Aiberdonian

I've got a log splitter, gave up on the axe a while ago. What I need is a mill so I can make some useful pieces of timber instead of firewood,

Sorry Stormin, but I just had to wind you up a bit - we need some friendly banter in these gloomy times!

I do have a wood burner in workshop and an armchair but I have to fight with the dog to get on it I have this lot to split and burn before I can get the rest logged

Pity you're not a bit nearer, you could take this lot out of my way.

Thank you all for your kind comments, bit bored at the moment will need to find another project.

The finished article It looks alright outside a new barn conversion where the local builder allowed me to use the concrete drive to make final adjustments to the engine and brakes before taking it out on the road. What started as a mechanical makeover turned into something a lot bigger and I wish I could have kept more of its originality (I have all the interior trim in a box for the next custodian) but it still has all the dings, dents, scratched and chipped paintwork that it collected over the last 83 years and the chrome is showing its age. On the other hand I can take it out on the road and go to rallies and galas without worrying about people touching it or kids with sticky fingers making a mess on it. In August 2019 I entered the Garioch Vehicle Restoration Society rally where it attracted quite a lot of attention although 'his lordship' sitting in the back seat may have been part of the reason Sam isn't in to car rallies, ' I'm bored, can we go home now?' I'm hoping that we do get to some rallies this year as the car is less than 20 miles from where it was first registered in 1937 and when we got the car it had yellow bulbs in the headlights and fog lights, a GB plate on the back and a transfer of French road signs on the windscreen so someone had taken it to France at some point. I'm sure that someone in the area has old photographs hiding in the loft as you wouldn't take a car like this to France without taking photographs. That's it then and I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings.

The engine is a 4 cylinder 10.8 HP (1232 cc) overhead inlet, side exhaust Coventry Climax made under licence by Triumph and during the late 1980's would overheat and boil after about 8 miles. It was either rubbish around the exhaust ports in the block or a blocked radiator so radiator was removed followed by the engine which was partially dismantled short block status. Over the years I had read in the club magazine about the amount of rust and debris that had been found in similar engines along with aluminium corrosion - the water inlet confirmed this when removed, the rear port was completely blocked and the top flange broke off in the process The cylinder head and studs were removed as were the sump and its studs before all the core plugs were knocked out. The amount of rust and rubbish was horrendous which explained the overheating problem, the block was probed and poked with a variety of screwdrivers chisels and lengths of bar and power washed until all the areas around the cylinders and exhaust ports were clear. The radiator had always had a greasy film around the filler which I think was due to pumping water pump grease into the pump bearings to stop it leaking so much but what to use to try cleaning it. I was wary of using some of the chemical cleaners on an 80 year old brass cored radiator and after some research found that a lot of people in the US used their equivalent of Fairy Liquid to clean out oil contaminated radiators on old trucks. An old zinc bath, my submersible pump and warm water with plenty Fairy Liquid was connected to the radiator and I reverse flushed it several times and then left it overnight full of the mixture and then flushed it a few times next day. There was no restriction to flow and the greasy film had disappeared so it was back to the engine, I don't think the engine had done more than 1,000 miles since being bored and having new bearings in 1963 and after checking the bores and a couple of the big ends didn't think it was necessary to strip it down any further. A couple of the cylinder head stud threads in the block were a bit suspect so I retapped as far as I could and sourced some new studs, fitted new exhaust valve guides, ground in the valves, treated it to a new timing chain, selected the best cam follower housings and followers from spares that had been removed from a scrap 6 cylinder engine from a 2 door Gloria Coupe that my father had broken for spares in the 1950's (wish we still had that one) and fitted a set of new brass core plugs. The engine was re-assembled with new water inlet and new water pump The clutch had some surface rust on the flywheel and pressure plate and was easily cleaned up with emery cloth before being bolted back on and the engine was installed with new rubber engine mounts - the old ones were past their best The carburettors were then fitted - there is a small side draught and a larger down draught working on the same principle as the progressive twin choke weber where the small one opens to half throttle and then opens the large one until they are both fully open as this is a Gloria Vitesse engine. New oil, plugs, plug wires, points, condenser filled with water and some petrol in the tank it fired up and ran with good oil pressure, it did require a bit of tweaking of the jets to get it running reasonably well and that is how it ran last year but the more miles it did the smokier the exhaust became until it was becoming really bad when hot. The last thing I needed was some tree-hugging do-gooder phoning the police complaining about an old car belching out smoke - I had already a run in with Police Scotland about carrying a shotgun on the roadside a couple of years ago. I also had water leaking up the cylinder head studs and when tightening them a little further felt a couple of them let go in the block This year I took the engine out again thinking that the piston rings were rusted and allowing oil up the bores but when all stripped down they were in perfect condition and discovered that the inlet valve guides were badly worn. They had felt quite good last year and I think they had been gummed up with oily carbon that hadn't come off when I power washed it but as it ran more the new oil had slowly washed it away - 4 new inlet guides duly sourced and fitted. The cylinder head studs were a different story as the threads in the block were stripped on two of them and another three were suspect. A club member had repaired his by making some 1/2" UNF OD inserts and tapping them 3/8" BSF for the studs but he had the benefit of access to a milling machine and I don't so I needed a different solution. By chance I had some Jaguar 3.8 waisted cylinder head studs with 7/16" UNF threads and 3/8" dia waist section. I made a steel block with 3 different ID sized inserts that I could clamp on to the block face - a 3/8" one to line it up using original stud, second one for 7/16" tapping drill and a third one to line up the 7/16" UNF tap as the hole was threaded. The Jaguar studs were cut and a 3/8" BSF thread cut on the waisted section The engine was assembled once again with a thread sealant applied to the cylinder head studs this time to stop any water coming up the studs. Another change I made was to fit a single downdraught Zenith carb as the throttle spindles on the SU's are very worn and I couldn't get the engine to run properly, it is now a lot more driveable with just a slight hesitation on take off but isn't a problem on the road. I may try to refurbish the SU's at some point to return it to Vitesse specification.

I too am most impressed with the detail involved in this project, I didn't quite realise how small things were until I looked up 12BA in my wee thread guide to find it only goes as far as 10BA and that IS small. I'm afraid my hands would not be steady enough to do half of this.

Thank you. My brother's first car in the early 1960's was a 1935 Morris 8 tourer, YS 5104, followed by a 1936 Ford model Y. If my father hadn't had a spare fiver in 1963 I wouldn't have the car now and there were a couple of times I thought it was going to go belly up and I'd have to sell it for spares but I got there eventually.

With the under dash wiring done I could now finish the carpeting of the bulkhead, side panels and floor. When I initially started in 2006 I removed the gearbox cover which was made of moulded hard rubber and had broken in 3 pieces but I was going to make a mould from it and do one in fibreglass but in the meantime it had fallen off a shelf and was now in a hundred pieces. A modified one was made from aluminium and made it a lot easier to carpet. The vinyl edging around the carpeting is wider than I would have liked but the rubber backing just cracks and the carpet splits if you sew too close to the edge, I didn't have this trouble with the hessian backed stuff I used on the Carlton. The bulkhead and the side panels with air conditioning facility - no fuses required! then renovated front seats fitted The new front brake cylinders and shoes along with the new hubs and bearings were next The tyres were all different makes and sizes and well over 50 years old so new 5.50 x 16 Blockley tyres tubes and tube protectors were ordered, the wheels sand blasted and powder coated to prevent damaging the new tubes. The original colour had been cream then repainted yellow and I couldn't decide whether to go black to match the body, green to match the interior but in the end decided to go with silver. Not far to go now but we still have the engine saga.

Pedalingfool. . You are welcome, glad I could help keep another old car on the road.

In 1963 when we got the car the old man repaired the join between the front and rear wins with a couple of plates as we didn't have any welding gear at that time and there was also a lot of corrosion on the front wings where the headlamp support bolted through to a bracket under the wing. Once the wings were removed the extent of the corrosion became apparent and new metal from a half sheet of 20 SWG mild steel I had left over from a previous project was formed and welded in. Not a perfect job but blends in well with the 'patina' of the rest of the wings, the corrosion around the headlamp support was a bit more extensive and a double curved piece was formed on a sandbag and carefully welded in to prevent buckling. A quick grind down, thin skim of filler, sanded, primed and given a quick spray of cellulose with an air brush and an acceptable finish was achieved. A new bracket under the wing had to be made as the old one had more holes than it did metal The running board strips had also been replaced by wooden ones in 1963 and the wings were full of holes from previous repairs to the strips but by carefully placing new ones I was able to hide nearly all of them because welding them all up would have corrugated the running boards and I didn't want to try sorting that out. The wings were now firmly attached to the body which in turn was firmly attached to the chassis and in the future if someone wishes to restore it to concours condition there is enough originality left to do so.

Aye but when one of the 'auxiliary' fuses blows you have three different accessories to investigate to find the culprit and that usually means another blown fuse when you pick the wrong one.

Photos are becoming a bit thin on the ground now. Under the back seat there were two crossmembers on the chassis with plates for holding two six volt batteries, one of these had to be replaced and I decided to convert it to one single 12 volt battery while I was at it. I test fitted the new battery and noticed a bit of a spark as I put the terminal on and thought that everything was switched off and it was. I knew the wiring to the back of the car was needing replacing but when I added an ammeter to the main cable there was a 3 amp discharge with nothing switched on, so the rest of the wiring was now suspect. There were a couple of burned wires under the dash, several added wires under the bonnet and a couple of duplicates to the front lights, the club came to the rescue with a wiring diagram and it really isn't a complicated system and I removed the lot to start from scratch. Although cotton braided cable is available the thought of measuring the various lengths, making sure I had enough and getting the right colours seemed a bit too much like hard work. I had plastic covered wire from 2 Triumph 2000's a Mark 10 Jag and an XJ6 all in BL colour codes so decided to follow their coding system and make up my own loom and use some vintage style trunking to hide most of them. It was a cold spell and paint wasn't drying, glue wasn't going off so I thought I'll do the wiring but hadn't reckoned on trying to straighten out cold plastic wire that had been coiled up for the best part of 25 years, it was a real pita to feed six or seven cables through the trunking and had to pull some through two or three at a time with a squirt of WD40 to help it along. Once done it looks quite in keeping with the rest of the car with only a couple of inches at the control box showing and fixed to the chassis with brass clips Two solenoid were added for the horns and the headlights to lessen the load on the wires passing down the inside of the steering column and the underside of the dash is also a lot neater. The reconditioned steering box was also fitted at this stage before a new plywood bulkhead section around the pedals and steering column was installed. This is the final tally of all the woodwork that was replaced

Hogmanay in lockdown - bah humbug! As I raise another glass of navy rum A guid new year tae ane an' aw and mony may ye see.

With the boot floor finished it was time to refurbish the boot lid, it originally had a small steel flap which hinged down to extend the boot floor and with the lid opened against a canvas retaining strap gave a significant increase in carrying capacity. The inner lining had seen better days and my father had removed the flap long ago but for some unknown reason it was still in an old shed complete with it's chrome hinge. The rexine was removed from the flap, the rust sanded off and new vinyl glued on, the hinge was eased off and straightened and a new panel made from 4 mm plywood and again covered in vinyl. When not being used it is popped against the boot lid. The aluminium protectors and the retaining lugs were still usable. The nearside door was next for attention and needed a new section where the lower hinge attached as the original was split and the screw holes were stripped, simply screwing the split together and plugging the holes didn't look as if it would work so a rather rough piece was cut, bolted and glued to the upper frame and screwed and glued to the bottom door frame. Only the front half of the plywood lower section remained but it was used as a rough template and a full length piece was cut and sanded to shape but when placed against the frame I only had about 1/8" of aluminium on the leading edge to fold back over. Took a few tries and checks of the frame to realise it was made of 9 mm ply and not 12 mm - a total waste of a good piece of 12 mm plywood ! That was soon corrected and then screwed and glued to the frame. These doors are quite interesting, the triangular black piece actually hinges up and provides a straight door top for using the sidescreens and when cut away doors are required an armrest unfolds and screws to the top of the cutaway The finished door, with new rear and lower panel and original armrest and flap in leather. The lower hinge was non original and I found some hinges of the correct depth and width at Vintage Supplies which had to be cut to length and drilled but they fitted perfectly. The threaded plate in the door top was stripped so a new one had to be made and the offcuts from the hinge did the job. Just as well as my aberdonian tightness did cringe at paying over 40 quid each for them, the offside door was better and only needed a new piece of ply and all the trim.

Can I also wish everyone a Merry Christmas and let's hope 2021 does become a Happy New Year.

Next came choosing material for the interior trim, a lot of which could not be removed intact in order to gain access to the framework , I decided to go with a modern type green vinyl similar in colour to the original along with dark green rubber backed carpeting. The original carpeting was a short pile hessian backed type but I could not find it in a suitable green and I did not think dying it to the correct colour would be a feasible proposition. As someone had coloured the leather rear seats and arm rests with a hideous blue in the past I also ordered a leather renovation kit in the same shade of green as the vinyl and if the original side panels which I was going to re-use didn't look right I could do them as well. The rear arm rests along with the rexine attachments had to be fitted first before the boot floor as these formed the inside of the boot. The boot floor was duly cut to size, covered in the new vinyl and fitted along with the repainted steel covers. The old rexine side panels don't look too bad against the new vinyl and the arm rests turned out quite good as well alongside the original rear panels, this is after the seat had also been done. Before the side panel could be fitted a new door seal was required, not just any door seal but a 3/8" dia piece of wing piping, you can see it running down the door pillar here You can't buy 3/8" wing piping and certainly not in green so as always we'll just make it. Sewing machine was already there as I had bought it to do the Carlton interior, and a new 3/8" foot was purchased The original piping had an orange rubber pipe running through it and I managed to get some 10 mm bunsen burner tubing which was the perfect size for the job but I just couldn't get the vinyl to feed through the machine. I tried various methods of lubricating it until someone advised using tissue paper and it worked a treat but a bit of a pain to remove from the thread afterwards. Once a new piece of carpet was sewn on the bottom of the side panels they were then fitted along with the back seat.

It was now time to replace the floors and the boot floor but what I still cannot understand is why a car built in Coventry in 1937 was using metric plywood, I was sure that it was 1/2" thick but I measured various pieces and they were all bang on 12 mm, maybe just as well since you can't get imperial plywood. I checked availability of 12 mm marine ply on internet and a local builders merchant had in stock but it was about £85 plus a £15 delivery charge for an 8 x 4 sheet, thought this was steep but then it was a case of - hell the car only cost a fiver, go for it. I decided to go and order in person and sitting behind the salesman was the manager who lived across the road from where my partner had stayed, after a brief how are you etc. he called across and said give him a good discount and deliver it for free, I got it for £33 delivered. Not what you know but who you know right enough. The old front seat base and steel rear footwell new front seat bases with refurbished rear footwell that only needed a couple of 2" square patches welded in The boot floor was next but it had originally been covered with rexine which doesn't stretch and you can only get leathercloth these days and the non stretch doesn't appear to come in green.

Now that most of the framing was done and the body now firmly attached to the chassis I welded in some repair panels to the inner wheelarches and screwed and bolted them down giving the structure more strength. As I had good access to springs and hangers I checked for wear and found that my father had only done the front ones - these were well worn so an E-Mail to the PNTMC soon had a new set of spring pins and bushes delivered. With springs off I also wire brushed the really solid chassis of loose surface rust and gave it a coat of paint before refitting the spring on one side and when I came out the following day found a new nut with a broken off thread in it lying on the floor. The chassis spring pin had sheared off, and I hadn't tightened it to that extent. On closer examination it seemed to be a brittle break and when I tested it with a file it was really hard all the way through, unfortunately I no longer have contacts that could do a proper hardness check for me but armed with a good file I began to investigate. The original pin was so hard on the surface that the file just bounced off as it did on the new pin but on the worn section it had a feel similar to a high tensile bolt. Obviously the original pin was case hardened and the new one was made from through hardening material and had not been tempered. I advised the club of my problem and a new pin was supplied but before fitting I tempered both pins with a torch to reduce the hardness and increase the toughness to something resembling a high tensile bolt. Since the car would not be doing thousands of miles wear on the pin should not be an issue whereas a failure of the pin during use could be a real danger on the road.

The boot lid was tried in place, the doors closed and were level with the bulkhead so it was time to move forward. A 2 x 2 was cut to length and the body was supported under the top of the frame just at the back of the door pillars with another support under the frame of the bulkhead. There was a lack of wheelarch front frame and inner wheelarch steel at this point and even less to attach any new material to The construction here is what I can only describe as a plank of ash 7/8" thick, tapering from 7 1/4" wide at the rear to 4 1/4" wide at the front of the bulkhead bolted to brackets along the side of the chassis and to this there is bolted and screwed a sill member which follows the lower body from the rear wheelarch to the front bulkhead and forms door shut. You can see this better in the photo - these are the two pieces nearest the camera In this next photo you can see the aluminium section that covers this sill member one piece on the top and then a side cover that meets the front wing and running board. These are two separate pieces that are just fixed under the door so can be removed without affecting the rest of the body, but boy were they well nailed down, there was a lot of cursing and swearing at this point as every thin chisel and small screwdriver available was pressed in to service. The flat plank was relatively easy to make but when I had initially measured how much ash I would need I had measured it at 6" and not 7 1/4" wide so my 6" wide thicknesser was as useful as a chocolate ashtray. Luckily a retired joiner a few houses away still had his 12" planer and he obliged by taking it down to 7/8" thick. The sill member also posed a problem at 2 3/4" wide as I only had 1" and 2" material available but planed a 2" piece to 1 3/4" and glued and screwed it to a piece of the 1" to get the required width. This piece should have gone the full length but tapering and angling the rear needed numerous trial fits so I cut it in two and joined it at the front joint of the aluminium sill section. There was enough of it left to give me the required sizes and I cut a template of its section from a piece of 1/2" skirting board and screwed it to the rough (very rough) sandwich of ash. The router was then put in to action with a 3" long bit with a ball bearing guide on the end and this was used to follow the profile on the skirting board. It was a bit scary at times as it dug in to some rather thick bits but we got there and it had the correct upper and lower curves, the side angle was cut on my brother in law's table saw and I persevered with the plane and the belt sander until it fitted the body aluminium and the top sill aluminium. Although the body frame is primarily ash there are quite a number of substantial steel brackets, one at the bottom of the door hinge pillar and one holding the front bulkhead to the 7/8" board at the front. These are the finished nearside before the aluminium was replaced I nearly put a match to the whole thing when I had bolted and screwed the offside together as the door bottom was striking the sill member before the aluminium was even on and the front of the door was now about 1/4" above the front bulkhead with a huge gap as well, I really thought something had moved and I hadn't noticed. Time for a fag and a beer and some deep thought, sand down the timber for clearance and play about with the hinges? Then I thought what would happen if I took out the original spacer between the chassis bracket and the 7/8" board? Did this and the bulkhead was now touching the door and it was about an 1/8" low - it then dawned on me that by fitting different thicknesses of spacers was how they had originally set up doors and sills when they made the car, thinner spacer made and fitted and all was well.

Thanks Wristpin, I just dabble in the woodwork but I thought that if Triumph could do it in 1937 then I could surely manage with all the tools that are available today, only problem is there's usually more sawdust than finished article.

I did buy a pump a few years ago and it copes when it's about 2 ft deep but that's about 3 1/2 ft and there's enough water on the grass already. Wading about in the wellies is such a pain and trying to find the dropped bolt is near impossible.

It's been a bit damp lately, water 18" from top of the pit and rising. Hope I don't need under the Land Rover for a while.

Thanks Stormin, waiting for an update on your SWM.