Monday 28 April 2014

Hood and Door Card

Hi
Last day at home as off to work tomorrow for a month, not as much done this time home and some of what was done has had to be rectified as every Kallista owner reading this blog would have known that I had made a complete arse of fitting the rear of the hood. I had never seen one folded before so did not realise the  importance of the snap studs and the fitting of the studs, I thought it was a normal fold down hood oops! 
So many thanks (yet again) to Terry B for putting me straight.

I fixed the mistake by removing the fancy bolts and replacing with the studs only this time following Terry's direction I riveted the rear 5 male studs on top of the material pulling the hood (with the steel bar inserted) flat onto the body. Whereas before I had riveted the male studs to the body so that the hood was popped onto the body, this is why the steel was lifting the hood off the body.
The male studs on the sides were riveted directly to the body and the female half of the studs where fitted back on the hood, I had to buy new female studs for this as I did not have enough of the original set left, only a couple of pounds but I have had to wait a few days for them to arrive.
Not as perfect as I would have liked it and somehow I have managed to get a little glue on the rear screen which I am very annoyed about, I could have easily removed it with a little thinners but am worried it may haze the plastic of the screen so will have a go on the original hood screen before testing it on one of the corner panels.

The seats have gone to a upholsterer, I found one only around 10 miles away near Durham called Station upholsterers, just a small messy place with the owner of around 70 years old but the pair of Austin Healey seats he was working on proved how good he is. He also does all of the work for Northumberland police and looks after the vehicles of Lord Lampton the Earl of Durham, so a bit of a find.

Not much else done due to the weather being fine and Lynne wanting to go out and when it was raining we stayed home but I could not get the car out of the garage to work on the drivers side.
I have found a little time to fit one of the door cards.

I have refit the original door membrane, I was going to renew it but could not find any heavy duty plastic sheet and as the original was Ok I glued it back in place.
I fitted the 2 screws for the door handle so as to locate the holes once the card was on.
The door card already had new attachment fittings in place so it was just a job of hooking it over the window and popping them into the holes in the door.
The door capping has to be in exactly the right position otherwise it will either prevent the door from closing or hit against the edge of the dash, so to get it correct I got inside and closed the door then offered it up before drilling new holes for the self tapping screws. I did try to find the original holes, I had taken accurate measurements but no way could I get the screws to find the holes so I drilled new ones.
I had tried to find chrome surrounds for the door furniture but without much joy, Terry put me onto the chrome surrounds for the door lock which came from a Mini, which I bought, but the door opener surrounds are a but more difficult to find. The surrounds from the Austin Allegro 2 and possibly the Vanden Plas model are chrome but I could only find one so I am not bothering with the chrome and just keeping to the black.
The door opener surround went on first.
I have tried to fit the door lock surround but one of the holes won't line up and I do not as yet have a small enough drill for a new self tapper to go in so it will have to wait till I get one.
I next cut the vinyl around the window winder and fit that.
Then pressing on the card I felt for the screws on the door handle and very carefully cut to expose these holes and screwed on the handle.
I have also added an extra screw in the centre of the capping as it was bowing out slightly and fitted chrome screw covers.



Back to the hood.

I thought I would have a go at folding the hood; correctly this time, the directions for folding where printed in the January February issue of the club magazine, I must have read them then but old age is setting in and I still messed it up.

I started by lowering the windows and un-popping the sides.
I then folded back the hood helping the rear window to fold back over the rear of the car and made sure the catches were in the closed position.
I then pushed the frame flat and folded the rear screen back over the frame into the car.
I could then neatly fold the side screens over to the middle.
I straightened everything up.
I have a nice new black mohair hood cover made by Ray but have not fitted the studs yet so I have retrieved the original cover and cleaned it up a little and it matches the paint finish very well, in fact out of the whole original car this is the only piece that is still in good condition.
You can still see a little of the bottom of the hood as the studs on the hood are fitted in the centre of the seam whereas the covers studs are near the bottom of the seam, still it won't matter when I fit the studs on the new cover and I might remove these studs and slightly reposition them so as to cover the black line when fitted as the red looks good.
The original cover has elasticated straps that hook under the frame to pull the cover in position, not fitted to the new cover and the elastic is a little perished so I shall buy some new and sew on.

Not as much done as I had hoped but the seats should be finished when I return so its just the drivers side to complete and all the small fittings then fix the scratches and chips before a good cleaning, polishing and waxing before getting ready for the MOT.

see ya (in a month) Paul

Monday 21 April 2014

Passenger side

Hi
Had a little time off over the Easter with Lynne as she took some time of work but have still managed to squeeze some jobs in and (as normal) found a rather large and expensive problem.

The fancy bolts arrived for the hood which surprised me as I thought by the address that they where from Hong Kong but arrived within a week from and English address.
These are for number plate fixing and are made from stainless, lots of different colours available and I may change for the red ones at a later date only £7 for 20.
I had found that the steel bar running through the rear bottom of the hood was pulling the studs off and I could see daylight when inside so I bought these to pull everything down tight.
I have left the last one on each side as a stud as these seem to want to pull of when the hood is lowered and I don't want to put any more strain and wear edges on the hood than necessary.
Quite pleased with how they turned out.

I also did a little work on the hood edges where the corners are formed over the edge of the header rail, I had stuck the edges together but thought a bit of stitching would make it stronger so out with the needle and thread.
I have also fit the windscreen wipers which look Ok, need to fill the water bottle and direct the sprays to test them.
I decided to get the passenger side completely finished before working on the drivers side and started by fitting the seat belts.
I have seen red belts on eBay which I shall try and buy, I wrote to them last year and gave the Ford number of these ones but they didn't bother responding. I don't know what car these where originally designed for but at £60 a pair I don't want to end up with the wrong ones.

Next was the passenger door swing back stop, I had forgot about these when I sent the last lot to the powder coaters but they cleaned up ok. I had to unstick the carpet to get to the bolts and use new washers for the stand off distance, there was 7 washers fitted so I replaced these with stainless as the old ones were rusted.
The other job on this side was the door jamb cheek plate, just 3 rivets for this piece then hammered the rubber seal in place.
The rubber trim has plastic stoppers fitted to the ends of the rubber to give a flush appearance unfortunately there was only one left when I bought the car so shall try and make some.

Next job was the foot well carpet, this was easy to fit as I used impact adhesive, I pre-fit the carpet in the correct position then unrolled back from the foot area and glued and fit that section first then worked back to the seat area.
I did not glue after the raised section as the seat rails will be bolted down hard and should prevent any movement forward of the carpet. I have cut out the bolt holes for the seats and have been trying to figure out what goes in the 5th hole, its covered in this photo but is tapped into the floor pan against tunnel next to the most aft seat bolt. I have just plugged it at the moment until I either get told what it is for or find the bit that goes there.

Now for the big expensive problem, the seats. 
I have spent nearly 5 hours on these seats trying to get them to slide with no joy, I can get them in but without any movement on the sliders as they jam up straight away. No problem on the passenger side as this does not have to move but not so on the drivers as I need to move forward for the best driving position then right back to get out.
I fit them by having the seat fully forward and bolting down the backs then moving back as far as possible to reach the front bolts and bolting them down and that is it: solid, no movement what so ever. To get the seat out again I had to dismantle it which allowed it to move forward to access the rear bolts again.
I have had both seats fitted with the same problem on both sides as the width is just to much and jams them solid so by by TVR seats and I shall have the originals upholstered, I shall find somewhere local as Ray lives down in Cornwall which is a little to far to drop them off. Just a decision now on Leather or Vinyl depending on cost, I got these seats cheap and learnt how to restore leather and look after it so at least I have gained something out of it and they do look rather good.
I shall finish of the carpet and fit the door cards and all of the little jobs until the seats are ready.

See ya Paul

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Side Mirrors

Hi
Another few days of jobs done but little evidence of anything achieved, I did get the bonnet on, with a little help from Lynne. Pretty straight forward this time as I have had it on and off so many times that lining it up was pretty straight forward, not so getting the nuts and washers on underneath, this was an exercise in contortion. I finally managed it but wish my fingers where a little longer.
Looks a lot better now, one of the jobs hidden away was the engine bay; after all of the work I had put into it cleaning and painting, it was a mess. This was in most part down to the sanding dust during the respray and being worked on and around for what seems forever.
I have moved all of the wires out of the way and washed everything down then repainted all of the black on the sides and rails, can't really see from this photo but its looking a whole lot cleaner. had the engine running a few times a day and it starts after only a couple of turns, would like to get it to start on first turn but maybe needs a little setting up.

The sun visors where just sitting around so I got these cleaned up and screwed on, the hinges had a lot of rust spots coming through.

The cost of new ones are in the stupid range so I put them on the wire wheel and they came up great, I had the old visors recovered by Ray and they came back great.
Another job was the windscreen wipers, I had bought a full set of TEX wipers from an MG supplier and there are not the best quality.
The wiper blades are ok but the arms are pretty bad so I got out the old ones and had a closer look at them.
These are of a much better quality and are adjustable, no idea why I bought new ones as I am supposed to be doing a restoration and these just needed restoring.
I first removed the springs from the underside and wire wheeled them to key the stainless and remove any loose paint.
Then a couple of coats of primer with a 1500 rub down between coats then sprayed with gloss black, I usually use satin but had run out which I am glad of as the gloss finish looks great.
I shall let the gloss fully harden of and fit them tomorrow.

Another item I should have restored was the side mirrors as the new TEX pair are pretty much rubbish. I knew this as soon as I had fit them as the securing section inside the mirror frame should have been tapered to securely connect to the tapered locking block but this was a straight flat on the casting which meant that it had nothing to grip to when the grub screw was tightened. 
I had drilled out the grub screws on the original set as they were mild steel and had rusted in, this damaged the threads which was the reason for the new set. 
I was going to try and modify these new ones when one just dropped off while I was fitting the hood so they had to go. After a good search on eBay I came across a set of WINGARD side mirrors at around £40 inc p+p and thought they would look good.
They arrived this morning and they look fantastic, they don't have the angled extension to bring them higher up but for the looks I can live with that.
They also match the plinth I fit to the side lights.
I am very tempted to splash out the £40 for a new set of chromed plinths and replace the colour coded ones, I shall keep the light colour coded although I have 3 spare chrome ones. We shall see.

I started the fit by removing the fitted set.
This left me with 2 holes in the door, unfortunately these holes do not match the fixing in the Wingards, as these have a slide on fitting and a bolt on hole. There was no way I was going to drill an extra hole in the door so I had to modify the Wingard fixing.
After searching for suitable material I found a strong piece of aluminium extrusion which I cut and shaped to fit inside the space. I marked of the door hole size then drilled and tapped a hole for a 6mm bolt and glued and riveted the piece in place.
I had to go to the local bolt shop to find a decent S/S bolt as only screws are provided and ended up with a couple of 6mm round heads with an allen key hole for tightening.
Good quality plastic seals are provided and it was then just a matter of winding the window fully up and getting my fingers to go to shapes they were never designed for and fitted rubber washers first then penny washers and nuts.
I really love these mirrors and they totally change the look of the side of the car, very pleased with them.
I have sat in the car to see how much you can see through them and with a bit of moving around they give good rear vision.
I guess the carpets and seat are next so busy day tomorrow.

See Ya Paul

Saturday 12 April 2014

Fitting Hood

Hi
Spent the morning at the paint shop where a curbed alloy was being doctored, hate it when I curb but got a good price from Ant so had it fixed.
The rest of the day has been spent very nervously fitting the hood, a bit expensive if I make a dogs doodads of it. The studs are already in place following the original holes from the original hood I am a little unsure of having studs around the rear, I know that it is a soft top and if anyone wants in it would be easy enough but its even easier if you can just pull the rear studs and climb in. So after a good search on eBay I found a supplier of decorative round headed bolts, not to expensive so I bought a pack to have a look at, if they are good quality and look good then I shall replace the studs. Not as if the hood will ever come of again.

I have had overnight to try and figure out how to fit the hood single handed as really it should be a two person job even if you know what you are doing, I did fit a new hood to the MX5 I had around 5 years ago but if I remember the frame was off the car and there was no gluing involved.

I decided to do the gluing in stages as I was using impact adhesive and wanted to get it right first time, so first job was to stretch the corner and mark the area to apply the glue on the underside with some chalk, I then glued around 6 inches and let it dry.
I then pulled this corner into position and held it there rubbing it smooth until the adhesive had taken.

I then repeated this on the other side.
Both corners were in position and pulled tight.
I could then lift the centre of the hood and brush glue onto the frame and the hood, not much chance of keeping these section separate for the glue to dry so I pulled the material into position and rubbed it smooth and tight.
I had already cut slots in the material to go either side of the clips.
The front had to be glued in so I brushed on the glue all of the way along the front underside and rubbed it into position, the leading edge had to have a sharp edge so I spent a bit of time making sure that was tight in position.
The corners had lots of extra material and I had to figure out how to cut of the excess and fold into position so it looked neat.
To get the fold I cut a section out from the bottom of the fold so that it would fit around the connector for the header rail.
I then glued this all up and stuck in position.
The front of the hood could now be folded over so lots more glue.

I formed the corner into what I think is the correct shape and clamped up.
I did this on both sides and positioned the seal rail, I had already cut the seal rail to size after lining it up with the original holes in the header so I was just a job of piecing the material to find the holes for the rivets.
I started at one end and riveted along.
I worked my way along making sure that the leading edge fold was as tight as possible.
When all riveted I fit the seal with a flat edged screwdriver, I put the back edge in first then slowly worked in the front edge.
After all of this work I still did not know if I had the hood tight enough as there really is no way of telling until the seal is on and clipped in position, so with this in mind I have left the excess material on incase I have take it all apart and refit.

I got in the car and fingers crossed gave it ago, it was a little difficult at first to get the hood clipped as it was a little tight but after a struggle I got the clips on and pulled it shut.
Nice and tight.





The front look good nice and tight but I can't seem to get the back as tight as I would like, still when the fancy bolts arrive I shall spend some time on the back and hopefully will get and folds out.
I shall leave the hood clipped for a few days to let the glue harden off then trim the excess material of from around the front of the frame.
I shall get the bonnet fitted next week but first I want to get the engine bay cleaned up as it is still rather dusty from the respray.

See ya Paul