DHC report nr. 82; Start on the interior

While the wheels are away for a new coating I started on the interior. Plan is to work from the front to the rear, which means I first had to fit the sills’ carpets and the trim pieces for the A-posts. But I forgot that the aftermarket DHC carpets for the sills came with the pieces for the B-post attached to them. So back home to pick up the vinyl pieces which go to the top of the B-post behind the mounting brackets for the soft top frame.

With these vinyl trim pieces fitted I realised I couldn’t access the inside of the B-post through the large holes to fit the door catches. Luckily I’m not that heavily build so I could fit the catches from the smaller hole just above the sills. After which I could fit the sill carpets, followed by the A-post trim pieces.

Having sorted the soft bits I fitted the various supports for the dashboard and steering column. As I am using a very early dashboard for this car (from ACG96L), I also used the support between heater unit and A-post, as found on earlier cars. Very convenient for some bling parts, but more on that later.

With the supports in place I fitted the steering column. As I couldn’t reuse the original break-bolts (for obvious reasons) I adapted a pair of Allen-head bolts to fit inside the mounting pieces for the upper steering column bearing.

As the two plastic upper steering column bearings usually are pretty much gone after 30 odd years, and I hate rattles, I ordered a pair of new bushes to replace the rather perished old ones. Putting them in was rather straightforward. The upper one needed a few well aimed taps with a soft hammer to seat properly though. But the steering shaft now is a very nice tight fit.

Next on the to do list was the rear of the interior, covering the hood stowage area, fitting the seatbelts and the edge finishers. The edge finishers were a classic example of parts that came of the car, but needed a fair bit of persuasion to get back on.

I will start on the doors next. Plus I have ordered some fancy tyres for when the wheels return.

DHC report nr. 81; Suspension finished

Finished the last bits of the suspension this evening. Only thing left to do was remove the back axle's differential cover for an inspection of the gears inside.

As you can see nothing wrong inside. So the by now freshly coated back plate could be refitted. Together with the last item of the suspension, the rear anti roll bar.

And with the temperatures rising slowly but surely I can at last start on the interior. But before that I’ll be travelling half the country this Friday, to pick up the wheels and bring them away for the second stage of their refurbishment.

DHC report nr. 80; Finishing touches front suspension

At last managed to not forget to take a pair of lock nuts (for the track rod ends) home with me yesterday. After a good clean of the nuts, I went over to the shed this morning to fit the track rod ends ... at last!

First thing to do was to make sure that the steering rack was in its centre position. On the original racks that is pretty easily done by removing the grease nipple (or plug), put a 3 mm drill in backwards in the hole and move the rack till the drill drops in the hole that’s machined in the rack for this purpose.

Sadly this (aftermarket) rack doesn’t have this provision, so I needed something else to get the rack centred. Easily sorted with AutoCad and a piece of thick paper in a printer.

With the rack centred, fitting the track rod ends proved to be fairly easy. Although it looks like the one on the right hand side has some damaged thread inside as the last few turns went pretty stiff. Put them on 15 turns each, before locking them. The exact alignment (toe) will be done when the car is back on its wheels.

DHC report nr. 79; Brakes

Over the last week I fitted the half shafts to the back axle. Nothing really worth mentioning here, after greasing the bearings, they just slid back in without any problems. With the half shafts in place it was time to put all the brake parts back on the axle. To make life easier I had printed a few pictures I made at various stages during the dismantling of the back axle. Very useful to show how everything should go back in. Especially with the self adjusting brake mechanism ...

The circlip for the rear cylinders ...

And the various springs inside the drums ...

After which fitting the drums was a piece of cake.

The only thing to put up a real fight was the cross over pipe running between right and left hand cylinders. The thread of one of the end fittings just didn’t want to engage with the thread inside the cylinder. But after a very frustrating half hour it just slipped in. Don’t know why it changed its mind but I couldn’t care less. And with the rear brakes finished, I switched my attention to the front of the car the fitting of the front pads.

I have been using EBC Greenstuff for quite some years now, but I found they were lacking ultimate bite so I decided to go for some traditional Mintex M1144 pads. Hopefully will see how they behave in two months time!

Also fitted a new antenna. The one I fitted previously wouldn’t pass our MOT as it was sticking outside the contours of the car. So instead I fitted a normal telescopic one, doesn’t look to bad either.