A popular distraction

[Blackpopracing]

a milestone tonight - it's started to go back together

I decided to spray the cage where it was welded - with the gun pressure turned right down (approx 12 psi) there is virtually no overspray, so with it masked up and some dustsheets over the car and the extractor on full chat they got blown in.







Quite pleased with those - they need a bit of wet sanding & polishing to blend them in properly to the original paint but should be invisible after that's done.

A job that did not go to plan was refitting the battery tray panel - this 'should' have fitted straight back in - I did notice some screws not tightened on removal but though nothing of it. It turns out the 4 big bolt holes (now converted to 8mm Rivnuts) were drilled about 5mm out of line to the ally battery cage, and the other 8 bolts did not line up with the holes.

Trimming & re-aligning everything as well as getting the rivnuts fitted in the right place took an hour to sort out, for a job that should have taken only a minute. It's the details that soak up the time, I welded the cage in, in less than an hour for comparison.



Anyway, with that done the battery tray and the battery were refitted, new grommets fitted to the battery cables, battery wired up & cables were resecured with cable ties. Then the seatbelts were refitted to the rear mounts. The passenger seat is only loosely refitted here, as I'm held up on refitting the rear side panels as I'm still waiting on the inner B posts drying out enought to pump wax into them.

This means the side windows also cant go back in and the same for the seats as they restrict access to the side panels & windows.




With the new cage bars the seatbelts now have a clear unobstructed line to the seats, they had to bend around the old cage before.




70 hours.

[Blackpopracing]

Tonight was a bit dissappointing, my daily decided that it would be fun to leave one of the rear calipers on all the time, so the early part of the evening was researching how to sort that - a job for the weekend. I'll have to borrow mrs Blackpops car for work tomorrow.

So, back to Andy's car.

The test bit of boot strapping bonded with Sikaflex was not great - probably strong enough in shear, but it peeled apart very easily, I'll try some of our adhesive at work tomorrow which should work, a rivet through the bond will have to be added if not.

I polished the new paint on the cage, very pleased with that, it only shows in a couple of places where the epoxy primer was not brushed on smoothly but it looks like it was all built & painted originally and not been added afterwards, nice.

Next job was to test the sweep of the wipers to see if we can improve on that and to get the wipers to park more out of the line of sight when driving. When I tried the washer jets the motor really struggled to pump the fluid - not unexpected with the universal motor that is fitted - I've never had much luck with them. A honda Jazz pump may end up getting fitted directly to the bottle in the future.

When it did finally spray I thought it was not working - until I looked outside the car and saw the jets pumping directly into the screen rubber, hmmmm.....




I adjusted them as high as they could go - but the water still did not reach the screen - so new different jets will be needed. Annoyingly ther holes are 8mm in the body and the jets I have in mind (and most other jets too) only use a 5mm hole - but I have a solution for that. Of course one of them is impossible to get to as the ignition system is built under the dash covering that bit

While in the area I dismantled the switch panel - I need to increase this for the choke cable, but looking at it it's also a bit shoddy once you get past the shine. It will be remade with the proper shaped holes for the switches & ign so they don't spin when you turn the key.

After that I started on the repairs to the (reproduction) Bakelite trims where they are broken.





This was done by using the Dremel to route out grooves so the steel mandrels from some rivets can be bonded in across the break. I have used this method before and it's extremely strong once the epoxy has cured.



And with the epoxy on it, it will be filed smooth once it has set.





71.5 hours.

[jsf55]

CBS do some. Maybe that tall one as it has a larger hole size ?

https://www.carbuilder.com/pages/sea...=washer%20jets

[Blackpopracing]

Hi John,

The water needs to squirt up at about 70 degrees so I need these type https://www.carbuilder.com/products/...41978437435446 the larger hole ones unfortunately don't squirt upwards enough.

[jsf55]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231912568210
That's what i got 8mm hole

[Blackpopracing]

I have one of those John, but as Andy has twin holes I dont think they will spray in the right place with the 4 jets. Shame as they would fit well. The singles will be ok, I had the same issue on mine when the IVA compliant ones popped the steel ball out! I had to fit the smaller jets in mine too.

[Blackpopracing]

Not a whole lot of progress last night & today, the daily needed attention as it decided the rear caliper should be on all the time Had some fun putting it into service mode and stripping it down, no obvious faults so pushed piston back and pumped it out a couple of times and it seems to be ok now - will have to keep an eye on it.

Thre B posts on Andy's car were refusing to dry out properly, so needed some encouragement. Several kettles of boiling water down each side with a narrow scrubbing brush has got all of the silt & gunk out of them, and the airline down each side for a few minutes seems to have got them reasonably dry. I can confirm the drainage holes I drilled work fine

Once they are dried properly I will give them one last thin coat of Hydrate 80 and once that has cured a big dose of cavity wax.

The sills will need a bit more drying out I suspect but at least with the B posts done I can start to reassemble the car.

This afternoon (after doing the B posts) was doing the drivers side rear panel and side window trim. I have replaced all of the self tappers with 4mm rivnuts, but the panel needed a fair bit of adjustment to get the fitting holes to line up.

With this done I tried the side window surround, the side panel needed a fair bit of trimnming to allow the window trim to sit flat, this is critical as the Bakelite trim holds the glass into the bodywork. Anything that stops it sitting flat against the glass will either cause leaks or break the fragile bakelite trims. I had to remove the part of the panel that the pen line is drawn around.

Annoyingly the inner drivers door panel overhangs the side of the door (another 'Pro' shop bit of fabrication - why on earth would you not trim it to fit properly??) and this has once again scraped paint off the B post. I have now trimmed this back and I'll have to touch the B post paint in again.






Off to the NSRA swapmeet tomorrow so hopefully I can source a few parts we need to complete the car.


74.5 hours.

[Blackpopracing]

I went to the NSRA swapmeet today, hoping to get a better bonnet strip fixing and a couple of other bits we need. Sadly the repro bonnet strip fixings are all narrow - there was an original one there that was a lot wider - the correct size - but it would need re-chroming. It looks like we are stuck with the narrow one, but I'll see if I can get some epoxy putty in the sides of the bonnet strip so it fits tighter instead.

I had taken Andy's door handle with me as the set of keys he had given to Williams Bros had got lost in the rebuild it was a long shot but I was hoping the guy who has the board of FS keys might have been there so I could have tried all of them to find the correct key. My bootlid key opens Andy's lock to 90 degrees so is probably quite close to the number he needs.

I did manage to buy a inner window felt for Andy, so that got fitted when I got home.



This meant it could go back on the drivers door, which is now finished apart from not having the right screws in it.



After that I applied more hydrate 80 to the inside of ther B posts and then trimmed the passenger side rear panel to fit properly and for the rear side window trim to sit flat so it will hold the glass in properly.

77 hours.

[Glyn]

Today Andy popped into my work and dropped in the new outer door glass seals as well as the B post rubbers. These were duly fitted - I'm not sure why there is a hole in each B post above them - it should not be there.

Hi Mark. good to see you yesterday. I wondered whether you know where Andy got the B post rubbers from? I've been trying to find them on small ford spares but without any joy.

Excellent work as always BTW

[Blackpopracing]

Hi Glyn,

He got them from Pop Browns - the molding is not as good as it used to be so you will need to re-cut the groove for the metal bodywork with a hacksaw in them.

[Blackpopracing]

ome good news today, Andy popped into my work and he has found a key - which works on the drivers door, but not quite on the bootlid. At least he can now lock the car and we are close on the bootlid key number.


The B posts got a very liberal coat of cavity wax in them, I'll do another coat tomorrow when this lot has dried off.



Definitely put plenty in, lol



Doors then got the smaller seal down the back edges.



and the bootlid seal got fitted. Annoyingly it kinked around the corners, I don't want to cut & glue it as it could lead to potential leaks, I'm hoping over time it will settle smoother.



It does however seal the bootlid reall nicely, no gaps at all with it closed and looks tidy too. The kinks don't show with it shut.



Then it was on to the conundrum of how on earth to seal off the column without doing any welding.

A bit of cardboard aided design ensued and it's basically rubbish. The problem is it has to be removable for access to the column bolts. The bulkhead here is also made of several angles of metal just to make it more difficult.






After a bit of a think this may be a better solution. It will probably go across the whole panel with closed in ends and it will have a U shaped slot in the top with a closing peice to seal it off. I think I can fit it all with rivnuts.




I'll cut a few narrow strips of aluminium at work tomorrow which will be easier than cardboard to fold to the final shape. Once I've got a shape to work with I can fold a larger panel to see how I can close the ends off.

79 hours.

[MisteR Tee]

I can remember seeing old Pops back in the day having something similar around their lower steering column areas, usually when they had V8s fitted & drove from the back seat, also in conjunction with larger dash areas to accommodate the larger engines being set back!

[mygasser]

I can remember seeing old Pops back in the day having something similar around their lower steering column areas, usually when they had V8s fitted & drove from the back seat, also in conjunction with larger dash areas to accommodate the larger engines being set back!

and a 12" dish 10" diameter chromed chain link steering wheel
neil.

[jsf55]

Would too halves of a larger tapered tube not work ?

[Blackpopracing]

It's how to fix them John, the bulkhead is about 7 different angles there, and it all has to be removable afterwards. If I were building it I would have angled the bulkhead instead so a simple rubber O ring would have worked.


Tonight started off well, B posts got a second spraying of cavity wax and then the rear side panels went back on.

All the bolts were polished before fitting, I polish all bolts if they are stainless and the polishing wax keeps them shiny for years.
It's as small thing, but it's the details that count. Only had to do 54 of them



With the rear side panels back on I could check the rear window fitting before putting any sealant on the rubbers. Rear passenger side fitted ok, drivers side was tight though.

I looked at the frame and there were two trim tacks wedged between the body and frame metal skins, so I removed those and dressed the skins down in a few places to allow more clearance.

I was sitting in the car with the side glass on my lap, applying the rubber to re-check the fit when suddenly the side window exploded in my hands - bit of a shock and not what was meant to happen This put a real downer on events. And no, before anyone asks, I was not fitting the rubber with that hammer!



I can make a new template in 6mm MDF, hopefully Andy can find someone to cut a new bit of glass for me - unless anyone knows of anywhere in or around High Wycombe who can do this? 6mm smoke tinted.

To console myself I finished off the throttle bracket & polished it;



Last job of ther night was trimming out the epoxy that I had added inside the new bonnet hinge strip, with that filed to suit the narrower end fitting it no longer rocks around on it anymore.

Still pretty pi55ed about the window glass though

81 hours.

[Blackpopracing]

Some good news though, I remembered I had a spare original side window that I lent Phil, so he will drop that back tonight. This will either be the template if it fits well, or will save me 90% of the work to make an MDF one.

If it fits it will do as a temporary glass while Andy sources a new one.

[mygasser]

you could always add a bit of tinting film until the new one arrives?
neil.

[Glyn]

The glass must have had a knock previously surely? Silver lining is it could have happened at any time so better it went when not driving I guess.

[Blackpopracing]

Probably Glyn, it was cut a long time ago. None of the edges were polished so lots of stress risers on it for potential problems.

[Blackpopracing]

A small bit of progress tonight, I had the new dashboard switch panel made at work today,




So it got polished up and fitted to the car. The eagle eyed among you will have spotted that its not central to the dashboard - I had used the same fixing holes as Williams Bros, not realising that its not in the right place. Fortunately I have added 2 extra mounting holes in it that are not used yet so I will refit it properly in the centre of the dashboard.


It now has the choke cable and the new wiper switch which will allow the second speed on the motor to be utilised.




Some MDF was used to make the new window template,




Buit this will not be needed as my spare glass was brought over by Phil (grey Pop I restored a few years ago) and this fits perfectly - far better than Andy's current glass. This goes to prove that aftermarket glazers draw round the originals but this makes the new glass bigger.


Phil also has a spare smoked glass window that we can try - if it fits we can have this for Andy's car as its the same tint.