Due to a highly amusing incident involving a “Delete” button, the first half of tonight’s update is somewhat bereft of pictures Last remaining bit of clean-up work to do before starting to re-assemble was to grind (or lap) the valves into the valve seats. To be honest, I’ve no idea if my technique was right or not, but I started each valve with a smear of coarse paste on the…
Only a short update as I couldn’t feel my toes anymore so had to come in… Before I went away, there was just the one piston crown left to clean decoke, so I got that done and out of the way. I then slowly worked my way around all the holes in the block and the head with the relevant taps (and some oil) and cleaned all the sludge, goo…
I hate to think what the book rate for this job would be – it’s taking me bloomin’ ages Alright, I haven’t got all the whizzy tools or experience a garage setup would have, but you can’t escape the time it takes to systematically de-coke and clean the head, valves, pistons and block Before running up against the night-time power tools curfew, I managed to start off by cleaning up each…
You’ll all be pleased to know that the head’s lighter when you take all the bits off it All above suggestions duly noted, thanks. It’s wierd, but in three days of a Bank Holiday weekend spent not really doing anything, I’ve only managed a couple of hours out in the garage. Oh well, motivation must be low Hadn’t noticed it when I first got the head off, but once I’d spent…
Finally got some time last night to take the head apart ready for cleaning, and as usual took my time – so compared to some it probably looks like I achieved about five minutes worth of actual work Doesn’t bother me though, as it’s only when I’m taking stuff apart that I’m getting to see how they work, in ways that a book can never hope to manage One slight problem…
It’s finally off – Graham’s “softly, softly – catchy monkey” approach was the winner No-one mentioned how bloomin’ heavy they were Here’s a couple of photos for your collective amusement – as I’ve not really got much of a clue about what I’d be looking for. There’s no obvious signs of cracks, breaks or tears in the gasket itself. If you see anything amiss, or reckon I need to get a…
Hmm We’re gonna need a bigger boat… I’ve got progressively more assertive with it and it’s still not shifting. The length of 2×2 I was using to get a good swing onto with the mallet sheared before there was even a hint of movement from the head Now stripping down the inlet side to see if I can attack it better from that side – but Selina’s just got home and…
OK, first up is my new workbench. For scale, the legs are 3×3’s and the top is (sacrificial) 18mm MDF rebated into the frame and resting on multiple 3″ wide cross-braces. Still to be done is flush-mounting the woodworking vice into the left-hand face, mounting the metal vice on the right and cutting & fitting the lower shelves for tool and parts storage OK, enough of that – back to…
Someone at work flat out didn’t believe a “crappy old car” like mine had actually made it to France – until I walked out to the car park and picked the return journey card from Eurotunnel off the back seat Shut him right up, that did Currently waiting on Burtons to get their act together and actually get the head gasket set I ordered on Friday out to me . I…
“Last night I dumped out the sludgy brown coolant that’s only been in there since June, flushed with water, ran some Holts Radflush through, flushed again, then refilled with fresh coolant. To be fair to the sludge, it’s basically been a 2,000 mile flush and de-crud, as the car’s only pootled about locally for years before I got it. The coolant boiling over at the weekend probably worked a bit like kettle…
Apologies for the Holiday programme interrupting the restoration thread – just think of it as a road test report We had a family gathering to get to on Sunday afternoon in Surrey, so looking at how far away it was, I said I’d book a hotel for the Saturday night. After aimlessly clicking away on random websites and finding no interesting places that weren’t full or outrageously expensive, I had…
Wahey, we’re back A 753 mile round trip that involved, amongst other things; James Bond levels of subterfuge, two tanks of petrol, five litres of water, a kindly Essex barmaid, a slightly eccentric French mechanic with a vast array of cutting equipment, a spectacularly humourless Gendarme and a snoozing trucker doing 65mph! Full story later, as I’ve gone and left all the photos at home, but to recap my initial…
Aarrrghhhh Either the filler shrunk, I sanded it wrong, or something else, but when I got the blue sprayed, all the edges where I’d sanded down were clearly visible as little ripples. Guess I’ll have to have another go, but for the minute … All washed and put back together ready for a secret weekend trip to France that my girlfriend doesn’t know about Taking the Capri should make her think we’re not…
Finally finished refurbishing those new rear brakes that I started a couple of weeks ago. Stripped, wire wheeled, worm poisoned, Hammerited and then rebuilt with new cylinders and shoe fitting kit… If anyone knows where I can get a pair of the rubber seals that go over the handbrake lever and onto the backing plate, please let me know Got a couple of coats of filler primer over the sides…
This weekend was a little mixed to say the least. I’d been having a few issues doing the valve clearances earlier in the week, which mainly centered on a bendy spanner that didn’t fit the locknuts on the valves and a new oil spray bar fabricated by some complete muppet who had obviously never even seen a Pinto This is what it looked like after it got stamped to death…