115/3067 bought back from France

[Eddie]

Looking good Kev.

Also thanks for tip about Stateside Autos. They are only 10mins down the road from me. Must have been past it 100 times and never new it was there.

[Grant]

Looking good Kev.

Also thanks for tip about Stateside Autos. They are only 10mins down the road from me. Must have been past it 100 times and never new it was there.

Did I miss something, whats Stateside Auto's then chaps , I need some thin metal head gaskets, the ones around 0.020" over here in the UK? I thought I had read it somewhere on a thread but not sure where

[Eddie]

Grant, google stateside autoparts Atherstone.

They specialise in US spares.

Very helpful and maybe able to help with you head gaskets.

[Grant]

Grant, google stateside autoparts Atherstone.

They specialise in US spares.

Very helpful and maybe able to help with you head gaskets.

Cheers Ed Will do Mr Man

[Kevin Birch]

Given the engine bay 2 coats of 2K satin black this weekend, and painting all the other engine parts in between. Even though it is satin black, it is glossier than I'd like, but that was probably down to me having to add more thinners to get it through the spray gun due to the low temperature. Most of it will be covered in Hardura anyway, so not that bothered.
Have stripped the paint off the scuttle grille which was badly painted and have polished each of the 4 aluminium sections, which now look good, so will keep this finish.
Grille, wipers and airbox will be the first to go in before gluing the Hardura on, followed by the foil heat shield and then the wiring loom. Suspension needs to go back on too, and bonnet gutter needs painting body colour.

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[Martin K]

Kevin - can I drive in front of you on the Geneva trip- because I know you will be able to fix anything! Well impressed.

[Kevin Birch]

Martin, they're only held together by nuts and bolts, nothing on these cars that are too complicated.
Started cutting the Hardura, made loads of cardboard templates, and have been cutting it out on the living room floor, as its nice and warm, beer on tap and the telly on,(watching recorded episodes of The Sweeney).
Quite time consuming, and messy, getting covered in lots of fluff. These are the rough outlines, they will be trimmed to fit exactly when offered up to the car. Only done the bulkhead sections so far, not all of those yet, and still the engine bay sides to template and cut out.
I've ordered more material, and some more aluminium heat shield, as I realised I hadn't got enough. Approx 3m² of hardura, and 2m² of heat shield in total should do it.

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[Kevin Birch]

A bit of progress, all the Hardura is stuck on, and so is the aluminium heat shielding, together with the front suspension put back in. Now starting to put the bits and pieces back under the bonnet, starting with the wiring loom and the relay box. There is quite a bit of mess around the car as it is too cold to tidy up, once I've had enough, just want to get back inside and warm up.

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[Grant]

Lovely work Kev .. it looks great My Ole Fruit...

[aslef]

You are doing a cracking job there Kev.

Looks like you are at about the same stage with your engine bay as I am.

Get warmed up,then back on it in a few days time.

Best wishes,Tim.

[Eddie]

Great stuff Kev.

Looking good for a spring outing.

[Kevin Birch]

Hopefully,work is getting stupid and I haven't looked at the engine yet.

[colin7673]

Kevin, looking forward to seeing the car complete again looking 'A million" dollars,

Its a thankless job while you doing it, i know, but the result will be worth it.

[Kevin Birch]

Finally started on the engine tonight. It took 2 of us, Dan my youngest who is a a rugby player, to get the stripped block on the engine stand, and we still struggled. There is no way you can rebuild these engines without a stand. Spent the evening honing the bores, and cleaning out all the threads ready for reassembly, which will start tomorrow. Cleaned every part of the block, wiped over and cleaned again trying to get it spotless, difficult without industrial cleaners, but pretty good now.
Interestingly the oil pump and distributor drive bush in the block was alloy, broke up into about 10 pieces when removing it, and it wasn't tight in the block. It initially moved by just getting a screwdriver under the flange and twisting, it moved about 5 mm before the flange broke in 2 and off the rest of the bush
This was a failure waiting to happen, new brass bush fitted.

[Eddie]

That’s a coincidence Kev, I also had a drive bush issue. It looks like I didn’t have a bush fitted, and the result was a worn drive gear that needed replacing along with a new brass bush.

It’s great that you have found this now rather than it breaking up in the engine.

Hopefully you will get a good weekend on the engine.

Looking good for Dartmouth Park then