Front suspension repair done

The car is progressing slowwwly....

Brake callipers have been restored, fitting new seals and some fresh paint. Fortunately , the pistons where in very good condition. The callipers where very dirty and full of old brake fluid in poor condition. But now they look as new

All the front suspension has been renewed and installed. As you can see in the following images, change in considerable. Now it's looking beautiful. I finally ordered 2 new king pings with their respective fulcrum pins. In theory I just needed one king ping I only had one in bad condition, but with suspension/brake parts, it's always best to fit things in pairs. Original fulcrum pins where a pain to remove and plenty of wd40 and force and up & down movement was needed to remove them. Once cleaned they where ok, but as I had previously order new ones, it was much better to use them. The 2 very important cork gaskets where also installed. When we dismantle the hubs, the bearings from one side came apart, and as I had some new ones, we also fitted them. The stainless steel braided brake hoses where also installed, but first they where wrapped with heat shrinking electrical tube.

Some nice photos of the original situation and the actual situation:

The stainless steel exhaust tube is already installed. The system is made by Falcon UK, and is beautifully made. But as I previously said, I made an error on my order.... Most catalogues, including the Moss one, states that mk3 1098cc cars should have straight exhaust systems, and only the 1275cc car and on will have the double exhaust system with an "S" shape. So that's what I ordered, thinking that the double exhaust system on my car was maybe an error a mechanic had made on the past, or maybe there was no single exhaust system available at the moment on the dealer and they just fitted the double one. But after reading the Terry Holder's "original sprite & midget" book, I found the following: " for Europe, a new twin silencer box system was introduced, the rear silencer being mounted transversely behind the tank". So yes, the 1098 would have had a straight single system, BUT for  Europe cars, there was a double system. Therefore Moss catalogue and others, are incorrect, and I have spent my money buying the incorrect one. I will buy the correct one in the new future, and hope to sell locally the single one to get some money back.

Next steps are fitting new rear brake and suspension parts, engine-gearbox-rear axel oil change, and adjusting tappets and co2.... I hope next year I can post new updates!

Wheel cover sewing

The car is still at the workshop, as the mechanic has been ill and busy with other things.

I am expecting an order with some new parts that we need to rebuild the front suspension, so I need to wait until they arrive in 2 or 3 days.

Meanwhile, as I can't be without doing something, I thought I could make a wheel cover, just as I did for my last mini. A wheel cover is a convenient way to keep a wheel in the boot, nice, tidy and clean. Wheel covers can be bought, but as always for me, it´s more fun to do it my self.

I had some black vinyl from the last cover I made, so just had to buy a long 90cm metal zip for 2 eur.

I took me about 1 week of sewing every night  a little bit while watching tv. But finally, I ended with a very nice and strong cover. Still need to finish the centre section as it needs a hole to be attached by the wheel holder to the boot floor.

Working on front brakes and suspension

The car is actually in the workshop where they will do all the jobs I can't because I don’t have the necessary tools, lifts, or experience to be confident: brakes & suspensions specially. Other small jobs will be fitting a new ss exhaust line, rocker valve clearance, oil change, etc

So far the mechanic has removed all the front suspension to fit new rubber bushes, disk brakes, pads and ss brake hoses. To fit the new disk brakes we had some trouble. Inside the wire wheels hubs there are some grease caps that where seized and  very difficult to remove. But worst was to remove the hub it´s self. After removing the hub screw, trouble was to pull the hub out. After using a big bearing removing tool we could take the hub out, but one of the very expensive bearings came apart. After reading a lot of information out there I see people will have different opinions if a bearing taht comes apart should be reused or not. Some will say that when it comes apart, the balls and races will get damage and are useless. Others will say they have put them together and used them for many years. In my case, I am not sure yet what to do…. Anyway, there is a great article on spridget hubs and bearings by Norm Kerr and also a second article by Tom Smith's which are of great interest!

I also found an unexpected problem as one of the king pins needs to be changed, because the lower bronze bush it has, where the fulcrum pin goes, had a lot of wear and it´s not possible to repair them. The other king pin has nearly no wear, so I will be using it.

Fulcrum pins are in good conditions so I will also re use them. One of the lower wishbone pans had a bush loose that needed to be soldered, so I fitted the fulcrum pin to ensure perfect alignment, and soldered it. The rest of the wishbone was in perfect condition, so although they sell great new ones with upgraded greasing system at “Barry King wishbones”, I will keep the original ones. 

Many people, or more specifically, many mechanics, when performing suspension overall, will just take apart all parts, change necessary parts and reassemble. For me, not taking the opportunity to clean and plaint every single part, would not be a good job, so once the mechanic had dismantled all parts, I took them home.

Parts came off with a lot of mud, rubbish and rust that needed many hours of cleaning and sanding to get a great finish because I did not have the sand blast machine with me.

I noticed that one of the stub axels, had a borken grease nipple, so I had to figure how to remove the small threaded part that was inside…

With my dremel and the grinding tool I grinded the face of a small flat screwdriver. I placed it on top of the broken nipple, and aftet 2 hammer strikes, the bit was securely fitted inside the nipple. Finally it was just a matter of unscrewing it with care. Now I need to order a new nipple. 

I painted all parts with por15 paint after cleaning with its porpoise metal cleaner, and treat with its metal ready liquid which should convert any remaining rust and etch the metal surface for the best key. The lower wishbones had some intricate parts that made it very difficult to sand by had, so I just gave them to my friend Sergio of Kyra Klaus sand blasting service which completely cleaned them. 

Once all the suspension parts are back together, it will be so nice with cleand and painted parts!

Now it´s time to fit all the parts...

Hurray!!! back on its wheels

Hurray!! It´s back on its wheels!!! I cleaned with an old tooth brush and some clean fuel, all the wheel hubs, as there was old grease and dirt. The spindles have some light surface rust, that shows there was no grease there. I used some fine sand paper to clean the mating surfaces between the wheel and the hub, and applied liberally amounts of lithium grease.

Now the car has 4 lovely restores wire wheels with new tyres. Have to say, that 3 out of 4 wire wheels had  some important wobble at the outer rim, with about 4-5mm off-set. Normal value should be 1-2mm so let´s see what happens. Sending them to a specialist to center them would cost a fortune, specially because in Spain now there’s no tradition for it, and I have new wire wheels on the UK for as little as 110 pounds. So I will use them, and If I really feel I need to change them, I will do it. But for now, they will make the job.

Although the main electrical harness is correct, some of the outer sleeve has gone in some portions. Reproducing the cotton sleeve is not possible for me, and I just could not stand using black pvc tape…. That´s what any normal mechanic would use when he’s just repairing a car and not restoring a car. So I used some cloth tape I ordered from autosparks. It really gives a nice finish, more period style than normal pvc tape…

Lastly, I painted yellow the fan blades of the water pump plus the pulley. I did not have the correct yellow to match the original paint, and the one I had was too yellow. The original paint, at least on my car, is just the same as what airplane enthusiast now as Piper Yellow. I know an RC plane hobby store that can order me a small can of piper yellow for RC use, so if in the future I need to remove the radiator, I will take the opportunity and paint the blades with the correct colour.

Now the engine bay is looking much, much better: removed a lot of rust, new blue paint, most of the accessories have been removed, and restored, etc. Not it looks neat and tidy. I still have some work with small parts like the washed bottle, new washer plastic tube, clips, brake line (which has been already cleaned and silver painted), etc…

Ahhh, I forgot, As said at the begging of the project, both bonnet hinges where almost gone… very rusty and with no possibility to repair them. I found on ebay a NOS hinge, made by Unipart at a good price  of about 10 pounds, so I ordered it. But I needed one more, do ordered one from MOSS. They sell heritage made hinges, and sadly found when I had both side to side, that holes did not match, and the chances to adapt them where little. So I ended ordering another from Moss, so I had exactly the same two. Having different ones on each side, could make the bonnet not to open/close correctly damaging for example new paint! I sanded a little bit the surface, gave two coats of primer, and a coat of the blue colour.

After checking that the original hinges where mostly rusted on the inside of the hinge, that tells me  it was due to water being trapped there. The new ones have a draining hole on the lowest position, but I will coat them with a thick layer of cavity wax, just to prevent any future rust.

Just one comment on the heritage hinges: it´s extraordinary to see what these people do at the Heritage workshop, taking care of all the original tooling and making new repair panels or even complete body shells, to keep alive their british classic car tradition. Take a look at this awesome article on their work. I really wish other countries had the same level... 

Next Monday I will tow the car to the mechanic to fit the brake parts and suspension. Hopefully in one or two weeks time, I should be able to pass the MOT and then get the insurance to drive it. Looking forward!!!!

Engine bay painting and cooling system

I have made some progress in the last few weeks, especially concerning some light body work….

Engine bay was looking ugly….. rust here and there, blue paint chipping and fading…. My problem is that I have not removed the engine as I don’t have the possibility, so had to manage the situation with it in place.

With an angle grinder and the wire brush cup attachment, y removed all the rust on the surrounding panels of the pedal assembly and the battery tray. The surroundings of the pedal assembly have rust because of brake fluid I suppose, and the battery tray because of the acids… Rust on the battery tray was severe, and I really don’t understand why and the rest of the car is ok with only surface rust. After removing most of the rust scale, the tray had still force so I decided not to change it, as that will need soldering new plate. I used some por-15 paint to neutralize rust and encapsulate it.

Other parts of the engine bay had no rust, but paint was in terrible situation, so removed it, and just left the original red primer which in most cases was in very good condition. After using a coarse sanding sponge over the red primer and the dry por-15, I gave all the surface 2 coats of TitanYate two pack epoxy primer. It´s made by the Spanish paint company Titan, and it´s an epoxy primer for maritime and very hard environments, and with a cost of 35eur the liter, it´s a great deal. Maybe it´s not cosmetically perfect as a PPG 150 eur primer, but I am sure it is hard enough.

Once dry, and with a light sanding, I could finally apply the Riviera Blue (BU44 code) 2 pack paint. Results?? Well, considering I had no possibility to use a spray gun, and that I used a sponge brush, have to say it´s quite nice. Let’s be realistic, it´s only the engine bay, and for the outside, I will of course take the car to a professional workshop. Why did I only paint half engine bay? Because I have no time to do more, and because I did not want to spend time restoring the heater, wiper, pedal assembly, and fit them on a poor surface. I will make the rest of the engine bay in the near future, once I have passed MOT and the car is drivable.

Before taking the car to the mechanic for brake and suspension work, I wanted to completely restore the cooling system. That means removing the radiator for cleaning and flushing, fitting new thermostat, water pump and all the rubber hoses.

Radiator removal is easy, only 4 bolts attaches it to the frame. It was more difficult to remove those hard rubber hoses, they where rock solid after so many years, so just broke them…

I first used high pressure water to clean the outside of the radiator, and ended attaching a garden hose first to the top to flush all the dirt and scale. On the next small video you can see all the dirt coming out of the radiator… could not catch the first seconds, where water was completely brown.

Always put pressure water on both directions. After some shaking, and plenty of pressure water, the radiator was clean. Finally, some light sanding and after a small satin black can paint, the result was great. Don’t bother using high temp black paint. Radiator will never go beyond 120º, and high temp paint are not cheap. A good black mat enamel paint will do the job.

BTW, while removing the bottom drain plug, the small metal plate had broken, so I had to solder it again. I used some silver soldering (5% silver), and I am very satisfied with the result.

The thermostat housing gave me some headache. Two of the stud had a lot of corrosion or debris, and the housing won’t come off…. After nearly 40 minutes, plenty of wd40 and swearing, I could remove it. Uhhggg the thermostat situation was nasty….

The water pump was easy to remove, and just needed to sand the surface to remove all traces of the old gasket. The new pump is aluminum cast, whether the old one is iron cast. I have read several times, that the original ones are much better, so I was thinking in sending it to a specialist to service it, but only if the price is correct. Any idea where to send it???

Last week I finally received the new master cylinder, so I fitted it to the pedal assembly, which I had previously cleaned, and sand blasted. It was in terrible condition with no traces of the original paint due to the brake fluid leaks… I used plenty of grease in all the pivots and big screws. The final result of the pedal assembly painted, with the new MC, new bolts, and the clean and shinny engine bay if great.

Next weekend I will be fitting the painted fan, belt, radiator and fill with coolant, and much, much more….

So far, so good...

Lucas 9H horn restoration

Last week I removed the front grill, because I wanted to inspect the panels, searching for rust or other problems.

After not finding any special problems, I thought the horn would benefit from some TLC, so I removed it along with its brackets.

The horn is an original Lucas 9H model, fitted in most British cars of the 60’s. It was in working condition. Half of the horn is made out of steel, and the other half is dye cast. Of course the steel part had rust, and paint on the cast side was horrible.

9H horns are difficult to open, as they have steel rivets, so they are not very user friendly…. As it was in working condition, I did not want to mess and try to open it, just some new paint would do the job.

I fitted a cap at the horn trumpet so when I cleaned the unit, nothing should get inside.

I have received several comments on why I am so excited with my new sand blast machine, from people that have never seen one in action…. So I took the opportunity, to make a video of the machine in action, where you can see how fast is to work with the sand blast, and specially, how easy it is…. It only took me 5 minutes to clean the horn, with a surface finish that no other mechanical procedure will make: wire wheel angel grinder, hand sanding, etc…

Hope you like the video

Just a quick note, I needed some normal paint brushes to apply paint to mechanical parts, because I wanted to use the sponge brushes for parts where I needed a perfect finish. I found some very cheap brushes, that had nylon or plastic threads, and at 0.60 eur wanted to give a try. I used it for the horn, and it really gives a much better result and finish than normal brushes. See the end of the video for a quick impression.

Just another weekend project!

Smiths heater assembly restoration

After some days off, I am back again. Another mayor component I wanted to restore was the heater matrix assembly. Removing the assembly will also let me rust treat and paint all the battery shelf and surroundings.

Removing the 4 bolts that hold the assembly was a mayor task…. Not because it´s a difficult task it´s self, but because the bolts where very rusty. Using different tip sizes, ended up with a useless bolt head, and there was not human method to remove them. Parting off the bolt heads could have been an option, but because this bolts are screwed to soldered nuts on the body, it was my last option. Finally I figured out how to remove them….. using my trusty Dremel tool and the cut off wheel, I flattened 2 faces of the bolt, and pushing a spanner cup, I was finally able to remove them. That was about 2 hours just for 4 bolts….

Once I had the assembly off the car, It could be clearly seen that situation was very sorry  as all the bottom part was badly corroded and surface rust was severe. The heater matrix was not leaking, so why was there so much rust??? I tend to think it had to do with acid from the battery that some time had come in contact with the battery tray and the heater assembly

Disassembly is straight forward, just removing 5 clips reveals the inside. The assembly is made out of 2 metal sides, 1 main body case, and the matrix. The assembly has inside several foam pads to force air trough the matrix, and some seals on the outside where is rests against the car body. All of them where of course nearly destroyed…..

I first cleaned the matrix from all the dirt, bugs, and old foam. I connected both matrix tubes to the tap and force high pressure hot water for several minutes, until only clean water come out. At the beginning brown water come out, with all the rust deposits. Not flushing a refrigeration circuit every 2 years, leads to rust and scale that will surely make trouble in the future. Once I was very sure the matrix was in good condition, I could pass to the body case restoration. This was the original situation…… no comments….. first step: remove the id plate. The id plate paint has seen better days, and although I could buy new reproduction plates (to which I will need to stamp new ID numbers), I will clean it and use it again.

Restoring the case was an easy job, now that I have my sand blast machine available. You can see the difference between a side plate in original condition, and the other recently sand blasted. The metal surface was pitted on the lower part, but not enough to make complete holes.

On this occasion, I used a different approach to the paint procedure. Other parts on the engine bay, where just painted with por15, as they are not going to receive direct sun light. Por15 will fade with sun light and the colour can become grey… So it's necessary to apply a final coat of paint in case the part is going to be exposed to direct sun light. I just wanted to experiment a little bit, and I had two possibilities to apply the final paint coat: 1-apply final coat when por15 is not fully dry, or 2- wait until por15 is fully dry, scrub all the surface with fine sand paper and apply final coat. Searching on internet, revealed most people will apply final coat before por15 is fully dry, so I made the same.

I first gave a por15 coat to all parts using the sponge brush which will leave a very uniform coat, and some hours later (about 5 hours because there is a very low humidity level in sunny Spain and por15 will cure faster on humid climates), when it was tacky (just enough to leave the finger print but not to get paint on my finger), I applied 2 fine coats of normal enamel spray paint (in this case from the Spanish brand Titanlux)

After letting it fully dry overnight, I was very impressed with final result. The finish is superb, taking in mind that the por15 was not prayed, very glossy, and looks very hard.

Assembly was straightforward: fit the ID plate with new pop rivets and fitting the foam pads to the heater matrix. I could have just got locally some foam and cut it to my needs, but well, I was lazy and when I made my huge MOSS order, I included the 2 foams I would need.

I was so impressed and happy to see the final result, a nearly brand new heater matrix assembly, that new one cost a fortune, and that will look gorgeous one fitted.

Final touch, apart from the 4 new bolts, will be fitting the warning vinyl plate on the case that once was fitted and sometime in the past was lost.

Just another weekend project!!!

Sponge brush supplier

Taking a look at Bricor, one of the big hobby warehouses in Spain, I found that they stock sponge brushes at a great price.

At 4.75 eur the pack of six brushes, looks like a great deal compared to other prices and sources. Only trouble is that at least 2 of the sizes, are very big, more than what I need, but I am thinking maybe I can cut it and make two out of one.

In a few weeks I will make some testing, and will report the quality of the sponge used. If it´s good, I will buy 4 or 5 pack, as they will be used only twice for the two coats. It´s not possible to clean them as the solvent will mostly destroy the sponge. I have already made in the past some testing cleaning them with solvent and finally convinced myself it´s best to use new ones, but needed to search for a very cheap source.

I am thinking contacting the manufacturer, and ask if it´s possible to buy in larger quantities, and if it´s possible to buy only one or two sizes, only the ones I need.


Manufacturers site is http://www.swissinno.com/en/paint-brushes/classic-brush.html

Wiper & heater motor restoration

I'm still waiting for some back order parts from Moss, so I can't take the car to the mechanic for suspension and brake work.

Meanwhile, I made some weekend proyects. I had removed the pedal assembly, wich was all brown colour due to surface rust. I am waiting for a new brake master cylinder, so restoring the pedal assembly was mandatory. I dismantled all the parts, sand blasted them, and painted them with por15. Once dry, I reasemble all the parts and fitted new rubber pedal covers. Now I have a beautifull pedal assembly that looks new. New and shiny bolts will give the final touch to the assembly. Attention to that small details as new, cleand and shiny bolts makes a huge difference to any assembly, specially if the assembly is black colour and bolts are silver, which makes a good contrast.

The other pedal box cover was also sand blasted and painted. Both cover and pedal assembly have a foam gasket to seal the engine fumes, but before fitting them, I thought that sanding and painting the metal structure where they are attached would be a great idea. To do that job I need to remove all cables and parts, so I removed the wiper motor and the heater motor. They both looked to be in good condition but the paint was mostly in poor condition.





First I started with the wiper engine. The wiper engine is the original Lucas DR3A unit, that was fitted on most of British cars those days. There are reconditioned units from many online stores, but at prices between 200-300 eur which makes it incredible expensive. So again, before using my deep pocket, I gave the wiper engine an opportunity ;-) It was all full of dirt and mud. But at least most of the covers are made with aluminum or some non magnetic cast metal. The motor case it´s self is steel so It was very rusty. Stripped all the parts, taking care to note the correct position of all parts, and as always taking plenty of photos.

I had to remove all the old grease, that was mostly solid, cleaned all the parts with degreaser. This part if essencial, because if I clean the parts directly with the sand blast machine I will contaminate all the sand.

After some time with the sand blast machine, the result speaks for it´s self: new and shiny part. The cast parts get a lovely matt finish.

The engine rotor was in good condition, but the brushes had marked the rotor, so I used my lathe and a fine sand paper. A lathe is that kind of tool that you will never think it is usefull, until you get one and start using it. After cleaning all parts with compressed air, I started rebuilding the assembly.

Next project was to restore the heater engine assembly. I did not dismantle from the car the heater matrix, as it has cooling liquid from the cooling system and I did not want to drain it now until the car comes from the mechanic. So I just removed the heater engine. As usual on this British cars, the assembly was made by Smiths, and the shell case was stamped accordingly.

Original situation was not bad as usual, but paint was in poor condition, and metal parts had some surface rust, I noticed that the shell casing was not metal, nor cast. It´s some kind of hard plastic or Bakelite. Disassembly of the heater engine represents no problem, except for the plastic fan. It has a metal collar that holds the fan in the metal motor shaft, but once removed with some small pliers, it wont come off. So I ended using my Bosh heater gun, to heat the fan base and with the aid of 2 spanners, making lever until it came off. Rivets where removed to allow all motor brackets to be cleaned correctly. 

All metal parts where as usual sand blasted, except for the shell housing. This made me some concern, as the motor had stamped with white paint some numbers and references that of course the sand blasting procedure will remove and I will not be able to reproduce it, but this is not a concourse restoration so….. The motor shaft had some surface rust, enough for the plastic fan not to slide correctly. So I connected the motor to a 12volt battery, taking note that the car is positive earth, so I connected the wires accordingly: earth to positive, signal to negative. As the shaft was spinning, I used some fine sand paper to sand the shaft and get a very smooth surface.

All parts where painted with por15, and then I reassembled all the components. I happened to have just the exact rivet size, so it was just the reverse procedure. Nuts and bolt where painted with a zinc paint from CRC what gives a final appearance just the same as the sand blasting

Final result was superb. I fitted all new three rubber mounts that finishes the assemble, ready to fit into the car.

So far so good......

Now it´s time for some holidays with the family, but shortly I will be back with:
-new tyres fitted to the restored wire wheels
-some internat body painting
-pedal assembly installation
-and much, much more!