1974 Daimler Double-Six VDP (higher axle stands)

Hi Volksangyl. I didn't realise that. I searched them on Ebay and noticed that they were fitted to TR6s as well. Unusual connection with the two different type of cars...altho I think they maybe both use Stromberg CD175 carbs

Ok. It's been about a week since my last post and if I hadn't went out on Friday night I would have had finished the trim piece prep.

I spent the week blasting the pieces pictured last time and have got epoxy primer (Glasurit EP 801-72) on them at last and was dying to get some topcoat on so I could bring them home on Friday night and re-trim them over the weekend but I felt obliged to go out for drinks with my new team mates on Friday so I'll do it tomorrow.

The blasting nearly put me over the edge. If the pot was running freely I could've done one of the beams in about half an hour, maybe a bit more, but I was at times only getting a piece the size of custard cream done before the pot had to be turned upside down/connections unscrewed/re-fitted/pressure increased/decreased/left the same and this went on for days but they are done and sealed so I can forget the trauma and move on.

While the blaster was out I also cleaned up the scabby edges of the 2nd hand rear lower quarter panels I bought a while back and they are also epoxied. Really glad I done it now as I can put the blaster away and give the place a good sweep up. One good thing about the grit is it seems to act as a good scrub for the floor.

I'd also had some problems with the rear quarters not fitting on without a bit of pressure and found that some welding I'd one on the wing support struts were fouling the faces of the outer panel. A little work with the grinder has improved this

In other news I sent the 2 small radius arm bushes back to the Ebay seller who very kindly refunded my girlfriend and I also received another one from a different seller which I measured today and it comes in at 46.78mm I reckon which is smaller than the ones I returned but bigger than the one I managed to get in with a struggle so will be another wrestling match with the vice etc in store.

The latest one is a genuine Metalastik one (which I got for a fiver but they usually sell for about £17) and has number 13/1421 on it. I bet there is some way to decipher that number to establish the size. Couldn't find anything Googling it but it did turn up some interesting articles where the consensus was that you need a huge press to install them as they are supposed to be bigger than the housing they fit so they become virtually welded in to the component. Seems a bit extreme but at least explains why I'm having a struggle.



adjustment slots in lower rear quarter panels are generous but not much use when hole on wing is at limit of the slot




lower quarter flange also sitting outboard of wing bottom.....



....with little scope for pushing inwards as bumper iron is tight behind it



and at rear end bolt has to pull flange in and up at an angle



scruffy mounting points of rear quarter panels cleaned up with grit blasting

















and lastly the part where the fuel tank filler pressings on rear haunches drain water out through the rear quarter panels front corner



latest radius arm small bush coming in at 46.73+mm I reckon

I've not updated this for a while but am still working on it 5 nights a week and never had time to update this recently so got a bit of a backlog.

I won over £100 at the bookies on the Chelsea - Steaua Bucharest game (would've been over £300 if the game ended 2-1 instead of 3-1) so treated myself to some new parts. Now, way back when I got the car and intended to patch it up for the MoT one of the things on my shopping list was new pistons for the front calipers. Recently I got a whole new unused front caliper (not sue which side) off Ebay for £10 but I don't think another one will come along for a while so I took the plunge and bought 4 pistons (instead of the 8 needed for an axle set) to use in one of my original calipers.

As posted a few months ago I laid out all the exhaust parts and have got a much better mental picture of what bits I need as I was never sure when they were all stored up the barn loft.

Basically I need a passenger side rear silencer and could do with a driver's side front/mid silencer altho the original could probably be fixed.

With my new winnings I had to take the plunge and but the back box as it was listed at a very reasonable price from a main dealer. I hoped but didn't expect, to get an OEM one but the dealers do lots of pattern parts so as long as it fitted I'd have been happy

However, as you can see its the real deal and I'm really pleased with it.

I also had a sub thread running a while ago about the fittings for the over axle pipe. The original set up is a a threaded rod with several washers/rubbers/a nut and my car has had home made efforts at replicating them.

I was keen to get some of the original fittings despite the fact that added together all the little parts would cost more than an exhaust part and bought a couple with my free money. At least now I could copy them if I'm too tight to buy a couple for the other pipe.

You may also remember the IRS was stripped for painting. That will be getting re-assembled soon and you could spend a small fortune replacing all the bearings etc there.

I only noticed one damaged sleeve when I was dismantling the lower wishbone inner ends from the diff so bought 1, instead of 4 and I could have damaged a couple of the 8 needle rollers also so bought a few of them too.

I mean how much do these inner ends actually move? Its not like they do the work of a crankshaft bearing where they are spinning constantly. The just rotate a little when the wheels move up or down.

Also got the most recently acquired small radius arm bush 3/4 of way in by thwacking it with a large piece of wood. Worked a treat



thumping with wooden blocks saw bush most of way home and has advantage of not damaging the part



got the top score right but the following night's score was 3-1 istead of 2-1 which would've paid out £328



but £10 back up bet paid out £110 so I feel like my box of parts cost about £10











4 of these little nylon sleeves would cost nearly as much as the back box







pukka part








have been waiting to buy these front caliper pistons for about 12 years

That's interesting, didn't realise they were worth so much, there's a pair of these in my garage, (one painted matt black unfortunately,)

Brilliant thread though, loving the work done so far,

Well. The dust has settled on last night's International games and I picked up another £55 today so I could treat myself to some more needle bearings and exhaust rubbers but I'm leaning more towards contacting the Stateside Ebay vendor who has the mid/front box that I need to see what the cheapest he could do on shipping is. I could convince myself am getting a bargain as the bookies winnings could cover either the cost of the part of the shipping and I'd feel like I'd got one of the element free.

I'll maybe have a last scour in the UK before taking action




£17 payout on this one



and £38.55 on this


Meanwhile, in previous news, the bonnet was removed some time ago to get in at the engine better when I was taking off all the ancilliaries and I didn't envisage doing any work on it. There is always a but, however, and when I was sweeping all the blasting media out of the grill from last months blasting activity I ended up taking it off to stop it getting damaged and I also found one of the hinge mount plates had some pretty bad stress cracks.

So, a couple of nights ago the grill got a good polish and I was pleased to see the shell is pressed steel. I had always assumed it was cast 'monkey metal' which can be difficult to re-chrome well. It's actually in great condition so won't be getting re-chromed any time soon.

I then set about removing the inner headlamps and the shells etc are pretty much gubbed but the housings in the bonnet aren't too bad. it would be a tricky area to repair if new steel was required.

I got as far as cutting out the hinge mounting bracket and due to bank holiday and a works night ouy probably won't be back on the job still Tuesday



bonnet has been propped up here for a year or so. took grill off recently when having post-grit-blasting major clear up




I like things which can be dismantled should it be required



everything is quite solid



grille polished up nicely with a rag and Solvol




looks good under a different camera setting




RHS hinge mount is ok




but LHS needs attention




to remove headlamps which are mounted in bonnet 1st thing to come out is this screw which holds cast metal trim in place



then there are 3 small screws which hold a chrome retaing ring that hold the sealed beam onto the rear shell











once the ring is off the sealed beam can come out



scrap I reckon



behind all this debris there are screws to remove the bowl










when the 4 self tappers are removed you can lift out the bowl to reveal the rubber gasket



some of this will need replaced



LHS housing not too bad



RHS a little worse



stripped of fittings and awaiting repair to LHS hinge bracket

Providing the new piece is symmetrical you'll get away with that and nobody but the most anorak-y will notice it. There's something very fitting about using your Bookie winnings to restore an old gold Daimler, can't think of a better way to fund such a project.

Hi actionslaxx. I'm pretty sure I won't be slamming this. I think they look great stock and I tried to slam a Polo I spent years rebuilding and it drove so badly afterwards that I never finished the project. It gathers dust at the back of the barn

Comfort is more important to me I think.

If I see a slammed XJS in town I'll no it's you tho

Vulgalour. It is a great way to fund a project but no wins on the European football from last night & tonight. I lost a fiver , so that Stateside silencer will need to wait. I should actually be trimming my parts tonight as I didn't go to the barn but instead I am counting all my wins & losses for the 11/12 season. It takes ages

Hi again Smith. I'm using polyester basecoat for the colour. I think it was £80 for a litre with matching thinners. Quite dear but it looks a good match for the original.

I'd like to buy more and do the whole car but what I have just now is enough for the repaired areas I think (sills, rear apron, arches etc).

I have painted one part of the car with it so far and used 1k clear on top of it and it looks fine. Haven't polished it yet but might not need to.



front apron painted in polyester basecoat from Oval Paints



then a little 1K lacquer brings out the colour nicely


Anyway, that painting was done back in the summer and it'll probably be a couple of months down the line before any more colour goes on so, meantime, I'm back at exhausts and trim and rusted bonnet-hinge locations.

Perhaps inadvisedly am also about to embark on brazing. I've never done this before and don't particularly want to get sidetracked into a new thing but it will let me repair the expansion tank and coolant pipe in the way they were originally made and I'll also be able to sort out some problems with the rear bumper which needs several new captive nuts doing. I've welded nuts on to parts in the past but it always ruins the threads. Not badly enough that they can't be used but if I can get the hang of brazing it will be nice to do them that way.

My outlay on the brazing stuff is just under £15 so far so even if it's a total failure it's not then end of the world lol



£4 for flux coated brazing rods and about the same for some vermiculite bricks (plus another £4 odd for P&P). coould be a waste of time and money but if I can master brazing will be money well spent


On Friday night I got busy on the bonnet repair and if I hadn't left my drill bits at home might've got the job completed. I spent most of the night filing out the bolt holes by hand with a needle file but it turned out fine and I'll get it welded in tomorrow.



captive bracket for bonnet hinge removed by cutting bonnet skin with dremel tool and drilling out two spotwelds



part flipped over shows I cut through two spotwelds on the other end. should've made the cut a few mm's futher in




captive bracket parts with damaged part of bonnet-shell - which is being re-made








bonnet inner shell has small returned lip spotwelded to outer




I won't be separating the bonnet shell to deal with internal corrosion. will be drowned in cavity fluids instead

And back to the exhaust. The more I look at the RHS front/mid silencer the more I think it would be better to repair than replace. As you can see from the pics all it needs is a new rear pipe section. It only curves in one plane so as long as I can get a piece of pipe the same diameter and radius curve it would be cheap and easy to repair and means someone else can use the one on Ebay.

The brand of that one is Harmo and it appears they were an English company who made replacement exhausts in the 70s. I assumed it was an American name but a Google search throws up that they were in Birmingham. The OD is 1 7/8" which seems strange at first but that is because the pipe it fits into is 2" OD so it needs to be a little thinner.



bad picture of front/mid silencers. rear ends at top of pic



passenger side one was replaced with pukka part some time before 1986



we have a problem on drivers side box. exhaust was not all in place when I bought the car and I reckon this happened with someone pulling on the long front section



with parts up on their sides it looks like all that is needed to fix things it a piece of pipe the right radius and diameter




45 degree bend perhaps....

So, after all the pictures of small but necessary parts and stuff here are some gratuitous shots of the interior trim. Nicer to look at

For no other reason than I was having a major stocktake yesterday of all the trim I have stashed in my flat for the VDP and my Hillman Imp.

The pictures of the front and rear seat were taken some time ago. I'd had them stashed in the rafters of the barn for years and was horrified to find the amount of dust and damp on them.

However they cleaned up fantastically with some Turtle Wax leather cleaner I got in the bargain bin at B&Q. I don't want to leave them up in the rafters again so they are now loosely in place in the car which means taking them out and in if you are doing any work on the body etc but it doesn't take that long tbh.



front and rear door trim brought out for inspection yesterday




I've always thought my interior colour was the worst of the 3 VDP colours but this pic makes me say 'hell yeah' ;D




unusually the pocket/speaker pod is fixed to the door first and the door card goes on top



door pockets seem to be lined in same material as headlining. might get some Alcantara in there for that luxury experience




armrest/handles screw onto door but heads are completely concealed. little screw at front underside is key to getting access




once that is removed you need to push top cover horizontally to disengage screw heads from retainers in bottom half




close up of fixing arrangement. looks like VDP let the work experience lads do this bit




B post trim casings are a sort of cardboard




front faces of the trims are great but the hardboard backings are inevitably not so good. fronts...



...and rears



driver's side rear is the worst. this one was left in-situ in the car for several years more than the other. might be a factor



both F/L (front left?) according to the pencil marks



front seat not looking good after years of poor storage



rear seat cushion had been partially covered while up rafters but still looking poorly




great results with the leather cleaner




this shot highlights how the seat back/sides etc is a different material from the front. only the faces are leather




fluted panel has had the treatment here


One last musing before I sign off. There is a lot of time and effort spent on striving for originality in the classic vehicle world and it's usually possible to decide what is and isn't, but not always. Take the door pockets shown here for example. 2 are made of one tpe of hardboard and 2 of another and 3 of the speakers fitted are ELAC while one is Radiomobile. They are all the same spec however but it is interesting and if the manufacturer varied things a little you can forgive yourself for doing likewise I guess.




points deduction in the Concourse for different materials on same components? but they are original! honest



3 of these fitted




and 1 of these




random shot of when I was working on the outer sill