DaveCymrus' Countach thread :D

[garyh]

Will it be matching red? This will be an all consuming task to bring that back to a good standard, but it is lovely. Is it an L reg?

[davecymru]

Cheers
It has been decreed that it will be "a blue one", well.... white top with light blue bottom half!

But seeing as _my_ car lives in the garage and that isn't going to change any time soon! i'm going to copy the approach that Tony (amongst others) took to painting their Sammio's and i'm going to look for a cheap gazebo to put up over it!


Back to the Lambo, the new master cylinder fitted a treat and i'm just waiting on some brake line fixings from CBS as the unions are 2 different sizes. so fingers crossed that i'll be back on the road next week

[davecymru]

After a little blip due finding out that Landrover master cylinders have 2 different size brake line fittings, and a quick order with CBS later, it's in!
(ignoring the state of the wiring that's still very much a to-do!)



But i'm too tired to fully bleed and reassemble everything tonight so that will have to wait for later in the week!

That said, a quick aside for all those of you reading this thread who want to build/own a Countach kit and are in the day-dreaming/planning phase that i went through for many years.

Yes... you can own / build one in a 'normal' single garage, and if you want something bad enough then you can do anything.
But!!
Just be aware that it's not all plain sailing and you do have to be prepared to work for it and make compromises. e.g. in order to jack the car up and remove the wheels inside a single garage it takes a bit of planning, some accurate positioning, a bit of nimbleness and quite a bit of swearing! Especially with the width of the rears!

[AcC8braman]

LOL, I have got to do this to mine tomorrow so that I can plug the oil leak and rewire the alternator, not easy!!!

[davecymru]

And so i find that the bleed nipples are in less than ideal share and one is completely rounded off and not going anywhere!
<grrr>
So i'm going to replace all 4 of them while it's up and on axle stands in order to be thorough. Plus they're so cheap it would be daft not too!

Hopefully they'll turn up tomorrow and the road-test will be over the weekend as Exeter is getting really close now and I've still got the occasionally squeaky rear brake lingering at the back of my mind....

[davecymru]

I need to remember that deadlines and kit cars simply never go together!

Here's the reason i didn't get to Exeter. The two old rear bleed nipples that have now been replaced after a not inconsiderable amount of hassle and swearing!



So after bleeding the entire system i took the car for a spin and the pedal is quite hard and not just because of the new slightly larger master cylinder
So I've done some investigation and reading and i think that it's as simple as an air leak on the servo which i probably knocked when i was changing the master cylinder. ho humm..

But on the positive side i had set the timing, cleaned out the carbs and finally got them balanced! although i still need to scrounge a colourtune in order to get the mixture checked. The result of which is that the engine is running a LOT smoother now!

Note for others, a mirror and some cable ties makes making adjustments and especially setting the timing a whole lot easier!



But even though things are progressing, everything i do feels a bit 2 steps forward one step back and i will admit that i'm having a bit of a low about the car atm

I find this weird as i've always, always wanted one, but somehow it just isn't turning out to be as much 'fun' as building and running my Sammio. (insert the told-u-so comments here) I had a think about _why_ the other night and i think it's because just about everything i do has to be done in a set way as it's a replica and i'm working towards making it all look right and there's little room for creativity and individualism.
I'm almost at the stage where if someone made me a decent enough offer (or an interesting part-ex!) then I'd seriously consider it!

[garyh]

Told you so... Only joking, you're nearly there!

[AcC8braman]

Mate, I know how you feel, it's taken me weeks of research a d spending loads to get my alternator fixed, was loosing faith in the car! Now it's fixed and lots happier now you will get there buddy, you have a great car and looks the biz

Question for you, I have a pressurised water system, just replaced the coolant as there want any, so what's the best way to get all the air out as it sounds like its going to explode at the mo ?

[davecymru]

When you say "pressurised water system" I'm assuming that it's not meant to be that way?
TBH i had the same due to a head gasket leak. One set of head gaskets later and it's all tickety boo


Update on my brakes. I had a very productive visit to the Bath & West Classic car and restoration show and a discussion with one of the brake specialists up there resulted in me finding out that my Master cylinder and servo are actually Morris Ital and not Morris Marina as i'd originally thought!

Sadly the Ital parts are like rocking horse doo-doo, but when i mentioned that I'd already picked up a 22mm internal Landrover master cylinder i was advised that while it was similar it needed a different servo and wouldn't work with the Ital one. Which explains some of my issues last week as i was working on guidance that i had a Marina Servo!

After discussing prices for refurbishing the Ital bits , we decided that it would be cheaper in the long run to stick with the landrover master cylinder and simply change the servo for something a bit more modern as well.

So after some pondering, we figured out that with the extra braking force from the 22mm cylinder over the 18mm cylinder, i should be able to get away with a slightly smaller servo.

So I've picked up a Ford (Escort i believe, the tag dropped off at the show! ) servo and with a minor mod to the mounting bracket it looks like it should do the job fine.

Although Plan B, is that if this doesn't have enough ooommmpphh, then i can now upgrade the servo to a Capri one which is as-near-as-damnit the same size as the Ital one and means i can still use the more modern master cylinder.

So all a bit nerdy and all a bet theoretical, but it only goes to show that Google is no substitute for actually taking to someone with actual real experience! Plus i may be able to get a few quid for the Ital bits on e-bay!

[davecymru]

New Servo and master cylinder are in and working and i took it for a quick blat down the road and it works a treat! The brakes have a different feel to previously, but they are equally as effective at stopping the car!

I am finally putting things back together:


The squeak/rubbing from the rear drivers side wheel is still there though , so that's the next job along with fitting the other boot release i have, as one of the cables snapped when i was opening the engine lid and the existing one simply snapped in half! I put it down to old brittle plastic!

[davecymru]

As i just posted elsewhere, I had a quick run-out the other day to double check my wheel rubbing issue.

I got home and jacked it up and there is no play that i can feel, but when i took the brake drum off i could see where it was rubbing, i just don't know for how long that's been a problem?
So i've smoothed down the rough area, painted it black and i'll do another run and then re-inspect.

Here's a pic of what i'm talking about. note that this was taken after i'd smoothed it down. The shiny area on the brake backing plate was much smaller, but quite rough.



I'm wondering if this isn't caused by a number of problems, i.e. slight bearing play, plus wheel alignment, plus?

I must admit, that while i do like working on my car, i am getting a bit fed up of this view and would reliash a chance to just drive it for a while!

[AcC8braman]

Hi Dave, not sure what's causing your issue but know what you mean about sort out problems

I have a rear brake set that I took off mine - two groves disks and matching calumets. Spares at the mo if you are interested?

[davecymru]

hummm...... i have toyed with the idea of replacing the hubs, but i haven't had chance to look into exactly what i need yet.

[Scottie22]

Hi Dave, my name is Scottie and I'm building a Jaguar XKSS over on the Tribute side of the fence.
Let me start by saying your car is really cracking, and deservedly so,
looking at all the work you've put in!

Paul L. put me on to you, I have come to the point where I have discovered rivnuts, but have not got beyond that yet. They look like the answer to my prayers.

How good are they? Is it okay to use them on fibre glass?
Is it likely to start cracks or damage the shell over time?
There are so many questions I have, can you give me a bit of a run down?

My body shell thickness varies from 2.5mm to 6.5mm depending where it's measured, what lengths of rivnut would I need?

Look foward to hearing from you,

Cheers
Scottie

[davecymru]

Hey Scottie, I'll chuck a reply over on your build thread now in order to keep all your info in one place

[Scottie22]

Thanks for that Dave, good thinking putting it on my thread!!

I've got mixed feelings now, I'm not sure what to do.
My intention was to use them to hold the steel surround that the wind screen is mounted in, and I was going to use stainless steel ones as I thought alloy would be too soft, steel ones would rust.
Also to hold the heat shield on the lower part of the sill.
As I said I thought 6mm stainless steel rivnuts would be about right
You've put enough doubt in my mind to think again!!
Here are the bits I wanted to do,
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

[davecymru]

I reckon you'd be OK for the heat shield.
But for the windscreen surround I'd say you've got to drill through and use load spreaders on the back! My Sammio wind deflector was only light but still needed a load of bolts with large washers on the back to spread the load, so I think you'll need something more substantial for what you're planning. Which does look very, very pretty BTW!

[Scottie22]

Hi Dave,
I just want to thank you again for your input, you did a good job, and went out of your way to help me and I really appreciate that.
Based on what you and Viatron said, I am ,one way or another, going to bolt the screen on with stainless nuts and bolts in the good old fashioned way! By the way, where are you located?

[Viatron]

Dave, just been reading your thread, did you ever get a Gazeebo? Just so happens I found a 6m X 3M one during my workshop clear-out that is now surplus to requirements, Cheap but would need to be collected as it weighs a bit.
Mac

PS, you may be getting a bit fed up of working on your car but imagine how I feel, ive got 3 and none are road worthy :-(

[davecymru]

Hey Scottie, no worries. I'll admit that I'm learning new things every day as i work- on <cough>play</cough> with my car, so i was interested in what you were planning.

I'm over towards Burnham-on-sea btw.

Hey Mac, thanks for the offer and if you don't need to get rid of it right away i may take you up on the offer, but not until the new year as I'm completely out of storage space atm as i currently have bits of the wife's VW camper taking up every spare nook-n-cranny!