What did you do today?

[R_D_Olivaw]

Thanks to Tony's detailed instructions the heater has now been removed, a job that would have been a lot easier with another set of hands. Removing the rubber hoses at the back of the engine bay and then navigating around the wiring loom as I tried to wiggle the heater into the passenger foot-well was a challenge, but not as much as the one I can see myself having when I try to put it back.

I'm still finding random lumps of jute all over the place that were wedged in for one reason or another, all of which are treated with bio-hazard gloves and dumped into the nearest bin. I'm still not sure what the sponge was doing that I found in the steering column. Maybe it was lost during one it's washes!

It looks like the heater has been out before as it was missing various screws/rivets. This has now been fixed and the unit has been dismantled; all the old foam has been removed and new ordered; the rust has been removed and it's received a coat of primer.

I connected the matrix to the hose and after a few seconds of hesitation rusty water started pouring out the other pipe, so I don't think it has a problem, though I'm still unsure why it stopped working. My wife has yet to notice her washing up bowl is missing. It's full of anti-freeze

For reasons I can't explain I decided I needed a new thermostat gasket and thermostat, so to ensure I bought the correct ones I removed them, or to be precise I removed the gasket as my thermostat was missing. Not sure why, but it has one now.

The car doesn't look in the best of condition, but it's getting there. Next on the to do list are:
1. Finish of bonnet catches. Everything is in place but the cable is not connected to the bonnet release pull.
2. Glue in new foam to heater box. Re-install heater. Swear profusely when it takes me three hours to do a one hour job. Re-connect everything. Add new anti-freeze. Test, once I can start it up.
3. Re-install the carburettor. This is just waiting on the heater matrix as the extra space makes it easier to get at the pipework.
4. Recondition passenger electric window motor.
5. Remove seats and pull out the remaining carpets. I'm hoping it will help me work out where all the water is coming in.
6. Paint the gel coat onto the areas that I've been fibre glassing. Prepare and quickly paint so it doesn't look too bad. Now that my dear wife is back any further fibre glassing will need to wait as I don't think she'll put up with the smell, which for the record I managed to remove from the house before she returned from visiting her mum.
7. Add a new fuse box and sort out my stereo.
8. Start sanding the car down in preparation for painting.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

Glad to hear you are succeeding!!

A couple of suggestions: firstly replace the heater hoses while you can, I always use silicon.

Secondly, the hoses can be reattached to the heater from underneath, also can be tightened if you have clips with hex heads-a long extension is required.

Thirdly, try and get some oil into the fan bearings, and make sure the fan is running well and silently, you won't have another chance.

Lastly, I hate to be gloomy: the thermostat is often removed to disguise an overheating issue. If the heater core was partly blocked, this would contribute, especially if the heater is being used as the bypass.

Tony

[R_D_Olivaw]

Thanks again Tony.

The hoses and clips are in good shape as I believe Phil replaced them last year when he was giving the car an overhaul.

The fan turns well, but I'll take your advice and try to get some oil in there, though I suspect I'll be seeing it again soon as I seem to do everything twice on this car for one reason or another, and not always because I got it wrong the first time.

Phil flushed the radiator out last year so I'm hoping that I won't have any overheating issues, especially as my temperature gauge doesn't start working unless I'm stuck in traffic. When it starts to move I switch the fan on.

One more thing you maybe able to help me with Tony. There are two cable clips on the blower, one that regulates the direction of the air and the other the temperature. One of my clips has broken and I couldn't find a replacement on the Bresco website. Do you know of any other place I could try before I install a P-Clip to resolve the issue?

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

On the Bresco site, I found these: part numbers 34730P and 26791P. From memory, might one of these work?

https://www.bresco.com/acatalog/Control ... astic.html

Another possibilty: https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/heater-val ... ip-t3.html
Also take a look at: http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/JFF10051.aspx

Tony

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

I forgot to mention, if of any use, the heater is from a Ford Capri Mk1.
Also if the above references don't help, search for heater control cable clips, a few others appear including some Land Rovers.

Tony

[R_D_Olivaw]

I can't find an exact match so I've ordered something that looks similar.

Cross fingers it'll work. I'll let you know how it goes.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I didn't manage to get as much done as I'd hoped as everything seemed to take twice as long as expected and I managed to drill a hole in my heater matrix. I've patched it up and all being well it will be as good as new, but time will tell.

Most of this week has been spend removing the carpeting from the drivers side and finding things I wasn't expecting. Things I wasn't expecting were:
1. A layer of jute, then a layer of carpet followed by another layer of jute and at least one more layer of carpet.
2. A whole in the transmission tunnel that may or may not explain why the carpet behind that driver's seat was turning white with mould, due to water ingress.
3. Several holes in the firewall which probably account for why the cabin smells a bit like the engine bay. Some of them seem to date back to the car's build as the wiring loom goes through one of them.
4. Some rust on one of the structural members behind the dash. I'm going to guess that condensation may have run down the window and onto the member. Nothing serious, but it will require some rust remedy.
5. The bolt for the seat belt that doesn't wish to come out. I suspect there maybe a captive nut on the other side of it that isn't secured, so I may need to cut a hole in the sill to get to it.
6. Some nasty stains where the brake fluid was leaking in behind the pedals.

Here are a couple of photos of how it looks now.

Towards the end the carpet removal.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mmc92z2lszrm9wa/IMG_2246_1.JPG?dl=0

After carpet removal.

Still more old glue to remove.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ne5ux40gg59tj6l/IMG_1782.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/22u2wtsym0evueg/IMG_1783.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rd8zf8xk7jdankc/IMG_1784.JPG?dl=0

I'll try to get the heater plumbed in this week, it's installed but I haven't connected the wiring or pipes. With the help of my daughter it was a lot simpler than I had expected. @Tony - I dismantled the heater motor, checked the brushes and gave it a light clean up. Everything was in surprisingly good order. Once the heater is working I'll install the carburettor, add some anti-freeze and test the heater to make sure "a" it works and "b" it doesn't leak because I drilled a hole in it.

On my other list of things to do are:
1. Add some insulation behind the dash.
2. Re-install the dash.
3. See what can be done with the dashboard lighting.
4. Remove passenger side carpeting.
5. Re-install driver's side seat.
6. Re-install steering wheel.
7. Finish off the body work I started.
8. Take another look at the door mirrors.
9. Remove all the paint and re-paint it.
10. Return my wife's washing up bowl that is full of anti-freeze.
11. Refurbish passenger side electric window motor.

I think that should keep me busy for a while.

[Gilbern74]

Thanks again Tony.
...There are two cable clips on the blower, one that regulates the direction of the air and the other the temperature. One of my clips has broken and I couldn't find a replacement on the Bresco website. Do you know of any other place I could try before I install a P-Clip to resolve the issue?

Do you mean these:
eBay item# 172909271422

If that's what you're after, I recently replaced them myself and they are an exact match for the originals (on my car at least!)

[R_D_Olivaw]

That looks to be the one.

I bought some off the Besco website in the end and will hopefully find out this weekend if I bought the right ones. Thanks for the link. I'll need it if mine don't fit well.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I've been doing things off and on for a few days now, but due to some starting issues I haven't been able to test out the heater, though I do know the fan still works and for the brief time the car did run I didn't spot any leaks from the heater matrix.

My bonnet now closes on the new latches which is a big relief, but I still need to fix the bonnet release as I only have a temporary solution in place.

The driver's seat is back in and some temporary carpet is in place so I can drive it, once I've managed to get it to start. Once it's a bit more mobile I'll start stripping out the passenger side.

Half term is coming and that means I can spend more time in the garage as my family will be away. It also means I'll be able to do some more work on fibre glass.

I may even be able to get it to a Gilbern meet. Now that would be a shock.

[roger]

Having "acquired" the grating noise on the steering column (hitting the water pump) after my reconditioned gearbox was fitted, I replaced the engine mounts and realigned the engine very slightly to the nearside, adjusting the engine steady too. Interestingly, merely raising the engine with spacers under the mounts would not have had the desired effect but the nudge to the nearside by about 5/8" did the trick.

Roger

[R_D_Olivaw]

Today was a good day. With the help of Tony's advice I managed to get the car started.

Despite replacing the battery, coil, distributor cap and rotor arm the car wouldn't fire. It turned over okay, but no life. It transpired that I'd knocked one of the wires off the rear of the rev counter when I was re-installing one of the heater vents. Live and learn.

The driver's door mirror is back on and re-positioned.
A hole has been cut in the passenger door to take the other door mirror.
The heater is now working.
Some life has come back into the temperature gauge, though it's still reading about 60 degrees less than what it should.
Fixed the earthing issues on the rear lights and indicators.

All looking okay except for the driver's side indicators that have stopped, but have now been isolated to the indicator stalk. I'd thought it was the wires, but a bit of testing identified the cause.

Took the car out for a drive, the engine still cuts out if allowed to idle, and the oil pressure does seem to drop to the quarter mark when the overdrive is in use, but other than that all seemed well. It was a bit odd indicating with my arm out of the window.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Managed to temporarily fit the passenger side door mirror and now I can see really well all the cars I overtake.

Now they're both installed they look more natural.

[R_D_Olivaw]

A little bit of a funny back-end story to today's update.

When I took the car out over the weekend I forgot to mention one small fact about my indicating right with my arm. After I'd been out about 10 minutes and was on my way home I decided to close the driver's side window as it was a bit drafty. All well and good you might think, but then I remembered it needed to be open so I could indicate right, and guess what, it decided that it didn't want to open. Luckily every turn on the way home was left so it wasn't a problem.

Fast forward to tonight and I decided I'd try to fix it. I'd already taken the motor apart once so I was surprised that it wasn't working, but when I pressed the switch it sounded like it wanted to turn but was stuck. The switch also appeared to be working. Off came the motor and it was working, but only in one direction, so it wasn't the motor. I checked the cables and they seemed okay. I swapped two of the cables around on the switch and the motor worked the other way, so it was the switch. It looks like the contacts had just got a bit dirty as after a clean it started working again. Unfortunately it then took me a good 40 minutes to put the window motor back in, mainly because I couldn't get two bolts to catch.

Oh well, all's good now. Just need my indicator stalk to turn up and work.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Installed the new indicator stalk and all is good now.

It seems like fate is going to prevent me going to next week's Hampshire meeting. Sorry Brian.