Thread: Time for a Re-fit

Not much progress for quite a while now, but today I had a bit of a fiddle with the insulation in the engine bay. I made up some nice sandwiches of insulation from a few different materials a while ago and it's time to start adjusting it here and there to accommodate the throttle assembly, wiring, clutch slave cylinder etc etc etc.

I'm going to be very interested to see how this all works when the vehicle is up and running. I wonder how cool and comfortable my toes will actually be. All this tinfoil makes it look like a Soviet spacecraft...

A little bit more progress today. Kitted the clutch slave cylinder and installed it, then then installed the clutch pedal. I've just started fiddling with the wiring, which feels like I am actually making steps towards having a motor car, as opposed to various bits of metal bearing some associations with each other.

Looking at the pic of the clutch pedal with all that nice paintwork and clean metal is a good feeling, remembering what it was like when I started it. I might put in a "before" photo to contrast with today's. I cleaned up the starter motor last weekend, so may as well stick in a photo of that too. The other photo is of my wiring (that's pretty much all there is for the engine bay and instruments) on top of my workshop vehicle - or "Toyota Corolla", as I believe some people call these machines.

The wiring is all home-made, done when I was a student several lives ago. As I am not doing a proper restoration, I am going to keep my current wiring as it has always worked fine. It's pretty funny looking at it: talk about "minimalist". I remember sitting in 1991 with wiring diagrams from Valiants (which I knew a bit about), Holdens (the Landy had a 173 in it back in those days) and Land Rovers (because it was one) and rolls of wire and making it up as I went along.

More tomorrow, I hope.

Cheers,

John

Busy day. Started re-wiring the old girl: cleaning up the loom, checking all the wires, replacing any that were old and manky or had wear marks.... also got rid of a lot of unnecessary connectors. Re-routed a bit of it and worked out how to change the setup to accommodate all the new engine bay insulation. Time consuming stuff, and these two photos are all I have to show for the day.

More wiring. Got most of the loom in, with a lot of wires replaced. It is starting to come together, but still a long way to go....

Got the clutch all hooked up after I took these photos as well.

When I was placing the you-beaut grommet into the chassis rail to take the wiring for the rear lights, I reflected on how nice it is to tidy-up things like this. No dodgy wads of silicone, electrical tape, you-name-it this time....

Started on the brakes today.... have fitted the cylinders and shoes on the front. When I took off the rear drums I found I still hadn't removed the old brakes and cleaned up the backing plate. That's the trouble with taking so long on this job - I keep forgetting what I have and haven't done. Anyway, here's a pic of my grungy old rear brakes, some of the new stuff I'm installing and some of the front left once it was fitted with the new shoes, springs and wheel cylinder.

John

Another pic. Rear left brake, Sunday afternoon. Quite a difference from the photo in the previous post (taken on Saturday).

Getting there.....

No piccies today. Oh, actually, now I think of it I do have some piccies. I'll post them in a minute.

Removed the ball-joints from the drag link, steering arm and track rod. There's a lot to be said for soaking 48 year old parts in diesel for a year and a half first: they came apart beautifully. A bit of a pain in the arse to discover that the ball-joints I'd received in my order of steering parts are the wrong type - they're for a Series III and there is no way I could safely put them into Series IIA steering rods. So, I have to wait for replacements. Good thing I am not running to a set schedule here.....

The pics are of one of the original ball-joints and the incorrect replacement.

I also cut and bent the new brake lines. Good fun.

Cheers,

John

They look alright. You're being fussy.

Originally Posted by Johnno1969

No piccies today. Oh, actually, now I think of it I do have some piccies. I'll post them in a minute.

Removed the ball-joints from the drag link, steering arm and track rod. There's a lot to be said for soaking 48 year old parts in diesel for a year and a half first: they came apart beautifully. A bit of a pain in the **** to discover that the ball-joints I'd received in my order of steering parts are the wrong type - they're for a Series III and there is no way I could safely put them into Series IIA steering rods. So, I have to wait for replacements. Good thing I am not running to a set schedule here.....

The pics are of one of the original ball-joints and the incorrect replacement.

I also cut and bent the new brake lines. Good fun.

Cheers,

John