Berlinetta Restoration 2015

[scott h]

Years ago I was trying to get oil pressure on a Rover V8. I would pack the pump with vaseline and each time I started the engine the pressure was good for a few seconds then nothing. It turned out after several attempts that I had wired the electrical oil pressure gauge to only be live when the starter was live! I was getting some funny looks in the chemist when I kept going back for yet more vaseline!!

[8 Valve Ed]

Very good! LOL

At least you can still get Vaseline, I have tried to get Paraffin recently and people look at you with a glazed expression? Nobody seems to stock it any more. I have asked everywhere without success. I don't like using petrol for washing off and the Gunk type solutions don't seem to have the 'bite' they used to have, more like pink soapy water. In fact my tub of washing off stuff froze the other day and I filtered off a load of ice, it had formed sheets in the solution.

[8 Valve Ed]

Spun the engine over on it's starter today, the oil appeared at the rockers immediately.

[Patrick]

Nice a well oiled machine it is then.

[8 Valve Ed]

It's been a long and very mixed day today, Started out fixing the radiator in position, then the drill slipped and went through the core. I won't go into the details but I was very cross.

When I had calmed down and taken the rad back out, I spent the rest of the morning finding the minute hole in the rad, I had to cut one of the tubes out to get to the second row. It was only a tiny pinhole but it sure leaked a lot of water. Eventually I soldered it up and soldered the side plate back on, that caused another leak... When I had it water tight at about 1:30 (pm) I stopped for lunch.

This afternoon I piped the rad back up to the engine and filled it with water again... All seemed OK until I noticed the valley gasket starting to pool water. The thermostat gasket was leaking??? Why? Turned out the thermostat had dropped between the gasket and the housing, simple remedy that one!

Since then I have been installing the front brake pipe and securing it with 'P' clips, I need to get some more small ones... I clipped up the front of the fuel pipe and put a small flare OP1 on the end to help seal the rubber pipe and make it more secure, I know it's not high pressure but it is important it doesn't leak.

This evening I fitted the gearbox remote. I needed four rubber spacer/anti vibration washers to fit the remote, the originals had all perished away. I have been wondering where and how to obtain some, Rimmers don't list them although they say they have all the parts, they probably do have them but I think of the cost of four rubber washers probably being about £10 delivered, surely I could make or adapt something? I have a sheet of thick rubber, about 12mm thick and plenty big enough. It was exactly the right thickness, so I drilled a hole through a small chunk and sandwiched it between two large washers and used the angle grinder to make the rubber round, then I used the Dremel to slit the rubber in half to form two washers. It worked like a charm, I repeated the process and had my four washers to mount the remote.

I paid £5 for the off-cut of rubber, I made four front tie rod bushes, an anti Vibration mount for the fuel pumps and now I have made these washers. A good buy by any standards.

I have had enough excitement for one day, off to bed... Unfortunately no pix today, been far too busy.

Oh, another thing, I forgot to mention, I passed the 80% complete mile post. It's actually 82.62% complete right now. (Assuming the rad doesn't spring another leak...)

[Paul L]

8 Value Ed - Sounds like you really had one of those days.

But at least passing the 80% mark must have been a good feeling.

Good luck, Paul.

PS
I forgot to say what a great job you did shaping the boot floor.

[8 Valve Ed]

Thanks Paul, I just made a post on your thread, but you put a second one in before I hit the send button, so it's a bit disjointed.

I was very pleased with the boot floor too, came out better than I expected. I made the battery tray with the English Wheel too. That was 3mm Aluminium and it came out really well and so easy. I will post some pix when I catch breath but right now I am trying to keep up the momentum, rather than interrupt to take pix.

Bed! Zzzzzzzzz

[peterux]

Originally Posted by 8 Valve Ed

I have tried to get Paraffin recently and people look at you with a glazed expression? Nobody seems to stock it any more. I have asked everywhere without success.

Try B&Q, Homebase or your local garden centre as they still make paraffin heaters for greenhouses. You may have to look in the gardening section of B&Q.
http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-pa.../257116_BQ.prd

[8 Valve Ed]

Thanks for that suggestion Peter, I will take a look when I go to town.

You may be able to help with my next question too. I am starting to think about my grill. Probably Paul L's adventures have rubbed off on me. As part of the 'package' when I collected the Berlinetta, came a little pack of kinky wires, 45 of them I think, each wire has 20 kinks at 19mm centres.

This is for my grill. Stupidly I assumed the wires were stainless but no, they are 2.4mm aluminium welding rods, with kinks. I like the light weight aspect but have a feeling it's going to corrode like crazy and be pretty fragile. Stainless would have been much better, not sure I feel like forming 500 kinks in stainless welding rods. Perhaps a job for Michael... I suppose they could be anodised?

My question is what material is the frame, I am assuming it's aluminium, but what thickness and width? I am guessing it's 2mm thick but I could be wrong it may be 3mm? The width has to be the depth of the aperture plus 5mm plus 2mm. According to the assembly manual the surround is supposed to protrude 2mm to the front of the cowl and have 5mm behind, inside. I guess what I don't know is the thickness of the metal.



I had a bit better day today, at least I didn't drill any more holes in the rad... :roll eyes: I finished up mounting the rad and the front cowl/nose cone. I had a problem with access there and ended up welding bolts into strips of steel which will be glued into the rad cowl which is fibreglass. Otherwise there was no way of attaching the cowl to the chassis.

The fan belt I ordered is too short and too thick, so it's back to the drawing board on that. At least I know what it isn't! LOL

I connected the fuel line to the engine, failed to get any ignition HT leads, the originals are shot. Will try again tomorrow but it's looking bleak for starting the engine this weekend without the leads. Everything else is falling into place, I am adapting the old Cortina accelerate pedal to mount inside the car, I never understood why it was in an ugly fibreglass compartment under the bonnet. Difficult to think of a more complicated, lousy solution? I can't find the accelerator cable, it may have been junk and been disposed of together with a lot of other rubbish items from the car.

Just had a hunch, been up in the loft and found two really nice smooth brand new Shimao bike gear cables, nicely long enough and with the correct ends! Great result! :-)

Well once again the excitement of the day has made me very tired, I will hit the Z's before I fall asleep on the keyboard.

[Sorton]

When I want paraffin I just drain a pint or two from my household heating oil tank. All you have to do is find someone who uses the stuff!!! It's about 40p a litre these days

[8 Valve Ed]

I have to admit I hadn't thought of heating oil, I had discounted diesel (gas oil) because of the smell, we have plenty of farmers around here, I know several who would let me have some if I wanted.

I only know of one place which has oil fired heating and that's an old folks home about 30 miles away, they have a 3,000 gallon tank! But I doubt I could have any from them... Heating oil is rarer than hens teeth around here, most people have converted to gas, either mains or a tank. I haven't seen a heating oil delivery tanker for years. (Probably see three today!!! LOL)

Completely off topic, I had an expensive experience with heating oil, I ran a site tipper truck and had been given a couple of hundred gallons of heating oil, so I put some in the truck. I needed to move it to another site, so early one Sunday morning I set off on the road to take it about a mile to this other site. The truck engine stopped on a bridge probably because of the heating oil... Next thing plod comes around the corner, "ey up, what's all this then?" I got done for thirteen road traffic offences inc. no insurance. I got an endorsement and a fine of £43 for my experience, that was quite a lot in 1973.



Today I am going to finish the accelerator pedal, connect it to the engine and start planning the exhaust system. I am planning to use two similar production exhausts from say a 1700 petrol Astra and adapt them to the Marlin chassis by cutting and shutting. The Rover down pipes get me to the back of the gearbox, so if I can find a pair of suitable systems to chop up, I will be well pleased. A visit to one of my local breakers seems imminent.

[MartinClan]

Originally Posted by 8 Valve Ed

Thanks for that suggestion Peter, I will take a look when I go to town.

You may be able to help with my next question too. I am starting to think about my grill. Probably Paul L's adventures have rubbed off on me. As part of the 'package' when I collected the Berlinetta, came a little pack of kinky wires, 45 of them I think, each wire has 20 kinks at 19mm centres.

This is for my grill. Stupidly I assumed the wires were stainless but no, they are 2.4mm aluminium welding rods, with kinks. I like the light weight aspect but have a feeling it's going to corrode like crazy and be pretty fragile. Stainless would have been much better, not sure I feel like forming 500 kinks in stainless welding rods. Perhaps a job for Michael... I suppose they could be anodised?

My question is what material is the frame, I am assuming it's aluminium, but what thickness and width? I am guessing it's 2mm thick but I could be wrong it may be 3mm? The width has to be the depth of the aperture plus 5mm plus 2mm. According to the assembly manual the surround is supposed to protrude 2mm to the front of the cowl and have 5mm behind, inside. I guess what I don't know is the thickness of the metal.



I had a bit better day today, at least I didn't drill any more holes in the rad... :roll eyes: I finished up mounting the rad and the front cowl/nose cone. I had a problem with access there and ended up welding bolts into strips of steel which will be glued into the rad cowl which is fibreglass. Otherwise there was no way of attaching the cowl to the chassis.

The fan belt I ordered is too short and too thick, so it's back to the drawing board on that. At least I know what it isn't! LOL

I connected the fuel line to the engine, failed to get any ignition HT leads, the originals are shot. Will try again tomorrow but it's looking bleak for starting the engine this weekend without the leads. Everything else is falling into place, I am adapting the old Cortina accelerate pedal to mount inside the car, I never understood why it was in an ugly fibreglass compartment under the bonnet. Difficult to think of a more complicated, lousy solution? I can't find the accelerator cable, it may have been junk and been disposed of together with a lot of other rubbish items from the car.

Just had a hunch, been up in the loft and found two really nice smooth brand new Shimao bike gear cables, nicely long enough and with the correct ends! Great result! :-)

Well once again the excitement of the day has made me very tired, I will hit the Z's before I fall asleep on the keyboard.

That grill is exactly the same as the one in my old Triumph based Marlin that I built - ahem - over 30 years ago. I can still remember the sore fingers after weaving the wires. The frame, as I recall was supplied as part of the kit. It was just a flat strip of ali which you bent to shape yourself. As I reacall it was about 2mm x 12mm. You can actually polish the wires if you feel so inclined.

The Sportster uses a stainless (pre woven) mesh. Readily available from ebay but pretty expensive stuff.

Cheers, Robin

[Paul L]

8 Value Ed - I guess it will be too small, but I have an off cut from my new stainless grille that measures roughly 16 inches x 13.5 inches you can have.

Good luck, Paul.

[8 Valve Ed]

Thanks Robin, I wondered if it might be a 'standard' Marlin grill. I'm not convinced I will use it yet.

I have worked out that the width of the strip will have to be 50mm, 2mm thick makes sense. I roughly measured the periphery of the grill aperture, is needs about 1500mm, dammed inconvenient because that's too long to be cut off the width of a sheet. It would have to be two cuts across a sheet - 750mm.

Paul, thanks for the offer, but I need roughly 16" by 17½" but also, I want the pattern vertical.

My original plan was to use stainless 'U' section, I have found a supplier, but I need about £70 worth of the material, then I would need to fabricate the grill myself. It would be the business but at a great cost.

http://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/products/...54m_Gap_1_78mm

This morning I have finished the accelerator pedal, my Dremmel came in very handy to enlarge a fragile hole in the carburettor operating lever to accept the larger cable end of the Shimano cable. All in all a great result.

[8 Valve Ed]

Haven't achieved a lot today, found some plug leads locally from a Range Rover 3.9-4.2? which are all numbered wrong but fit anyway, half the R******s price.

I have also filled the gearbox with ATF and lifted the car up about three feet at the front to try to prime the gearbox oil pump on the LT77 gearbox. I am leaving it that way overnight.

This afternoon I called at one of my favourite car breakers. I wanted to check out exhaust systems for the Marlin.

I have considered posting the next bit in a separate thread, because it's right off topic, but I will keep it here for now...

While I was at the breakers looking at exhausts I noticed an odd car. At first I thought it was an MGB - GT the shape was right, a third door, swept lines and very similar front and rear wings, however it is far smaller than an MGB, more like a Midget for size. It has five stud wheels (missing) with very small studs, the PCD is quite large. Disk brakes at the front and drums at the back. I think the back axle is a simple 'live' axel, I think it has coil spring suspension at the back but not sure. The steering wheel is missing, as is the bonnet, the shell is extremely rusty but it has a CHASSIS! I have no idea what it is, I will describe a few other features, I though I should have taken a photograph of it but I was more interested in the exhausts at the time and two of the workers were making a real mess throwing water about, so I decided to make a break for it and left.

The dash has all the instruments in place, a round rev counter and matching speedo in front of the driver centred on the steering. There was a very rusty cast iron engine block, gearbox casing and clutch housing on the passenger seat. The block was three cylinders with quite large bores??? MAY not be related to the car... But there is no engine fitted to the car. The chassis seems solid from a very brief inspection. It seems to be quite thick metal like perhaps 4mm but quite shallow in section, say 60mm? what I could see of it. The rearmost members are waggon style rolled channel.

The headlamps are missing but the housings are sort of oval and sloping back at the top, perhaps similar to VW headlamps? There is a chrome handbrake at the passenger side of a rather large transmission tunnel.

I have no idea if there is a V5 for this car, I plan to ring them in the morning to find out, because it looks like a really good project for somebody. It would take my 'A' Series engine and gearbox perfectly.

I am kicking myself for not taking a few photo's but that's life. I may take another look at it on Monday if there is a V5.

Can anybody hazard a guess what it is? I think it's H registered, that is H *** ***.

# 2035

[8 Valve Ed]

Apparently it's a Honda 500.

No V5 but may not have been certified as destroyed.



It's very similar to this except it is a salon with an MGB - GT style roof with the third door. Me thinks it could be pretty rare. I may well take a closer look on Monday morning. In some ways it's in quite good condition, despite the body rust. The seats and interior are serviceable.

[8 Valve Ed]

Started the engine today. No real issues, it was a bit reluctant to run well but with no exhaust or air cleaners, it was expecting a lot. I fitted some air filters after we recorded the video and it ran a lot better. With an exhaust it should be perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnX9...U&spfreload=10

We went out after dinner to clip up some brake pipes and tidy up some loose ends but somehow one thing led to another, it was after 10:30 pm before we called it a day. We started to make the engine side covers, we will roll the bonnet through the English Wheel tomorrow, another milestone. I am not going to form the engine side louvers at this stage, I want to get the panels completed first before I start to make the tooling for the louvers.

[8 Valve Ed]

The end of another month, only one more month to go until Easter.

This is the first car I built, an Austin Seven special when I was about 14, although I had worked on my fathers Alvis's before that.



Made mainly from wood I used an Alvis instrument panel which I made a new dashboard for decorated with brass nails.

Here is the current bar chart as of last night...



For comparison, The progress chart at the end of January...



And at the end of December...



As you can see significant progress in two months. I am confident it will be ready for MOT soon after Easter, baring accidents or unforeseen. Starting the engine yesterday was a big milestone, today I am struck down with a tummy bug, been sick twice but feeling a little better now. I had hoped to be getting on with the engine sides and bonnet today, but not. Michael is tidying up the garage so I can spend next week looking for 'stuff'! LOL

[Paul L]

Congratulations on the engine start.

It must be great to see how close you are to the finish.

Good luck, Paul.

[8 Valve Ed]

Thanks Paul, I don't need more days like today!

I welded two silences to the down pipes, one is skew-wiff, I have had to take the manifolds back off, like Michael told me I would because the studs securing the down pipes have almost no threads left. In the process I broke two drills and one tap, in the hole... I smashed it to pieces to get it out.

I drilled one stud out last week and re-tapped the hole but it had been repaired with a hellicoil, and it started to unravel so I had to take it out and re thread for a new insert, fortunately I have an M8 Re-Coil set and some inserts! So I ended up drilling out the remaining 5 studs and tapping them out. Three with new hellicoils, three I managed to salvage the original threads. I have fitted the exhausts back to the manifolds with stainless Cap Screws, I'm not sure it's a wonderful idea but if I loosen them and re-tighten every six months or so they should be OK, even fit new bolts from time to time perhaps? I have used plenty of Copper Slip, so they should stay free, I hope.

I will have to apply some heat to the exhaust in the morning to try to get the silencer pointing more in the right direction. I started the engine after I fitted the first silencers, it's still loud, but not so loud as it was with open exhausts. I may tack some tail pipes onto the silencers to see if that quietens it down any, if not I have a couple more silencers waiting... I got a good deal at the breakers this morning. Five silencers for the price of four, they normally charge a fiver for a silencer, I got five for twenty quid, not sure what I will do with the fifth silencer but I am sure it will come in for something.

The engine sounds fabulous, so responsive, I am sure I am going to enjoy driving it! In fact I did drive it a few inches this afternoon, the clutch is dragging a bit but I am hoping it will improve with use. I have to pump the clutch pedal to engage a gear. My master cylinder is a bit suspect, but it may sort itself gradually.

Will try to get some pix tomorrow, am feeling a lot better after my sickness bug.