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Eric W

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Everything posted by Eric W

  1. They had taken the bottom mesh part and made it perfectly flat, so the mount pins didn't line up at all. I remembered the slight "dish" shape, and put it on some carpet and gradually worked the dish back into it. Then the mount pins fit really well. Here it is on the car:
  2. Well, that took a while. I think they definitely prioritize local shops (or shops anywhere) that do a lot of business with them. I guess one-off jobs like mine only get worked when they're otherwise slow. Stopped by 3x, called 2-3 more times. Their phone wasn't even responding yesterday, but they called me ~2 weeks ago asking about some cracks. I said to not fix them (because I didn't know what they were, really, but also if it would move the job along...). Not sure what all the process is after that, but 2 weeks ago they said it would be done in a week. I went in there this morning (I get every other Friday off work to cover things like this) - it was on one of their drying racks or something, and they had to cut the wires off. But that only took a minute - they wiped it with a cloth and wrapped it up. Here's a reminder for the before & after: Took it home & got it on the car.
  3. Healey's got a big brother, courtesy mostly of my Mom, who passed away earlier this year. (Isn't that how a lot of maybe less-than-fully-rational purchases get done - you fall into $ you weren't expecting?) Anyway, one of her mottoes was "Get busy living, or get busy dying" from Shawshank Redemption. Well Mom, you got your end done, so I'm getting busy living with what's left. She'd probably find this quite funny - the only car she bought for me (while I was in college) was also a black Chevrolet. Must have been meant to be since black wasn't even on my list of things I was looking for in this car. I know, it's not AACA material (yet). Collection is getting to be at least 1 car more than I want to handle. Really like the Model A, but it's feeling like the odd one out at the moment. No decisions yet, though.
  4. To answer your original question, I bought my 1930 A Tudor about 3 years ago, very similar appearance & condition, for $10k. Given inflation, maybe $11-13k for your car, but really what anyone will pay. I look at Model A's posted for sale around my area, and people are asking anywhere $10-25k, but with the higher-priced ones, I see the same ads placed and re-placed month after month. Reality is, they made over a million of these each year for 4 years. EVERY last part is still available, so there are many, many of them still around. Even with wrecks, abandonment, hot-rodding and other things that make a car either un-original to the point of no (practical) return or scrap metal, there's still plenty of A's to choose from. There are reasons some of them are higher-priced - more recent restoration / better condition, and body style seem to be the main drivers. The Tudor is among if not the lowest valued. Oddly enough, 4-doors are higher, as are coupes and any of the open top / soft top styles. So keep it going and enjoy it.
  5. Had been thinking about taking the grille to the chrome shop for a while now. Finally got there this morning. Cost for new/repro is about $450, so this is a guide for a not to exceed cost. Turns out, cost will be quite a bit less than that. Fortunately this part doesn't have any major dents or bends needing repairs. This is the same shop that did about 7 of the Studebaker bumper parts for me a few years back, so if this turns out like those, it will be really good. They have quite a backlog so this will be a while.
  6. About a week ago, saw that the hood emblems were back in stock with a U.S. seller. I believe they've been continuously available from UK sources, but at higher cost. I've been thinking I should take the grille to the chrome shop if only to get their price, but now I think I'll have to go through with it as the emblem looks too good.
  7. Been a while since I added to this thread, but I do still drive it just about every week. Took it up to the photo spot this morning a couple of streets north of here. It's a good spot because the street goes up the slope to give a wide background.
  8. Last Friday early, I took it up to the photo point a couple of streets north of here. Last Saturday, I took my son to the monthly show at the big box store. Right rear shock had a rattle to it. Last Sunday, I pulled the left rear wheel and tightened all the fasteners related to the shock. Found the upper shock attach was not very tight, or it had "settled in" or "broken loose" some dirt or something that wasn't letting it tighten all the way down. Drove it again yesterday - and no suspension noises at all. Feels pretty good. Here's some photos from last week's show and the photo spot. The first car is a Kellison. Data sheet on it indicated fiberglass body and a lot of Corvette underneath. Very rare "kit" car. The Jaguar is a replica. Body-wise, I think it looked great, but the wheels are too far outboard and that kind of detracts from the vintage look.
  9. Was at the store today, so picked up a package of washers to reverse the bolt. Haven't had a chance to drive it yet, but it looks like more clearance to the exhaust.
  10. Good point, but the bolt can't be reversed because the nut that is a spacer between the shock and the bracket has to go on the threaded portion of the bolt. The threads don't go all the way up the bolt. I have yet to try pushing on the exhaust some to see if the hangers or the pipe itself has some flex and can settle into a position a little to the right of where it is. Another possibility would be to look for a larger nut (or washers) that could be the spacer. The nut being threaded doesn't seem to serve a structural purpose.
  11. Drilling for the brackets - the bracket final position is on the outboard side of the axle bracket, but to drill it, bolt it to the inboard side using the 1/2" bolt, to mark the location for the 3/8" hole to be added. I found my center punch kit, and used that to mark the hole on each side, then removed the bracket again for drilling. The drill with the 3/8" bit was running into the differential case of the rear axle, so couldn't just get a straight shot at it. Found the right angle drill kit again, and using a 1/8" shorty bit, drilled a starter hole. Then used a unibit / step drill to take the hole up to 3/8". All bolted right up on the right side. On the left side, the parking brake bracket also interfered with the drill, so I think the hole on that side either was marked a little off, or drilled at a slight angle. Either way, I filed the bracket a little on the side that would go into the radius of the bracket welded onto the axle, and also relieved the axle bracket right in the corner of the new shock bracket. After a couple of rounds of file and fit, I got the holes lined up. Realized the directions show washers on each side of the 1/2" bolt for the bracket, but these weren't included in the kit. Also, the 1/2" bolt ends up with no threads showing through the nut - maybe the earlier cars don't have the doubler plate welded onto the axle bracket (right around the 1/2" hole that was the original shock link mount). So I got everything fitting, then went to the store and got 1/2" longer bolts. Also got ~1/2" shorter bolts at the original lower shock mounting points to have a bolt through that hole which is part of the securing of the rear suspension upper link bracket. Put everything back together. Another item not on the instructions - at the upper shock attach point (was the rear axle limit strap upper attach), the shock is loose in that bracket, so I added a washer inside the bracket so the shock wouldn't work from side to side. Drove it a little this morning - the exhaust rattles on the lower shock bracket. Will see if I can "adjust" the exhaust (bend it a little). First two photos are right side, second two are left side.
  12. For the Labor Day long weekend, I decided to add something to do - rear shocks. This morning, got up early and did about an hour (the 5 fasteners on the left side, and 1 on the right side) before me and my son go to the gym for an hour (I have to go then - I'm in a group class). After getting back, did about another hour to battle the remaining fasteners on the right side. Feels like just a couple of months ago I did the rear axle limit straps, and that was bad, but not nearly this bad. Right side lower limit strap fastener was a battle all the way, and the forward shock fastener was the worst I've encountered on this car. I used a ratcheting box end wrench on the outboard side, and a 2-foot breaker bar with a deep socket for the inboard side, with a very awkward 100 or so lifts on that breaker bar to work the nut off. Now everything is out. Going with the tube shock conversion. It's about the same cost as rebuilding the lever shocks. Bolt on the new bracket using the existing hole for the shock link, then drill another hole in the axle bracket for a 2nd bolt on the new shock bracket. Drilling a hole in these cramped quarters can't be as bad as fighting multiple corroded locking nuts, can it? I knew the right side shock mounting lug was broken. When I took the car to the British specialty shop for the clutch bleed, they noted that.
  13. 2 weeks ago, went back to the early morning car show. Got a spot on the end of the row. The guy with the Triumph and the TVR stopped by to ask about my car. Got to see what makes a Tesla go . The Z8 Alpina was one of 550. Top of the mountain pics from this morning.
  14. Took it to the early morning car show last weekend. Got there just before 7am and was heading out just before 8. It was HOT. A mesquite tree split apart during all this. A bunch of people were nearby and lifted the branch up. There was a motorcycle under there, but I think all it got was some leaf residue - no damage. So - note to self - don't park under the trees for the shade. Park a spot or two down from right against the tree... Got a lot of questions about the car. Couple of guys who have one or had one. There was a fiberglass VW-based "MG", and a Jaguar 120, but no other LBC's there this time.
  15. Yesterday I finally got the 4th tire installed. Order was showing "delayed", so I was hoping their system didn't see the lost/stuck tire from the prior order and just say "there's one almost there" and use that for my new order. I battled their chatbot again, got someone to call me, and yes, it was a separate / new shipment, and yes, Fedex was a couple days behind with it. But it was delivered to the store on Friday, but not checked through their receiving. I got to the store a couple minutes prior to opening on Saturday, and it was much busier than a couple weeks ago. Took about 45 minutes to just get "checked in" to drop the old wheel/tire off. But it's done now and back on the car. Not sure really what's next as it's getting pretty hot around here and we've got a couple family trips planned this summer.
  16. Had another run at the tires today. When I was there last weekend, they gave me a Fedex tracking number - I didn't know that they'd use Fedex, but all week it showed "in Tucson", but never "out for delivery". So it got all the way here and is lost. So today, I told them to just mount the 3 that are there. I left them the wheels then battled the Walmart refunds chat bot until it finally offered to have a live agent call me. It was very stuck on "the order has shipped and therefore can't be changed". But 2 minutes with a live person, she could see the 3 tires at the store, and just refunded me the 4th one. Having that refund, I ordered a single tire (as a new order). Still going to be another 2 weeks or so before I can get that installed, but one tire is either there or not there (I hope it can't be "split up"). Here's the car before, and with the new tires on the left side. They are 20mm narrower, and ~1.25" lower diameter, so the car lowers ~5/8" from one set to the other. These definitely tuck up under the front fenders better.
  17. After waiting 2 weeks for the tire appointment and getting there plenty early (to see if they could finish the job quicker), they took a while to tell me that only 3 of 4 tires are actually there, and the other one is still in transit. Though part of that time, the guy was searching their storage area for the 4th tire, so he was trying to help. Their online system doesn't seem to handle such situations - it sends reminders to show up, and other words that give the impression 4 tires are all there ready to go. The guy couldn't reschedule from his tablet, so I went on the website myself. It doesn't act like anything's wrong, and the only live button on the "orders" page may have cancelled the whole thing. A little later I just called the store directly and made another appointment. We'll see if whatever the website did screws this whole thing up further.
  18. Somewhere in the past couple months I did the two things mentioned above - made a new gasket for the radiator cap, and removed / reinstalled the fuel gauge to get it lined up again. Also added back the short length of hose (7/16" id) that was on the bottom of the radiator overflow. I didn't expect that hose to come back from the radiator shop, and it didn't. So that stops coolant from weeping out under the hood. Made up a couple of brackets to hold the LED brake light in place. The suction cups that it comes with are a clever idea, but having to stick them back on the glass every time I drive it just wasn't happening. There are convenient trim screws right there. They're countersunk, and I did dimple the brackets at the screw locations. Just some .025" aluminum that I had in the scrap box.
  19. No new photos. Got the lights harness installed up under the front sheetmetal & connections made at the right rear corner under the hood. In testing, with the headlights on, turn signal would fuse through BOTH filaments of the front marker bulbs. Added another ground line specifically to separate off the front marker / turn bulbs from the headlights. This got the markers & headlights working. But with markers / headlights on, turn signal acts all strange, and both the marker & turn signal use the same filament of the (dual filament) front bulbs. Got tired of messing with this - headlights + markers work fine w/o turn signals, and turn signals work fine w/o headlights + markers on, so no turn signals at night. Looked at the turn signal flasher - it's got 2 contacts, and the original has 3. Healey was doing something fancy with their turn signal wiring where it would indicate any of the 4 corner lamps were burned out regardless of which way the turn signal switch was on, and this harness eliminates that. The front marker / turns are definitely wired such that one filament is markers and the other filament is turn, so I have no idea how these front bulbs only use one of the filaments for both functions. Close enough. Car now has high and low beam headlights, and all rear lights working for night use (except don't use turn signals). This week, finished off (for now) getting the instruments back into the dash. Disassembled the tachometer to attempt the voltage polarity reversing. Found 1 photo online for this type of tacho, and I went beyond what they had changed. I found the green wire and resistor just inside the tach's connections to the outside world and reversed those. Tested - no response. So where I went beyond is I reversed a pair of red / black wires at the inductive sensor (as with the older type of tach, you also have to reverse the polarity of the inductive sensor). Tested, didn't work. There's also red/black wires to what I think is an electromagnet at the output (thing that moves the needle). I reversed those, on nobody's directions that I could find. Tested, didn't work. There are several vintage capacitors also in this thing that I can see are cracked - the tach is probably dead regardless of what I just did. I'll probably proceed down the path of buying a low-cost modern tach and swapping the guts over to this old housing, face, and needle. But for now, I put it all back together. Also tested the fuel gauge - dead. I completed the wiring for the gauge / dash lights (socket for the fuel gauge, speedometer, tachometer), and got those in place and working. Connected the high beam indicator. When I held these wires together by hand, I could see the little blue indicator light in the bottom of the speedometer light up. I tried to get that light socket out of the speedometer so I could solder in a more convenient location, but I couldn't figure out the right place to pry on or the right way to twist & pull. So I soldered that wire in place, up under the dash. After that, the little blue light didn't light up. My attempts to get the socket out of the speedometer housing broke or disconnected something. So it's got a speedometer that runs ridiculously fast (or this car makes about 500hp), and a dead tacho, fuel gauge, and hi-beam light. I didn't bother trying to make any connection to the single turn signal dash indicator - I did find some wire kits online (for motorcycles) that make 1 light blink regardless of left or right turn switch, which I might try at some point. At some point I'll get to a close-enough-looking fuel gauge replacement, when I feel like taking the tank down and replacing the level sender unit (may also mean replacing the tank). (Slightly later MG looks very similar.) In parallel with all this, I ordered tires. Should be here next weekend. Went with Wal-Mart rather than my usual tire store. Tire store couldn't get the original size, and what they were offering cost >2x what good old Wal-Mart was offering.
  20. Started on the front light harness. Not worth trying to build or rework this in place, so I took all of that harness out, as well as the light sockets. Will try to work this outside the car as much as possible, then put it into the existing body clips. There's plenty of wire left from the harness kit to cover this.
  21. This morning got the connections for the wiper motor and heater blower fan soldered / shrink wrapped. Got the under-dash harness routed and switches back in place and connected up. Moved on to the front lights connections at the rear of the right front fender. It's 6 wires: left turn, right turn, front marker lights, low beam, high beam, high beam indicator (goes back under dash). Got all of those soldered and shrink wrapped re-using the factory bullet connectors, with the correct color codes for the front turn signals & marker lights. Started testing: high beams have a short. Turn signal / marker - something seems to be open on the left side (no turn signal there) and short on the right side (with marker lights on, turn signal doesn't flash). I thought I might get away with hanging onto the original wiring for those front 8 bulbs, but looks like I'm going to have to keep working. As it sits now, with marker lights off, it's got rear turn signals. For night, marker and low beams work, but don't use the turn signals. Photo of switches reinstalled (new correct ignition key switch), under dash - still some securing to do here, and headlight leads under the front sheetmetal. Water temp is correct - I had just driven it around the block a couple of times.
  22. Past couple of days - with fuse block installed and in place I made the ignition key connections. Started the car to show that the coil was hot, but it wouldn't shut off with the key! Figured out there's something shorting across from always-hot to keyed-hot. The fuse block is set up so that horn / headlights / brake lights are always hot. I took the fuse block loose, turned it over, and started looking. Found a lead between always-hot and keyed-hot! Cut that lead, tested expected function, and car shuts off with the key. Also made the connections at the brake light, turn signal and headlight switches inside the car. So all of the rear lights are working. Still some more to go at the dash, and the under-hood connections to the front lights, but it's getting there.
  23. Got the area masked, painted, and un-masked. While waiting for paint to dry, completed removing of the old harness by the instruments. Pulled the tach & fuel gauge - to get to the wires. The oil/water temp is mechanical. Pulled the switches as well - I had tested these and labeled the terminals before disconnecting anything. Got the fuse block mounted. Temporarily installed the heater blower fan bracket to be sure that if/when I add the heater back, it will clear the fuse block. Can't really see the wires out of the fuse block towards the center - that portion ahead of the firewall is quite short, and all those go directly to the ignition key. Snaked the rest of the harness under the brake tube, over the clutch tube, and for the instrument / switch portion - got that leg through the firewall. Photo shows the main engine compartment legs (front lights, alt/coil/horn, etc.) just set in place - still need to terminate these and get the harnesses into final position. Last photo is "before".
  24. During the week, got the rear light harness installed. Re-used the terminals by soldering them to the new harness. Not much to show here - when it's done, it looks like nothing really changed. Also got the firewall-forward wires disconnected and pushed back through the firewall. Started preparing the upper side of the right footwell for paint to be similar to what's on the left side, and also to provide a cleaner-looking surface for the new wire bundle. Photos show it with the wires removed, and then with the fluid lines loose and blocked up out of the way / after sanding & coating with naval jelly to convert/coat the rust on the surface. That needs to sit for 24hr, so I'll prime/paint it tomorrow.
  25. On to the wiring. The directions say to NOT cut the 3 or so zip ties nearest the fuse block, as this defines what goes forwards, what goes to the rear, and what goes into the dash/instruments/switches. It also says to "remove" wires that won't be used. So I had a couple of obvious ones such as air conditioning, but the more I pulled wires through, the looser that center section got. Also realized this is configured for fuse block above/near steering column, and wire lengths + default connectors are for a GM steering column. So even though this car is small, the configuration wasn't working for where I want to put the fuse block (essentially where the stock fuses sit). Cut those key ties, and the whole loom came apart. Where I could, I backed out the unused wires by disengaging the connectors rather than cutting them off - so they're gone from the fuse block. I did leave "future" wires for radio / 12v accessory power and an electric tachometer. The headlight wiring is routed radically differently, so I split those out into their own separate / independent harness (photo of that part sitting on the front of the car). I split off the "rear" harness into its own separate loom. The only thing going forwards through the firewall from that one is the lead to the brake light switch. The other 4 wires go across the panel (L & R turn signals, marker, fuel gauge). Reconfigured the leads out of the main fuse block to put hot / keyed power in from the right side (as shown in the photo, will be left side in the car), plus lead for the heater motor (not installed, but if I want to add the heater back, switched power will be there). There's two branches going forwards (lower left in the photo): 3 lights - front R&L turn + marker (blue, blue, and brown). The other branch is the coil, alt exciter, tacho, brake light hot, and horn (horns also not installed, but that's one thing I will add). The branch wrapping around at the top of the photo goes through the firewall to the instruments / switches. I'll finish the black over wrap tape when it's in position.
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