Gearbox refurb

Its been a while since Ive updated how things are going but now that most of the bodywork has been completed (just some grinding and cosmetic work to go) its now time to look back at the engine and gearbox before reinstalling them.

My youngest son, the little darling has managed to insert various bits into the engine as it has been sitting in the garage awaiting refitting. If it wasn’t for the fact that I saw some green zip ties poking out of the water pump, I may not have noticed his handy work.

So I have dropped off the gearbox to a local automatic gearbox specialist for a clean up and refurbish. I should be able to do a limited strip down on the engine before it is finished just so I don’t find any other little surprises deposited by my little angels.

Its all coming together, slowly, very, very slowly but surely.

Had to take a little time to fix something

Unfortunately I have had to spend some time away from the Big Green Machine over the last few weeks due to a training course last weekend and to deal with some fuel issues with the MGB. Everytime I turned on the fuel pump, petrol poured out of the carbs down over the exhaust manifold, not a good thing. you can read more about it here.

Still Plugging Away

I am still plugging away (literally) as I replace the wiring. I have made a few nubie errors so far which resulted in fitting a lot then coming to the realisation that I would have to undo it all to fit another area first! Slightly frustrating but essential so that I can do it right.

The downside of course is that regardless of how soon i can get it all together, I won’t necessarily know it all works until I get the engine back in. Oh well, I better cross my fingers and hope that I get it all in the right order!

Now while I continue doing the electrical work, I need to find someone who can help with uprating the transmission.

More on Door Panels

Making the new door panels has been fairly straight forward with and I thought I might share how I have done it. The doors were in pretty bad shape with moisture, dirt and time taking their toll on the flimsy old fibre board card.

The interiors were virtually non-existent having been rotted away. So to put a temporary replacement into place, lightweight, cheap and expedient for the rally.

So I started by making sure that the rust in the interior was treated and prepped so that it would not get any worse, giving it a good coat of rust converter, a good zinc rich primer and etch primer etc. Making sure all the drain holes are well cleared so that it won’t fill with water and cause more problems in the future.

Making sure the panel fits properly and the clips are in the right place is probably the most tedious and frustrating but has to be done, again and again till it fits “just right”.

Once that is done several times, I then put a waterproof membrane over the door, in this case of sheet of heavy duty plastic  that was laying around the house , held in place with some race tape. This should stop moisture ruining the card and material in the future.

Then I use spray adhesive to attach some woolen backing material left over from my wife’s quilting experiments.

Give that a chance to dry, then attach the facing material

Trim it all to size and then stick it down making sure it all fits properly and doesn’t cause any creases, then it is just a matter of fitting it back onto the door.

Then fitting the classic Jaguar/Daimler walnut wood trim

Then Ta-Da a new door trim! Simple easy and quick steps to a better looking interior. I am keeping all the original trims so that I can have new, flash looking door trims made when the car becomes a normal car again in its post rally life.

 

 

 

One step forward…

Continuing on the interior I did some work on the doors, replacing the tatty, worn door trim that looks sad and definitely in need of some refurbishment, being held together with tape and good intentions

Thinking of how to make cheap and easy interior trim, I was lucky enough to have some old core flute boards and my ever resourceful wife found some cheap material at the post Christmas sales (only $2.10 a metre!). So with a little bit of ingenuity and a can of contact adhesive I managed to turn this

into this

then finally into something a little bit more respectable for the big green car

I plan on having the original door trims remade but that is not going to be for some time.

Unfortunately as the title suggests while carrying out the cutting and fitting for the passenger door I managed to find firstly a small hole, which after some poking and prodding turned into a rather large hole!

Some head scratching and soul searching stopped me from just filling it with bog and ignoring it but to fix it properly so I don’t become a “dreaded previous owner” and I would always know it was there. It turned out most of the bottom of the door was pin holed with rust.

So taking the door off to access the rusty bits, I cut them out, cut new metal to fit and used the new welder to fix the shiny new metal in place.

Now it looks a lot better but still not finished yet.

Unfortunately I have to return to work tomorrow but will try to get everything refitted and fixed up sooner rather than later.

 

It’s the little things…..

Strangely enough sometimes doing some small things suddenly makes a big difference. I discovered this today after doing some work on the interior, I decided to trial fit some new floor carpets. I bought some cheap, hard wearing carpets and using the deep, expensive but very old carpet as a template, cut the new pieces.

So it has suddenly gone from looking like this

Overall a little bit ratty, tired and worn

To this…

Looking pretty flash!

Well parts still look tired and ratty but the floor looks great!

I’ll wait till I get the wiring before fixing the carpets in place and  will look at doing some more interior work over the next few days to get that wonderful sense of accomplishment!

Getting there

I lashed out today and with my Christmas money, I bought myself a welder so I can strengthen the body by stitch welding and seam welding the body but before I started this I had to finish stripping out the engine bay.

So I have progressed from this

to have the engine out

Now to having the engine bay and ancillaries totally stripped out

Next is to strip back most of the paint and prep it for welding. The engine bay is progressively becoming lighter as years and years of accumulated oil dirt and grease is slowly being removed, some by degreasing, some by scraping but it seems that most is being removed by being smeared all over my hands and clothes much to my darling wife’s ambivalence.

Hopefully once I have finished it will look more like this competition spec MG.

Still puttering along….

Well the engine is still being repaired at Peninsular Jag and while that is happening I have stripped out the rest of the engine bay, removing the heater, the brake components, electrics, wipers etc.

Some good news is that I will be getting full new wiring soon then I can begin the daunting task of rewiring the entire car. Thanks to Paul Vermont from Vintage Wiring Harness who is helping out with this complex task.

Minor Stuff

Now that Sandy the MG is running again after fixing some electrical issues I can get back to doing things to the Daimler. I stripped out the door trim, it is tired and will eventually be retrimmed and replaced but for the rally I am planning on the minimum. So out with interiors with arm rests and tired trim.

In with utilitarian interiors, light weight and simple, watch this space.

 

 

Learning from experience

The weekend away bought some good advice and great ideas. It started on Friday night with a charity function for the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre at Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre. Most of the Australian crews who took part came and shared their stories and even the winners trophy made a brief appearance as Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson took the stage

The following day I was fortunate to spend some time with Rhys Timms, a silver medalist from the 2010 P2P in car 34, a 1936 MG SA

It was a good chance to pick the brains of someone who had “been there. done that”. The assistance was invaluable and I would like to pass on a big thank you to Rhys and his family for spending the afternoon with them, asking questions and generally taking up their time asking technical and rally related questions.

That evening was another chance to chat, learn and generally ask question at a reunion dinner with the crews at a function at the Victorian Vintage Racing Car Club, and in true Melbourne style it was located in a small, non descript shed, hidden out the back of a nameless laneway, known only to a few “in the know” people. Luckily, I scored a lift there and didn’t have to risk my navigation to get there. It was a good night with great people and excellent food.

I would like to thank all of the crews and their respective spouses for putting up with a “wannabe” like myself and from some of the conversations, I hope to see some of you again in 2013!