Thread: My 1955 86" rebuild.

Not a lot happening here of late, had some trouble with a tooth +++ still in pain but not as bad. Anyway the last post I put up about mixing a small amount of DBG was a waste of time etc, as I was going through the box of items that have been prepped and tagged and bagged, I found the 4 bolts that hold the bulkhead to the R & L steering sup/brackets, painted DBG & Gloss Black, damn..
Yesterday and this morning I had been playing with getting a dual gauge ready to be repaired, the temp side of things doesn't work, anyway I took the instrument down to Newcastle where I generally have them repaired only to be told OH&S has canned them from repairing such items, due to the explosive risks!! damn again!!!!!.. I did buy some fittings to attach an oil pressure gauge and one for the capillary temp gauge, I removed the fitting that was in the thermostat housing, only to find it was stripped!!

shock horror, so I set about removing the housing to get a closer look at the thread, it looked downright UGLY,

anyway I started a 3/8"BSP tap into the rusty hole, only to find that it was screwing in as normal, it cleaned the threads out nicely, much to my relief.
I noticed this gap before and have wondered if it is correct, the thermostat sits under and has 2 circular gaskets, but is this gap normal???

Next little job was to remove the LHS steering sup/bracket

so I could get a good look at the oil line etc, tucked up above the starter motor, turns out the thread size for the oil fittings is 1/8"BSP.
This morning I had to move the Series 1 up under the carport out of the direct sunlight/heat and cover the strips on both sides of the tub with paint stripper,

I reckon I got most of it off, just a rub down with some paper will remove the remainder, I'm sitting here typing this and my back is killing me, slept way too long in the one position damn pain killers, anyway cheers Dennis

Don't they have a thick "O" under the thermostat housing & no gasket, that's the way it was on my 80" & is correct.

Originally Posted by Dinty

had some trouble with a tooth +++ still in pain but not as bad. ------ I'm sitting here typing this and my back is killing me, slept way too long in the one position damn pain killers, anyway cheers Dennis

Hurting both ends that no good.

What is your opinion about those couple of pop rivets in the tub that are holding the ends of the strengthening strip up underneath, do you think they could be original?

I have seen them before and thought they may have been a repair, but after seeing yours I'm not so sure.

Otto Instruments still repair the temp gauges, We had the tube repaired on the Jag late last year.

Another warm day here again, managed to get a bit further down the road towards having the tub presentable for etch primer. Some parts like these are just downright hard to manage,

so I thought blow it, I mean grit blast it, so I did

all 6 of them and a heap of spot welds as well. My wife was away for the day so with much haste I cleaned up the mess and looked at some other sections of the tub that power tools cannot get into because of their physical size, so with time still on my side, I run up the compressor again and hit those parts as well

still a little bit to do, but gee it's a lot cleaner than it was, I did all the front edges of the seat boxes/transom panel while I was on the go

just a little bit of residual paint left, then I should be able to re- rivet the panels together again.
It took me about 1 hour to clean up the grit etc, the good wife noticed that I had been using something, she is not colour blind like me LOL and could see things that I couldn't, anyway that was my day, cheers Dennis

Another warm day 36c, working most of the day out in the direct sunlight, I needed to put the parts of the radiator and rad/sup panel back together, before any of it suffers damage from sitting around the shed. I found some shade for a while and put it all together

before I could fit the shroud, all the brass screws had to be finished in the lathe, as they had been shortened using a hack saw, which made it difficult to refit the hex nuts etc.
A quick rat through the box of items ready for fitting, found the 3 bolts etc that hold the radiator sup/panel + 9 rubber spacers, offer it all up, fit the top rad/hose to stop the radiator falling onto the water pump flange, line up the water pump pulley/fan blades etc, and managed to pot the 4 holes on my first try, refit the fan belt, then bottom radiator hose, WRONG!!!!, it wouldn't go on, I could not believe it.
The shroud is very close to the bottom outlet pipe, so it all had to come back off, I was not happy about that at all (insert many swear words/cusses here).
I had to back off all the brass screws, push bottom hose on, but could not fit the worm drive clamp, I had to undo it and feed it around then rejoin it!!, anyway with that done retighten all the screws holding the shroud, and refit the whole assembly back onto the chassis, after a short period it looked like this

and after checking that I had not missed anything, we refitted the bonnet, as the weather people say it might rain next week

Next job will be to get the door gaps correct, the LHS has a 5.5mm gap the RHS is double that amount + a little more. This has been compounded by the fact that the RHS B/head outrigger had been cut off and remanufactured (nice job at that) but it is a little too far forward, hence the big door gap. So after reading through the search engine in the UK Series 1 club it confirmed what I had already thought I would have to do, and that is cut the tube that the bolt goes through, some off the B/head, some off the chassis, so this will happen on my next 4 days off weather permitting.
The gap that exists on the RHS is way too big, the door locks would not have held, everything would have to have been packed way beyond what I would consider safe, anyway that's been my day, another step closer, cheers Dennis

Hi Dennis

I hope this info helps any newcomers to your thread.

That top radiator hose needs to be shortened by 1" where it meets the radiator, as you can see it is slightly kinked.
They only make the one size hose and the replacement hoses are made longer so they can go on the 88" as well.


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Hi
looking at the top hose, the advice is correct.
cheers
Ian