Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

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DaveAK
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by DaveAK »

Well it's a really nice job and a great extra detail. I might have to steal the idea, but I promise to give you credit and never park my car next to yours. :D
72 MkIII Interceptor 133/5613 (440)
71 MkIII Interceptor 133/5546 (383)
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Han Kamp
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Han Kamp »

Fantastic looking car, great job! Hope it will prove to be worth all the time and effort 8)
Han Kamp The Netherlands
Formerly owned Jensens: 1974 JH, 1976 GT, 1952 4 litre Interceptor, 1954 4 litre Interceptor Left Hand Drive, 1957 541.

clubwebsite: http://www.JensenHolland.nl
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Hi everyone,

With everyone mentioning the improved brightness of LED globes, I?d been thinking of upgrading to LED?s for two or three years now, but I haven?t actually seen any results, and some people I had discussed this with mentioned that it wasn?t just as simple as replacing the globes (e.g. direction of light travel and reflectors, etc. came into this), so I put it off thinking that the theory sounded nice, but I?d like to see the actual results.

When I saw Mark I?s LED interior lighting effort on his Interceptor a few months ago on this forum, I thought ?WOW? ? this wasn?t just a 10% improvement, this was dramatically better, and best of all he had done it in an Interceptor too and it worked, so this had to be the next project I wanted to tackle, as we all know how woeful the interior lighting is on our cars. Then again, we aren?t the only classic car owners to suffer, some research into LED?s on the Porsche forum revealed owners of early 911?s suffer equally bad interior lighting, and their use of small Ba7S globes for all interior illumination mean that their results, whilst better, aren?t truly spectacular without making more holes in the back of their instruments and wiring in more globes, so maybe we should consider ourselves lucky.

So, I made myself up a shopping list of interior globes, and comparing the availability and prices locally, it really was cheaper to buy them from overseas and pay the shipping costs (for example, one E10 globe, which is used for most of the instruments was AUD$15 locally, and USD$2.50 for one), and after many emails and dilemmas with bank transfers, the bulbs finally arrived last week.

One of the comments that many have said is the inability to dim the LED?s with the traditional dimmer circuit, so more research identified that a Pulse Width Modulation style controller (e.g. used to control the speeds of electric motors) was needed, so off to the local electronics store to buy a kit and build a test rig to see if it all worked before putting it in the car.

Image

It worked beautifully (and maybe I need to upload a YouTube video to really show this ? all the way from 5% to 100% illumination), maybe a little too sensitive in the mid range adjustment on the new potentiometer, but fully adjustable nevertheless.

Over the coming weeks. I?ll be installing the LED?s in the instruments (and making sure that they work first), then I?ll add in the PWM dimmer circuit last to get it all working correctly.

Cheers, Dino
Jensens.........when does it ever end!
kenny38
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by kenny38 »

Hi Dino. I think you have finally made it on the Aspergers list. What a lovely resto. I wish you lived near me. I'd get you to work your magic on my SP.
Someone said to me the other day that we should not "pretty up" classics but should present as left the factory. Certainly cheaper. Just got a "small" bill for a little rust removal. 1K Aus.
I live in a double story Queenslander with a lot of wooden "lace" and outside verandahs and landings. Had a handyman over this week who tells me that all pillars holding up landings will have to replaced within 12 months and you may as well get him to paint the place. Will I ever get my (quoted) 7K aus 6 pack put back on by Hemiperformance? Can't see it. Give up your hedonistic lifestyle and come and work for me. There is a church around the corner too. Fantastic looking car. Hope you win a show or two. Let us know.Kenny38 :)






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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Kenny,

Yup, I'm diseased with Aspergers, and I reckon it's my Mum's cat that gave it to me, crazy feline just can't keep still.

Anyway, say a prayer for me when you're next in church, and are ya coming down to Adelaide for the club gathering in 2017? The reason I'm asking is not to steal your trophy, but just to warn you not to go to the western suburbs, especially the one called Kilkenny....

Merry Christmas, maybe the reindeer could deliver the SP manifolds down your chimney (honey, I didn't buy it, honestly, I must have been good all year).

Cheers matey,

D
Jensens.........when does it ever end!
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

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Several of us in the club attended the Bay to Birdwood Classis run last month, and the Interceptor was running beautifully. While I was a little ho-hum initially about big brake kit with the 6 pot calipers, things really got better once I put some kilometres on the car and everything started to bed in correctly - now the braking is so much better (and throwing it around the corners in the hills really reminded me of how far the car has come).

And speaking of corners, seriously - the new real leaf springs are starting to settle a little lower too, and with the longer auxiliary spring to support the main spring - WOW the handling is so much better - the second photo was me really giving it a wee bit of stick around a corner, and seriously, the back of the car seems more stable than the front (I may be tempted to do the larger roll bar some of you guys were looking into).

Just need to fit the new stereo this spring, fix a few electrical gremlins when I was fitting the LED interior lighting.......etc, etc.

Dino
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Oooh - nearly forgot to add the picture of the rear springs that I had remade - if you look carefully under the main spring, you can see the longer auxiliary springs under the main spring - rather than adding additional leaves or thicker springs, this was their "trick " to improve handling, and it really does seem to work beautifully.
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Julian
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Julian »

That is looking very good.
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Grant
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Grant »

Your car is stunning Dino :wink: .... Have you go Recaro seats fitted in it?.. It looks like it from the distant Pic.. If so did you put them in? Electric ones?... Any chance of a pic of inside the car Dino please? .. Mainly the Recaros if they are please Dino.. Hats off.. Stunning :wink:
Grant :P
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Hi Grant,

Yup, they're Recaros - in the early 90's, my upholsterer was able to track down a pair cheaply (the foams were shot), and he was able to track down the foams separately. Fast forward a few years later, and he told me that the same basic frame was used in several cars, albeit with slightly different foams and/or shapes (even the electric ones). Some of the 1980/90's cars include the BMW e21 Motorsports cars, some Mercs (e.g AMG cars), the Toyota MR2, and even the Alfa 164 QV used a later electric Recaro seat with a memory function.

If you can track down a great upholsterer, you may be able to find these seats at really good prices now (especially if they need a retrim), and they should be able to reshape or buy new foams to give you the look you want.

Mine aren't electric- in the 80's Jensen S4's, the electrics were in the seat bolsters, but I've always wondered if I could just buy the electric seat base (with the controls on the side) and change the base cushion - shouldn't be that difficult.

Hera are some photos during the restoration that show the seats more clearly - let me know exactly what shots you'd like and I'll try and dig up some more for you:
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Grant
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Grant »

Nice one Dino :wink: , I also have recaro's in my car, none electric and so was curious... I really like them.. your's look good, let me find a pic of them after I took them out again and re-covered them like yours.. same colour and with the blue trim too :wink: ... thank you for the pics Dino :wink:
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Yes please - I think I saw a photo of yours a while back on the forum and they looked really nice. I remember having mine narrowed a bit to my slim build, but they are so comfortable and supportive.

I'm actually wondering what the next project would be on the car, and I've always had a itching to fit the woodgrain dash - if I can find a complete one with all instruments.

Dino
Jensens.........when does it ever end!
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

COVID-19 Repairs:

Well, fixing a few "minor" niggles during lockdown is getting bigger and bigger...

Over the past 18 months, the car started to develop niggles that mostly had an electrical theme (rear brake lights, rear speaker cone torn, intermittent front LHS speaker, window on LHS wasn't working, then the RHS window, my hope that it was just a lubrication issue was dashed when both developed the dreaded jumping tooth sound signifying a motor rebuild), plus a front LHS seat belt that wouldn't retract means that at the moment, 2/3 rds of the interior trim is now out of the car.

So, I decided to do this methodically, and start from the back of the car and work my way forwards.

Rear brake and night lighting is all fixed, then I made a new panel for the floor of the boot (above the fuel tank) to give me an extra inch of space to allow me to fit a small, ported subwoofer in the rear. I'm still split in determining whether to mount it in front of the vapour separator panel with a quick release system to keep it original for car shows, or to mount it behind the vapour separation panel to keep it all hidden and tidy. Hmmm... maybe some more real world testing would help me decide.

Window motors have been repaired, now with the front door trims off, I'm adding the LED globes to the door edge lights, and fitting some new front speakers so I don't have to do this for at least another 10+ years.

While I was testing the front seat belts, I thought I'd better check the rear ones. To my horror, I found that while the mechanisms easily rolled the seatbelt out and retracted well, a sharp tug in any direction wouldn't get them to lock! Oh boy, maybe just to be sure, I may consider new belts all around for safety's sake, so an idea I've had for a while in fitting navy blue seat belt webbing to match the piping and carpet may well go ahead.

More to come in the coming weeks / months - after I have all of the doors back together, then it's the centre console, fitting the new stereo, seeing if I can do something to get the "Fasten Seat Belt" lighting and a warning chime to work, and improving the centre console lighting with LED's.

Cheers, Dino
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VFK44
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by VFK44 »

while the mechanisms easily rolled the seatbelt out and retracted well, a sharp tug in any direction wouldn't get them to lock!
Before you rip them out - I don't know which type the Interceptor has, but there are two types of traditional inertia belt. One locks when the belt is jerked, and the other type when the car jerks to a halt. The latter has a ball bearing which is jolted out of place when the body shell accelerates, corners or brakes violently. If you have that sort, to test it you need to brake firmly from around 5-10mph while someone in the back tugs on the belt. (It is the better sort, as you can lean forward suddenly to reach something on the dash without it locking up.)
"Now that chassis number is particularly interesting ‘cos it’s the one after the one before, which is the one after mine, not many people know that"
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Dino Fritz
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Re: Diary of a 1974 Interceptor Mk III

Post by Dino Fritz »

Funny you should mention that re. the rear seat belts - once I had then out of the car, they seem to work perfectly?

I may just try to refit one back into the car and play around with the mounting angle a little bit (while the fronts use a ball bearing design, I have a sneaking suspicion that the rears use a pendulum design, so maybe the horizontal angle was slightly out???), and take it for a drive to try a real-world test before I take it into a specialist seat belt place to have then checked as a last resort.

Thanks for the heads-up!!!

Dino
Jensens.........when does it ever end!
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