New boing and bling parts

Got my new AVOs with courier the other day. Will be fitting these pretty soon. Also got a new rear swing spring setup - will probably alltogether transform handling quite a lot.

Just have to get hold of a new spring compressor, got a feeling that the old homemade wooden thing might be fine for 150 lbs standard spring but to weak for 480 lbs

Apart from admirering new shocks, I got around to fit front wing finishers and grille. Nice piece of 70's style black plastick. Looks like I might even make it for a ride in the spring. Can't wait!

RBRR2008 TEAM #3

YES, we have secured a good entry number. I have heard that 3 is a lucky number. 3 Danes going as team #3. That must be good.

Now we (well, mostly Daniel as Morten and I are buried in our spitfires) just have to fix the 2000 MK2 (aka The Ferry). Nothing is going to stop us now - well, apart from British technology!

Fuelpipes

Finally, the last fuelpipes has been routed. Was not quite straightforward, as the carb is a HS4 and fuelpump is for HS2, which means the nozle on the pump points in the wrong direction (MK3 usually routes from pump to carb in front of engine - later routes behind the engine) Not a biggie thou, got the pipe nicely along the firewall.




Basically I am ready to start the engine now. Exiting to see if the ignition works at all - bought at an autojumble. I am just waiting for my engiman Bjarne to come along. I have promised not to start the enginbe without him - healso has some special homebrewed run-in oil with a hint of Molybdenum in it which he swears to.

Carbs, ignition and waterpipes ready

Had another go at the engine yesterday. Got the carbs in their proper place - just need to hook them up to the throttlepedal. Ignition also put on, though I am a bit unsecure about it. I was bought secondhand - the old distributor was dead, and this was a great bargain. The distributor is excellent with no play - I am a bit more suspicious about the electronic ignitionmodule. Well - I will give it a try. Of it does not work I will go back to contacts.

I got the waterpipe behind the manifold fixed too.

And to Vitessesteve - thanks for the advice on the waterpumpthread - will try that next week before going up in boltsize.

Finally - managed to push the chrometrim down in the windshield rubber. Generous amount of fairy liquid needed!

Some pics.

Water pump problems

I - painfully - learned a few things today. First: put the adaptornut (the one for the water return pipe) back into the waterpump housing before you stick it on the engine and puts the radiator in front. Adaptornut cannot be moved one flat with house in situ. That sucks!

Second: check the treads on the waterpump housing before you put everything back together (again). When tightening the alloy thermostat housing the bolt kind of did not bite. and of course there is not any room for a nut under the housing. Going up in boltsize very shortly I believe.

I SEE - COMMENTS!!

Sorry - wasn't aware anybody actually was reading my ramblings and leaving comments. Keep em coming.

Here comes answers:

Thorvald - sorry - I fixed the broken pics now.

Richard - yes - sidewindows and quarterlights are a pain on the roundtails. I beleive I possibly have aquired the last set of sidewindows in the world with the rounded corner. Judging from the price I would say they are very rare. Hope deal goes through. Othervise I must resort to the modify softtop thing.

Vitessesteve: Yes - nice patches - may hold water for a while, but certainly not pretty, and a sure place for rust to start eating again. Been replaced (and a the same time I could straighten out the damages from the sideimpact by a previous owner - he must have forgot to tell me somehow - ehh???)

Yours truly doing Round Denmark - 2000 kilometers, 36 hours

Engine is back in!

Finally - and after much struggle - the engine is in right back where it belongs. It was amazingly easy to get the engine in. Now things start to come together, and I hope that the car will hit the road this spring. Has started to fit all the life support systems, work of joy really. After being stuck for 4 months I can finally report some decent progress.

Here is the pics.

Sæder til salg!

Send en mail på nikolaj.blomberg@gmail.com hvis du er interesseret. Sæderne er i rimelig stand. Vinylen er pæn, men der er et par små huller i stoffet. Skummet har set bedre dage, men er udskifteligt. Sæderne har sunde rammer og gode sædeskinner.

Det er 1500 reclinersæder inklusiv nakkestøtter.

Engine and gearbox ready

Yihaa, installed the clutch, bolted up the gearbox. Now it is just about ready to go in!

Seeing things in the right perspective

Now, things have been a bit slowgoing lately. To be honest, things have been boring. I am getting nearer the end of restoration, and have reached the dreaded last 5 %. Anyway, I get a little happier when I watch the rather artistic patchwork some PO did in the footwells. Clearly illustrated in the pictures below

Outrageously slow updates!

Sorry for the lack of updates, things has been pretty frantic lately. Anyway, good news; engine has arrived.

Engine has been proffesionally rebuild, and was delivered last friday. I took a day off and painted the engine matt black (actually same colour as the window frame)

I also fitted the clutch. Had intended to put the gearbox on, but realised that I had forgot the seal at home (the seal that goes between the bellhousing and the gearbox)

Hopefully I will be able to put gearbox and engine back together next wednesday, and throw the entire unit in the car. This partly depends on testing the solenoid on the OD - haven't had time to do this yet. If it turns out OK I am ready to proceed.

No pictures in this update as I am presently operating on a 56K telephone modem. sigh!

FLASHING!

Another few hours, and the front flashers and one headlamp could be taken of the to-do list. Nice.

Slow, but steady!

Oh dear. Only one night i the garage, and only one update to the blog i February. I certainly got to speed up if I want to don the Round Denmark Reliability Run in this car!

Did pop by the other evening, though I didn't manage to do much. Got the bonnet locks on. They aren't pretty, but they work!

Also cleaned an old front trunnion that was broke due to neglecting lubrication. I had the doubtful joy of driving the spit with this trunnion just two weeks before it failed. I was driving rather spirited in the countryside. Scary when I think about it. It lost its front wheel 2 weeks later. To judge by the rust in the broken link I believe that it was already broken when I drove the car.

Morale: Don't forget to oil your trunnions regularly

More progress (well - a kind of)

I must admit - it is very cold outside at the moment. Unfortunately - when it is cold outside, it is also cold in my garage. In fact is is so cold that the batteries in my camera went dead. (perhaps just a bad excuse for not charging them?)

Anyway, I did actually manage to do a few things before I froze to death (nearly) I attached the little handbrakecable spring that always go missing on these cars. I would not miss it now if it got lost - it was awful to get in place!

Second I fitted the rearwiev mirror. The very clever man who had treated the windscreen frame with new vinyl had forgotten to mark where the holes for the mirror were. After what felt like a really long time I found the hole and could punch through the vinyl.

Front valance also went into place. Nice little job - wish I had smaller fingers!

Replaced the door handle I put on last week with one from the shelf that was in a better condition (whoa - if I keep up this I can do everything twice - I need to get my stuff sorted out!)

Finally - I put on the bonnet stay. A bit tricky since I had none of the proper bolts. Previous owner used whatever he could find.

Over and out - going away for a looooong week.

It's all clear now - finally!

Finally some decent progress. Yesterday I had some good quality time with the Spit. Managed to fit the front windscreen - this time without breaking it. It was actually rather easy to get the glass in once I had read the manual. And this time I read it a bit more thoroughly than last time!

I didn't manage to get any pics while working, but here is a picture of the window in place!

As one can see, the second thing I got around to was fitting the bonnet. I have had this job waiting since god know when. But didn't want to do it before I had the engine in. Well now, since I have been waiting more than a year for the engine, I can just as well put the bonnet on now and get the door gaps adjusted. That's a job for next time.

When door gaps and windscreen is adjusted I can fit the glove boxes. Hope I hit the road by spring!

Front end is sitting quite high due to the lack of an engine.

A spot of masking tape can be seen running along the lover edge of the front wing. I am bitterly regretting that I didn't remove this last summer, as it is a pain to get of now. I spent quite a while last night removing it. Just another hour or so left! Hooray

I am stuck - and it sucks!

Yet another Thursday in the garage. It was bloody cold though, and I didn't get anything done (apart from putting on a door handle - pathetic really!)

Problem is that I am stuck. I would like to put on the door cards, so I can say doors are done now. But that's a no go since my windows is still in England - and I am waiting to get them shipped to me (get the drift James?)

Okay, I could put the panel covering the gas tank on - nooooo - have to wait for the bolts goes into the diff - rear end are lowered, and for some reason I have been supplied with wrong bolts.... Crap.

Okay, how about the exhaust - that really need some work. Nope - can't do without engine (still out of town, has some problems with the oil temp sensor which is going into the sump.
No engine - no gearbox.

Okay, what about the glovecompartments then. Nope - forgot the cord which I need in order to fit the windscreen. If the window frame isn't properly adjusted - it's a waste of time fitting glove compartments.

How about adjusting the doors the - no can't do without bonnet in place, can't put bonnet on without engine in.

On top of this it was something like 10 degrees below zero - cold cold cold cold!!!!

Should I go on??? This sucks!! I want the car ready for spring.


Notice the fancy red paint on the door striker - just visible in the door gap. Looks awful - should have given the striker a good cleaning before I fitted it. Alternatively the moron who painted the car red years ago could have used masking tape. (moron! (me that could just as well be - moron, not painter that is!))

So after 5 hours I could evaluate the evening - I managed the impressive job of fitting a door handle (max 10 minutes!). At least I took a picture. Hope next Thursday will be better.

At least I got around to sweep the floors!

Next Thursday front window goes in ( and hopefully I will not break it this time!)