Roger Zimmermann

...And don't throw away the old manifolds as long as they are not broken, you never know!

Since a week, I'm with the shock absorbers. What? a week for such simple parts? Well, they may be easy to do: a cylinder, a rod and that is! Not with me: they have to be more or less functional. When I did the Toronado, I had the intension to have valving and so on. Obviously, this was not practical; my tooling equipment was not adapted for parts that small. It could be done as an exercise; I had to look also the ratio between labor and usage. I opted for a compromise with a piston and some liquid. The main problem was the seal at the rod, it was never tight. I found a compromise with a BP product I got for another application: Hyvis. As my shock absorbers are done on an empirical method, it's each time an adventure for itself; mostly I do not notice the changes I did on my drawings. The rear shocks for the Avanti were good, unfortunately, after a while, the thinnest Hyvis got out. When I did the front ones, I probably took in account the problem I had with the rear ones and I used the thick Hyvis. Result: the shock absorbers are too hard! I "repaired" the rear ones with a mix of thin and thick Hyvis with good results as they are still effective. As you can see on the picture, this is a real strange product, which is difficult to fill into a small tube! The first shock for the Mark II is done; the other one for the front is still at the "filling station" waiting for the air to come out. Then the end cap will be soft soldered, tomorrow or the day after as air bubbles are not quick to go out. The other picture is showing one finished front shock absorber and the various parts for the rear ones. Some are already soft soldered in place and other, like the rods/pistons are still missing.

What, a yellow tire? For those who may not understant what I sent to Barry: it's the master tire, made in solid brass with a white wall and a spare wheel cover. The master tire was the part I had to fabricate to do the rubber tires.

Nice looking parts! I noticed that LH & RH are the same part, except for the length of the bolts at the outlet. This make sense as the crossover pipe coming from the the LH side was routed in front of the engine on cars with one exhaust pipe, according to pictures from an older Stude engine. All that to say that I did wrongly the LH exhaust manifold mirror-like on my model...as I had only a picture of the RH side; I imagined that the outlet would point towards the rear, like the other one. I will let it that way!

It does not change it: the heat riser is used during the first minutes the engine is started to better vaporize the fuel in the carb. The icing carb can happens during temperatures around freezing: humid air combined with the venturi effect in the carb can produce ice; a thermostatic air cleaner can help for that condition.

If I'm understanding well, the body is now definitively on the frame. However, you are not yet done with the windshield; are you not afraid to do scratches on that nice paint?

A car from England not loosing oil is an atypical car...

Pat, I do find strange that even with 12 V the engine is not turning more quicly. I hope that your starter motor will not give up with the extra effort.

You are right Barry, a wheel alignment is possible/was necessary. To steve283: all the parts will be taken away for final paint as different colors or surface treatment will be applied to the parts. Rubber or plated parts don't need paint, therefore they must be discarded temporary during the paint process. Some screws you see now are not the definitive ones; the correct ones will be used during the final assembly.

The front stabilizer was not yet done; this shortcut is now corrected. At first glance it was an easy addition; there are some issues to take in consideration: as the stabilizer supports are about at the same "altitude" than the lower levers, an indentation is done to clear the lever when the suspension is bottoming. The front tires must not contact the stabilizer in a very tight curve like parking.<O:p</O:p The rubber parts for the stabilizer were done with a Dow Corning product I have since about 30 years! OK, the curing takes much longer than when the product was new; by heating it, the curing is rather fast, allowing to do several parts one by one with one small quantity of mixed silicone rubber. <O:p</O:p

John, something about your green Avanti and red trim: Body #393, this car is currently Camelot Grey and listed on the "other colors" page but it didn't leave the factory this way. A new picture of the data tag reveals that this car was born Emerald Green(96) with a solid red interior(19) and a green convertible top(5). This small text is from a blog Lou is doing for the 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. http://1956eldorado.blogspot.com/ Emerald green is somewhat stronger/darker than the green from the Jag and metallic. You are not alone with green and red!

Do you have the heat riser on the passenger side? If not, this would explain the too long stud with the large nut as a spacer.

Thank you for the explanation John. I had the luck to have enough space: for my 3 cars the body came off, then I could do frame, suspension and engine. In parallel, I cleaned the underside of the floor and finished the way I wanted. The firewall was painted with the definitive color and then the body came again on the finished frame. Once this step completed, the work on the body began. There is a risk with "my" method: the body shop oversprayed the frame, but it can be cleaned as the frame had a coat of wax.

About the Vette: I don't really understand this working method. Why do the body in 2 stages? Why the frame and suspension were not restored prior to the trip to the body shop?

Well...my quiz did not generate much enthusiasm! The answer is simple: on the real car, the adjusting bracket is attached at the second bold from under. I installed it at the third bolt... To kosaka: be patient! There are still some parts do be done at the frame or assemblies attached to it; then, during this year, I will begin with the floor. I still don't know if I will do it with polyester or with brass. As I'm waiting some pictures of the brake shields, I began last week the mufflers and resonators. The mufflers are done with thin brass (.2 mm or .008"); the resonators were machined. All is very light: the 4 pieces have a weight of 17 grams; one muffler is 5 grams.

Bernie, you have an elephant's memory! I'm painting usually only chassis parts and I have the bad habit to spray too much paint, with some runs. When the time comes to rub down the parts, I noticed that the runs takes longer to get cured. A good painter do no runs, therefore his surface is quickly ready. A regular paint shop cannot afford to let a vehicle so long between coats. However, I understood that your painter is something different.

If I understand right, you are using either a spray can or air drying paint. On my 2 last cars I did, I used only 2-stage paint (paint and hardener). Even with that, a week is necessary to have a paint completely hardened. The inconvenient: prepare some paint for just one part is a waste of resources plus then the cleaning of the paint gun!

No need to heat, that sheet metal is soft like butter.

Is there not a minimum temperature to apply such products? And, while you are at that: give one or two hammer blows on that piece of sheet metal near one of the cross member's holes...

The bracket is angled down on the real car. At first, I wanted to make that bracket with a curve to clear the body of the generator, but at the end I opted for a more simple solution. You have another chance to guess what I did! I know that is not at all important; unless they go under their cars, the owners of Lincolns /Mark II will probably not discover my trick right away!

Steve283: do you think that I never let drop those screws? When they are made of steel, I can catch them with a magnet. The ones made of brass are not attracted by the magnet, I have to search them on a carpet which is light brown in color! Yesterday I finished the A/C compressor; all brackets are done as well as both fittings at each side of the compressor. On the real car, the bowl on the crankcase draft tube has an indentation to avoid an interference with the square tube of the fitting near the water pump. Did I a better design that the Ford people? Anyway, I had not to do the indentation, there is no contact between both parts. Either is the compressor lower that the real one or the ventilation tube is not located at the right place or... On the previous post, I related a possible difficulty with a generator's bracket. I solve the problem by doing an installation error. I'm wondering if you can find it! (Lincoln or Mark II owners are not allowed to answer...)

Usually there is a cooper washer/ring.

Thank you! Jayson: I could begin that as next hobby, are you candidate? Oh, by the way: I don't especially like the sight of blood....

To be honest, the red interior of the Jag combined with that tender green is not bad at all. As I wrote, red with a pastel color can go; your green is strong and dark; these colors are not going well together. However, it's your car; if you like this combo, go ahead! Another fact the denyers of green and red trim must not forget: your Avanti has probably the door jambs, inside of trunk lid and engine compartment painted green; to change the outside color, you have to let paint those places too and the bill will be totaly different; you may not be willing for that greater expense, unless the ones who don't like red trim with dark green pay the difference!

The lower bracket/casting for the A/C compressor was an interesting and difficult part to do: this is the part which is responsible for the correct location of the compressor on the engine. Too much forward/rearward the pulley doesn't align any more with the ones from the engine, etc., etc. I began with the oil pan by milling a thick piece of metal, including the provision for the small side bracket (not yet done). Then I soldered another piece which will be screwed to the engine block. All went rather well but slowly; unfortunately, the holes for the screws were not exactly at the right place and I had to elongate them. The "tongues" for the generator were also tricky to solder; I began with the rear one, adjusting his thickness to have the right pulley's location and did the hole for the screw. I went then to the one in front; while brazing it, the rear one moved a bit...could however correct it. Then I found that the generator was too low according to the many pictures I have. Did another hole at the rear tongue, then I could do the one in front. Of course, it was not at the right location so I had to elongate the hole in the front flange of the generator. I'm satisfied with the whole assembly, but something is not quite right: the bracket to adjust the generator will interfere with the generator's body; the ear of the front flange is probably at the wrong angle or it's hole too near from the body. If this assembly would be highly visible, I would redo a third generator front flange. However, this time I will cheat a little bit!