33rd Edition of “De Nachtrit”

This weekend saw the already 33rd edition of our “Nachtrit”. And contrary to last year's edition we were back at our usual start/finish venue, the Rolduc Monastery. Sadly I didn’t have time to service ‘t Kreng in time for the final reconnaissance. So the car of choice for this task was my Defender. 

But not before that car did need some attention too, with the gear lever (lots of play), horn (loose contact) and central locking system (faulty door lock switch) playing up. As a result of using the Defender this time, no TR7 pictures taken during the final control run. But it was fun driving the Defender over some challenging roads nevertheless! Only a few pictures of some of the cars at the start at Rolduc.

It was good to welcome a UK entry again!

Thanks Michael and Andy for coming over.

Sadly the entries for this year’s edition (with 22 teams) where down to the absolute minimum for us to organise the event. The fact that two teams tried to enter a few hours before the start of the event sums up current attitudes quiet nicely in my opinion. People clearly haven’t much of a clue what’s involved in organising such an event!

The only consolation being that a few of the regular entrants had other obligations this evening. And those who did take part were treated to a varied and challenging 237 kilometre long route!

DHC damage assessment part 2

Last weekend the DHC at last returned back home to the shed after her ordeal in Italy: Time to get the spanners out to get a better picture of the extent of the damage. With the first part to remove being the (remains off the) bonnet. The release cable still did work, but the bonnet wouldn’t open due to the stresses on the left hand safety hook. Luckily all the mounting bolts to the front of the bonnet (for the hinges and the and stay) could be reached fairly easily with some small spanners. And with some padding under the left hand corner to protect the front screen, a long tyre lever and brute force could be used to free the front edge. After which the bonnet’s left hand safety hook could also be freed, enabling me to remove the bonnet from the car.

Safe for the removal of the bumper cover, all other attempts to remove any significant parts from the car failed one way or another. Ordering a new angle grinder is currently high on the to do list!

And this left me with some time to record all the under bonnet damage with my digital camera. It doesn’t look too encouraging, starting with an overview of the engine bay and part of the nose section:

The area behind the right hand head lamp:

The area behind the left hand head lamp:

And the seams of the two front wings:

To go any further I will need an angle grinder. Mainly because the bumper’s left hand mounting nuts are currently inaccessible. To be continued!

DHC damage assessment part 1

Earlier this week I received a Whatsapp message from a friend, including the above picture of my DHC arriving at his premises. Needless to say that I planned myself a few hours off from work, to have a look at the car as soon as possible!

So last Wednesday I drove over to the workshop to have a first proper look at the extent of the car’s damage. As the car was on one of the lifts and the bonnet was still locked solid, we decided to limit the inspection to the bottom of the car, and leave the engine bay till I will be able to remove the bonnet at my leisure in the shed.

The inspection itself revealed a few possible positive points. These being the suspension, steering and engine. It looks that these are all undamaged, there is a little doubt on the sub frame though. But as there are no visible marks it should be salvageable:

The not so good points are all other parts. Both chassis legs are badly damaged. With the damage extending as far back as the rear of the sub frame. See the indentation behind the sub frame. So it looks like both chassis legs need replacing right up to the joint at the front of the transmission tunnel. Luckily that repair is covered in the official work shop manual!

At least the tub looks to be completed undamaged. Contrary to the front of the car, which is quite a mess of mangled steel and shattered plastic and alloy bits. And with the amount of the front bumper sticking out to the left it was apparent from the beginning that the complete front had been bent in that direction. As this torn out bolt from the radiator support clearly shows.

And still further up front everything is shattered or flattened by the impact:

Will see how everything looks once the bonnet has been removed. But before that is going to happen the car will be returned to the shed.

FHC resto nr. 144; Main harness part 2

A short update report this time, but also an important one for the main harness. Over the weekend I finished the two parts that are the back bone for this harness. To start with the fuse box mounting bracket (TKC 3343). Though I have to point out that the bottom right U-type spire nut, in the lower picture, has been replaced since the picture was taken. For obvious reasons!

And the relay holder (TKC 1035). As the fuse box mounting bracket, this too was powder coated. The lokut nuts are new items, whereas the cable ties are the original, cleaned, items. The relays and the Pektron unit are cleaned original items;

The anoraks might have noted that this is the early variant, which has two lugs, which are bolted to the two brackets welded to the inside of the firewall on earlier cars.

Instead of the single stud on a fairly pliable plate welded to the top of the holder. Probably introduced to simplify production. But the overall lay out of this bracket is exactly the same as the later (European) items.

Next will be the lengthy process of inspecting and cleaning the remaining parts of the harness itself.

FHC resto nr. 143; Main harness part 1

Despite the oncoming project I really didn’t want, I continued work on the ’76 car. As mentioned earlier, I will be converting this car to the later wiring set up, using the wiring from a 1981 car.

So I made a start on cleaning and refurbishing the main harness (PKC 1946), starting with the part of the harness from the point where it enters the engine bay (through the firewall) and from there towards the front of the car. This part provides power to the wiper mechanism, the various front lights and horns.

First job was removing the harness’s wrapping tape from the various ends to the fire wall grommet. This revealed no hidden horrors.

As you can see the overall condition of the wires was pretty good, though a little dirty in places. But no kinks or signs of chafing! The above underlines the pretty good quality of the original wiring of these cars. As long as you bear in mind they all are well over 40 years old by now and treat them as such!

With the “lower” part of the wiring checked it was time to switch my attention to the various connectors. And as expected 40+ years out in the open hadn’t been to kind to them. The most common problem being corrosion on some of the contact pins inside the connector blocks. But as these were all meant to be changed for modern weatherproof connectors (AMP Superseal), the next job was noting down the order in which the cables should be connected to the various connector blocks. I always use two methods for that, a good old pen + notepad and my digital camera;

Left hand side light, fog light and repeater connectors

Right hand headlight connectors

Connector for the left hand head light mechanism moto

Left hand headlight connector

One of the headlight assembly earth points

Connector block for the wind screen wiper motor

With the inventory of all the various connectors finished, it was time for the next stage. Removing all connectors from the harness and replacing them with new items. Followed by the final stage, wrapping the harness with new non adhesive PVC tape.

Next part of this little project will be cleaning and refurbishing the heart of this harness, the fuse box, the various relays and it’s connectors and their brackets.