Right, enough of the mucking about with boxes … there’s a car to put back on the road for the summer, before it starts snowing and I wonder where the heck the nice weather went This is a catch-up exercise for the minute, so bear with me – I’ve been doing stuff for the last few weekends, but couldn’t find the interface cable for the camera.
My compulsion for buying things I might one day need continues, with this handy little widget from Frost Auto Restoration. Operation is simple; put the bolt through the hole to measure the size, then line up the thread with the correct jaggedy edge to measure the pitch – hey presto, you’ve just identified an M8x1.25 bolt
Not knowing how many of what bolts I’d be wanting to replace as I went along, I ordered a few different multipacks of metric bolts, setscrews, washers (plain and spring), nuts, nylocs and self-tappers from Namrick. Unfortunately, the thing I hadn’t factored into the equation was the large hole that appeared in my new hall floor after the postie tipped them through the letterbox
Something else that arrived from Frosts was this pair of nylon abrasive wheels, which fit into the drill and (apparently) strip rust and paint more effectively than their brass/steel counterparts. Time will tell I guess, but at those prices they’d better be good!
With impeccable timing, I picked up an old and unloved 4-2-1 manifold that someone had bought years ago for their Jago Jeep, discovered it wouldn’t fit and then dumped around the back of the shed. It’s all surface rust and the flanges appeared to line up straight, so it’s just in need of a little TLC.
After a lot of TLC, it’s looking in slightly finer fettle…
Unfortunately though, I’ve discovered that those nylon brushes from Frost’s aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. If you want polished surface rust, they’re very good at making it nice and shiny, but if you then use any old cheapie brass cup brush from the bottom of the toolbox you get a much better finish. Oh well, experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want…
After taking the old manifold off and hanging the “new” one, it would appear that Mr Jago had a few attempts at getting it to fit his car, not least by chopping a few inches off the tail of it
After talking to a chap at one of the local (useful) factors, I was put onto a local exhaust fabrication shop, who made me up a suitable reducer section – 2″ ID at one end and 48mm OD at the other – to fit the existing (newish) centre section.
A good smearing of exhaust gum went on the joints to supplement the fairly tight push fit and should stop any leaks, but if it needs it, I’ll add on some clamps. Up front, as well as weighing a damn sight less than the cast-iron thing that was on before – I think it looks a little better too.
One thing I’ll have to keep an eye on though is a possible stripped thread on the bottom rear stud. I tightened the nut onto it – then it kept turning away. At that stage of the day, I was distracted by the lure of a hot cuppa and a Sunday roast so didn’t have the heart to strip everything back off and see if it’s the stud or the block that’s gone … is it likely to be just wishful thinking that it’s the stud ?