Post 27: Dash Panel, Throttle Linkage & Clutch Cylinder

Saturday 28th April.


Post 27: Dash Panel, Throttle Linkage & Clutch Cylinder


Decided to get the carburettors on the engine this weekend, well last weekend actually.  These carbs only just fit on these cars - to be frank - IF I was designing it there would have to be a larger gap to the body and access to tighten the fixings - but as I didn't it is hard to fit without scuffing the paint a little!
I just cant believe thought that the throttle linkage levers off the bulkhead - this is just crazy but there it is!  I didn't have the right dash bung for some reason - I am of the opinion that, other than the rat, there is something in my garage that hides parts because the amount of time I am spending searching for clip and stuff is really frustrating - so I manufactured a bearing to do the job - will see how it goes and if it doesn't work I will swap it for a new part.




Bulkhead bearing for throttle lever

Carburettors installed - waiting on fuel connection

Next bit of work was the exhaust heat shield.  Now I have been looking for this part for months, that garage thief again, I can remember having it in my hand around Christmas when I fitted the other heat shields and I put it safe so that it wouldn't get broken as it was delicate - I have never seen it since to be honest and resorted to buying anew one - I am expecting it to turn up soon now that I have fitted the new one.  You cant see it however on the car as it is now covered by the exhaust - you can see that!

Underside image - exhaust installed - heat shield just visible

To fit the shield I first had to fit the seat runner for the left side.  Well rusty but a work of art and about a dozen holes drilled later the seat rails and heat shield were fitted.




Seat rails in place

Also repaired the clutch slave cylinder.  Nothing on this car is easy - having fitted new seals etc and then refitted the cylinder it was clear that the lever rod just wasn't long enough.  This is worrying - I am sure that the clutch internals are correct, the arm is sitting in what looks like the correct place but the rod is short.  Having checked the parts available it looks like there is a longer rod - I don't know why it doesn't fit but have increased its length for now - guess it might bight back later. . .

Clutch slave and offending rod

The dashboard then.  I had it in mind to paint this blue as the earlier cars but based on comment have changed my mind and had it covered.  We spent about an hour fiddling with the new dash on the car, drilling fixing holes etc and then moved to the kitchen table to fit the gauges.
Every plan seems to go wrong - seems that the holes in the dash are un-finished because most needed filing.  The main large gauges fitted but nothing else and the dremel had to come out, anyway after another hour we have some gauges and then stuck it on the car.

Dash on the table

Dash in the car

Looking a bit like a car then!

Post 26 Gauges

Sunday 15th April
Post 26: Gauges


As I continue to fit more parts back on the car it is getting near to the point where I am going to re-build the dash.  The dash is complicated by the fact that in the beginning I had it in mind to paint the dash so bought one that was not covered - to be fair at that point I didn't know what colour the car was either.  Colour seems to have been decided to be blue so a blue dash - painted or covered - on reflection I am going to have it covered as it is supposed to be, a bit like this.

 

I thought I should have a look at the gauges today in prep as I knew they were looking a little tired when the car arrived

Car when arrive from US.

The Oil/Water gauge particularly having something obscuring the dials.  So I took the lens off the gauge to see what was going on - expecting in actuality that whatever it is, was as a result of a broken gauge.

The gauge didn't appear broken but a test was required on the temperature side at least as I know that the oil side worked from the engine run back in March last year.

Gauge appears to work so cleaned it up and rebuilt it, along with the others.

Gauge set cleaned and ready to install into new dash

What else?  Well a busy weekend but not much to look at!  Cleaned the exhaust up and painted it black, although I'm not that sure I like the paint.  Manifolds fitted to the car.  Unfortunately I am not ready to fit the rest because I have lost the under floor heat shield.  I have been looking for it for months and I know that as soon as I buy another, planned for this week, then I am going to find it! I wont be happy when I do but I need to complete the install.

Exhaust pipe installed

Other than this the heater box went in, had to make a seal to go between it and the car - found it really hard to align the 6 screws for some reason but it is fitted.

View under dash area with heater box installed

Still working on the shroud, fixed another problem at the front - one more to go then seal up the hole made for the aerial.  The distributor went in along with the starter motor as well. 

Distributor installed and wires connected

 

 

 

Post 25: Front Shroud and a little engine stuff

7 April 2018
Post 25: Front Shroud and a little engine stuff
To start the front shroud looked a bit beaten up to the right side edge of the bonnet.  On closer inspection and sanding! it became clear why as there was a lot of bondo under the paint and a hole as you can see in the image below.

Paint and bondo removed to reveal a slash in the panel.

Thinking what to do about the slash I thought I would make a reverse panel, glue and rivet as advised.  The first stage of that is in the next image.




Clamped in place while the glue sets.

The partially finished repair stuck in place

The fix seemed to be rigid so just filling from that point then - simple right? well it is on the TV, I have made a stab at first fill, more to do to make it flat but this image shows how far I got today.




First fill, reasonable at this stage I think, second fill sometime later

What about the engine then - in between messing with the shroud I thought I could add a few parts, manifolds, dynamo, radiator.  Again - I need to get battery at this - totally forgot to take images when I had the dynamo dismantled.  Totally cleaned it out, painted it and put it back together.

starting to look like a real engine then already

Post 24: Some light Bodywork

3rd April 2018
Post 24: Some light bodywork


When I say light, the only thing that is light are the panels as they are aluminium but the work on them is just hard graft!


I have been working on the rear shroud for many weeks as it appeared the worse of the two and I didn't really get very far to be honest.  As they are aluminium I thought I would try welding but that didn't go well at all and after talking to a welding specialist, I gave up!  Seems even the guy who makes a living welding doesn't really want to take on something like this so outsourcing was difficult!


So no welding then - the advice was to bond and rivet.  I don't know if that is good advice but it is my only option short of buying new panels which sort of goes against the reason for doing this in the first place. A few images of the sort of issues I needed to deal with - not a pretty sight!




Rear shroud central joint crack opening up



Left side joint - a bodge from a previous life

Lots of issues in the rear panel caused by a mixture of corrosion and accident.  It seems that many years ago the left rear had an accident and the left side of the shroud was cut out and a repair made - probably at the same time as the re-paint.  "Earlier I had found lots of tin foil and stuff inside the sills so never a quality job and very unsafe at the time of repair!!" 
Corrosion is still an issue for the aluminium panels too as the contact points with the steel parts create a corrosion hotspot - overall a bit of a disaster area!


So right or wrong I have embarked on a process of using 2 part glues with either reverse aluminium plating or embedding a mesh in the glue to increase stiffness.  My first attempts gave me some hope as they seemed as strong as the metal and according to the glues the separation forces are similar to the aluminium itself. 


So I did a lot of work fixing the corrosion and damaged areas working with the panel off the car but when I went to fit the panel I broke it in a couple places where I hadn't got the right geometry..


In fitting the panel it was clear that the car itself was adding a lot of stiffness so I have chosen to rivet the panel directly and then work on it in place adding a final glue/mesh where needed.  I haven't finished the panel in terms of its final surface yet that is going to require more work with the filler to produce something reasonable but at least the rear panel is on and secure.




This is the right rear edge - a little more to do but it was almost gone
in places and using the technique it isn't too bad

Crack across panel joint with mesh embedded in glue

A view from the rear
 rivets across bottom edge were hard work!

I have now transferred my attention to the front shroud!  A quick image of that!

Front shroud laid on across the engine bay - much work required

Post 23: Whats Happening

28 March 2018
Post 23: What's Happening


Well its a very good question, because my last blog was well over a month ago and I guess, if anyone is reading this, you might be thinking whats happening? and the answer was very little, at least on the Healey at any rate.


I wasn't idle though as I went on holiday for 3 of the weekends, plenty of photos from that but that's not for here.  I have also had to service the TR7 as it has come out of hibernation ready for the season and I thought I would open another blog to catch those trials and tribulations - driving a TR7 is always going to have issues.


However I am back now on the Healey, a long weekend over the Easter holidays.  I have been waiting on a clutch for about 3 months, it seems that the world has been waiting too and finally Borg & Beck delivered the goods!


No trouble re-fitting the back end of the engine, flywheel and clutch - in fact it all seemed too straight forward so I guess there will be a problem later!!  Even the gearbox went straight back on without too much trouble and unfortunately I got so engrossed putting it all back together that I totally forgot to take any photos until it was too late!


I did get a few as I decided to just go straight on and park the engine in the body - seemed the best thing to do really, safest option.

Here's the engine carefully balanced over the engine bay

Looks a bit daunting and crane is at full extension

Pointing towards the right place - how this goes in with the shroud on not sure!

But it does fit - in place - hoping that's it!

That was all good fun and didn't take me too long, but then the shroud isn't on, I have no idea how this activity is performed when the whole is significantly smaller.  I hope that I don't have to find out but I am not ruling it out.
Next step is to get that rear and front shroud in place!