133/5546 restoration thread

[DaveAK]

I've been dinking around with this car for over a year now, but now I have a new workshop to really get stuck in to the project and I spent Christmas getting it into the warm, thawing it out and removing the engine and transmission. If you know anything about my cars from the little I've posted over the last couple of years you'll know that they're complete wrecks that have spent too many years in scrap yards. There's nothing good to say about this one other than it is a Jensen Interceptor. It's rotten to the core and has suffered from years of abuse and neglect in the great, wide Alaskan open.

My plan is just to get it on the road, warts and all. I'll be doing the work myself so it's going to be far from a professional job, but that's OK with me. It's a 40 year old car and it will most likely look like one when it's back on the road. If I can get it looking half decent and mechanically sound and reliable I'll be more than happy.

So here's a random taste of what I'm up against:

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More photos available on Photobucket. (http://s1261.photobucket.com/user/DaveH ... number%202" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Here's what I'm planning, subject to change of course!:

1. Body colour to be close to the original Metallic Fawn.
2. Original 383 engine rebuilt with mild performance upgrades:
   1. New camshaft
   2. New higher compression pistons
   3. Aluminum heads
   4. Delta Motorsports headers
   5. New intake manifold, carburetor and electronic ignition distributor
   6. Other new bits and bobs as required
3. Sanden compressor and complete AC replacement
4. Lock up transmission with Gear Vendors overdrive
5. Carbon fibre roof
6. Undecided on the wheels as of yet, but I've seen some 17" OZ Racing ones I like, although I might just get these refurbished and powder coated
7. Suspension will be replaced with "standard" upgrades that other members have written about
8. Brakes will be rebuilt or replaced as necessary
9. Other stuff of which there's plenty to do!

Edit 6/17/2015: Well the above has all changed! The more I play with the car the more I want to do to it. It's going to take longer and cost more, but I'm in it for the love not the money.

[DPP]

Im looking forward to seeing this, it's good to see a car many would dismiss being restored.

I notice that you don't trust the sills to support the car yet with a nice workshop like yours I'm sure you will be spending lots of time in there.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Eddie]

Good luck with this Dave.
Your workshop looks great from the pictures you have posted of it.
What a great way to spend your spare time.

[DaveAK]

Im looking forward to seeing this, it's good to see a car many would dismiss being restored.

I notice that you don't trust the sills to support the car yet with a nice workshop like yours I'm sure you will be spending lots of time in there.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Sills? What sills? If I can figure out what to weld the sills to when I get to that point then I reckon there's still hope for it!

It's far from being an economical project, but from the way prices get discussed on the forum I'm not sure many are. It's worth it to me to try and save it just for the experience and challenge. I've always wanted a well equipped shop, but I'm not sure if the Jensens gave me the excuse to build it, or if building it was an excuse to get the Jensens!

Good luck with this Dave.
Your workshop looks great from the pictures you have posted of it.
What a great way to spend your spare time.

Thanks Eddie. I think I'll need all the luck I can get on this one! I built the shop just for this kind of thing though and I plan to spend all my spare time in there "playing". It's almost as big as our house, and we already spend more time in there than we do in the house.

[Patric]

Now that's looking really scary!
Good luck, you'll need it

[cannonball]

Im looking forward to seeing this, it's good to see a car many would dismiss being restored.

I notice that you don't trust the sills to support the car yet with a nice workshop like yours I'm sure you will be spending lots of time in there.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Sills? What sills? If I can figure out what to weld the sills to when I get to that point then I reckon there's still hope for it!

It's far from being an economical project, but from the way prices get discussed on the forum I'm not sure many are. It's worth it to me to try and save it just for the experience and challenge. I've always wanted a well equipped shop, but I'm not sure if the Jensens gave me the excuse to build it, or if building it was an excuse to get the Jensens!

Good luck with this Dave.
Your workshop looks great from the pictures you have posted of it.
What a great way to spend your spare time.

Thanks Eddie. I think I'll need all the luck I can get on this one! I built the shop just for this kind of thing though and I plan to spend all my spare time in there "playing". It's almost as big as our house, and we already spend more time in there than we do in the house.

The great thing about a jensen is that if all else rots back in to the earth them chassis tubes will still be perfect so just work from the middle out .

[DaveAK]

The great thing about a jensen is that if all else rots back in to the earth them chassis tubes will still be perfect so just work from the middle out .

That's my plan. And I think it's the only thing that makes this even remotely possible. I've been inspecting underneath today and other than the rust and damaged floor pans everything looks to be solid and straight enough. The fuel tank looks like it will need replacing, but I have a spare one of those.

I'll drop it back on to its wheels tonight and spend the next two or three weeks stripping the interior. Then the real fun will begin!

[DaveAK]

So I've been doing a little more on stripping it down in the evenings and weekends. It's amazing how much more you can get done when you have the space so that you're not tripping over everything! It turns out that the TV can be quite distracting though. I've got the passenger door off although I had to unscrew the bottom bracket from the door. That wasn't such a bad job, but the drivers door is turning out to be a real problem. Dashboard and steering column are out as well.

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[DaveAK]

It's also occurred to me the more I poke around that although this really is a rusty old heap of a Jensen it still has the same number of sills to replace as any other. Granted I need to be able to find something solid to weld them to, but the more other members dug in to their "on the face of it" sound cars, they still ended up replacing considerable amounts of metal. It doesn't really matter if you have 80% or 20% of your floor pans left if you're going to be replacing them. So I think the only way this project is going to be scrapped is if I find that the pillars and/or bulkheads are too far gone. Right now it's looking pretty good.

[cannonball]

It's also occurred to me the more I poke around that although this really is a rusty old heap of a Jensen it still has the same number of sills to replace as any other. Granted I need to be able to find something solid to weld them to, but the more other members dug in to their "on the face of it" sound cars, they still ended up replacing considerable amounts of metal. It doesn't really matter if you have 80% or 20% of your floor pans left if you're going to be replacing them. So I think the only way this project is going to be scrapped is if I find that the pillars and/or bulkheads are too far gone. Right now it's looking pretty good.

Keep at it matey then flood the thing with wax oil or somethin, what amazes me about jensens is .. a while back i had a series 111 interceptor before the prices suddenly shot up now this thing was rotten complete sills door shuts back seat area,s everything it was as bad as you can find, anyway i stripped it for parts the first thing i did was cut the roof off all 6 pillars gone roof off now remember this was a rotten pig do you know the door gaps never moved and still opened and closed perfect i was gob smacked just shows how strong them tubes are, i also had a rag top jensen in for a trans build and renew the bottom end shells i drove it around a bit and was so impressed with the lack of scuttle shake etc and from what i could see under it there was no strenghtening i might be wrong as it was a while ago but they are rigid buggers rot or not,,,,,,

[Dino Fritz]

I'm putting the finishing touches on my garage at home, and (with my missus in earshot), I said to the electrician "I want a power points there, there, and there, light switches there, over bench lighting there, AND an antenna outlet THERE!".

Missus - "Huh - why do you want an antenna outlet for"
Me - "The plasma TV of course!"

Dave, if your thread came in 2 weeks earlier, I swear she would have REALLY hit the roof if I showed her your setup!

Love it -

Dino

[DaveAK]

Dino, I can't say enough about having this shop, it makes everything so much easier. The TV was actually my wife's idea so no trouble getting it past her!

[DaveAK]

I took a little break from stripping the car and turned to the engine instead. A couple of hours and it was down to the block ready to be hot tanked, decked and bored. It looks like it's never been opened before now - plenty of Chrysler orange under the Jensen black. Still has the original timing gear with only one broken tooth, but the oil pump drive shaft has sheared, (I don't know if that's something that I did or not). Everything else looks to be in good shape although there is thick gunge the like of which I've never seen behind the freeze plugs. One other thing I've never seen before either is a light knurled finish on the end of the crankshaft where the timing gear and balancer fit. Guess that's how it was made though.

I'll post pictures later.

[DaveAK]

Knurled crankshaft:

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Pre-strip down:

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Unidentified gunk:

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[DaveAK]

Ready to be cleaned up and go to the engine shop:

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The rusty bores are entirely my fault for leaving it outside with the heads off for too long, but that will all be remedied soon enough!

More pictures uploaded to Photobucket as linked in the original post.