Thread: New Project...

Originally Posted by flyinglandrover

Hey Grey Ghost
Glad you have posted! I have been wondering what was happening and as Garrywlh said The updates are much appreciated!
The engine color is that a standard color or one you have picked? Chassis looks great!
Many Thanks
Flyinglandrover

The duck egg blue is very close to the original shade.

Hi Flying,

I did a bit of research on this (on this website) - as Gavin has said "Duck Egg Blue" is very close to the original colour.

I also found a post on this web-site that said that "VHT SP122 Pontiac Blue" is very close to "Duck Egg Blue".

So I went with that... Obviously if I was doing a con-course restoration I would try and track down the original paint, but I am not... So as long as it is close then I am happy with that.

The other factor was - I wanted a paint that was easy to obtain. When I did my first restoration ("The Grey Ghost") 75% the way through the painting process, the paint that I was using was discontinued... I went to 3 different paint shops and had paint colour matched - none of which came even close!

So I learnt from that mistake and I make sure that whatever paint I am using is both popular and easy to get - oh and buy plenty of it!

So VHT SP122 Pontiac Blue is the colour painted on my engine now.

Hi All,

Well it's been far too long since I've been on here... Waaay too long.

The poor (read wet/cold/miserable) weather wasn't helping. And then I went and broke a toe (which was quite painful, but they take an awful long time to repair) which also didn't help matters.

But I am now back and hoping to get the ball rolling again!

Here is a picture of the sump - painted, and with as much of the crud removed from the inside that I could get at:




I had the flywheel machined - but you can hardly tell so I haven't taken a pic.

I have a few projects on the go at the moment, and will provide updates soon. To name a few:
* Engine - second coat of paint.
* Chassis - paint in satin black.
* Gearbox - clean.

Looking good!! Do you find (I do) that some times you spend hours, sometimes days in the shed and feel like you've archived nothing, then the next week it all comes together??! It'll be good to see your shorty on the road.. SWIMBO keep reminding me to get back to hers!!

Hi Tom,

I was wondering about your rear chassis cross member repair. I take it you welded on the replacement piece that you can buy 'with extensions' and that is what you mean when you say it just slips over the chassis rails?

I have a similar piece to be attached at some stage soon, and I was wondering...what happens to the rear spring hangers? Do you cut them away before the new piece is attached?

thanks,

Garry

Hi Garry,

Correct - the repair rear cross member has extensions that slip over the existing chassis. Imagine an upside-down U. The "top" of the upside down U sits on top of the chassis, and the open end of the U is at the bottom of the chassis. The repair panel comes with a bottom plate that you can weld on to completely box in the chassis underneath as well.

I believe that the piece is designed to slip over the end of an existing chassis - not replace the chassis.

I did not have to do anything with the spring hangers - luckily for me that part of the chassis was fine. I did have to make a slight cut in the extension so that it neatly slipped over the top of the spring hanger. If I had forgotten to do this cut - I would have obscured the chassis number on the spring hanger... That would have been fun at registration time..

I got the local mechanic to do the welding because:
a) I can't weld
b) I don't have the equipment anyway
c) This mechanic will be doing the roadworthy on the car - so he can't possibly knock back his own work.

Hi Sitec,

It certainly feels like I am spending hours in the shed at the moment, with little to see for it... Sanding back the chassis, painting it with a primer and then painting it with a top coat is taking quite some time.. As the chassis is not in a jig (it's on axle stands) I am spending quite a bit of time lying on my back... Certainly not much fun!

But yes, as you say - sometimes it all comes together in a bit of a rush - that for me is when it starts to get fun... I am *almost* at the re-assembly stage.. I need to finish painting the chassis, the bulk head, clean-up the front axle and prop shafts... And then re-assembly time!

ok, thanks for that, GG.
Actually I was hoping, for complicated reasons of my own, that it might have been necessary to have my welder guy remove the spring hangars (at least the one with the chassis number on it) as I was kind of hoping to get away with using a donor chassis which is in much better shape than Hedley's chassis, and just relocate the hangars so that I could keep the 'D' suffix chassis number to match the one on the dash.
What a brilliant idea having the RWC inspector as your welder! Love it. Wish I could do the same.
cheers
ps. sorry to hear about the toe. Sounds painful.

Hi All,

Well the chassis is finally painted:




The eagle eye amongst you will notice at the front of the car there is a non-standard piece of angle iron. It was like that when I purchased the car - originally there was also a flat plate on there, which I suspect had a winch on it. Alas there was no winch so I removed the flat plate - but have decided (for now) to leave this piece in place - I figure it probably adds some rigidity to the chassis. I can always remove it later.

The engine now has had 2 coats of paint - and I couldn't resist adding a few small pieces onto it:





I still have some work to do on the engine (install the distributor, fuel pump, thermostat, thermostat housing, alternator, engine mounts, sump, exhaust gaskets, etc) - but that is hopefully a days work with Super Gav...

And the gearbox is cleaned - or at least as clean as this little black duck is going to get it!



I want to clean-up/service the hand-brake and then move onto:
Rear + Front Prop Shafts
Front Diff
Fire-wall / Bulk Head

And then the reconstruction begins in earnest:
Springs, shocks, dump stops
Rear Diff
Wheels/tyres
Fuel Lines
Wheel Cylinders
Engine/Clutch
Wiring Harness

Ah - it's never ending!!!