Thread: "Sweetpea" joins the clan.

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

It is slowly getting under way at this very moment.

The five wheels are off, stripped of old rubber and getting sand blasted as we speak, tyres are arriving in around a fortnight. Seat back supports have been taken back to bare metal, prepared and painted, and the boss is working on the upholstery for same right now (unless she has gone shopping again!). The motor is due to come out very soon for a top end rebuild, and whilst that is underway the chassis and running gear will be checked and rejuvenated.
Paint is being organised, although I am running into problems trying to source semi matt paint, (Everyone wants to sell me High Gloss!) and then I will have to head over to the Mysterious East Bayside area and check out the availability of an air cleaner and a tail light, or at least compare a '50 to a '49!!!!
Regards
Glen

i like the sounds of that any photos?

A couple of months ago I did say that Sweetpea was progressing gradually, well that is what has been happening. Very gradually.
A lot of fiddly bits have been getting done that don't really show up in the general overview of things but will make a big difference when the final reassembly takes place.
Possibly the first thing to happen of any significance was the sandblasting of the wheels and fitting of her brand new 5 tyres, necessary so that I could move her around to work on her easily.


Small parts like engine pipes and tubing has been removed, descaled, repaired and repainted, flooring has been cleaned up and primed.



A new door is half way finished but the frame will be attached to the new skin with sikaflex rather than spotwelded.
I have purchased a few fibreglass and nylon type material brush wheels that are proving to be very handy in stripping aluminium of 61 years of accumulated paint, grease and grime without stressing the material too much, and also bringing up the original gal pretty well.
Generator and Starter motors have been stripped, refurbished and reassembled, steering wheel removed (thank you Diana) and steering box is about to be tweaked slightly.




Throttle linkages etc have all been cleaned up and rebushed where necessary as have side covers etc off the engine.
The engine is out and due to be have the rebuild commenced in the next week or so, new rings fitted plus getting some new head gaskets made to order.


Wiring loom is still in a bit of a quandry at the moment, I don't know whether to buy a ready made one and refit ti or to make my own up. We'll see.
Apart from all these fiddly little things going on there isn't that much to report.
Whilst this has been underway the boss has also been busy and well before the seat bases are ready to accept them, we have some spunky looking new seats and seat backs..


Quite a few miles have been put up recently, trips to Grafton and other places to source some of the parts I require such as this S1 80" air cleaner complete with pre cleaner
.
Don't ask about the chisel, but I will give you a hint: good for removing reflective material!!
When I picked up Sweetpea some of you may remember that every little bit of glass had been smashed by some small minded youngsters so I had a search around and came up with a lovely windscreen frame that still had its original glass (at least on one side).
The radiator support bracket has been welded and now is as good as new, etched and primed, but I still am a bit unsure what to do about the left hand front guard. It is well past any panel beating efforts.
The radiator has a few leaks so at the moment the jury is out about repairing the original or replacing it with a new one!! Decisions, decisions.
I am going to repaint the whole machine (well, Harry probably will) as with a new door skin and possibly a new guard I will have no real choice.
The original colour still shows up pretty well under all the oxidisation and dirt but unfortunately its not consistent.

That's about all for now, will probably update this again sometime next year or there abouts!

Good to see you're spending time on it.

Will watch with interest as usual

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

MMM normally your painting is a touch better!!!!

looking good.... as I said before if you are pinched for room Ill babysit one particular vehicle for you.....


are you going to "name"her bumper same as the others?

Digger, in response to your post and in order;
yes it is, but I don't worry too much about the etch. But then again, by the time the whole vehicle and its bits are finished that back board protecting the truck tyre will possibly hang in the National Gallery or some such place and not really look out of place.
Room wise, if you are really interested, the backdrop supporting vehicle to the etching process is available!
Yes, the name is already printed and being stored......somewhere.
Regards
Glen

Sweetpea is slowly still progressing, nothing very startling at this very moment but a lot of the smaller bits are slowly falling in to place. The rebuilt engine is at the stage of having received new oversize bearings ground down to fit the rejuvenated crankshaft, new rings fitted and 90% reassembled and now waiting for me to refit all the ancillary bits and pieces before refitting it to the spruced up chassis. Of course I still need the new mounting rubbers but they are on the way, somewhere(?).
In the following photographs, shown purely to offer proof that something is really happening, please note the following disclaimer; these shots were set up and posed by unpaid models to depict some of the tasks that were carried out by much more responsible people indeed who would of course have worn all the prohibitive and required protective safety clothing items, hair nets, protective glasses, fireproof jackets and gloves, lead weighted and steel capped boots, fire retardant socks, high vis underwear, coloured safety jackets, deployed warning cones, applied for fire permits and also completed all OHS and EPA required documentation and training courses before even applying for the qualifying tests and training to operate dangerous machinery, let alone any resulting trauma counselling! Trained nurses, doctors and medevac personnel were standing by and radio comms and video monitoring was kept operating throughout the entire operation!










Anyway the main reason for this post is to ask for a bit of help on one of the remaining superficial projects left to do before the final dressing up, and that is the repositioning of the parking/running lights on the firewall. I need some kind soul to run outside to there existing 80" early 51 or earlier model with a tape measure in their hands and measure the distance form the top and from the outside edge of the firewall to the centre of each side/parking light.
When Sweetpea was a hapless youngster she was inadvertently led astray and apparently involved in a "T bone" accident with some other youthful vehicle and had to have her firewall replaced, and as a result, the park/running lights were very poorly refitted at different points on each side -about 8mm difference- by the repairer.
I would like to rectify this deficiency if possible, as I feel the poor little Sweetpea has suffered enough indignities over the past 61 years or so -possibly bullied at school- and I would like to make some effort at rectifying this horrible state of affairs!!
If anyone can be of assistance with these measurements I would be most appreciative.
Regards
Glen

Sorry Glen, no 80" here.

Sweat pea is coming along well, can I ask what is her chassis number? The reason is that the very last of the 1951 had the sidelamps in the mudguards. See "Larry", although then you'd have to have the unfortunate and too thin 1951-53 guards.

Diana

BTW: I never realised Patsy's arms were so hairy! Nice bit of painting she did though.

P.S. May be driving up to Brissy/Coloundra area for a day at the end of the month/beginning of December.

Chassis # 06112379
Engine # 06111451
You had better give us a call when you come up or you will be in deep ??!
Regards
Glen