The Painting Has Begun

Well this update has been a long time coming, don't think it's because I havent done anything because I have but now that I am temporarily out of work I can spend more time on my projects.
I thought for something different today I'd tackle some painting (being as recently I'd been welding, learn by doing -more on that in future)
First I needed somewhere to paint, so after looking a I decided a nice big poly tunnel should do, it would help keep the temperature up required for painting

Next the pannel, I picked the boot lid as its small enough to practice on. After stripper all of the old paint off and lots of filler I was down to bare metal and ready to apply some etch. Pannel wipe everything to make sure it was clean and time to play with my new Apollo Spraymate toy.
Overall I'm quite happy with how it looks thought it still has to dry.

I'll get some more updates regarding the body very soon!

Big Steps - The Strip Out Begins

Well its been a long while since I've posted anything and lots has changed. After removing the carpets from the boot to find a hole (un) cleverly covered with a carrier bag so as you would expect, a lovely that patch. So whilst preparing to fix this I though I might as well look over everything else. This opened up a whole can of worms which led me to strip out the car a d the. Take the body off!
I'll update with some pics of the welding later but needless to say it gave me plenty of time to practise as I'd never welded before.
As the doors were taken off the openings were braced using some tube steel with the ends flattened and bent then bolted into existing holes.

Also if I was going to remove the body again I would certainly suggest more than 2 people as its is a lot heavier than you may think!

Bleeding The Brakes, How Hard Can It Be?

This morning I thought I would go out and do some more work on the car, beeding the rear brakes. Now this isnt my first time bleeding brakes so I expected everything to go fine, ish.

I hooked everything up and let the pumping begin, after having to fill the MC twice and still getting nowhere I thought something was wrong, lool under the car and fluid is pouring all over.

I havent connected the rear passenger side pipe to the hose!!!

Get the car back on its wheel and lift the other side and set to work on the rear passenger. I decided to replace the hose but thats not straight forward as the old ome had to be cut off as it was stuck fast. So after that and fitting the new hose I connected it up only to find the bottom pipe was leaking. New pipes needed, great. Needless to say at that point I called it a day!

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Well alot has happened since I last posted including alot of things that a most likely cant remeber. The car was taken off the road about 6 months ago when the back end was stripped off and the diff seals done at Willow Triumph, I also have the rear trunions freed up. The rear U joints have been replaced and then the car was pretty much neglected and not put back together. So just before the Christmas break I managed to get some motivation and get back to work and the car was put back together and on its wheels in a matter of days. Thankfully it's been a mild winter otherwise it would still be on the axle stands. Anyway with a bit of persuasion the car roared back to life, however with no tax or MOT I cant take it for a little rise, probably a good thing as I still need to bleed the brakes.

Next to tend to are a few little holes in the boot floor and then I will have a look at pannel gaps etc.

I am however quite tempted by this kit

http://www.sammio-spyder.com/sammioncordite.html


Then comes the question; do I got for a heavy, thumping 3.5 V8 or a light revy 4AGE 1.6 (possible 20V)?

Oil Leak From Pulley

I noticed last night that I had a few drops of oil from the front near the radiator, upon further inspection it seemed it was all over the chassis and dripping from there from the timing pulley.
Not having the time to fix it I took it to Willow Triumph who confirmed this and said he could fix it today.
Radiator off, pulley off, timing cover and fan off. Timing chain and sprocket off, all re-fitted with a new gasket, seal and timing chain and its hunky dory now however I was told that I need new steering rack mounts and rear tie bar bushes so I'll get those ordered and fitted in the coming weeks.

Little and often, hopefully that's the way this project is going!

Start Of The Work 2011 - Gaskets

Welcome back and Happy New Year.

Work on the Spit' has been pretty slow at the moment, I adjusted the fuelling over Christmas only to have to do it again as I replaced an exhaust manifold stud that wasn't in so want to make sure that there wasn't an air leak.

At the same time as having the head gasket done the thermostat gasket was replaced with what I can only describe as a new paper thin gasket. Needless to say this didnt last very long, so a trip to Sportscar Supplies (Newcastle) saw me with a new gasket which you can see is considerably thicker.

Waking today I found the weather was terrible, windy, rainy and generally not nice. Leaving it until about 3 I had my chance (although I had to contend with working in the windy dark.) At the same time I also replaced the exhaust manifold/down pipes gasket (which I got from Willow Triumph) The one I took off was, erm, crispy to say the least.

All done now and hopefully work will speed up so I can get some more updates.

Head Gasket Mk 2

So after replacing the head gasket it managed a whole 8 yes 8 miles before the car died and showed symptoms of the head gasket blown again between two cylinders.
Due to work and not having the time I sent the car to a local garage that I know to be reputable. There the head was skimmed and pressure tested and head gasket replace, exhaust to manifold gasket replaced and also the water pump housing gasket replaced.
Just as I went to collect the car they discovered a small hole in the pipe coming from the back of the water pump to the heating pipes. This was at 5:00pm on a Friday afternoon, does law. 30min minutes later and a quick trip to see Tim at Willow Triumph and a replacement had been sourced and was being fitted. 30 minutes later and the car was back to life.
The next day I changed the HT leads for some red silicone replacements and using a timing light I set up the timing to 10deg before top dead centre (BTDC) the car is now running great.
Hopefully I'll get a picture of the ruined head gasket up soon.

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