Luv2Wrench

Not much to report as I've been taking it easy and hanging with the family. Last two days have been wonderful weather wise and I've gotten in some more test drives. I'm going to do a deep dive into what I have, what I'm missing, what needs to be repaired, etc etc. I'm also going to move all the parts that are either duplicates, unusable or for a different car out of the shop area. Once I start on bodywork and taking the car back apart, I want to be able to easily track everything that comes off. I threw the windshield on just for completeness but I think it adds a lot to the look of the car. I think this is my favorite picture so far. Hope everyone is having a Wonderful Christmas!!

Great to hear from you Bernie! You English project cars grew on me to the point I had to get one! Didn't get one as unique as some of your's but its been fun to work on.

Hot DANG! That looks fantastic!

A work of art!!

Looks great! Seeing it on the lathe gives a lot of context. What's the big slot on the bottom for?

Wow, those are some nice cars.

Wonderful description, many thanks! I believe my issues were aggressive buffing and scratching the inletting with a pencil point instead of lifting the paint up.

I'll never forget when Roger started this process by making the tire. That just blew my mind... and I was like "wow, this is going to be something I've never seen before". That certainly proved true and it has been a blast every day since then.

Those knobs really turned out good. What was the process for polishing them and did you do the paint before the polish or polish before and after?

Terry Harper: I'd love some more information on the locomotives!

^^ This X 100. I think sharing the project online makes it more fun. I know I'm enjoying everyone else's projects right now... I love when a new thread is started. There is so much information available as well as I think I learn something new a regular basis reading through the forum. I find a lot of inspiration in the restoration stories. While I was already "hooked' on restoration, I think the following thread helped me understand that this was the hobby I should focus on. There's really nothing better than rescuing your Dad's old car out of a field and bringing it to life. Passion is powerful and for me, that's what this is... a Passion.

Right, too many zeros running around in my head! I've never been very good with numbers which is funny given I work programs for a living. Yes, I have have the illustrations. I think I could turn them on the lathe with either a tool ground to the form or the radius tool.

How are you planning on getting half a tenth? Is the bushing already that size or maybe you're grinding that? The only way I can get below a thou is to use a file instead of a cutter in the lathe and I have to continually test because I don't have an indicator that reads tenths. I can't wait to see the results you get with the rig. I'm thinking of taking the radius tool that came with that smaller lathe I picked up and see if I can adapt it to the Hendey. I'd love to turn some bead roller dies when I get back on the Metz. Having an ogee die that matches what is on the fenders would be a huge help in getting those things back in shape.

I think the reliance on getting ground from the frame/body panels causes plenty of issues. I'll probably buy a wire harness that matches the original, but if I didn't and I made one myself, I would certainly run ground wires throughout.

Thanks! Yes, I do think there could be a little extra free play in the linkage. That's a good suggestion and will be one of the first things I look at.

Weather has been better so I've take a few more spins around the neighborhood. As I get more comfortable with the car I'm able to better understand what the car is doing. I've slowed down my shift from 1st to 2nd ever so slightly and that has cured the grind entering second. Down shifting from 3rd to 2nd though doesn't work as well. I don't remember having an issue with it the first couple of drives but it has been an issue the last couple. I've read that a quick double clutch will solve the problem and I'll be trying that when it quits raining. I haven't figured out what the noise is in 3rd under hard acceleration. I've driven around quite a bit in third and there's no noise so it appears to only be under hard acceleration. It really sounds like something hitting the exhaust but I don't know how that could be happening. The wiggle in the rear was the tires (they were a little low on air). I did a slalom on a straight section of the road and the handling felt good. I've gotten the nerve up to take my hands off the wheel for a bit and the car drives straight and seems very stable. I'm going to test out more of the handling next week as I should have several days of dry weather and no work. My daughter is home from college and she helped me bleed the brakes again. Unfortunately only a little bit of air came out of the right rear, everything else was clear. The brakes don't really catch until full travel of the pedal. I think I just need to set the adjustment on the shoes and it should be fine. The braking action is pretty strong, but the amount of travel before something happens is panic inducing. The best news so far, however, was found well after these latest drives. I've been pulling more forward in the shop so I could work on the rear thus the engine has been over virgin floor space. I'm pleased (and quite surprised) to say that said space is oil and water free!! Yes, I checked to make sure all the oil and water hadn't already leaked out. It seems the various little fittings I tweaked actually were responsible for all of the spillage on the floor. Even the rear main hasn't leaked this week. I do know that it will eventually leak, but a drop or two every once in awhile is fine for an old English car. I'll have some pictures this weekend as I reach the end of the test assembly. It seems that the only possible serious issue might be that I need to replace the second gear synchro. I hope to drive another TD soon so I can compare... but I think I've got a great running car that needs some bodywork and a paint job!

I will send you the same "product" for only $19.99 As an added bonus, I won't sell your credit card information to more than 4500 people... 'cause I'm a nice guy.

I'll jump in for Chris as he's enjoying the holidays... The progress of the car has been outstanding! Look above in the posts and you see a completely restored chassis. Engine is out for a rebuild and body work is getting started. My guess is he gets done well before his 5 year goal.

The license plate bracket looks amazing!! Being able to correct that amount of damage and get such good results means you'll have no problems with the rest of the panels. I'm curious about the prices you're getting for the re-chrome work. Moss seems to have some pretty reasonable prices on new chrome pieces and I'm wondering about the price and quality difference of a re-chrome vs. going new. Any thoughts on that?

At first I was getting a couple hours a night in during the week and probably a total of 10 hours on the weekends. Lately that hasn't been the case as there's just been so much going on. I have been working a little smarter lately and that has helped. Biggest change is cleaning up and putting away tools each night and making a list (or laying things out) to do the next day (or whenever). That way when I get back in the shop I can immediately get to work. This makes it easy to go out to the shop for just 30 minutes or so. I can get in the shop immediately after getting home from work and get stuff done before dinner. That way if the Wife and I go out to dinner or somewhere after dinner I still got some work done. Further to that is trying to identify resource blockers that I'm going to run up against. If I order something on Sunday it is likely I don't get it until the very end of the next week. This is a killer and whatever I can do to make sure this doesn't hold me up is a real help. Time not spent waiting for parts is time spent working! I still stink at it but I've gotten much better. This recent exercise in assembling the car without paint is part of that process. I'm identifying issues now rather than later when they would hold up work.

The lettering is not that much bigger than the lettering on the quarter!! The attention to detail continues to amaze, great job Roger!

This is going to be a radius turning tool, right? Are you copying one or rolling your own?

Wow that looks great! Was the gap that good originally or did you tweak it? I love that color.

Thanks Joe! You're completely correct and that's why I'm going through this exercise. I knew this wouldn't go perfectly and that I'd have to sort these things out and I wanted to do that before it was painted. Overall it has gone better than I had expected.

Went for two shorts drives through the neighborhood... short because it is cold out!! The car runs great but there are a lot of noises and little things going on. Shifting from 1st to 2nd seems to have a slight little grind as it gets into 2nd. Not the normal grind or refusal or difficulty getting into gear, just a little noise as it enters. 2nd is smooth after that. Going into 3rd is smooth but at the top of the range there's a little banging noise like something is hitting the exhaust pipe. The speedometer doesn't work and I'm wondering if those are related since the speedo cable exits the gearbox right at the muffler. 4th seems very smooth in every way but dang if it doesn't feel like there is anything left!! I have no idea how fast we were going but it didn't seem all that fast and I was in 4th. Downshifting into 3rd seems fine as well as 2nd (which is a little confusing because I don't think it made any noise on downshift). 1st doesn't have a synchro so I haven't been downshifting into it. I just read online that I should be pausing a bit between gears and some say that the 2nd synchro was always iffy and they recommend a double clutch. Weather will be better later this week and I do some more test driving then. At times the handling is a little squirrelly with a little wiggle in the rear. The rear tires are bald of course and they haven't been balanced so that may be the cause. The front tires are pretty new and they were supposedly balanced (they still have weights on them) so I don't think they are the cause but I haven't had them checked out. I will be replacing all four tires and will have all four wheels checked for straightness as well as balanced. I don't see any other play in the chassis so I think the tires are the only culprit. I'm also used to driving Germany's latest technology so a lot of this may be my expectations. The brakes still don't really work. They have a little bit of effectiveness right about the time you've pressed your foot through the firewall. I resorted to just using the handbrake. I'm going to bleed the brakes again and check to make sure they are adjusted correctly. I'm hoping another bleed will work. These cars are notorious for their poor rear brakes so when the handbrake works better than the brake pedal it hints at something really wrong with the master cylinder or air in the lines... or both. I need to get this fixed before I do anymore test driving. I went over the bumpers and they were in a lot worse shape than they first appeared. It is hard to believe that the bumpers belong to a car with such a straight frame and body. At some point someone drilled some holes to mount things as well as some genius stick welded the backing bar and got slag all over the bumper. I think I can save the backing bars though they will require a considerable amount of work. It will save me about $300 to refurb them so it is probably worth the effort. Fortunately the stick weld on the back was so horrid (a second piece of metal was "welded" to the backing bar) there is almost no penetration so I think I can chisel it off and do it properly. The bumpers themselves are probably too far gone. Patching the holes and straightening along with a re-chrome is probably much more expensive that new bumpers from Moss (about $600 front and back). The engine is still running a little rich but it runs fine and I haven't had a chance to adjust it using the color tune tool. I hope to do that later in the week. The engine seems very strong and more powerful than what I've heard. Of course this is essentially a brand new engine and since we bored it 100 thou over it will have a little more horsepower. 4th gear is going to be the limiting factor with the car and if I were to keep it I'd probably swap in a 5 speed transmission and/or change the rear gears. So that's the critical summary... the reality is this thing is an absolute BLAST to drive!!! The car fits you like a glove and it just wants to go fast. It is like a big and comfortable go-cart. It sounds fantastic and boy does it attract attention! I can't wait to get it finished and enjoy it a bit before I let someone else enjoy it.