DHC repairs #18: RH rear floor and bulkhead

This afternoon I again received a set of photographs from the workshop to report on the progress so far of the DHC’s body work repairs. And as the title of this post indicates, in the past week and a half, repairs have been carried out on rear of the right hand cabin floor and the adjacent section of the rear bulk head. A selection of pictures to illustrate the work done. Clearly a fair amount of more work than first anticipated!

More TLC for ‘t Kreng

Part two of the general service and maintenance check of ‘t Kreng, which was carried out over this weekend. With the most important job being flushing and bleeding the hydraulic fluids. From a mileage point of view this wasn’t really necessary. But both clutch and brake fluid were well over three years old. Where my normal interval for these fluids is two years. So time to call on the help of a friend for a traditional flushing and bleeding session!

Starting with emptying and cleaning the clutch cylinder’s reservoir. And this immediately showed why regular hydraulic fluid changes are absolutely essential. The fluid I sucked out of the clutch cylinder’s reservoir was almost completely black. Forgot to take the picture but the one in this earlier post gives a good indication on how it looked! After that the reservoir was cleaned and filled was fresh brake fluid (Bosch DOT4). Flushing and bleeding the clutch system was left till later though.

We moved to the brake system instead. Starting with the removal of the brake master cylinder’s pressure failure switch. Always tricky as this one is by now old and brittle. But I succeeded to remove it intact. Probably helped by the anti-seize paste I used when I re-fitted it a few years ago.

With that hurdle successfully out of the way, we could start flushing and bleeding the brake system. Starting with the front brakes which are fed through the rear chamber of the fluid reservoir. This chamber was also first emptied with a small manual suction pump, after which it was filled with fresh fluid. And the flushing/and bleeding could begin, starting with the front calliper on the right hand side. For both sides together, we used twice the contents of the rear chamber. No air came out.

As the reservoir’s front chamber can’t be emptied with my simple pump (a large syringe type affair) we had to empty this chamber by pumping the brake pedal with one of the bleed nipples at the rear open. My assistant was a bit overzealous though, emptying the front chamber too far. Which resulted in some air being drawn into the system. Luckily the air could be bled very easily though one of the two bleed nipples at the back.

Next job was flushing the clutch system. With the reservoir filled with fresh fluid, and the old fluid still in the pipe, it should be clearly visible when all the old fluid was expelled from the system. It was! But just to be sure all the old fluid was expelled, the contents of a full reservoir were flushed through the system after clean fluid came out of the master cylinder. Job done! Actually the biggest problem here was removing the rubber dust cap from the slave cylinder’s bleed nipple underneath the car! It had collected some oil, resulting in a rather slippery dust cap.

Next on the to-do-list where the wheels. They would certainly benefit from a good clean. Rather straightforward with warm soapy water and a collection of different brushes. I did need a shower afterwards!

Final job on the on the to do list was cleaning the two earth points behind the head lamp mounting panel. Hardly any oxidation there, only a lot of paint. So I cleaned away the paint around the mounting points and refitted the earth points using some copper slip to prevent future corrosion.

And the final job for the day was cleaning the steering wheel and treating it with a leather conditioner. The lack of use in the recent years had dried out the steering wheel’s leather cover. And after well over thirty years of service (it started life with me when I fitted it to a Mini Cooper, in 1994!), it could do with some tender loving care. It did soak up quite a bit of leather conditioner fluid.

Oil Change for ‘t Kreng

Found some time and motivation to start on a somewhat belated general service for ‘t Kreng. My heavily modified Sprint engined FHC TR7. First job was an engine and gearbox oil change plus an oil level check of the back axle. So after ordering the necessary oil, I “booked” one of the 4 poster lifts at a friend’s workshop, to make life a bit easier!

For the oil I went for my usual choice of Valvoline VR1 Racing 20W-50 for the engine and fully synthetic Castrol Transmax Manual 75W-90 for the gear box. For topping up the back axle (with a Quaife ATB diff) I used the also fully synthetic Castrol Syntrax Universal Plus 75W-90. I used this oil when I changed the oil in 2012. The engine oil filter as ever a cheap and readily available Bosch P2056 spin on filter.

With the car on the lift it was rather straightforward. Added bonus of working in a fully equipped work shop has the advantage that small parts like sealing rings for the various fill and drain plugs are readily available. But there is also proper equipment to collect the old oil and oil filter without making an oily mess of it!

Draining the engine and gearbox oil was straight forward. As was the removal of the old oil filter, using the correct tool. The oil level in the back axle turned out to be slightly over the mark, so didn’t need topping up.

But that’s where the “disadvantage” of being a friendly workshop showed itself. I was not the only one that was using it. So by the time I had finished my work on ‘t Kreng, the work on this rather lovely Jaguar wasn’t finished yet. Time for some more coffee!

So it was a little later than expected that I returned home. On the scenic drive home the car behaved rather well though there again was the small hint that I need to address some oxidation in the wiring. Some connectors and earth points to be more precise. At a traffic light the engine’s revs briefly dropped below their normal value, and the low coolant light briefly flickered into action. So just to be sure, on returning home I did check the water pump area. It was bone dry! But there was a slight hissing sound somewhere near the header tank. Turned out to be coming from the left hand top corner of the radiator. So it is now official. After almost 30 years of faithful service the radiator has sprung a leak. Luckily it is a very, very tiny leak so far, so no priority there. But fitting a new radiator is now slowly making its way up the to-do-list!

As can be seen in the picture above, of the area where the leak is, there is hardly a sign of coolant leaking. There’s only a tiny damp area visible. Something to keep an eye on.

DHC repairs #17: RH rear wing

Received another set of photographs from the workshop last Monday. They are from the repairs of the right hand rear outer wing. Turned out to be a slightly tricky repair because I want to retain as much metal from the original body shell as possible. And that includes the car’s original VIN number in the right hand side boot gutter.

It turned out that, despite an old sloppy rust repair and some serious rust to the rear of the outer wing’s wheel arch, the inner wing was in pretty good condition. No work needed there! For the rest pictures below should tell their own story;

DHC repairs #16: A visit to the workshop

The previous weekend I went over to the workshop to be informed on the progress of the DHC’s body repairs. I have to admit I was well pleased with the work done so far. But also with the quality of the work! A few detail pictures of some of the repaired areas.

Picture #1

Picture #2

To start with the front of the right hand sill. As can be seen in the picture at the top of this post the inner sill hardly needed any work. Which was a good thing. If that had needed more extensive repairs, it would have been necessary to remove the body from the rotisserie. This would have been the only way to ensure the weakened body would be supported enough. Luckily the simple brace shown in the photo above was sufficient.

But there was a slight issue. The bottom lip of the strengthening panel at the front of sill (Picture #1) was hardly long enough, resulting in the original spot welds sitting right at the lower edge of the panel. Not good for spreading the loads properly. So the lower lip was rectified a little in that area to give some extra strength.

For the repairs at the front of the sill (Picture #2) it was decided not to weld it in position yet. This way there is a little more movement for the trial fitting and positioning of the RH inner wing of the front wing. But while working in this area it turned out that the body had sagged a little when part of the inner sill was removed (with the outer sill completely removed already). It was only 3 mm, but an extra temporary brace was fitted to rectify the measurements. Some cross measurements afterwards showed that everything was well within the factory tolerances again.

Picture #3

Picture #4

Picture #5

Pictures #3 and #4 show the rear area of the right hand outer sill. This part of the job turned out to be pretty straightforward. But again the inside strengthener needed some rectification to get a proper fit, and enough material to spread the load properly. Though not as much as the one at the front. Picture #5 shows trial fitting of the replacement RH inner rear lower sill.

Final area to inspect were the repairs on top of the right hand rear chassis leg. The original closing panel was so thin in places that it was decided to replace it with a solid one from the donor body. And the rusty lower part if the RH rear inner wing was replaced with a piece of sheet steel and CAD (Cardboard Aided Design). Sounds straight forward, but it wasn’t! Working space was rather limited making it a pretty time consuming job. And grinding down the welding was even more of a challenge. Luckily that doesn’t affect its strength and it will be hidden from view ones the car is finished. To be continued.

Second lustrum for Bèrke

Last week an anniversary slipped past almost unnoticed. It was 10 years ago that I took delivery of my current daily driver, a 2008 Land Rover Defender 110 SW. To celebrate this second lustrum, here are a few photos taken of Bèrke over the past 5 years:

Back home after a wintery green-laning tour. (07-02-2021 NL)

On top of the Timmelsjoch in the late afternoon.

Just across the border with Austria (10-09-2021 I)

While on my way to a sewage pipeline relocation project in the context of a flood protection program.

Sunrise over the valley of the river Meuse, Hagendoorn Neer (28-10-2021 NL)

On board of the Pride of Rotterdam, on our way from Hoek van Holland - Harrwich (13-03-2022 NL)

Inspecting a project site in the woods between Heibloem en Roggel (19-10-2022 NL)

Patiently enduring the heavy downpour.

Silberhüttstraße Stulz (13-09-2023 I)

Near the toll booth of the Timmelsjoch near Hochgurgl (19-09-2023 A)

Photoshoot for the car’s three-yearly valuation (11-07-2024 NL)

It’s lonely at the top! Parking area near the Römerkehre,

close to the Jaufen Kamm (24-09-2024 I)

On our way with the DHC’s body shell for paint removal and shot blasting (12-02-2025 NL)

Picking up the DHC’s body shell after paint removal and shot blasting (12-03-2025 NL)

DHC repairs #15: RH rear chassis leg

To end a productive week on the repairs of the DHC’s body shell we had a look at right hand rear chassis leg. It turned out that the top of this chassis leg (in the fuel tank area) was rather thin. So more rusty metal had to be removed. To be replaced with solid sheet steel picked from the donor body.