If ever there is a thread to get people enthused into having a go at a full resto its yours! Good work.
That means a lot, thank you very much
Glad to be enthusiastic enough to be inspiring.
Today I had a plan! Hydraulic clutch installation, put some colour coats on the wheels and match up the gearbox to the block and slide them both back in. Here's how I got on!
First things first I had to pick the engine back out so I could get to the bulkhead easier and then hopefully mate up the gearbox.
Stumbled on a slight problem tho haha!
The perils of lowering your car! Be warned haha
Jack under the drivers side sill gave the clearance I needed and out it came leaving full access to the bulkhead that I needed or at least thought would be easier.
Here's the template marking out a rough position.
Looking at the layout of the pedal box I decided that it was a much more important issue to mount the master cylinder in as strong a position as possible and then make the pedal mount fit that. There was a degree of flexibility in the pedal end.
I made a small template of the pressed shape on the bulkhead to get an idea of the sizes I had to play with. I wanted to bolt through a plate on the inside of the bulkhead to help reinforce the mounting.
Found a sheet to use.... oh look! Zinc yellow plating haha!
=
Chain drilled the inner cut out. It looks shoddy but it's allowing plenty of space to file the circle back to an accurate line.
Perfect
I couldn't find my engineers blue so had to use what has infamously become the
Retro Rides Tool of the Week - The Sharpie! Haha!
Mark, drilled and bolt tested.
Used the plate to mark out the bulkhead holes....
And maybe naively cut them straight out. I did, however, measure twice and cut once. ;D
Chain drilled and filed to a perfect circle.
Moment of truth!
I like!
Now, with that mounted I could start measuring up the pedal for the bracket. If you remember Thomas showed me his setup which helped convince me to move to a hydraulic setup. Here's a reminder of his...
I was having a look at the bracket and how it would shape up and decided on an alternative option.
If I could mount a bolt through the pedal and bolt it using a spacer to hold is solid this could then slide through the master cylinder and a couple of lock bolts on the other side to still allow the cylinder enough freedom during the throw of the pedal to move where it needed to.
The only issue I had was trying to find a bolt... Hmmmmm....
Old rear leaf spring shackle should do it
Ready to be turned down. Had to make a decision of what size the bolt should be. Strong enough to activate the clutch hydraulics safely but not too large a diameter that it would compromise the clutch pedal.
10mm seemed to be the best of both, leaving a good 9mm either side of the hole.
Into the lathe to be turned down.
Once that was turned down to the right diameter we needed a thread on the end.
M10x1.5mm die ready for threading. Unfortunately no cutting compound so I had to just keep the thread oiled while cutting.
Then the pedal needed its hole.
Marked out there are two options. These are where I felt the master cylinder still had enough movement left vertically to *swing* with the throw of the pedal but not too high or low that it would foul the main body. The decision was made as the lower mark was on the flat, whereas any higher the hole would be verging on the bend in the pedal.
So an old shackle, a little lathe work, digging out my old die set leaves me with!!!
;D
Now for the spacers. Again a nightmare to find any workable round bar of anything like the right diameter! Everyone else on the forum seems to have an unlimited supply of scrap metal that seems to suit haha!
Finally found a length.
Cut, bored and de-burred left these two
Yeeehah!!
The throw seems perfect! Next is to pipe it all in.
The more observant of you may have noticed that the lighting has changed towards the end of these photos. The last one taken at 8pm so that meant no gearbox fitting today. I am off tomorrow morning so may drop it in then.
I did, however, manage to get a little colour on the wheels earlier!!
And the rocker cover and starter motor as you can see
The stupid residue left by the wheels having been dipped is really REALLY frustrating though. It doesn't seem to want to rub off, and rejects paint like a b******. Many MANY light coats of etch primer and top coat later we have nearly a good covering.
And I got a delivery too!
But check out how bad the M10 nuts are!
My sister could have tapped those better! haha
Will email the company later. All the others are fine, but it was particularly the M10's I needed to upgrade/replace on the car.
That's all for today anyhow! Absolutely buzzing to hopefully have a working hydraulic clutch. Need some hydraulic pipe to finish it off
Next job once gearbox is in... fuel system I think. Thanks to the replies in the Electronic Fuel Injection thread I'm a lot more confident about tackling that now.
Have a good eve everyone! I'm going to get some
ice cream and watch
Ninja Assassin haha! Don't believe RT's 26%... it's an epic film
Chris
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