Definitely been doing too much work on Malcolm's cars recently and not enough on my own, various personal crappy things have got in the way too but at last got a few minor bits done over the last few days. I had a job list but couldn't find it, I remembered that securing the fuel pipe better in the trans tunnel was one job so I did that first, the DVSA are really hot on stuff not being properly secured, quite rightly so really. it was never really going to be a problem where it is but installing another two p clips makes absolutely sure of it.
There were a few wires under the bonnet that needed better support or protection and a couple more brackets for securing that part of the fuel pipe. Some spiral wrap was applied to help protect any wires that were breaking out from the loom, I am pretty happy with under the bonnet now, just want to fit a couple of grub screws to the air filter elbows to stop them turning with the vibration of the engine.
All the internal metalwork is done now so the next thing is all the exterior body work, the bit I have not really been looking forward to. All 4 doors need the bottoms replacing, a boot lid hinge needs to be made, the two front electric window regulators need installing and the biggest pain of all I need glass for all the windows - 7 of them plus a windscreen. The cost is astronomical, one company quoted 90 quid a window for plastic!!! Yes 90 sodding quid because it has to have the right markings on it. Probably a tenner's worth of plastic and 90 quid for the laser marking. Nearly 700 quid ain't happening, I am looking at alternatives, I have some ideas.
The fibre glass flip front is in very poor condition, it's also extremely floppy, I am not entirely sure how to deal with that just yet, I have a few ideas again but I need to think very carefully about what is workable, it's a very visible part and if done wrong will ruin the look of the car.
I also need to add some floor strengtheners for the seat mountings, another IVA requirement that I have no intention of failing on. Simple bits of steel sheet welded to the existing floor is all that is needed, I don't have any so need to go get some.
I attempted to make a gear stick gaiter but got that badly wrong, it's in the bin now, so I need to sort that and a similar thing for the handbrake. I had to remove the centre console cover and both seats to do that , I needed them out to do the floor strengtheners anyway, the area of the floor where the seats mount has to be strengthened to prevent the fixing bolts pulling through the floor in a hard impact.
Getting the doors off to allow me to rebuild them is proving to be a lot harder than I imagined, I guess I should have expected 60 year old bolts to be reluctant to undo but they were much more rusted than expected. After about 2 hours of work I have one door off, just another 3 to go, all need extensive repair. Once they are off I need to look at making the running boards and sorting out the fibre glass flip front - a big chunk of work as it has been well hacked about over the years.
A couple of other jobs got attended to I had a leak around where the thermo switch for the cooling fan is mounted, it's where the choke on warning light used to be on the Rover P5 that the engine came out of. The 3 mounting bolts had been snapped off, I had mounted the thermo switch with chemical metal but that was no good, it leaked and then got worse so I had to do the job properly. That involved making a mounting plate and gasket, drilling out the old screws, retapping and then putting it all back together, it doesn't leak now, it's perfect. As work on and around the cooling system is now complete I drained the system and refilled with anti freeze, it's now protected down to minus 20 and won't boil until 108. i have to say it works really well, the stat opens at 85 degrees and the difference in temperature between inlet an d outlet on the radiator is pretty big - about 15 degrees. i couldn't get the auto fan to come on but when I put the manual fan on high the temperature drops rally quickly, I doubt very much that I will ever need to use it.
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