More locks, and even more problems!

Well, it took a good two hours to get the passengerside lock to work. I had to grind the lock fork through a hole in the door as I couldn't get the lock (not the door lock, but the part with the key) out. But eventually it worked. Before I fitted the other side, I shortened the fork - saved me two hours work there! But of course nothing is ease. It appears that there has been added a liberal amount of filler around the hole in the doorplate where the lock shall be. And this means that the "legs" that hold the lock cannot engage. This meant another hour of swearing and scraping knuckles before I got all done

During this process I had to remove the locking mechanism - which were to say the least looking a bit tatty. Took the chance and gave it a good clean and a layer of paint. It was very red from a previous respray (by PO). Car is green now, and it really looked YUK.

Before
After

Next week the drive shaft, spring and diff will be removed and replaced by a new parts. Hopefully! I have new AVOs ready, and somewhere in the post is a pair of new longer drive shafts. Some years ago I bought a recon diff from Jon Wolfe. It is a 4.11 but rebuild into a later diff housing (only 4 holes for studs) and with fatter input and output shafts.

New locks - and new problems!

Finally got around to fit the new WB-locks I bought for the spit. Quite nice locks actually, with nice WB-key set and FS-keynumbers. All good. And much better than other locks in the market, as I do not have to make the hole in the doorplate larger. After a bit of fiddling around, the lock went in very nicely. All very good - until........ I tried to lock the door!


The fork which is engaging the locking mechanism is to long and cannot turn as it touches the reinforcement plate on the doorshell. In the picture below you van see the culprit - it is supposed to turn counter clockwise. Crap! And there is absolutely no easy way to get these locks of the door again.

I will have to remove the locking mechanism on the door to be able to turn the lockforks downwards and gently remove some metal from the fork. Not what I really needed. Thought the lockjob was going to be easy - then again - what is easy with these cars and repro spares!!!

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