Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rich5ltr]

[Rick]

[Rich5ltr]

Well this was what the cleaning & polishing of the engine bay was all about. I was invited to display my car at the annual Goodwood open day and vehicle display, with lunch in the ballroom thrown in for those displaying cars (no paying to show your own car here)... It was a splendid day and as you can imagine at Goodwood house, lunch was fine dining with silver service in true style. There was a real cross section of GRRC members cars on display and to give you an idea on our table we joined the owners of a Lotus Cortina, a rally prepared MG Midget and the owner of a 1929 Humber. Good company, decent weather and loads of classic cars in both the display and the general car park.

[mid]

and after all that you left the bonnet shut?

[Rich5ltr]

ha ha yes, I opened it later but didn't get any pictures...

[Rich5ltr]

I see it's quite a while since I've posted anything on here about the Aston, at least that suggests I've been driving it instead of fiddling with it. However by way of an update I had a very enjoyable Saturday at the Ace Cafe earlier in the year when we had around 60 Aston and several Lagondas meet up for a chat and breakfast...



In June I was really looking forward to returning to the Le Mans Classic having missed it in 2010 unfortunately it was rather wet and to make matters worse I had a but of a misshap causing me to wind up in a grassy ditch, which in turn ripped the exhaust and caused the cast iron manifold to crack off at the flange. The Le Mans spirt ensued and the group of chaps I was with rallied round and with the help of some baling wire and some Gun Gum we effected a tempory repair. So good it was that it held together for the duration of the weekend and got me down to Wiltshire where it was all repaired. I did laugh at the Heath Robinson affair under the bonnet though. We couldn't get enough tension in the wire by hand so we jammed the tools in between the wire and the manifold to tighten the whole thing up, and it worked!




Finally I came by this old photo of my car from days long before I owned it. A member of the club had it and recognised my number and posted it to me, jolly decent of him to bother. Amazingly I recognise the car park as it's the back yard of the specialist I use to look after my car, albeit back in the 70's we think.

[Rick]

Hi Rich, interesting stuff, so no other damage after the minor hiccup with the ditch?

RJ
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[Rich5ltr]

No, I was very lucky, it was one of these ditches alongside a country lane and I got too close to edge caught a wheel in the grass and slid in at about 25 mph. 100 yards along was a telegraph pole! I also took the opportunity to get the sterling aligned but all was ok.

[scott_budds]

Good work on the engine bay. Shiny shiny is always nice! I love your car.

Buddsy
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Im looking for an Elan plus 2 for my next resto project...if you see one think of me please!!

[Rich5ltr]

Just realised I haven't posted anything on this thread for a few years. Well I'm still here but just posting stuff on separate threads rather than tagging it on here. Well here we are in late 2015 and the engine is in bits at the specialist with worn bearings and a few broken piston rings. So and engine "refresh" is on the cards; new bearings, new pistons (just as cost effective s buying rings), hone the bores etc. and while I'm at it I may just go for a triple carb upgrade- can't resist really. Oh and while engine's out I will have the engine bay repainted. I'll post pictures.

Meanwhile I have another toy, a 1933 Lagonda - I'll start another thread

p.s. I displayed it at Hampton Court Concours last year, thought it polished up well considering that paint is over 40 years old!

[Rich5ltr]

Well since my last post the engine "refresh" continues apace with the latest news that the cylinder head has a crak between the ports running down to teh valve guide. It can be welded but it's likely to crack again elsewhere and it seems like throwing good moiney after bad so a new head is on order. The good news is that these are aluminium not iron and so lighter and better all round. It should feel good when it's completed with it's new head and fully rebuilt bottom end. He says, in order to look on the bright side rather than think of the cost !

[Rick]

The Dodge truck's engine had to have quite a lot of metal stitching performed on it, I was fortunate to find a replacement s/h head (after having the original repaired), so that went on earlier this year.

Who makes the new A-M heads?

RJ
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[Rich5ltr]

There's a company called Alperform who make small batches of them. It's hard to find anything about them on the internet but the chaps that run it are well known in Aston circles. I would have liked to stay original but it seems a waste of money. My specialists do have a few second hand 3 ltr heads but they'd be as old as my own one and who knows? they may crack just like mine.

[Rich5ltr]

Just to keep this thread up to date I popped down to the specialist looking after my car today to see what progress they're making. Incidentally, it's Davron in Wiltshire for anyone interested.

Well, it's amazing how the car goes from how it looked in 2013 and now looking like it's been wrecked. That said, the gearbox comes out up through the cabin so a lot of the interior gets stripped out for that to happen. It'll all go back fine!

The engine is in bits on the workbench, new liners in, crank polished, and new pistons ready to fit. Waiting for the new cylinder head.

While the engine and box are out I have asked them to attend to some localised rust in the chassis which they've done nicely and scraped and painted the whole underneath.

However as is always the case, I got talked into having the front torsion bar stripped and reconditioned (a big ali' tube filled with oil which links the front trailing arms of the suspension.) Seems a good idea while the engine's out!