DHC repairs #3: Bodyshell nearly disassembled

As I had a few spare hours this weekend I decided to load the tools into the Defender and head for the shed. Main job was preparing the shell for the removal the fuel tank. But I started with the removal of a few remaining parts that were fitted with pop rivets. And I hadn’t forgotten the cordless drill this time. Though after finishing with the drill, I found out I did have forgotten to pack a few items in the boot of the Defender. A pair of axle stands and the socket set to be precise. Bugger!

And this meant it was half an hour later that I could start with the removal of the back axle. Only to find out I hadn’t enough storage capacity for the fuel still remaining in the tank. Though I did have enough (small) containers to make sure no more fuel would escape ones the rear of the car was lifted. Something to bear in mind when I tackle the removal of the tank itself.

With the rear of the car securely supported, the actual removal of the back axle was straight forward. Support the axle on a trolley jack, remove the mounting bolts and pull the axle from underneath the car. As easy as it sounds. And hardly surprising bearing in mind that the axle was swapped only a few years ago.

And with the axle out if the way, I could have a proper look at the fuel tank and its fixings. As expected all four nuts are badly rusted. So these they were treated to a good splash of penetrating oil.

In the lower right corner of the picture above you can glimpse a rather strange fold in the bottom of the tank. And a closer inspection of the tank showed some rather strange damage to the underside:

As the tank's centre part looks fairly undamaged that rules out the back axle as possible culprit. There is also no visible outside (impact) damage to confirm this. So what happened here? The most likely explanation I can come up with, is that somewhere in the car’s earlier life the vents for the tank got blocked, thus creating a vacuum inside the tank. And this resulted in the this damage. The fact that I have seen similar damage on a few tanks in the past might proof this!? A shame really as apart from this the tank looks in pretty good condition from the outside. At least it doesn’t leak!

Easter Tour 2023

I managed to clock up well over 350 kilometres on 't Kreng's odometer over the Easter weekend. Most of these kilometres were covered during our traditional Paosjrit (or Easter Tour). I did have some mixed feeling when I set off towards the start though. It was the first drive in my (only road worthy) TR7 since the accident in Italy with the DHC last summer. So I had all sorts of visions of me crashing ‘t Kreng too 😶 I needn’t have worried. It turned out to be pretty good fun to be out in a TR7 again! So only one photoshoot at an abandoned Hotel near the small town of Valkenburg.

We stumbled upon this location by accident after taking a wrong turn. And opposite the ruined hotel was a nice pub, so we decided on a short break. As a result of which we didn’t see the other cars again!

There was only one tiny problem that I forgot to rectify on the Saturday though. Luckily it was one which turned out to be easy to repair: During bleeding the actuator piston for the brake failure switch had moved a little. And it hadn’t returned to its designated position. Resulting in a brake warning light constantly burning. The easy bodge would have been to disconnect the connector from the switch. But I opted for the proper solution. This meant removing the brake failure switch, determine the position of the piston’s cam (with a collection of small mirrors and lights), and move the piston a little so it was centred above the threaded hole for the switch. For which I used a very slim screw driver. As easy as it sounds and I even got it right at the first attempt.

‘t Krengs coolant system

To leak or not to leak, that is the question! As the driving season is about to start I decided to take ‘t Kreng for a short circa 100 kilometre trip last Saturday, to see how she behaved. But mainly to see if her fairly long period of idleness had had any effect on the coolant system. Six years ago I found a significant looking leak from the infamous connecting tube (UKC2538) between the thermostat housing and the water pump cover:

As the coolant level at the time had hardly been effected, I decided to ignore the leak for the time being. My reasoning being that the leak only appeared after the engine was switch off. This results in a short rise in the coolant system’s pressure, due to the coolant not being circulated anymore.

So over the following years I did keep a regular eye on this area. And sure enough the leak did reappear from time to time. Usually after the car had been idle for a longer period. But the leak would always disappear after a few tours. As these two pictures taken a few weeks apart during the spring of last year clearly show:

And after the car had cooled down from yesterdays trip I decided to inspect the water pump area in some detail. I needn’t have worried, the area was completely dry this time. Let the fun begin!

Spring’s in the air

Spent a few hours in the shed earlier this week, in preparation for the driving season. The first job was not exactly glamorous, sweeping the floor to get rid of the glass, metal and paint chips that were left-overs from the removal of some of the DHC’s bent metal.

Next on the to-do-list was making a little room in the shed by getting rid of the bent metal from the DHC. I also used the opportunity to get rid of a few other defective and redundant parts.

And with a little more room to manoeuvre in the shed, the remains of the DHC could change places with ‘t Kreng. This way the latter car can be driven in and out of the shed more easily in the coming driving season.

The above picture shows the projects currently lingering in the shed!