hursst
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Posts posted by hursst
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Where, generally, are you located? I know a yard in north central VA that may have them.
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1 hour ago, chistech said:
Well, when I first saw you had the motor finally back...
Thanks, I'm sure this won't be the last aggravation, but I should be able to do everything else myself, except the gauges and what's left of the chrome, although I'm not sure about the paint. I've never painted a whole car before, plus my garage is a superfund site; there's no way I could paint a car in there as is. I've heard about inflatable paint booths, so may look into that. Or, I may just farm it out to a shop. Still have a long way to go on the body, so we'll see.
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Thanks Steve. So far, so good.
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No, was run on a test stand at.the British Car place, so it's in good shape now. Will need to be brought back to life again in 2-3 years when the car is complete or mostly complete.
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Got home with a enough daylight and some temps in the mid-50's, so painted my headlight buckets and decided to install the engine. I got the two missing motor mount bolts and installed them. I also touched up a lot of the paint that was scraped up with installing the correct engine ID tag and other mishaps, like the British Car shop not creating a tall enough engine cradle for shipping, so the bottom of the oil pan scraped on the ground and the bed of the truck they used to ship it.
Anyway, got the engine installed after 16 months of waiting for the rebuild! (Photos 1 & 2). Will have some touching up to do, some adjustments to get the mounting hole aligned for the transmission, then lots of detail work in getting various pipes, tubes, hoses attached as well as continuing on fixing the few details left that were missed by the British Car Shop. Next will be to install the floorboards, trans tunnel, toe board, upper half of steering column, and hook up the emergency brake. After that, the lower half of the car will be virtually complete. I will go back to focusing on the bodywork after that. Almost have the hood finished and ready for primer.
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I think you've become a defacto Kissel factory. Putting them all back into circulation. Great work.
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Thanks for the info!
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Hello,
Before I scrap it, I wanted to see if anyone knows the application of this control arm shaft. It came with a parts stash we bought, which was 1950-1970 parts, with a lot of Ford, if that's a clue. I don't see any part numbers on it.
Chris
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Made it up to almost 70 degrees today, so perfect day to hit the garage.
I spent the last week, when I had time, pouring over the engine and I'm finding dozens of mistakes and missing items. I don't expect most people to understand what AACA guys want or expect when I farm out work, but I'm not too happy with the detail of the work done on my engine. They most likely did a good job on the internals and getting it running, but not so much on the aesthetics and detailing. Here are the issues I found so far:
- Missing water drain spigot from rear of engine
- Carb vent tubes rotated the wrong way, plus vent tubes are on the wrong carb
- Missing carb vent tube bolt and clip
- Head and thermostat housing bolts not painted when they should be
- Engine ID tag is for someone else's car
- Multiple original bolts swapped for modern bolts (some for good reasons, others not)
- Incorrect air cleaner lid bolts (after I supplied the correct ones)
- Carb return spring bracket not installed
- Areas of engine block that were not painted at all
- Two bolt holes at bottom front of engine had bolts and bracket put on them, then removed. Not sure what
is supposed to go there yet, but something appears to be missing or was not installed correctly and removed
-Two bolts missing from engine mounts (this could have been a real problem down the line
-Incorrect hose clamps installed, after I supplied originals and correct repros
-Oil gauge inlet threaded conversion attachment missing
-Repro heater control valve installed, while I have the original at home. I was never contacted about it, but I was charged for it (I had the charge removed).
These are relatively minor issues, so I just fixed most of them all myself, but for the price I paid and the delays I had, I would expect better.
Anyway, I installed the restored transmission on the engine, and the assembly is ready for installation once I get a few of the other items above rectified (Photos 1 & 2). Guy from the British Car shop is bringing by the missing parts and will re-install my original engine ID tag.
Also broke out the clogmaster 2000 to blast my primary headlight buckets and some hood attaching hardware.
Overall good progress. Project is still consistently moving along, just very slowly.
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Quite impressive work. I can't even comprehend the knowledge, skill, effort, and attention to detail involved to repair all these issues on such ancient engines. Very intriguing work.
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Got a call from the British Car shop a few hours ago. One of the other guys tried to call the machine shop, and luckily, someone was there working some overtime, as they are usually closed on Saturday. They asked and the machine shop found it in a pile of other parts. The indifferent employees there didn't pay any attention and provided the wrong engine tag to the British Car shop. Although this is still a huge hassle for both me and the British Car guys, as the British Car guys will have to come to my house to pop off the rivets for the old one and re-install the correct one, I'm quite relieved that it wasn't lost, usually these things don't work out and the shops get defensive on their stupid mistakes, then you have to threaten legal action before they decide to right their wrong. Been there before.
Been going over the engine with a fine toothed comb. It looks like they did a good job, but their attention to detail is lacking and they should have asked me questions on things before installing some repro parts that I didn't ask for, as I had the originals at home. There were also a couple parts missing that they forgot to install, but I was charged extra for them. For example, they did not paint the nuts and bolts engine color when the head and other parts were installed, they substituted modern bolts for some of the original bolts I provided (for non-stressed parts, like the air cleaner assemblies), and they used modern clamps instead of the originals/original style repros I provided. I'll have to keep going over it to get it up to my standards. It seems that with any shop anymore, there is no attention to detail, even with specialists, and there is no communication as what the customer wants if there are any decisions to be made. I usually have to undue or fix many small problems that these shops create thru indifference, sloppiness, laziness, or lack of research or communications. I would assume that you all go thru this, which is why most of you do ALL the work yourselves.
Due to the disaster that was the first engine, the second engine had just as many problems, just different ones, so there were a lot of unexpected costs. I insisted on a discount of about 8% off my total bill, as they had exceeded the 20% range that the state of VA allows on auto repair estimates. Although the bill was much higher than originally planned, I think we reached a compromise where we are both calling it good enough. Now I'll be working some overtime to try to pay off my massive bill. Okay, enough complaining, back to the MGA work again tomorrow.
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Well, guess what, the engine tag on my just delivered engine is not my original engine tag. My original engine ended up being cracked (discovered after the fact), which was a big reason why the engine took so long. The first thing I asked for was for the engine tag to be removed from my original engine and secured, to be put on the replacement block. I thought I was pretty lucky, as these engines are not stamped with the engine number, but rather they have a riveted tag. The engine was taken from the British Car shop to a machine shop for rebuilding. The machine shop was the one who removed the tag and immediately gave it to the guy at the British Car shop who was managing my whole engine build. He assumed it was the correct tag.
So, I have a huge problem, not having the original tag will degrade the value of the car, not to mention the aesthetic for me as the owner. As we know, us AACA-type folks want originality and numbers matching. Boy, you just can't trust anyone to do anything correctly. Now, the British Car guy is going to go over to their shop Monday and figure out what's going on. With any luck, they have it sitting around somewhere and that will solve most of the problem. I'm guessing it was either lost or destroyed and the shop lied about it and thought no one would notice, or they are simply negligent. Either way, I'm going to sue for damages if this thing doesn't turn up. My weekend is completely ruined.
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Big day today, engine was finally delivered. Had a few missing parts, a few accounting errors on the invoice, and there are a few minor detailing issues I'll need to address, but finally have the engine back. Looks like they did a good job overall, plus engine has been roughly broken in and roughly tuned.
Also, I found my shop manual, I had given it to the British Car shop months ago for reference and forgot all about it. Of course, yesterday, I bought another one! Although the one I bought is an original and is in excellent condition, so I'm glad I bought that one as well. My "old" repro one will stay in the shop while the original one will go in the car when it's complete and will be more of an historical document.
Now I have my work cut out for me for a while to get this thing installed and sure up the rest of the chassis components that I have lying around.
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Didn't know they made aftermarket window regulators back then. That may have something to do with the differences. Interesting. Mine does look like it would fit and replace the ebay one I found. I think it's safe to call it 37-38 Ply, Dodge, DeSoto, like you said, unless I get some more information.
Thanks again to all.
-Chris
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Thanks for all the research. I looked for a 1937 Plymouth rear door window regulator and I found one (Photo 1 & 2) on ebay. It's very similar, but there are quite a few differences. Mine appears to be from the opposite side of the car than the example shown. This example is from the right side, so mine must be from the left. I think mine is definitely MOPAR, due to the general look and spacing of the bolt holes, but I wouldn't think they would be so different in the details, if mine is in fact a 37-38. Would it be possible that a 1938 or the Dodge or DeSoto versions would be a little different, hence the difference I see in mine versus the 37 Plymouth example shown here?
I could not find any part numbers on my example, unfortunately.
Thanks again for digging deep!
-Chris
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30Panel, thanks a lot for the info. You are a true automotive archaeologist.
Royboystoys, I don't see a number on it, but it's got some grease on it, too. I'll try to degrease it on New Years and look again. Thanks!
-Chris
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Many thanks to Bob Beck, who was able to generously reproduce said brackets for my Camaro. Got them painted up and ready to install; perfect copies of the originals.
-Chris
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Julio,
That's what I was afraid of. I googled Marge's name to research this a little further, and unfortunately, I found an obituary, Marge passed away in 2015. I think your next step is to go to and register at http://www.1948plymouth.info/28Q29U/
This is an excellent forum with a core group of guys who have '28-'32 Plymouths. You can ask on the forum what became of Marge's business and if someone else took up making the saddle tops or not.
Good Luck,
Chris
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Saved this from being scrapped. Told it was 1939 Plymouth front driver's side, but not sure about that, doesn't seem correct based on what I've seen from other examples of these listed on ebay. Any ID of year, make, and location are appreciated.
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Good advice, I will be sure to place some type of protectant under the frame and over the aluminium where it's flush. Thanks.
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Welcome back, Jeff. PT works wonders, all though it does take a while. Take your time and you'll be 100% sooner than later. MG work is looking good! Safety Fast!
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Fantastic car!
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A little progress today. First, I found some Lucas headlights at the junkyard from a '73 or so Triumph Spitfire. Had them tested on site and they both worked! I can't find the exact original style of headlight, they seem to be completely unavailable and not repro'd, so this will have to do for now. These seem to be the "next generation" headlights, which are about the same as the previous. Fit perfectly. I cleaned up the headlights, finished painting the buckets and original hardware, and it's all back together now (Photo 2).
I continued welding and grinding work on my rear fender, and once that was pretty good, I switched back to the hood (Photo 1). The MGA has an aluminum skin over a steel frame. I finished with the aluminum a while ago now, but now I'm tackling the steel frame. I'm using a wire wheel to grind it down to bare metal. I will have to sand blast some of the nooks and crannies where the wire wheel won't go. Once it's all down to bare metal, I can primer the entire panel and it will be ready for final sanding before paint. I'll do the same thing with the trunk after this is finished. Should be a good winter project.
Dragged the primary headlight buckets out, so that will be my next side project. Should be pretty easy.
Finished the windshield assembly by trimming the glazing that was showing and thoroughly cleaning the glass.
Ok, engine update. Another day, another delay. This time, I got a call from the other guy that doesn't know how to communicate with customers and he says that the main guy I'm dealing with had same family illness he had to deal with and could not deliver my engine. This guy offered to deliver it, but he does not check or respond to his emails, so now, it's looking like Jan 4th at this point. On to month 16! At this point, I kind of don't care too much, as I want it to be right, I don't want to burn a bridge, and it's nice to push off the final bill as long as possible.
Now it's time for Christmas and family, and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah and can't wait to see all the new posts and amazing work in 2020.
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Looks like we may have two '60 MGA resto pages at the same time here! Any help I can offer, please let me know, as I've seen it and done it over the last 3 years, much of it learned from folks here and on the Barney site http://www.mgaguru.com/ Good Luck.
-Chris
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1960 MGA Restoration
in Our Cars & Restoration Projects
Posted
Thanks John. Pressing ahead just the same. Didn't really lose any time with this, as I was able to work on all the other parts of the car, so not too upset by it, it's just kind of a shake your head thing.