bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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A little more progress today. I have been reconstructing the rotten OS A pillar and was pleasantly suprised to find it was not as bad as I feared. First step after clean up was putting in this triangular shaped patch at the top. There was previous patch in the same place but it hadn't been fully welded and had rotted out around it.  Next was another patch down from a previous repair to the swage line in the body. I still need to drill a hole for interior light switch. Welds dressed and rot cut out further down. I did the patch in two pieces to get the profile right.  There are still a few small areas to address, the checkstrap mount for instance but the majority of the repair is done. |
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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Jun 20, 2021 13:40:42 GMT
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We have some more progress today.  I found that the rot here was far more extensive than originally suspected. A previous repair panel had been fitted on top of the rusty original and the shape was well off. This had then been hidden with an inch of filler. All the rot and the previous repair has been cut out and a new repair panel but welded in place. This will need a couple of mm of filler max to smooth it out as the previous repair had distorted the shape of the original panel.  the back end of the car is now rust free.  I'm not all that happy with the rear valance as it is a far more complicated shape than I first thought. It will be getting a new rear valance at some point but currently the budget won't stretch that far. The budget is even tighter now after this happened to my daily commuter.  Timing belt tensioner failed less than a week after a new belt kit was fitted! I really hope it hasn't bent valves but I suspect I have not been that lucky as it cut out at about 1500rpm. |
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Last Edit: Jun 20, 2021 13:48:16 GMT by bl1300
Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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Jun 20, 2021 17:23:41 GMT
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I did a little more welding this afternoon.  |
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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Jul 14, 2021 20:59:22 GMT
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More progress here now  Remember this rotten A pillar? It now looks like this.  The N/S was even worse  It is also now solid   The area behind the rear wheel has been replaced  The floorpans have also been tidied up. This is a temporary measure, as really she needs new floorpans but they are beyond the budget at the moment. The car had 3 floorpans on top of each other and all 3 were rotten! She now only has one floorpan that has been patched up. No more Fred Flintstone for me.  I have also rebuilt the gear linkage, the rear brakes, the fuel lines, the coolant hoses, the heater matrix and have fitted the missing engine and radiator ducting panels. I decided to replace the beyond saving wooden dashboard with a plastic item as to be honest I prefer it and it was original fitment on some MKIVs. Some of my preference may have been that a plastic dash was 10x cheaper than a walnut dash though. Fingers crossed she will be back on the road before the end of the month. |
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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A little more progress today but unfortunately not the milestone I was hoping for! I thought I had finally finished the welding but found the passenger sill needs repairs as does the rear inner wheel arch area. Nothing that should take more than a day. On other notes the engine is fully assembled, brakes have been inspected and set up, new handbrake cable fitted (now that's a fiddly job), heater matrix has been replaced along with the smiths valve and control cables. We even tried starting her up. She turns over fine, and has a good spark, but currently won't fire. She coughs a bit so i'm hoping a little fiddling will get her started. Especially as I just realised although I primed the carbs with fuels I forgot to put any in the petrol tank! She has been statically timed using a multimeter Points gap is correct Valve clearances are correct   We have 8 days to get her fully reassembled and running as she is booked in to the Malvern Triumph and MG weekend a week Friday. Saying that she will be going on a trailer regardless as I have 3 people going and the Spitfire only has 2 seats. |
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Last Edit: Aug 4, 2021 19:13:41 GMT by bl1300
Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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 She's back on her wheels with 4 new tyres. |
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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Aug 11, 2021 19:56:50 GMT
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Major progress over the last couple of days. I discovered why she still wouldn’t start by doing a compression test. Cylinder 4 was healthily ish at 120psi, 3 was very unwell at 54psi 2 a little healthier at 60psi and one was at 90psi. So off with the head again and a mad dash to a local engineering firm. The head has been skimmed and pressure testing showed issues with the valves on 1, 2 and 3. 2 and 3 were described as dire and 1 was okay but not good. So I got the head home again, pulled the valves and lapped valves into the small hours of this morning. No signs of valve seat recession just lots of carbon fouling on the valve seats. Several hours later and all 8 valves are now seating well. Hopefully that comb8ned with the skim will sort the running issues and she will start up tomorrow. Lots of yesterday was also spent doing paint prep until by about 10 o’clock this morning she looked like this.  This was all made much harder as I managed to dislocate my index finger at Go Ape on Sunday.  First layer of top coat and I get annoyed as the colour match was not very good, considering the car was scanned to make the paint.   3 layers of cellulose later and we are looking like this.  After the paint has had a few hours to dry we started putting trim on.  At the end of play today she is finally looking like a car again. Considering the rushed nature of the spray work and the somewhat adverse conditions she has come out pretty well especially considering I haven’t flatted and polished her yet at all. |
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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