Keeping Busy Whilst Self Isolating

[AndrewP]

New Harrington SS bumpers.

What a PITA..Had to make new brackets and like with most things Jensen..all 4 needed to be slightly different and bespoke.

Left the overriders off..they look cleaner and less cluttered IMO.

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Naturally 'while I was in there' I overhauled the front headlight bowls by blasting and re-painting, fitting new adjusters, wiring the front dipped for H4 bulbs (dipped and main) and new inserts.
Oh..and cleaned and oiled the airhorn pump and trumpets and replaced the airhorn piping..

Now the winsdscreen wipers have stopped parking, and the central locking has stopped working

Theres always stuff to do...

[Richie]

Looking good Andrew.
I like the look without the over riders

[Kevin Birch]

Fuel tank painted and ready to go back in, with connection to fuel pump done too. Have now repaired the panhard rod, bought a piece of steel tubing with the inside diameter 1mm more than the external diameter of the rod. Cut the tubing to length and druilled holes 100mm apart along the length to plug weld. Straightened the rod, removed the paint where the plug welds will go and then set to work. Nice new strong Panhard rod now, just needs fitting and adjusting

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Rod and new tube

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Holes drilled and paint removed for welding

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All welded up

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Painted and ready to go on

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[Martin R]

Nice one Kevin - you might have started something with a new line in strengthened panhard rods!

[Dino Fritz]

Hi everyone,

Well, after 4½ years of working 65 to 70 hours a week in two jobs, a few weeks ago, I found myself without any work, thanks to COVID-19 cutting short my consulting project, and in the same week, the government’s “no gathering rule” stopping my bakery side-gig dead in its tracks (no parties –no demand for cakes)!

So it’s not all bad news – I have a heap of work to do on my car (mainly electrical gremlins), but I really wanted to improve the car stereo in the Interceptor.

Due to the smaller 5” woofers I originally installed in the car, I’ve always found that the Jensen’s stereo was always woefully lacking in bass, but I wanted to discreetly install either a hidden subwoofer, or at the very least a subwoofer box that could easily be removed from the boot if needed.

I’ve heard that under seat subwoofers really are a bit weak (plus I don’t have much height under my seats), so I’ve had this dilemma for a while until I found this Pioneer bass reflex powered subwoofer box with “interesting measurements” that I could play with. With 100W RMS power output, on paper, it would seem to “just” fix the problem that I have.

So I took the plunge and last week ordered the subwoofer to place in the boot, and first tests on the weekend with the subwoofer lying on a thickly-carpeted boot were quite respectable (not shaking any body panels, but I definitely have bass now)!

Now, the next question is how to safely mount the sub, and you can see from the photos that (with a little bit of modification to the metal panel covering the fuel sender unit) it fits beautifully behind the rear seats. Now, I need to run some tests, but I have two clear mounting options:
• Photo #3 shows it mounted against the carpeted rear panel – you can see that it protrudes the leading edge of the parcel shelf by around an inch. Maybe with this option, I could carpet the outside of the subwoofer and put some fabric straps behind the rear panel and around the subwoofer to tightly hold it in place, plus I could install some clips on the straps to easily remove the subwoofer and keep the interior 100% original; OR
• Photos #4 and #5 have me remove the Jensen carpeted rear panel, and I’d need to find a way to bolt the sub into place. Note that it sits flush against the rear parcel shelf (looks neat), and I’d either carpet the subwoofer – OR – maybe I could use the original carpeted Jensen panel to sit in front of the subwoofer, flush against the rear parcel shelf.

I’m going to play around in the next week or so as to whether to face the speakers towards the front of the (photo #4) or the rear of the car (photo #5) – any thoughts (or other ideas) on what mounting system / location to use???

Cheers, Dino

[Kevin Birch]

I think your last option is the best, using the carpeted Jensen panel to cover it. This way it would look standard in there and only a few would realise the boot isn't as big as it should be. Your stereo will have as much power as the car when you're finished will the battery and alternator cope?

[Dino Fritz]

Hi Kevin,

I hope to get as busy on my car as you have with yours! Great work.

Fortunately, I have a 90 amp Mitsubishi alternator on my car with a Caterpillar (CAT) battery - so no problems electrically.

Apart from the size, another reason that I chose the sub was its current draw - running continuous at 100W RMS would equate to (100W divided 12.7V = just under 8 amp), which was confirmed when the sub's power lead had a 10A fuse fitted. No need to run a large gauge wire direct to the battery; I just run power from the amplifier that I have mounted in the same location.

Cheers,
Dino

[RogerBrotton]

I thought the burble from the exhaust provided the music ? Especially with the windows down ! Why do you want the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the boot ?…...but, different strokes for different blokes, I suppose ?

[Kevin Birch]

Well the petrol tank is back in, and connected up, and even got the car started, which was good, especially as I've only got the down pipes connected to the manifolds , and no leaks
As usual, one job leads to another, whilst under the car, I realised there was some play in the prop UJs, so off with the prop, to find one joint was virtually seized with about 10% of its full movement. On taking the joint out, the one cap emptied a pile of rust on the floor which was the needle rollers. One concern was that one of the caps had no circlip, and was only held in place due to its tight fit in the yoke This was a "sealed for life" unit which patently would have benefitted from being greased, the other UJ had a nipple, which I had greased in the past, and this joint is still serviceable, but 2 new joints on order, and propshaft cleaned and painted. Another little job that needs doing is the exhaust, I replaced the front pipes last year as they were past there best with dents and were quite rotten. The boxes are in good order but having removed them with the intermediate pipes to get to the tank, have noticed the intermediate pipes are rotten. Having spoken to Andy Brookes about the pipes, it has come to light that the centre boxes are incorrect, which would account for the way the exhaust has been bent to clear the rear axle . So new exhaust has been ordered. What next will I spot

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[Steve Payne]

Now I have done my wheels I am starting on the rest of the list of jobs.

Today I started to strip the old under bonnet insulation, it came off a lot easier than I thought and to my surprise the original colour was still there.

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I can use the old curled up insulation as templates for the new ones.

I have purchased some Evostick that is recommended for high temp.

Steve

[Martin R]

Kevin - your UJ's on the prop shaft looks worrying. I wonder how many other peoples are in a similar state???

[VFK44]

2 new joints on order

Did you manage to find some with a grease nipple?

[Kevin Birch]

The worrying thing was that there was noticeable play when grabbing the shaft and checking it, but I hadn't noticed any vibration whilst driving, so well worth getting underneath and checking your cars. Andy Brookes has supplied new joints which arrived today, with nipples.
Sounds like a Carry On sketch with phrases such as "grabbing the shaft and nipples" Ooh 'er missus

[Kevin Birch]

Steve, what are you putting on the underside of the bonnet, mine has nothing and looks crap compared to the rest of the engine bay. I still have quite a lot of Hardura left over from doing the bay, was thinking of using that. What originally was used?

[Grant]

Hardura Kev