Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rich5ltr]

Hi Richard, had a good look at your car at the show on the Friday but I don't think you were around at the time. Anyway, it looks like a great job you are doing on it, one question; I was intrigued by the orange chassis, it seems an unusual colour - was this a quirk of Alldays & Onions or what? Rich...

[Rdover]

The orange was the colour as interpreted by the South African chap who restored the from a pile of rusting scrap. First job on the car when I get some time (see http://forum.difflock.com/viewtopic.php?p=582309) is to start stripping the chassis and repainting in a nice shiny black.
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Richard

[Rdover]

Unbelieveably, and after 22 months, the car comes back to me tomorrow.

Now I get the fun of fixing the brakes, designing and fitting a sprag brake (to avoid rolling back) and then getting it running ready for its MOT, taxing and driving again.

And I now have a lovely garage, complete with full height scissor lift to work under.

Nice
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Richard

[Rdover]

It's back and looking lovely and now I've got my new garage's roof insulated it is nice and toasty and I'm ready to get started fettling the car ready for the MOT once the weather improves.

So far I've removed the non period temperature gauge and blanked off the vacuum feed from the inlet manifold to the now removed Autovac system.

The transmission (foot) brake is proving to be a little more complicated to repair and I have a couple of plans in my head that I will experiment with before settling on a final option. I'll post some pics soon.

Now the rear dumb irons, shackle assemblies and leaf springs are about to be removed ready for powdercoating and then I'll get stuck into painting the chassis and running gear and it will look totally lovely.

I might even try to get it started one of these days. After 2 years of inactivity it has been turned over every few days so circulate some oil and it still has plenty compression.

Get ready for some video footage of it driving sometime in March or even February if the weather improves enough.
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Richard

[Rdover]

Update 17th Jan
The car is being fettled in my nice warm and dry garage. The first thing was to get the engine bay tidied so I removed the water temperature gauge (very non period) and blanked off the vacuum take off that came from the inlet manifold to 'power' the Autovac fuel delivery system by trimming the copper pipe, flattening the end then filling with solder. The cylinder bores have been treated with a touch of 3in1 oil and turned over a few times to keep them clean. It's been turned over every few days for the last 2 years so the piston rings haven't seized and there is plenty of compression.

For those who are fascinated by odd automotive accessories, the Autovac was developed to overcome a lack of fuel pumps in older vehicles. Cars like mine generally had the carburettor at the bottom of the engine so it was lower than the fuel tank which was either scuttle (dashboard) mounted or under the driver's seat so it could rely on gravity feed. Unfortunately this sometimes was a marginal height advantage and as fuel ran low the cars would suffer fuel starvation going up steep hills. Often the only solution was to reverse up! The Autovac was a large reservoir of fuel (roughly 1 pint) filled by suction supplied by vacuum from the inlet manifold, held at the same height as the top of the engine. It was primed by dismantling the top and filling with fuel so running out was a serious pain (as I once discovered) but it did allow for larger chassis mounted fuel tanks to be fitted and still have more efficient, shorter inlet manifolds.



The black cylinder behind the engine is the Autovac.

My 'new' tank is from a 1912 De Dion fire engine so although it is not original it is period.

The next job will be to dismantle the rear end to get the leaf springs, rear Dumb Irons and shackles powdercoated and finish repairing the brake linkage after which it will be ready for the MOT assuming it runs.
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Richard

[buzzy bee]

That might stop us standing on the running boards blowing into the tank to pressureize it. hehe

[Rdover]

I've just had a very pleasurable couple of hours dismantling the rear end ready to start paint and powdercoating and was dismayed to find that the rear dumbirons have been assembled in such a way that they cannot be removed or at least I cant see how!

So I have a few questions - how does one prime and paint 'cast' iron (its been forged and shaped rather than cast but it is iron not steel) and what is better to use as a spacer between shackle plate and bush, brass or copper?

I also have to get the shackle plates coated in some way and I suspect I may have to get them plated (nickel?) for rust proofing and then paint them so they look right> I suspect powdercoat will not be hard enough.

I was hoping to powdercoat most things but I now see that there are too many grease carrying surfaces that would be damaged by the heat of the coating process so I shall be painting. Another skill I need to [re]learn!
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Richard

[peter scott]

Hi Richard,

If you are blanking off the vacuum feed to the Autovac how are you planning to draw fuel for uphill use?

I think the term you were looking for on the dumbirons is wrought iron.

Peter
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http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Rdover]

wrought iron - cheers

I don't need the autovac (it's definitely not period) because my tank is now scuttle mounted and the height of the bottom of the tank above the carb is such I'd have to be climbing a cliff to have a problem - gravity feed all the way.

The Autovac was not pressurised, it simply held a small reserve of fuel high enough up to guarantee a gravity feed supply.
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Richard

[Rdover]

With a little thought and perseverance I removed the entire rear end and now the spring plates, dumb irons, shackles and front spring mounts have been powdercoated and I'm ready to strip, prime and paint the rear axle, propshaft and springs.

It is quickly going to look 100% spiffy.

Once the weather improves it will be MOT time!
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Richard

[Keith D]

Hi Richard,

That Autovac tank on your car looks very much like the American "Stewarts" brand that is fitted as original to my '26 Chrysler.

Keith

[Rdover]

It's been a few weeks to time for an update.

The rear dumbirons, rear crossmember (which looks suspiciously like a length of C channel) front (rear) spring hangers and spring mount plates have all been shotblasted and powdercoated in gloss black and look wonderful. The Shackle plates have also been coated and I've had brass shims made to keep the various surfaces from wearing each other away and rusting.

The dumb irons are solid steel and weigh about 10kg each (the same as my dog) but refitted quite easily once I got the various bolt holes lined up.

The leaf springs, spring perches, propshaft and rear axles were stripped using nitromors (I have now bought 5 litres of the stuff) and left to dry before being painted with black acid etch primer and finally given a top coat of chassis black gloss paint. I hope to get everything reassembled this weekend so the car is mobile again.

Those with a decent memory will know that the foot (transmission) brake linkage was broken. Well once I stripped it off the car I discovered that, as I suspected, the clamp and pin arrangement had no chance of handling the kind of panic pressure it was expected to and someone had welded the pin in place at some point but the weld had broken. I tried replacing the pinch bolt but before resorting to welding it up good and proper, I decided to drill through the bracket and the pin in order to either bolt or pin through the whole thing. I've used a suitable bolt with the head removed which fits perfectly though the new hole and it held in place by the 2 washer on the pinch bolt.

The pin and top bracket assembly are reconstructions but the bottom plate and mounting assembly are original and this arrangement is repairable at the roadside and keep it looking original. Not that the foot brake is in any way effective. I usually describe the foot brake as "making a lot of noise, generating a lot of heat, often setting the car on fire without actually slowing you down in the process".

Now for photos:










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Richard

[Rdover]

The photo with the stamped numbers is the back of the diff case and proves that it is one, original unit. Each side also has it's own part number stamped in. I found the these numbers once I stripped the old orange paint off the parts.

As I do this I often find that half of certain parts are new and half original, usually done as a repair rather than a bodge repair.

Things still to be fettled before the MOT:

Steering wheel to bolted up fully
All linkages and bolts to be checked for tightness and new split pins installed as needed
Timing and hand throttle to be set up properly
Radiator to be filled and engine to be started
Petrol tank to be filled then try again to start engine.

Things to be done while I'm in the mood

strip and repaint all rear axle ancillaries
strip and repaint rear drums (unlikely to need high temperature paint!)
make the sprag brake......
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Richard

[Penman]

Hi

[Rdover]

Indeed, however my learned friend will undoubtedly remember that the drum brakes that offer some measure of retardation are operated by hand lever and exhibit slightly less effectiveness than the transmission, foot operated brake, as they are often lubricated by gear oil escaping from the transaxle.

Suffice it to say, under modern legislation, the description of "braking system" would come under some scrutiny by the Court when applying the Trades Descriptions Act.

In an emergency it often mooted that a responsible driver will point his motor as a convenient hedge, away from pedestrians jumping to safety at the last possible moment.

This is NOT a joke
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Richard