New clutch at last

After returning home from the 10CR in a hire car, one of the first things I did was order a new (uprated) clutch kit (well actually two, one for the new heart for ‘t kreng). Because at that time I was still in the opinion that it was the clutch that had failed. I know better now (well 99% sure), On the other hand there’s no point in putting a reconditioned gearbox underneath the car with a 17 year old clutch assembly, is there?

Clearly AP Racing (or should I say Borg & Beck?) took their time with the delivery (through Demon Tweeks), but this week a small but heavy box was delivered to my home. First inspection looks positive, as it looks exactly like the clutch which I have in ‘t Kreng since 8 years and 60.000 kilometres.

And the up-rated clutch plate that came with it ...

Together they are capable of withstanding 276 Nm of torque. So more than strong enough for both the DHC’s tuned 8-valve engine and the state of tune I am aiming for with the new Sprint engine for ‘t Kreng.

Interesting to compare the clutch cover with an “original” Borg & Beck 2540 cover I obtained somewhere in the previous century, but never fitted due to the problems I encountered with a similar item in the early years of driving ‘t Kreng ...

Problem with this cover was that the release travel with the original hydraulics was not enough to release the clutch plate fully. With predictable problems to the gearbox.

It seems that nowadays similar looking clutch covers are sold, which have the correct release travel. But I decided to stick to a known quality with the AP cover.

And to finish a cover  from Quinton & Hazell for a modern Rover that was donated to me by a friend a few years ago. This last one does work with a TR7, but I forgot that I had this one when I ordered the new AP clutch kit ...

Not happy ...

Been a while since my last report, mainly because I lost motivation a bit. And this is caused by the fact that my daily work has taken too much of my energy, so I am at home for the time being to recover a bit ...

Over the past month or so I returned to the DHC a few times to do some more dismantling. Why should that be?, I can hear you ask. Well early in the year I brought the car away for paint repairs and it turned out that the front spoiler was beyond (economical) repair. That wasn’t too bad as I do have two spare spoilers left. After that we found some more accident damage where the rear of the right hand door hit the B-pillar when I hit the stone during the 10CR ...

This meant more than half of the car needed a re-spray. And that was when we discovered that the paint had developed (severe) discolouration at several locations on the car. Worst hit are the driver’s door ...

The inside of the bonnet ...

And the rear of the front panel ...

First thought was that this was caused by the chemicals used for removing the paint (and hadn’t been removed properly from the seams) which than reacted with the paint. And that still is my main thought for the door and bonnet, especially as the right hand door, which received a new door skin after the chemical paint removal, doesn’t have any signs of this discolouration. The other strange thing is that it’s taken two years to show itself?

But we also found a few places that can’t have been caused by the paint removal chemicals. The rear panel near the fuel filler cap ...

The damage is worst on the driver’s door, and rectifying that will be very time-consuming, with no guarantee that the problem will be cured. So we decided to use one of my spare door skins and a second hand door from the shed to make a new one ...

As it stands at the moment both the paint removal company (Giessen/Mitraco) and the paint manufacturer (Sikkens) are pointing at each other. So not much to expect from them I am afraid. Although the general consensus is that the discolouration is caused by some sort of moisture that penetrated the paint from the inside and has reacted with the aluminium particles in the paint. But we are not going to wait till they have agreed on something, which they are not even trying. So we decided for a full re-spray of the car’s exterior. But we’ll be using a different kind of paint, which Sikkens has promised to supply.

Needless to say this will be continued ...