Lazy

Didn't do shit today.

We don't need no stinking left shoulder!

The big-ish news is that I have apparently either torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder or have something called peripheral neuropathy (some sort of damage to my nerves) I won’t know for sure unless I get an MRI but since I have no health insurance, it may be a while before I know. Not too easy trying to turn wrenches with constant pain and occasional numbness radiating from your shoulder to your fingertips and your arm in a sling. But such is life.

In spite of that I got some more done last night.
I got the suspension, drive shaft u-joints and parking brake cable greased (because I finally went out and bought a grease gun) and I installed the cotter pins in the parking brake cable clevis pins where they meet the levers as well as the pins in the clutch and brake pedals at the master cylinders.

Upon closer inspection I’m going to have to replace that clutch pedal again since the hole in the end of the arm that links it to the master cylinder via a clevis pin is noticeably egged out.
I pulled the starter out and cleaned it and its contacts and got it nicely painted. I’ll be cleaning and retaping the starter harness next and adding additional wires for more power circuits and fuse boxes.

The reason I pulled the starter was to be able to replace the flexible rubber hose to the clutch slave cylinder…fucking pain in the ass that was!!!
I finally managed to get the old line off and the new one in place but it was a huge wrestling match. I had to hacksaw off the metal of the hose where it meets the support bracket so that I could get a deep well socket on it since a wrench just couldn’t turn the fixing nut without stripping it.

I also installed an Ezi-bleed bleeder nipple on the slave and just “sorta” bled it. It seems that Ezi-bleed bleeder works as advertised. When I do the others on the braking system I’ll report back.

5-21-2009 Fighting a multi-front war

Well the brakes are all back together but not without a bit of struggle on one side.

I went to adjust the port side brakes and found that the adjuster was nearly impossible to turn. I wound up pulling the brakes off and removing the adjuster. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and that made no difference.

I finally but a big vice grip on it and heated with a propane torch. I then put a wrench on it and just worked it back and forth until it started loosening up. I finally got it to go all the way in and back out until it turned smoothly.

Still not idea as to why it was so tight as it looked straight and clean but it moves freely now.

I put a small dab of high-temp grease on it and ran it back in and out and then installed it back on the car. I put the brakes all back together and got them adjusted with no problems.

I tackled the parking brake cable while I was down there. Pain in the ass to do but not the worst job ever. Took the compensating lever apart (the one bolted to the differential pumpkin) got it cleaned, painted and greased. It is important to do that on a regular basis since most problems with the parking brake are a jammed or corroded adjuster.

I replaced the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear axle with the braided stainless one. A bit of a bitch at one point but it’s all nice and tight. The brake lines are now hooked up to the new cylinders and the parking brake cables are connected to the levers (but I do need to get some new cotter pins for them)

As I wrote in the title I am pursuing a multi-front war on the restoration. I’m trying to do as many things at the same time as possible.

I’ve started to tear the seats apart for then new foams and covers. Cleaning, painting and cleaning up the mechanicals while I also start tearing the rusted body panels off the car and cleaning up the wiring.

I had a nice little surprise when I pulled apart starboard seat. I found that the seat back was completely packed with old fiberglass and assorted junk, courtesy of a nice little mouse community. I pulled most if it out when I realized I should probably get a picture of it.

I got out the spot weld remover drill bit and started cutting into the car. This is going to take some time. I drilled out the welds on the top of the outer sill where it meets the top of the starboard forward kick panel. The welds were not even close to straight so I fear I may have gotten a “Monday-Friday” car!

The rear valance is going to be an absolute bitch. There are so many welds in so many places for such a relatively small panel that I may just cut the thing of with the cutting wheel, grind it up and weld the new valance over it. The way the old panel is installed will let me fudge it in that way and still wind up with a perfectly good new panel install.

Note on the new dashboard coverlay:
I put the new coverlay in place and it really looks good. The fit is great compared to the ones available 15 years ago and the texture, unlike the plastic-looking crap surface on the old one, actually looks like it is made of soft vinyl. I’m pretty happy with it.

Wednesday's work 5-20-2009

Received and installed the new axle hub oil seals. The day before I pulled the oil drain and fill plugs from the differential and drained the unit. When it was empty I sprayed brake cleaner fluid to clean any gunk out of the bottom of the unit and let it sit overnight. Letting sit that long let any little bit of old axle oil drain out plus it ensured that all the brake cleaner solution evaporated out.

I reinstalled the drain plug and refilled it with 90-wt gear oil. Half synthetic gear oil and half regular gear oil with Teflon additive.

Tip: removing the drain and fill plugs is easy if you just push a ½” wobble drive extension into the square opening of the plugs and turn them with a ratchet. You don’t need the special tool and the wobble extension has the perfect taper for a snug fit.

After the oil seals were installed I reassembled the split seal plate plates and rear brakes on both sides, fit the whole brake assemblies to the axle, put the hubs back on and hooked up the hydraulics. I doubt I got the 150 lbs of torque on the hub nut since it is so damned hard to so without brakes to hold the hub in place and with the car off the ground. I’ll do a final torque when the wheels and tires are on and the car is back on the ground. I haven’t bled the system yet since I still have to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end with the stainless braided Teflon hose.



















Thursday I’m going to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end, and the parking brake cable, adjust the rear brakes and do any final paint touch up on the differential. I’m then going to bleed out the hydraulics to test the Ezi-bleeders on the rear end. I also got a new engine oil drain plug with the magnet on it to pull any metallic junk out of the engine. I’ll install that when I change the engine oil before the next restart. I also received the second palstic battery box, yippy for me!

My dash coverlay came in and it fits perfectly unlike the one I bought in the early 90’s which fit like OJ Simpson’s glove. I also got the fiberglass “Special Tuning Air Damn” from Moss (part # 475-195) and I must say it is a huge piece of shit. It is one of the worst casting I have ever seen. The cutout in the center is not even close to symmetrical, there are creases and dimples all over it and it looks like this particular one was dropped on the pavement and dragged over to the shipping box. But it was on sale for around $75.00 so I really can’t complain much. I was gong to put a few layers on fiberglass on the back of it to reinforce it anyway so a little cleanup work isn’t such a big deal.

Put in another parts order today. Had to get new seat back foams (the ex wife threw my new ones away when she cleaned out “her” garage. I also ordered the urethane bushings for the tranny center mounting pin, splash guard extension seals, metal plates for the tranny stayrod pads and the poly bushings for the shock absorbers when I replace them.

Aside from some big items like the windshield, tires, battery and carpet, I have just about all of the small assorted parts needed to finish the car. Of course, not that I’ve written this, I’ll find out I need a buh-zilion other little things that I missed on this parts order…such is life.

Brakes getting close

I pulled the port side rear brake assembly of as a unit after pulling the hub and disconnecting the brake line and parking brake cable.

I then rebuilt the starboard side assembly right next to the one I just pulled off.

It is so much easier to rebuild these things off the car. Especially if you are replacing the brake cylinder since you have to use that little frakking that just loves to shoot off into the great unknown as you try to put it back on.

After that, I pulled apart the assembly I just removes, cleaned it all up and painted it. I used brake cleaning spray since these things are loaded with asbestoes and getting it all we with the cleaner keeps it from getting blown into the air and inhaled into your lungs.

I'm hoping my parts order arrives today so I can replace the axle oil seals and reassemble the axle and rear brakes. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to put everything back together.

Unlike the front brake calipers, the Ezibleed bleeders I bought screwed right into the rear brake cylinders without the heavy resistance I encountered with the calipers. As soon as I bleed the system I'll post here how well they work.

I relplaced the axle rebound straps. It went fairly smoothly though the bolt on the axle for the port side strap was a bit of a bitch to get off.

Next comes replacing the flexible rubber brake line on the rear axle with the teflon stainless braided hose and then replacing the parking brake cable assembly. I'll bleed the brake and clutch hydraulics and then get back to cleaning and repairing the electrical systems.

The carbs are off and go in for their rebuild today and the oil cooler goes to the radiator shop for cleaning, pressure testing and any leak repairs if needed.

Not a whole lot got done last night…I has tired.

I got the battery boxes cleaned up. I cut off the bad metal on the starboard side box, wire brushed them both down and put on two coats of truck bed liner. I then put two coats of white paint on them because that’s what I had laying around. I bought some more silver paint tonight and sprayed two coats on the box frames.

I touched up the underside of the car, painted things like the transmission cross member black. I also finished cleaning up the rear suspension and painting it. I was going to wait to paint the rest of the rear axle until I got the cover gasket changed but it’s not leaking so I skipped that step.

Got two coats of ultra high temp paint (1200 degrees) sprayed on the exhaust system. It is 16 years old but still looks to be in pretty good shape. If I can get another two or three years out of it I'll be very very happy and getting the high temp paint on it should help protect it a bit.

The insides of the new sills and lower front fender quarters are lined and painted. I’ll probably put a few more coats of paint on them just to be sure they are well protected before I weld them onto the car.

The parts for the rear axle oil seals came today. Unfortunately, nobody was there to sign for them so I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for another delivery attempt. I’ll be stripping down the port side brakes tonight in preparation for the oil seal install and brake rebuild. I’ll be pulling the backing plate off with all the brake hardware still attached so I can rebuild the brakes on both sides on the bench instead of on the car.

Didn't get around to pulling off the oil cooler or carbs for servicing. Hopefully in the next few days but I've got a very busy weekend so it'll be a bit here a bit there....

Clarification on left/right/driver/passenger side definitions

Since we are dealing with a British car here and driver’s side of the car means the opposite here in the States as opposed to the UK, I have decided to use ship terminology from now on to avoid confusion.

From now on the left side of the car (if you are sitting in the driver’s seat acing forward) is the PORT side. The right side is the STARBOARD side. The front of the car is FORWARD or BOW and the rear of the car is AFT or STERN.
Specific parts of the car offer a different challenge. Since a hood in the UK is the convertible or hard top and in the states it is the lid on the front of the car over the engine, we have to be very specific.
Here are the definitions, or UK to American translations

UK USA
Wing -------------------- fender
Hood -------------------- top
Bonnet -------------------- hood
Boot -------------------- trunk
Windscreen -------------------- windshield

Others terms
Petrol -------------------- gasoline
Spanner -------------------- wrench
Impulse extractor -------------------- slide hammer/dent puller
Torch -------------------- flashlight
Wanker --------------------jerkoff

Hope this was helpful :)