Category: Chassis Rebuild

I’ve finally managed to get some time off work so I can continue to work on my car. Over the last few days I’ve cleaned up the exhaust that I made and painted it in temperature resistant paint. The only thing left to fabricate are the two tail pipes but until I fit the fibre glass body on the car I m not sure how the pipes have to be bent. Another reason I’ve left this section is that I will probably have it made out of stainless steel as it is about the only bit of the exhaust that will be seen.
As the car is just about mechanically finished I’ve finally made a start on the fibre glass body. Due to the lack of space and time available I decided to start on the doors and bonnet. After trying several different devices for removing the old paint the best solution I’ve found so far is a hot air gun and paint scrapper. This seems to work on most of the paint. The only times this doesn’t work so well is where there is body filler under the paint or where the paint is very thin. However this is not really an issue as the majority of the car is covered in several layers of paint. Once the majority of the paint has been stripped of and orbital sander is used to removing any remaining paint. As you can see in the picture below a thin layer of grey primer is left after scraping off the paint. I have then started to remove this with the air sander.

The air filter and exhaust parts have arrived so I’ve fitted the filter and made a start building the exhaust. The exhaust is being made from 2″ diameter pipes and all the boxes are free flow. I’ll be interested in getting it completed and have the car running to see what it sounds like hopefully it won’t be too loud.

The exhaust manifolds have been removed cleaned up and repainted with a different type of exhaust paint. Hopefully this time the paint won’t bubble when they get hot. The radiator cooling fan has also been fitted to the car. I am now just waiting for the air filter and exhaust parts to arrive so can complete the exhaust and then start up the engine again and adjust the carburetor correctly.

The main task for this month is to get the car mechanically finished and the engine started. To achieve this I’ve fitted an original fuel pump I bought from eBay. Had the exhaust manifolds shot blasted and painted them silver. I’ve continued working on the engine bay wiring harness and I’ve also fitted an overdrive inhibitor switch I finally managed to obtain. Although the exhaust is not finished my impatience finally got the better of me and I decided it was time to start the engine.

A battery was connected to the car and the fuel pipe was placed into a petrol can instead of having to fit the petrol tank. Before starting the engine the spark plugs were removed and a couple of squirts of oil were placed into each piston. The engine was then turned over till a slight increase was seen on the oil pressure gauge. The spark plugs were then refitted ready for the engine to be started. The ignition system was made live and the engine turned over and it almost instantly spluttered and backfired slightly. My father who was helping me decided that the ignition must be too far advanced so the distributor was loosened. While I turned the car over my father manually twisted the distributor to adjust the timing. To my surprise the engine started within a few seconds of me turning it over. I’m still amazed how easily the engine started as I can still remember spending several hours a couple of years ago trying to start my MGB engine for the first time.

Although the engine started really easily a number of faults were found, the most serous was my brand new water thermostat was not opening. This was discovered because after running the engine for five minutes the water was still not flowing through the radiator. At this point we were not sure what the fault was but the engine was stopped to investigate. The thermostat was removed and placed into a cup of boiling water. This should have caused it to open but it stayed closed. The temporary solution was to run the engine without the thermostat. The engine was restarted and ran for 10 minutes. No other faults were found with the engine but the paint on the exhausts manifolds started to smoke and then it started to bubble and crack. So much for the paint I used being suitable for exhaust. It would have also been nice to set up the carburetor but this will not be possible till I get an air filter fitted to the carburetor.

I completed a few minor jobs this month. I’ve painted the dynamo, its brackets and the crank pulley. I have also managed to re-paint the rocker covers after scratching them when trying to fit an alternator. The other job I have started on is the engine bay wiring loom. You can see this in the picture below.