The Last Post!

August 2019


Well for my final blog on the rebuild at least because the car is complete and on the road.  Didn't get to upload since the rear bumpers - but here is the finished car.

Post 43: More Rear Bumpers

15th June 2019
Post 43: More Rear Bumpers


The rear bumpers are on - yes but like everything I find with this car there was something not quite right with them and sure enough when I fitted the boot I found out what it was!  Thing is I hadn't figured on the boot shut being so close to the over-riders.


Looking at the bumper I could now see that it was too far over to the right side of the vehicle and the left over-rider was touching the boot as it opened.  After about 3 hours of re-positioning, bending and filing the rear bumper is corrected.

Bumper re-fitted and boot

Right Side Gap

Left Side Gap

Gap To Boot During Shut

 Whilst I was re-working the rear bumper I thought we should get the luggage rack re-mounted.  Had to make a few foam pads and modify the fixings to make it better but looks ok I think?

An Finally the AH badge

Post 42: Rear Chrome & Wipers

31 May 2019
Post 42: Rear Chrome & Wipers


Strange title I know, bumpers don't go with wipers but that's what we got this time.


Rear bumper time it is . . No pictures while assembling - it all happened too quick but on the bumpers are.  A little disappointed in the chroming in a couple of places but I think I will have to live with it because I just don't want to be bothered with the hassle

Rear of the car showing bumper and lights

Rear Complete with number plate bracket

On to the wipers here they are fitted.

New arms and wipers

Only thing is they are just crap - really crap, what to do?  I thought lets look at the old ones, rubbers are dead of course but are they as bad? of course they aren't they fit properly not like the new crap.  After a lot of fiddling I have re-worked the old wipers with the new blades

Post 41: Door Locks

20 May 2019
Door Lock & Handle


A quick update on door handles. . . I thought like the door is fitted rite so lets fit the door handle - it only has 2 fixings and it wont take long so the other Sunday morning I went to fit it.


So first I needed to fit the B post door peg, I had done this before so it was quick to just put the peg back in the B Post.

B-Post Peg & Trim

Then I put the lock into the door, 4 screws, no problems but when the door shuts it is about 4mm short of fitting flush to the panel.  Nothing to do about that - couldn't adjust the peg anymore to get the shut I wanted so 2 plates were made to space the door lock inside the door.  Door shuts great!

Now the to fit the interior handle - guess what you cant fit that with the door lock fitted so out it came again, handle rod installed and refitted - great!

Now the door handle - having already fitted that into the door I was confident BUT I hadn't fitted it with the re-positioning lock had I, so out it all came again, some tweaking of the lock and handle and back it all goes, great!

All fitted and aligned, I shut the door and twang, a rattle, frustratingly the interior handle rod spring tension had bust.  This was part of the lock mechanism and it took some ingenuity to design and construct a fix using some foam, all back together - hurray!

Lock mechanism with new anti-rattle fixing

 

Final door shut with handle - happy with that

Plog 40: B-Post Trim & Rear Seats

1st May 2019
Post 40: B-Post Trim & Rear Seats.


Next up on the short list after sorting the boot trim was to construct some new interior trim panels for the rear wheel arches.


The Short List:

1. Construct new rear wheel arch trims
2. Install rear seat pans
3. Figure out what to do with the rear seats/trim
4. Fit the new washer bottle, electrics and water piping
5. Install boot trim
6. Refit the rear bumper irons
7. Install the battery - why not

The car came with some trim panels that cover the metalwork around the B-Post, rear bulkhead and seats and were grubby to say the least what you think?

The starting position

What to do to solve all of this mess?  Well, I wasn't keen on the seats for starters - what use are they?  only children could really sit in them and would you let them - I think not!  I thought that the best thing to do was to remove the seats and create a flat floor for extra luggage space - we gonna need it - see the boot? 


To fill the holes I purchased a couple of blanking plates but as with these cars that didn't really work out as you can see. . .

Blanking Plate - Just Doesn't Fit

Seems the best thing to fill the holes is the seat pans so they got cleaned and painted and bolted back in without the seat foam and cover.  But first the side panels, these were well not worth saving but did provide a pattern and some parts that I used to construct new side panels from 3mm plywood - some images of a few steps. . .

The starting point, 2 holes and 2 grubby panels

The new side panel made and sticking the cover on with a mix of spray and evostic contact adhesive

Image before adding the final cover - just some cushion foam to give a "Feel"

Side panel in place

Sides panels, Rear panel with carpet and bespoke box to make a cubby hole and flat surface

Cubby open - see the seat pans inside

Carpet of the flat surface - main carpet to be fitted to front face.

I am quite pleased with the effect this provides, all side faces are covered in the trim material and the rear and floor faces get the woollen carpet treatment, provides a nice finish I think.


Pretty much completes the short list at any rate...

Post 39: Boot Clean Up

30th April 2019
Post 39: Boot Clean up.


So lets look at the list, whats left?

1. Wings have to be removed with the doors to put the trim between the wings and the body
2. Boot needs trimming and washer bottle fitting
3. Need some wheels and tyres
4. Windscreen needs fitting along with the wiper motor
5. Interior trim needs installing/making
6. Seats - need to claim them back from the trimmers and fit them
7. Seat belts need fitting
8. Roof needs to be check fitted and installed
9. Doors need fitting along with the trim
10. Door jar trim and locks to be installed
11. Lights need installing and connecting
12. Bonnet equipment needs fitting
13. Boot needs fitting along with the locks
14. Badges and chrome to be fitting
15. Carpets - lets not forget them
16. Overdrive unit solenoid needs fitting
17. Tunnel panels need fitting
18. Steering wheel and switches need fitting
19. Steering and brakes needs check over and setup
20. Side screens - need fitting
21. Mirrors to the doors
22. Heater connections to be made
23. Exhaust to re-fitted
24. Bumpers and closing panel to front
25. Polishing, polishing and more polishing

It is typical of this and any restoration I guess that you start one job and end that day doing another well I thought I had installed the left side door jar trim but then found a whole catalogue of jobs that I needed to do before that! including;

1. Construct new rear wheel arch trims
2. Install rear seat pans
3. Figure out what to do with the rear seats/trim
4. Fit the new washer bottle, electrics and water piping
5. Install boot trim
6. Refit the rear bumper irons
7. Install the battery - why not

All that before I had riveted the post trim in place - oh well.  So lets start with the washer bottle.  The bottles are normally located in the passenger side parcel tray - this is ok but totally takes over any hope of using the tray for anything else than the bottle so in the boot it goes.  As the new bottle is back there and came with an electric pump it made sense to use it.  I fixed it in the boot but before it could be finalised the boot trim had to be fitted which was my first go at gluing trim to the panels I spent lots of time painting! 


As a final impact of fitting the trim then the rear bumper irons needed to go in so that the battery and trim could fit around.  So a day gone then but here is the final view - sorry forgot to take photos while doing it but I like the effect

The interior of the boot before painting

Post paint and trimming

Post paint and trimming - Washer bottle installed

Post paint and trimming - seeing the impact of a spare wheel - no boot!

Oh yes and as you can see in the image I got some wheels and tyres sorted.  I have been worrying about wheels for ages, do I buy new? repair the old or by refurbished and what tyre, tubeless or tubed?


I managed to find a place that could refurbish my wheels but it turned out I had 3 x 48 spoke and 1 x 72 spoke so that wasn't going to work and I hadn't even noticed, see. . .

Spot the odd one out!

In the end I found some wheel rims in Rugby so combined a run for spares from Ahead4Healeys with a run to Rugby Classic Motor Cars and picked me up some wheels - combined them with some Continental tyres 165x80R15s.  They look great and saved a bit of cash!

The a Rim





Fitted to Front Axle

Post 38: Home but much work to do

26th April 2019
Post 38: Home but much work to do.


Well at least the car is home after 5 moths on leave!  I have been asked a lot since the home coming - How long before the cars on the road Dave?  That's a good question - certainly not as long as a chap I met at AH Spares about 7Months ago - he said his took 7 years - that's just too long for me and the 2 years I have been going (5 months in the bodyshop lets not forget) seems a long time to me, any how whats the to do list look like? Lets see:

1. Wings have to be removed with the doors to put the trim between the wings and the body
2. Boot needs trimming and washer bottle fitting
3. Need so wheels and tyres
4. Windscreen needs fitting along with the wiper motor
5. Interior trim needs installing/making
6. Seats - need to claim them back from the trimmers and fit them
7. Seat belts need fitting
8. Roof needs to be check fitted and installed
9. Doors need fitting along with the trim
10. Door jar trim and locks to be installed
11. Lights need installing and connecting
12. Bonnet equipment needs fitting
13. Boot needs fitting along with the locks
14. Badges and chrome to be fitting
15. Carpets - lets not forget them
16. Overdrive unit solenoid needs fitting
17. Tunnel panels need fitting
18. Steering wheel and switches need fitting
19. Steering and brakes needs check over and setup
20. Side screens - need fitting
21. Mirrors to the doors
22. Heater connections to be made
23. Exhaust to re-fitted
24. Bumpers and closing panel to front
25. Polishing, polishing and more polishing

That lots seems a bit like a mountain to climb!


There has been action though so lets see what I have done so far. . . . . . . Lets start with the wings.


Remember the car came back with them all fitted and aligned, damn shame they all had to be removed to be able to fit the stainless steel beading finisher strips between the wings and the body :( but there it is - lots of potential to screw things up right now.


Started with the rear wings.  I used the original beading, although not perfect I felt they had survived this long and deserved to have their day so will live with a few marks on them but I think they look good in any case.  For fun I popped the rear reflectors back in and tried a rear lamp!




Left Rear wing installed with bead



Right rear wing installed with bead

Front wing installed with bead

Couldn't resist having a play at the front end too - his face is coming back. . . .

Eye Eye - I see you

A bit of bling back on the car

Windscreen came next.  Now bearing in mind that the windscreen was previously fitted to the car for the roof fitting exercise I was confident in refitting it - I should learn that with old cars it just doesn't go like that and it didn't. 


We struggled for a day with gaps either side and having to pull the screen down to the body with force but the rubber seals just were well "not having it".  So having spent a fair sum on the dashboard trim panel we removed it and cut about 7mm off the edge to the windscreen sticking the trim back afterward - not that happy about it but was the only way to get the screen to fit.

Hers the dash panel fitted - in fact before we cut it - but you cant tell

And with the windscreen mounted

All of a sudden I think I have a car in the garage not just a piece of junk!  But wait did the roof fit?  Well after cleaning the bright work up some . . . . I think the answer was yes.



Post 37: Out of the Paint Shop

April 10th 2019
Post 37: Out of the Paint Shop


So the big news and milestone reached is the paint! It is now on the car after many months of hard work from the team at CJ Tallis.  Last news was that the blue had been painted but that was not the complete job we just needed the white adding - well that to is now complete. 


My immediate problem then was how to get the car back to my garage because my Landrover found a new home and according to the new owner changed sex - what is the world coming to!  Goodbye Landy. . . .


Landy on the job! - Goodbye chap :(

So a new mode of transport was needed and found but before that its worth a look at a few images from the paint shop as a record of the job.. .




The left front wing with the Old English White added

And the right rear wing

In build to check the alignment of the white band

And then ready for the escape!

Just needed to start the engine after 5 months to drive the car out - this boy really wanted to come home because the engine runs on first press of the button, phew, that was a load off - no embarrassment there then.  Transport has turned up - off we go. . . .

The big yellow van - up and away

Thinking . . . . . . . . . .



Home - the work re-starts

Hopefully we will get some more regular updates on here now over coming months as I move the build on to the final stages.