~ My Build - Part 3 ~
The story of my build. These are only highlights as the whole story would send you to sleep big-time.
<< Back to Part 2
Still Re-Building:
31st January:
Filled up the brake reservoir this week and bled the brakes, geez it's so easy with the "Easibleed" system. Just connect hose to your tyre, fill
up bottle with fluid, connect to your reservoir and bleed. No helper needed. Not able to test the brakes yet, that exciting part is yet to come.
Also finished off some more panels as I've only just come down off the glue from last time. Fitted them in situ and it's very tight in the drivers
foot-well so had to make a recess in bottom of the front panel to accommodate my size 10 feet. This took ages and the worse thing is nobody will see my handy work.
7th February:
Fitted the radiator expansion tank, well say fitted it, it's not stuck to anything just plumbed in so I can try and start the engine. Filled all fluids up and connected battery. Would it, wouldn't it I wondered ......... It didn't - Damn! Adjusted the timing by hand and tinkered with the carbs. Surprise surprise, they weren't set-up properly by the previous owner. Thank goodness for Dave Andews site. Used his guide to setting up Dellorto's and it started the next go. Sounds excellent but exhaust fell off as I haven't got around to getting it spot welded yet. A few children ran away screaming it was so loud.
Engine bay cleaner
14th February:
What did I do this week, it's all starting to blur into one now. I know, sourced a new nose cone and bonnet as mine need
far too much work. Somebody sold me a nose for £50.00 and I got the bonnet free, just paid postage, there are some genuinely nice people out
there. Un-fortunately, it was more damaged than I first thought but it will do for the SVA. I'm thinking at this
stage to replace the whole lot, but at just over £800.00, I may have to wait a short while, well a LONG while.
I've cut off the old indicator pods from the nose and filled the holes, filled more body bits and then filled them again.
21st February:
Got some self tappers this week so I've managed to get on with fitting the tunnel top covers. Had to accommodate the wires from the rear end and speedo cable as I have a manual clock. Fitted the handbrake lever and gaiter properly. I'm a bit worried about the radius on the tunnel sides but I have seen a car with piping wedged under the tunnel top and it looked very neat, an option I think
Tunnel Trimmed
28th February:
Found a small pool of oil on the carpet in the garage (yes it's carpeted, isn't yours?). Looks like the rocker gaskets are still leaking from a small hole drilled at the bottom of the lower cam
cover. Don't ask why it was drilled, I'm sure I don't know. Tried everything to seal it but nothing works. I'll have to revise this at a later date.
Had a crack at covering the dash, what a fiddly job that was. Forgot to allow clearance for the cloth to go around the dials so had to hack some
more out of the dash panel then more foam and glue, I'm starting to get immune to the smell now. Couldn't wait to put the dials back in and it
look better than I ever thought except they were the wrong way around. The things you do when your impatient eh.
6th March:
Filled in SVA forms this week and sent off. Put down for the end of this month but not sure if I will be ready in time.
Still got lots to do. Scuttle still isn't fitted and mirrors and bonnet, nose ....
Attempted to fit nose and bonnet but even thought they were made the same year, they may as well have been from different countries the fit was so bad.
After a little adjustment with a belt sander, they fit, but have you ever noticed - fix one thing, another problem arises. The perishing radiator is too far forward now.
Removed all my hard work around the Rad, adjusted he brackets and re-fitted with millimetres to spare.
13th March:
Due to the angle of the engine and the height, I've had to cut a hole in the bonnet - scary. I measured it about 14 times
before I too the jigsaw to it. Then decided to try and find a scoop to fit it, nothing suitable so I thought, how hard can it be.
I made the hole nice and curved and had the bright idea to make a basic mold out of paper mache then cover with fibreglass, fill it and smooth in. It has
to be mentioned this was only a temporary measure as I later intend to replace the bonnet with a highline version.
Got the mache all mixed up and plonked onto a hardboard base, put into the airing cupboard to dry out a bit, 3 days later I checked it and it had sunk. Back to square one!
20th March:
Managed to find some time to spray up the scuttle this week, looks nice now that I've matched the paint. Only trouble is now it looks better that the rest of the car - Doh! Found out I have filled a hole for the Fusebox wires to go through but that's easily drilled back out again. Getting to look like a car again with the scuttle in place. Going about threading the wires through it and fixing to various points to stop them flapping about. Mr SVA Man doesn't like that sort of thing so I hear.
Scuttle all nice and neat.
22nd March:
10 days to go to the date I've asked for my SVA .... Nooooo. Ordered some more parts today. Interior mirror, not sure why it's
called this because it sits on the outside (no windscreen you see). Also ordered some more edging strip and foam strip as I need a supply to take to the SVA just in case.
Fixed all wiring in the engine bay so that's another thing off the tick list which by the way is not getting shorter fast enough.
Got 1 day left at work as I've had to take time off work to finish it - any excuse.
24th March:
One week to go and I have loads to do, this is the final countdown to the dreaded SVA and I've got my hands full. Had to fit something around the hole in the bonnet and as plan A went to pot, I thought about making a bonnet bulge from Aluminium but that proved too hard. Then my Girlfriend had a bright idea to use some of the left over mesh from the nose grill to fashion a cover. This worked a treat as it was very pliable and when glass fibred into place looked quite neat. Did a bit of tidying up on the bodywork and rubbed and sprayed a few bits.
25th March:
OMG, is that the time, got up late and rushed out to the garage. Booked a welder to fix the extra bossed for my 4 point harness, I didn't like the thought of fixing them to a 3 point fixing. Edged the exhaust mounting and fitted that to the four branch collector with sealing putty. This was needed as the previous method of connecting it was using tabs and wire which was not SVA compatible. At least the exhaust was almost done. Had to go out so nothing else done today - Doh!
Exhaust bracket
26th March:
Whilst waiting for the Welder to come around, I fitted my Spa mirrors. These would need edging but no time today. The welder turned up and chatted like mad, not what I needed at this late stage but he did a good job. Welded all 4 bosses on and tack welded my exhaust just to make sure it wouldn't fall off at high speeds - quite important really. Wired up my coil and fitted a new coil to dizzy cable. Most of day gone now but early start tomorrow.
27th March:
Forgot to wire up battery as I needed connectors so this was done and I checked all the electrics - Yesss, they still worked and no blown fuses this time. Fitted my interior mirror but had to fashion a foam rubber cover for the base of it due to sharp edges, this turned out to be a neat addition, the things you do when your poor eh? Drove around for a bit looking for bolts to fit my rollbar and seatbelts. Didn't realise this would be so hard as the thread on the seatbelt bosses was a UNF fitting.
Interior Mirror fitted.
28th March:
Fitted the rollbar today, what a pain as the bolts were tight up against the shock absorbers so I had to grind down the nuts. Whilst underneath the car, I found I had a fuel leak - Aarrggghh. It turned out that the electric fuel pump end cap was not tightened up enough so an easy fix there, Could have been worse.
29th March:
Had to fit the nose but didn't like the old fixing points. The left side was forward of the headlights due to the angle of the engine but I managed to make a bracket and fit it near to where the original Westfield one would have been. Nose now on, refitted the bonnet which would you believe wouldn't fit again! Sods law me thinks. Fettled a bit more off and managed to get it fitted. Booked a pre-MOT test for tomorrow just to check it over.
30th March:
Checked car over for any loose nuts/bolts as this was the first trip in my car and I didn't want it breaking down. I was
excellent to get out in my car even if it was only half a mile trip. The guy in the MOT station didn't like the fact that I had now documentation
but he kindly did a quick check free of charge (Nice man). He couldn't check the brake performance as the sump was so low, so up on the ramps to
check underneath. Thank God he did as my rear brakes were leaking like mad and the front Aeroquips were not to his liking. Carefully took the
car home and checked out the rear brakes. ANOTHER suprise, the previous builder (who I'm now starting to hate) had fitted UNF end fittings
on the end of the rear brake pipes .......... these should have been Metric, no wonder they were leaking under use.
Had to strip the complete rear braking system and order new pipes, slave cylinders and shoes.
Also had an oil leak from the lower cam cover which I had to remove and refit with new sealant. What a load of croc.
31st March:
With my SVA tomorrow, I was really up against it now. Removed rollbar, fitted new pipes with proper metric fittings. Fitted
brakes, shoes and bled brakes. Soooo much better now. Final check over the car tightening every bolt, nut and screw as the trip tomorrow was 15 miles one way and I didn't want to brake down.
Packed up a load of tools/foam,/tape/edging strip, in fact half my bloody garage was in my tin top car.
Finally finished it all at 19:30
1st April:
SVA Day, to read the Experience click HERE.