Not so busy this last week as I am basically ready for paint and am just pottering around till then, I have been to see Paul who is going to work on the car for me doing the body prep and spraying but unfortunately I was a bit late. He has had a week of work and if I had seen him earlier and said I was ready he would have booked me in for last week but he already had 2 jobs on, he has though arranged with his friend for the use of his heated spray booth, so watch this space.
While away the Soundproofing arrived for the scuttle underside, I only ordered 5 sheets which was just enough to finish the job.
I have spent some time sourcing the parts required for the wiper drive and was surprised to find that the covers where originally from an E type Jag, there are 4 sizes available from Holden's each for a different car. I phoned through my order with the measurements and the guy at Holden's kindly measured to ensure I got the correct ones. I also ordered a pair of Double jet Screen jets
When ordering you need to count the flats on the nuts as there are 2 different types, 6 flats and 8 flats each are for a different type of drive, mine was a 8 flat. total cost for this little lot was around £45.
I also ordered from Vintage car parts the tread I needed for the steps, they have 3 sizes of tread 22mm 19mm and 16mm and I went for the 22mm with the aluminium cap ends, I really wanted the chrome plated end caps but could not really justify the cost as it would have cost over £60 just for the 12 end caps. So I ordered the Aluminium end caps and will have them colour coded along with the tread. I was a little disappointed with these as they look like they cost around 1p to make which is probably right and are sold for £1.40p each
The Tread can be cut to order and comes with the rubber insert, I just needed to clean up the sawn ends and drilled the step to fit them. I made the centre treads a little shorter than the others which wasn't the original design but the rubber that came was around 75mm short so instead of complaining I just change the design, which I think looks great.
I also bought a tube of black Sikaflex 255 FC which is used for windscreen and for sticking on spoiler kits, I used this to stick the rubber spacers on the end of the steps before fitting the treads.
Once I had finished the drilling I covered the steps again with vinyl before bolting on the treads and fitting to the car.
Next job was the bonnet, I have been warned about the difficulty and the dangers of fitting the bonnet with a new paint job so I thought I would have a practice.
I started by fitting the hinges to the bonnet and lifting in position.
Once on the car I lifted the front of the bonnet and tied it up in the open position, the original bolts I removed have a welded square washer to prevent them turning when tightening, this is important as to get the correct positioning of the bonnet it needs to be closed and tighten from underneath. This is where I had my first problem as the bolts are just the correct length which for me is a little short as my finger just found it impossible to reach the back bolts to get the nuts on. So I first tried fitting long bolts which was no good as they just turned so today I made up a plate to take the 2 bolts and instead of tack welding the bolts on (as they are stainless) I drilled and tapped them in.
Once these bolts had the nuts on slack I fitted the bonnet spring lock and the little rubber bumpers, I then closed the bonnet until the spring lock engages. It is this I found that gives the correct positioning of the bonnet, once locked the side to side can be checked and wiggled to the best you can get it now you can nip up the bolts and check again. So simple to do but took a whole day of messing about to get it right.
I still need to remove the bonnet again to finish the work on the scuttle but now I know the correct procedure and how easy it is, I don't see a problem. Now I just have to repair all of the scratches on the scuttle.
See ya Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment