Back on the road?

When I refitted the Weber carburettors three weeks ago I had hoped I would be able to put the recovered seats back in the car. Sadly tough one of the new harness sets was faulty and I am still waiting for the correct item. As it is taking far to long in my opinion, today I made the decision not to wait any longer and put the seats back in. This does mean however that I won't be able to fit the new harnesses for the time being, as the mounting points for the shoulder straps are inaccessible with the seats in place.

But I wanted the car back on the road so I could see how the refurbished carburettors would perform and if this would finally cure the engine's problems. So in between various rain showers I refitted the seats, now covered in splendid McBeans tartan 😎 Although rather straight forward it did take well over an hour to refit them, mainly due to the lack of room inside the car to access the various bolts. Especially the rear inward facing bolts are a bit of a pain. The fact that the rear mounting points need two plastic spacers between seat and mounting frame doesn't help. But with the help of a plastic wedge, some string to lower the spacers in place and a small make-up mirror the bolts could be fitted correctly. It certainly was well worth the effort ...

With the seats in place it was time to see if the engine would be willing to fire up. Not really. But after several attempts it reluctantly spluttered in to life. Not very strange as it has sat dormant since early November last year. What was a pleasant surprise was the fact that the engine almost immediately idled fairly smoothly, even without the aid of the choke. So after a quick inspection around the carburettors, revealing only a small leak caused by a slightly loose fuel union bolt, it was time for little test drive. After warming up the engine and gearbox carefully it became clear that the engine's problems might have been solved. The engine clearly picks up much better and pulls pretty good. But I didn't have enough time for a decent test drive. Plan is to do some more checks and driving over the coming Easter weekend, but for the moment rather pleased.

FHC resto nr. 31; Final paint preparations

After a short pause last week saw the start of the last stage of the paint preparations. That means the bonnet, boot lid and doors will be prepared in readiness for their final colour coat. But before the primer can be applied the old paint, filler and primer need to be removed from the bonnet and boot lid first. Because with these two panels the frames are glued to the outer skin. This means that pyrolysis can't be used here, as this method will also remove the glue. And it is pretty difficult to get the glue back in place without removing the outer skin. Time for a formic acid based cleaner and some elbow grease to remove the paint from the outside ...

A messy job indeed where decent protective clothing and decent ventilation is an absolute must. But on a positive note, this method enabled us a good insight in the cars paint history. It was obvious that the original colour of the car indeed was Pimento Red (CAB). The original paint and primer layers were still there, together with another set of layers of primer and paint to cover it up. Those eagle eyed among you will see the various layers in the fourth picture above.

But this method does give a very nice clean finish. Removing the paint on the outside of the boot lid showed us that this had been a good choice as there were several rust "threads" hidden underneath.

This method of paint removal is only used on the outside of the panels though, to prevent the acid penetrating in the seams or being soaked up by the glue. The inside of the bonnet and boot-lid will be sanded down only, to give a smooth finish. I have seen enough paint discolouring due to chemicals that remained left behind in seams ...

Refitting the Webers

Last week I received another box containing various parts for my three TR7's. And among these parts there were also two rather vital small bags, which contained a pair of Weber DCOE stud kits. When I wanted to fit the carburettors a few weeks ago, I noticed that several of the original studs were badly worn. So not fit to reuse ...

But I did use them to trial fit the carburettors with the new sealing plates. This showed me that the original studs that came with carburettors were too long. With the ends of the two top studs touching the carburettor body, the seal was still lose between carburettor and manifold flanges. Clearly needed some shorter studs, which among other things I ordered through Demon Tweeks ...

In the picture above the difference in length between the old and new stud is quite clear. Even though the previous sealing plates were slightly thicker, due to the studs being too long it was impossible to tighten them up fully.  And this also for me explains how it was possible for the mounting holes on the carburettors to wear out as they did.

After removing all of the old studs and inserting the new ones (using the proven two-nuts-locked-together-method)  it was time for the carburettors to be fitted. This is a rather straight forward job, except for the fact that for the top nuts there is hardly room for decent spanner access. So rather time consuming to get the top nuts tightened.

The short spanner throw also prevented decent feel as to how tight the nuts were. So to get all nuts torqued down more or less the same I used a set of feeler gauges to measure the gap between the cup washers that retain the rubber grommets.

And to show the problem, the amount of room in front of the top studs. In this case there is about 5 millimetre room between the end of the stud and the carburettor's body. With the old set up is wasn't possible to get a 1 millimetre feeler gauge in the gap.

Now waiting for the last bits to get the car ready for the road. I also ordered new seat belts but clearly something went wrong with the lap straps when they packed them at the factory ...

FHC resto nr. 30; Sorting parts

With the final paint preparations postponed for a few weeks (hopefully not longer) I switched my attention to the various parts that need coating. As with the DHC I will use two methods for coating the parts, powder coating and zinc plating. The first method, powder coating shouldn't be a problem as I have currently three companies in the area to choose from. Zinc plating is a an altogether different problem. Since restoring the DHC the company I used for galvanising and (black) passivating some of the parts has changed hands. And that doesn't seem to have improved their quality. That search will be continued ...

Luckily there are also lots of parts that need to be powder coated. So over the past week I started with sorting through the first batch of storage boxes. To help here I used a parts list that I made up over the previous year, using the two parts manuals I have and the lists from a few years ago when I restored the DHC. And the first boxes I started with are from the interior and the boot/tank area ...

Clearly a few bits are still missing because they were either not fitted (I will upgrade some parts to later spec) or so badly worn/butchered/rusted, that they were discarded. Like this seat runner stop that had some welding done somewhere in a previous life. Clearly one that needs to be exchanged for a decent one from my parts hoard ...

Then there is the petrol duct panel. The car came with an incorrect late (small filler cap) rear deck, so the petrol filler duct had been ... euhhh ... reshaped a bit. This sadly meant that the original duct panel didn't fit anymore and had been discarded by the previous owner. Sadly the only early panel I have lying around is this one from a very early car we broke several years ago (ACG96L). But as you can see that needs a bit of welding. And not sure if the lower edge has been modified or not. Something to trial fit this weekend ...

But before they will be send of for coating they need some cleaning. And a few parts need some small alterations before they are coated.