They're bloody red! I'm on my strictly sea green policy. The bushes I have are orange which is bad enough, so I can't have red as well. As I said, it's a shame............that I have become obsessed.

I wouldn't worry about it. I sprayed mine silver, but that was about nine months ago now and they're beginning to turn to a russet rust colour already. Tres authentique...

Quick update - seized calipers
 

Stripping the calipers was more effort than I anticipated - there's a surprise.

The pistons did not want to budge despite the application of some lubricant and the introduction of compressed air. At this point, I could have given up and parted with £100 on some refurbs from Canley.

I don't like being defeated so I looked at YouTube and trawled online and followed this advice.

Fit a grease nipple to where the pipe enters the caliper and pump away with your grease gun. Bingo, all four pistons out within an hour.

OK, the calipers now need a thorough clean to remove old fluid and grease and a good drying with the air line, but that's not a problem. The calipers look great and I have new seals and pistons to go in.

I shall let you know how they respond when put under pressure.

"despite the application of some lubricant and the introduction of compressed air......." :eyebrows:


Been reading 50 shades of Grey have we sir? :)

50 Sheds of Grey is more me.

Progress
 

Right, lots of pictures to keep WCA distracted and to give those nurses a break.

I've spent a couple of days down at The Glade to try and push things along. But, before I did, I put a coat of HT paint on the calipers.


Yesterday, I did the final priming of suspension parts.


I then went home with a smile on my face and began to dream of applying colour.

This morning I levered the lid from the tin and it was exactly as I imagined (BS318C-217).

A few hours later I had this to show for my labours -


And.......


I'm a happy boy. One of those special days when you think, yup, one day this will be finished.

Still a fair bit of spraying to go - more suspension parts plus the underside of the chassis - but I am now confident with the spray gun.

I am really impressed with the paint - it's very forgiving.

Tonight I shall return and tidy up the monumental mess I made. As I do so, I shall be smiling.

Excellent work, O. Its going to look like a real production car!

Looking good. Is that going to be your body colour too?

Yes, everything will be this colour - including shockers, springs, engine and drive train. The only contrast will be the orange bushes.

It's probably a bit lighter than some tastes. I was pretty sure I would like it once it was on, and I must say, I love it.

As mentioned before, I may have a cream/buttermilk nose-band around the radiator intake, but not sure on that yet.

I am toying with going for silver-grey 15" "Dunlop" steel wheels rather than wires. This will require some adapters from the States. Undecided as yet, but the idea is growing.

We would love Dunlop wheels aren't hey even copies hugely expensive?

Yes, I've seen prices of £1,500 per corner for copies.

Just give me a few days while I try some things out. I may have a neat(ish) solution that could work out cheaper than a set of adapters for 14" wire wheels.

Have you looked at these copies ?

http://www.realmengineering.com/dunl...%20wheels.html

Wow, they look like fantastic value. How would you get them on the Triumph or Reliant hubs though? There isn't much information on the site about PCD's, adaptors etc. Looking at the pictures I guess they're Jag five bolt or Jag large splined fitment only.

I suppose it's possible to have the hubs/drums redrilled to suit, or a set of adaptor plates fabricated. Worth thinking about though - although I'm happy with my MGB wires my original intention was to find some Dunlop replicas, but I couldn't find any that would fit or were in my price range of cheap as chips.

Great find though. :ranger:

have you downloaded the PDF?

http://www.realmengineering.com/Real...0New%20Web.PDF

cheers, edwin

They are lovely but still £450+ per corner to fit a Triumph hub.

Just to be clear, what I am planning is a combination of after market items that will be reminiscent of 15" Dunlops. They will be to Dunlops, what a Sammio is to a Lancia D24.

I had looked at the pdf, but I missed the 'peg drive, bespoke hubs' option. With spinners and VAT you're looking at just shy of £2,500 for a car set. That's cheaper than most I've seen but seven times what I spent on five used MG wires with new splined adaptors. Plus, if I break a wire wheel, brand new ones are only £99 each from the MGB hive in Wisbech, twenty minutes drive away from me.

They'd look great on the car though. Now, where's my lottery ticket...

I can't wait to see what you've got planned. My original idea was to reuse the 13" late Triumph Spitfire wheels that came with my Vitesse, fitting them with dummy spinners, 175/80/13 tyres to give them a larger rolling diameter and wide-band white walls to make the wheel look bigger.

Eventually, the look of the wires won me over. The adaptors push the wheels out to fill the arches better. The standard Triumph wheels sit much further in, which isn't a complete stylistic disaster as they look quite like the original narrow wheels fitted to early Porsche 356's before wider tyres became available -

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...umbnail_03.jpg

That's the best picture I could find of an original before everyone retro-fitted 911 steels to them in the sixties.

Other ideas included having some adaptors made to take TR6 steels, but then the wires snuck up and sold themselves to me.

So come on, let's see the wheels you're going with, we're waiting... :eyebrows:

I hadn't realised how much wheels cost until reading this thread and looking about a bit.

I wonder if I can get away with some Halford plastic wheel trims and a spray paint?

As Mr T says, it's possible to get a set of wires and adapters for under £300 if you shop carefully.

I love the look of spokes but I am hoping to do a few hillclimbs in mine and I will be more comfortable with steels. Who knows, I may hate them and replace with wires.

Hill climbs you say. Have you seen a topographical map of Norfolk? Raised kerbs make us flatlanders go a bit light headed. :(

under 300?? where??

e-bay.

I've seen sets of four MGB wires sell for under a tenner. OK, so they need blasting and painting, but if you've already got the kit, which I did, it's just the cost of the primer and paint, around a fiver a wheel.

I paid £270 for new splined adaptors with two-eared spinners and a hammer, so £300 is just about acheivable.

Having said that, I paid £90 for five wires, then spent around a fiver a wheel on primer and paint so my total outlay (excluding three days hard work!) would be about £385 for the five, or £77 per wheel.

And I don't think they look too shabby, even if the tramp demonstrating the driving position does...

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...day2011002.jpg

For G46 I think a set of cleaned up Wolfrace alloys would look very good and wont cost a huge amount.

http://www.scimitarweb.co.uk/sgwrs/v...p?f=21&t=16362

A bit seventies beach buggy for my taste, but one man's meat is another man's poison I suppose.

Oxford1360 - Your car is really going to stand out in that colour. :cool:

Although I think the over spray has knocked £s off the value of your pallet.

:icon_twisted:

Jokes aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing this coming together.

Cheers, Paul. :)

One little change I'm making to the original spec is to replace the 3/8" wheel lugs with the M12 variety that were used on TR7s. It's a straight swap and can be had from Canley for ~£24 for 16. There is quite a difference, but wheels and rear drums fit without any modifications. It pains me to have a metric part on the car but I can live with that......just about.

TR7, MGF, Freelander, there are a bunch of options in different lengths to suit steels/alloys, taper/sleeve nuts etc.

Talk to MWS if you want use them with wire wheel adapters though.

I'm going for a set of these and 15" steel wheels.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2306200250...84.m1423.l2649

Intersting adaptors, will give you lots more choice.

What steels are you aiming to fit? I've done a little trawling and found these possibilities -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steel-Whee...item2ec243a7d7

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-Fiat-Gr...item23228387a6

It'll be interesting to see what you end up with so good luck getting the look you want. :biggrin:

We've done the same homework. I bought a set of the BMW Mini with two good Michelin tyres for..........£7.50 last week. I also bought the Dunlop stickers. I may also be getting a set of spinners (they are a bit theatrical, so I need to think longer).

Wheels - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3308008474...84.m1439.l2649

Dunlop stickers - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4000479718...84.m1439.l2649

Spinners - http://www.spinnercenter.com/bolton-...ets-c-1_2.html

The plan is to take a Dremel to the wheels and smooth off any rough edges so that they are "hand finished" and then build up the paint to a very smooth finish. I may go silver, I may go green.

Aim is to end-up something like this


or this


Not sure whether to go for two or three eared spinner.

It seems that Mini owners take their new cars straight to an after sales wheel pimper and put on 17" alloys. This means that there are stacks of new sets with unused tyres up for grabs for ~£100.

That seems quite expensive for a set of stud adaptors, but maybe I'm out of touch.

If you can find a freindly local machine shop, or model engineer, you might be able to get a set for a lot less.

I used to have a set that went from Triumph to Ford stud pattern for my Rochdale GT. I had an Anglia 105E back axle and Herrald front (narrowed by 6 1/2") with 15" Hillman Minx wheels. They came off a friend's Lotus 6 when he put it back into road trim.

I like those mini wheels, very Dunlopable imho.

As for spinners, if you can put up with three ears you could do worse than a set of these -

https://www.europaspares.com/product...____cpds_.html

Should save you a few bucks and an age of inernational shipping time too... :biggrin:

They would do the job. Thanks for that. I am tending towards three ears, so that would help to make the decision.

Had a quick dash across the Cotswolds this morning to collect my £7.50 wheels. Couldn't resist slipping down to The Glade and offering them up to the chassis.


I was planning to spray them green, but the silver looks tempting. And, I wanted to see my bushes in place. I like the contrast.

They all sell out in the end... :icon_rolleyes:

I'm very curious how it looks with the bolt on spinners!

It really does have a dunlop ish look.

These look a good quality manufactured item. Did you dismiss the cheaper Mike Satur ones?
http://www.mikesatur.com/acatalog/On...5.html#aAW3902

or these http://www.carnoisseurdirect.com/hr-...de-36584-p.asp

They look great value for money at around £120 a set. They're more versatile than the American ones too - the slotted stud holes allow fitment of just about any wheel so long as it's 4 stud and a maximum of 114mm pcd it'll fit. Good spot.

B*ll*cks. That's what happens when you get fixated and don't step back. I saw the US ones and my mind was off. I didn't think to step back and take a breath. I have just cost myself £40 and a long wait. The money could have been spent on something useful. Doh! I shall see it as public service. I shall report back on the US items and I can compare when somebody takes the obvious route!

I can see that the first link items are hubcentric, but the sliding bolts make me feel uneasy (for no known reason).

Just noticed, the second link is for a PAIR so they are twice as much as the first option and the US version. That makes me feel slightly better.

I think the US ones look a superior quality so don't beat yourself up! Must admit the sliding bolts idea did the same for me which is why I mentioned them. Look forward to your report when they arrive.
Unfortunately I have been forced to step back until the DIY is finished so I have to just look at my untouched Vitesse or read the threads to keep me going.

Keep up the good work.