.

DHC report nr. 69; Still freezing ...

As the weather conditions are still best described as cold and I didn’t fancy cleaning the headlamp motors so far, I made myself comfortable at home in the garage;

And assembled the headlamp bowls instead;

This turned out to be a very easy job indeed. After the headlamp bowls were assembled I busied myself with labelling the various new connectors. As you can see I like my comforts and diversions while working;

Next job was cleaning the two wiring looms for the headlights. They didn’t look much as they came (quite damaged) of different TR7’s;

But after a good clean and some new connectors they look presentable again;

With the wiring sorted the last job was fitting the wiring looms and the headlamp units;

DHC report nr. 68; Freezing ....

With the temperatures over here still well below zero (°C) work on the DHC has ground more or less to a halt. But to keep up some sort of progress I took some parts home with me to assemble them in the heated garage. So this weekend (in between other non car related obligations) I started assembling the headlight mechanisms. Progress so far;

Next job will be to clean up the headlamp motors and change the connectors.

And I remembered at last to buy some satin black paint at the end of last year, to touch up the brake servo. I painted this one black some 15 years ago while restoring ‘t Kreng. But it was hardly used as one of the first things I did when that car came back on the road was remove the Princess callipers and replace them with the uprated front brake kit from S&S, complete with Sherpa servo. So this servo has been lying in the attic for quite a while, resulting in quite a lot small paint blemishes. But it looks OK again!

DHC report nr. 67; Boot area ready

With the doors and boot lid fitted it was time to attack the boot area in earnest. First thing to do (of course I’d say) was fitting the boot lid’s stay. Makes life a little easier if you don’t have to hold up the boot lid all the time!

Here I encountered my first little problem. I had taken quite a lot of pictures while dismantling the car but none of the stay’s bracket that is bolted to the boot lid itself. So I fitted it, in what to me seemed, the most logical position. Which of course was the wrong way round, as a result of which the stay seemed to be too long. A quick look in the boot of ‘t Kreng solved this;

With both my hands free, I first fitted the latch mechanism and striker, followed by the boot lids seal. And with the seal in place the striker could be aligned. This also showed that the boot lid itself needs some slight adjustments to get the alignment spot on. But that will be dealt with later!

Next job was to get the wiring sorted properly, which meant reshuffling all fitted wiring a bit and fitting the two small looms in the boot lid. Due to the rather low temperate this took quite a while. But with (again) the help of some long cable ties, a piece of string and the invaluable paint stripper (to warm the wires up a bit) they went in fairly easy.

Last bit of wiring to be fitted to the boot area were the two looms for the tow bar, including the socket.

With everything connected up to the rear lights I could, at last, fit the boot trim. What should have been straight forward again wasn’t quite. The original plastic clips weren’t up to the job of holding both LH side trim and boot front liner in place. Which again meant browsing through the spare parts in search of some flat speed-nuts. The black screws and matching collars needed were already at hand in the “box” as I intended to use them to fit the rear light covers.

And to finish the work on the boot I fitted the licence plate lights and boot’s interior light. Those of you who have had the licence plate lights out will know that they are very fragile indeed. As a result of which I found only one that was undamaged in my spare parts stock. First plan was to find one with the least damage and glue the broken-off piece back on. Looked very promising until I fitted the contacts, it broke of immediately, it clearly needed a different approach! While rummaging through my spare parts I found the solution, a clip for the weather strip from the doors, simple and effective!

With the licence plate lights sorted something had to go wrong with the boot light, one of the contacts broke off. Luckily I did have some undamaged spare ones. So a few hours later than expected the three lights were fitted back in place.

With the boot area ready I will switch to another part of the car. Just not sure what part. At the moment the temperature is dropping again rapidly, so glue the carpets (mainly the sills) is not possible, ruling out any further work on the interior for the time being.