Davecymru's Build thread

[jmc14]

Thanks for the pictures. I like what you've done.

[Roadster]

shes looking great Dave
When are you planning on taking her out for her maiden voyage / shake down

[davecymru]

i'm currently held up by trying to sort out my initial painting flaws on the rear end, so lots of 2000 grit flatting, t-cut and polish to get the areas around the lights before i can re-fit them.

The mistake i made was to use the regulator on the compressor. I couldn't get a good steady pressure so i increased the paint/air mix on the gun so i could get a flat coat on, but i was also getting a lot of dusting that affected the final coat and needs a lot of flatting.

ho humm, we live and learn!

[Mister Towed]

Don't worry Dave, all the hard work will be worth it in the long run and your car's looking really stunning now the interior's in.

And thank you for sharing your experience, I for one will be ordering a silverline regulator from ebay before trying my first spray job.

[Roadster]

I understand your frustration Dave.
I think you are a perfectionist - but it looks great as it is.

There will always be things that you can see that no one else will ever notice.
After all you have stared at it for hours and know each and every square inch and all the little imperfection.

[lancelot link]

looking snazzy Dave....liking it.

If the paint is starting to get you down , you could always ' fake patina ' it and give it the ' recent Barn find ' classic car look !!

( probably not helping things am I ? )

Seriously , you are nearly there ..its worth it.

[davecymru]

As my friends have pointed out this morning:
The day i finished the interior we had rain and gales.
Last night i refitted all the rear end electrics and this morning is the first real severe frost of the winter.

So i reckon that when the front end is reassembled we'll get snow

I'm dreading what will happen once i pass the MOT! Tsunami?

[lancelot link]

So in the same way that Pats is called Skippy and the great white G46 is Orca - is yours Stormchaser or something like that !!

[jmc14]

Dave, I had a similar outcome on a paint job once. I was painting at 3am after having 12 hours of sleep in 4 days. I was trying to finish a car for a show. My painting was going great then all of a sudden I was just getting a dry dusting of paint. I thought that it was the compressor or regulator. I turned up the pressure and finished the job. The front of the car was great the rear was very dull. I buffed and buffed and never got it to look right.

The thing was that the problem was not with the compressor or regulator. The vent tube had plugged on the siphon gun. The gun needs atmospheric pressure to work properly. I knew this but in my fatigued state didn't figure it out until it was too late.

I am not saying that this was your problem. But, I feel your pain. And, I thought that my experience might help some one else that finds themself in the same situation.

Have fun. John

[davecymru]

Well.... Apart from the fact that i broke the 42 yr old horn "brush" swapping it between steering wheels so the Horn is not yet working (so no MOT) and my starter has started playing up this morning, it's done!

I'll order a new brush and hope it gets through the Christmas post so that i can fit it while I'm off over Christmas and while I'm waiting for that I'll get the starter out and see what's going on. Hopefully it's nothing too much as it's a new starter!

Basically when i turn her over on the key i can hear the starter turning fine, but it doesn't seem to be engaging with the engine. But then very occasionally it does?
It was working fine up until yesterday, so any ideas on a postcard please!

But I did manage to get it working once this morning long enough to get some pics in the sun. Just please be aware that there is still some polishing to do, so please don't be too picky about the current finish. I describe it as "medium resolution" i.e. it's looks good from a short way away, but up close you can spot the issues

[davecymru]

Some final pics:









Fingers crossed i can get the horn and starter fixed over Christmas and have her on the road early in the new year!

Then i can start making Mods!

[Roadster]

Dave she looks great
The mods on the bonnet look like they were meant to be there and the details will have people guessing what it is
I hope to see it in the flesh next year

[lancelot link]

LOOKING MIGHTY FINE DAVE .....

Have you taken it for a sneaky drive yet ?

[davecymru]

Sadly not I was planning on taking it up the lane you can see in the background on some of the pics as that is a private road. But i was doing a temp test on the drive, which it passed with flying colours, and i turned the engine off while i sorted some things out and that was when the starter started playing up, so i just put her back in the garage for the time being.

The combined wisdom of my local is that i've got a sticky pinion on my starter and that a bit of lubrication should sort it out a treat. Failing that it might be the starter ring come loose (somehow) but there are a few pints on it being the pinion so I'll have a look at that over the next day or so!

[Patton]

Hi Dave, looking really good, I just might invest in a compressor and gun and yellow paint and a DA just that the weather is not to good for a while now I want to do something again now your pics inspired me right lets have a look on fleabay cheers PAT

[davecymru]

I picked up a "normal" starter from Moss in Bristol today in case my hi-torque starter was causing the starting issues i've been having.

I've just fitted this and it all works lovely! Even the weird noise has gone, so i can only assume that was all related to the hi-torque? I'll have a look at that at some point to see what was going on as it's nothing obvious, I'm just glad it was nothing more serious!

So as I'm just waiting for the horn brush before it's done I've talked to my local garage and it's all booked in for an MOT and a good "once over" on the 10th of Jan! panic. panic. panic. panic

So it's now time for lots of pre MOT checks and "fettling" over Christmas i thinks!

Now that it also starts on the ball, i've finally taken it down our private lane (only a hundred yards or so) and the two things i noticed were:

1) The wheels _still_ rub on full lock I've already recessed the bulkheads and fitted smaller tyres so i think that the BIG hammer may be used at some point as i've had enough of this!

2) You have to literally Stand on the brakes to make them work! I'm assuming this largely due to them not being used for 1+ years, so I'll do a few more back-n-forth trips down the lane on the run up to the 10th to see if they get any more effective.

[Mister Towed]

Scary stuff, especially the brakes!

There might be nothing wrong with them though, it could just be the lack of a servo. I drove an Elise on a track day a couple of months back and you had to stand on the middle pedal to get any braking at all. I guess we've all gone a bit soft in the right thigh muscle since cars started getting servo brakes as standard.

This is why I'm fitting a servo with a 1.9:1 ratio to mine, not to improve the Sammio brakes so much as to give consistent pedal feel between it and modern cars. Hopefully this will prevent me leaving face prints all over the inside of the windscreen of my Saab after driving the Spyder.

As for the wheels rubbing, have you considered adding some rubber 'stops' to limit the wheel travel? The old Herald/Vitesse has far more steering lock than you really need so it shouldn't do any harm limiting it a bit.

[davecymru]

The run up to the MOT next Tues is now getting a bit frantic....

The horn now works a treat, but the rear left indicator stopped working

I assumed I'd pulled a connection when i was wring up the horns, but it turns out that the contact plate inside the indicator has come off where the wire is soldered on to it! As a bought it at a show i can't return it, but luckily i had two other indicators of a slightly different style on the shelf, so they're being rapidly fitted!

I also took her for another run down our private lane and it was obvious that she needs tuning, so i balanced the carbs with the aid of a bit of left over fuel tubing (i felt like SUCH a car nerd sitting there listening to carb sucking noises!) and i've also done a compression test and all 6 cylinders are near enough the same, which was a relief.

I scrounged a colour-tune from a neighbour, although as soon as i took the spark plug out it was obvious that she's running rich and the colour tune confirmed that. But despite lots of fettling i couldn't get her running lean enough so i've placed an emergency order with Rimmers for two new needles and 2 carb overhaul kits and the carbs came off last night in readiness so fingers crossed i can get those overhauled and refitted this weekend.


Finally, i've also done a bit more careful adjustment of my already recessed bulkheads to try and get rid of the last bit of rub on extreme lock. well....... actually i whacked them with a hammer, and it's getting a lot better, but i'm not at all sure I'll ever get enough space on the passenger side due to the recessed battery box, but I'll see what can be done by Tuesday and then it's just lots of:

[Mister Towed]

Best of luck with the mot on Tuesday, I for one will be holding my breath for you.

I had to rebuild my carbs too - mainly because the first time I tried to start my engine the carbs sprayed fuel everywhere past the perished seals just as the worn out starter solenoid exploded in a shower of sparks due to the massive overload it got because of the knackered starter motor...

That's when Canleys and Rimmers started seeing some pretty expensive orders from me.

If your carbs are anything like mine were you'll be shocked by the amount of yellow crystaline crud that's built up inside them over the decades and a good clean will help no end I'm sure.

[garyh]

Take some celebratory pics with nice backgrounds