Spring clean out

Over the past few months a fair amount of my spare time has been spent on moving my TR7 parts, that were stored at René's place, to "the other shed". And it was a good moment to start with a gentle clean out of parts that should have been thrown away many years ago. At least they will weigh in pretty nicely at the scrap yard. Especially bearing in mind there are still a fair amount of very worn or rotten Dolomite parts, including a few boxes of worn TR7 stuff, lurking in the various sheds at René's place;

It also reminded me of the fact that over the years I have collected quite a lot of TR7 parts, some of which I had already forgotten that I had them in my possession! Like this rather solid roof panel that was tucked away between some roof rafters in one of the sheds;

And I also found a pretty solid and undamaged early (large fuel filler cap) rear deck panel and a pair of very solid looking sub frames hidden behind some Dolomite boot lids. One thing's for sure though, ones everything has been moved and sorted I will get rid of some of this stuff as I will never be able to use it!

But with spring in the air it is also time to dig out 't Kreng in preparation for the "Nacht van het Oosten", the traditional start of the driving season. So that is now top of the list!

FHC resto nr. 63; Heater rebuild Part 4

Used part of a day of from work to start on the re-assembly of the heater today. I had hoped that I would get the heater's internals and casing back together. But sadly I should have taken even more pictures during dismantling. So I lost a fair amount of time working out how some of the parts needed re-fitting and in what sequence. But I managed to figure it out in the end, partly thanks to a spare heater unit I temporarily stored in the garage for exactly that purpose! But despite a few setbacks, at the end of the day the most difficult parts were back together;

Only two flaps, the ventilator & motor and the upper casing cover remaining. After which it will be time to get all the activating rods back to where they belong.

And during the assembly work I found an easy way to fit the retaining rings for the flaps and rods. Thanks to my trusty small ¼" socket set. Support the opposite side and simply press the rings on. At least one job that was far easier than the disassembly phase;

FHC resto nr. 62; Heater rebuild Part 3

More small jobs over the past few weeks, this time heater specific. With all parts back from coating, I started with cleaning the parts that didn't need or were not fit for coating. Like the heater's wiring loom, which was cleaned, tested with the multi meter and given the OK;

The same applied for the heater's fan and motor assembly. A quick check with a 12 volt feed showed the motor to be running OK. And after an hour's worth of elbow grease it looked presentable again. Especially when compared to how it looked when it was removed from the heater. Almost a shame it'll be hidden from view deep inside the heater unit!

Next on the heater's to do list were the control levers. The mounting plate with which they are mounted to the heater was powder coated. But the two lever assemblies could only be cleaned up, as they can't be dismantled. And coating them would almost certainly render them useless. Luckily they'll be hidden from view once fitted to the heater and tucked away behind the centre console;

And finally I cleaned the flap assembly for the front screen demister and put new foam rubber padding to the two flaps. Time for another before and after picture!

Hopefully I'll be able to start on the reassembly of the heater soon!

FHC resto nr. 61; Various small jobs

Not only were all (I hope!) parts coated or galvanised over the previous months, I also received the refurbished or new brake and clutch parts back from local brake specialist C&C parts. I dropped of all hydraulic parts at their premises a few months ago, with the brief to overhaul or replace them. Whatever was the cheapest solution. Well the only thing they overhauled was the brake servo, as it turned out the internals were as new. All other parts were replaced by new items as it was cheaper to replace them. Some were NOS, like the brake master cylinder (they even found the correct brake fluid reservoir !);

Others were produced locally like the clutch master cylinder;

And as they take less space when fitted to the car, that is exactly what I did, together with the coolant's header tank;

Another item that got the same treatment (store it by bolting it to the car) was the refurbished fuel tank, together with newly powder coated tank straps and the galvanised and black passivated studs;

Also used some of my (current rare) spare time to finish the newly coated fresh air duct. The duct itself was powder coated, the clips were galvanised and black passivated, whereas the rubbers are a mix of second hand original ones from my spares collection (like YKC320);

Combined with locally sourced replacements;

And the final item for this post is the reassembly of the gear lever extension. With all parts cleaned and coated that was the proverbial piece of cake. But still rather rewarding and relaxing to do!