sr2

Time to make some crush tubes for bolting the X-member to the chassis. Have to say that the original chassis managed hundreds of thousands of Km’s with some rough as guts strengthening plates welded to the top of the rails. After some 40 plus years I’m sure I can come up with something more eloquent. Found some 28mm mild steel round in the scrap bin and gave it a spin in the lathe. Drilled some holes. And did a little welding. And a lick with a flappy disc.

Offered the cross member up to the “new” frame (i.e. 70 years old!) and was happy with the results.

Putting the new frame aside I mocked up the original old, rusty frame with the rebuilt front end and a dummy motor & box and started taking measurements. Came to the conclusion that the old girl would look better a little lower in the front, and if I was going to do it now was the time. Options were to either kick the front rails up or lower the mounting pads on the HR cross member. As much as it cutting up something I’d already rebuilt goes against the grain Rigamortice and I decided on the latter. Time to start cutting. Wound up the amps and welded in a piece of 3mm angle to build a lower pad. Boxed it all in with gussets and then cleaned it up. Not the prettiest welding I’ve done but it was all about penetration and strength. Filled some holes (note the copper sheet) and notched the frame rails to clear the cross member, I’ll fill the holes in the side of the rails later.

Back to the task in hand: Next step was to remove the steering column/box assembly and then drop the original front suspension. Considered to be state of the art in its time the famous Vauxhall torsion bar “knee action” suspension sort of worked when new but when aging, rapidly descended into a dreadful, wobbly collection of bits that had the car lurching all over the place even when traveling in a straight line. Bloody terrifying and a little too ahead of its time me thinks. After some 6 hours of lying on a creeper I managed to remove all the bolts securing the body to the chassis without any mishaps. Resisting the temptation to grab the impact wrench and shear the heads off the frozen little bastards the job was achieved with patience, an old set of Whitworth spanners, CRC, a little heat and lashings of old age and treachery. Designed in the mid 1930’s Rigamortice sports an innovative semi-monocoque construction where the chassis ends just past the B pillar, it makes the body/chassis fixing a little more complicated as it’s all designed to flex. The end result of my labours was something like this….

God only knows what (or who) this pyscho looking dude was planning to do with his finger in the spacious back seat…..… (1930’s car ads were a little weird). And sadly none of the above poor buggers knew that in 1940 a thing called WW2 would descend on them to change their and mankind’s world for ever.

Removed the front guards, bumper and radiator cowl and store them in the flash new shed. These 30’s designed cars are just one big bolt together Meccano set. Motor & box came out real easy, hopefully I’ll find a good home for the mechanicals. (Anyone interested PM me, it’s in very good condition and I’m more interested in finding a good home for it rather than cash). This is one very sweet little six cylinder. 1781cc of OHV fire breathing 30’s technology producing a stump pulling 48 bhp (36 Kw) giving the standard car a blistering top speed of 70 mph (112 Kph) while rocketing it from 0-50 mph (0-80 Kph) in an eye watering, leg wetting 21.6 seconds. It’s easy to see why these cars were serious “chick magnets” in their day! And it was even cool to smoke cigarettes. No one wore seatbelts

Suddenly level 4 lockdown appeared out of left field and I had a lot more time on my hands and bugger all MIG gas and raw materials to work on the project – that bloody Whuan Flu strikes again. I needed some wheel dollies so I raided the scrap metal pile I was about to take to the recyclers, grabbed some old, worn out castors I’d been hoarding and Barry’d up a pair.

That evening Rigamortice and myself opened a bottle of 101 Wild Turkey in the new and improved sr2 man cave for a long awaited celebratory drink. Much later in the night with ‘Darkside Of The Moon’ cranking on the new man-cave sound system (Sub installed) we both experienced a religious epiphany and……….. saw God. To be more precise we saw the Great Spaghetti monster in the sky and the following day with fuzzy heads we joined…….. a religion! The day after the following day I had to get a medical and eye test to renew my class C license and took the opportunity to renew my picture while wearing my new religious head wear. (The “ever-lovely” Mrs sr2 has threatened to never travel overseas with me again if I ever do the same with my passport). Discussion thread…. https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49843-sr2%E2%80%99s-1947-vauxhall-%E2%80%9Crigamortice%E2%80%9D-discussion-thread/

A few weeks later on old friend arrived on a transporter… …and settled into her new/old home…let the games begin!

Decided it was about time I focused a little more on the Rigamortice project. It was obvious I needed more space than my meagre suburban garage could provide so storage shed and a small machine shop became a priority. Solved the shed problem with a Bunnings el-cheapo but couldn’t resist building a sturdy base on which I could build something more substantial on in the future. Yes it’s a flimsy piece of junk but hey you get what you pay for! Next step was to cut a hole in the side of my garage block wall (with the help of my son) and build the machine shop I’d been hankering after for a while. Still needs a little finishing (and a sub for the sound system) but I’m happy.

One very sexy 186; runs sweet with the Weber on it but needs a bit of a cam to bring it to life. I’ll run it until the the 208 stroker motor is built.

All good mate.

There is nothing to re-sleeve in an Escort Booster?

Interested in how you've come to the conclusion that the booster is at fault? There some simple diagnoses I can talk you through if it would help.

Ran a RWD 4G63 Turbo (with a stroker crank) in the 'Cosevo' Sierra Cosworth for a number of years. Ended up using a V164 Geartrag trans with custom flywheel and a 3 plate Satch clutch. For the road https://projectzerog.com/ has so much information.

Thanks for that.

Sorry, should have said RUNAMUCK rather than KKtrips, (my bad).

I think you're possibly being a little unfair; yes KKtrips (as admitted) was playing the devils advocate but the question was directed to a person who plays a pivotal part in the implementation of the regulations. No personal offence intended but the "all care and no responsibility - it's just my job" argument just doesn't stack up well in todays world?

Did the heavy +ve cable that goes to the starter motor get hot?

Sorry for the delay in replying - it is a bit of an unusual one for sure. One of the big improvements a Mastervac booster has over the older Hydrovac (remote) booster design is that it introduces the atmosphere from the inside of the car ( the drivers foot well) as opposed to the engine bay. I’ll just mention here that the major improvement was not relying on a single pushrod seal that the failure of which would often result in a total loss of braking – great innovation guys! The filter usually consists of two parts, a coarse foam doughnut and a felt washer where the pedal pushrod enters the unit. The filter sits in the valve body held in place by the felt washer which in turn is held in place by the rear boot. Sadly a lip on the boot forms the seal between the booster and the firewall and to access it you have to remove the booster and master-cylinder (sods law strikes again). I’ve doctored up an exploded diagram of similar Nissan booster for clarity, (alterations in red). Have to say that at this stage I’m clutching at straws with this one. Nothing new here; the more interesting diagnoses are usually the most baffling at their onslaught! Although an obvious conclusion to jump to I’m not comfortable with a 10 year old booster somehow “digesting” both filter and felt washer through overly vigorous brake bleeding. The ports in the control valve are small and the only Mastervac filters I’ve ever seen fail have been from early 70’s boosters that have lain unused for decades? I have seen boosters with a small perforation in their diaphragm still performing to spec but needing far more atmosphere than usual to be introduced to the rear chamber. It could well be worth pursuing this, I’d suggest pulling the master-cylinder back a little to see if it is leaking fluid into the booster, on many cars you can manage this without releasing the hydraulics. Please keep the thread going and let us know what you find.

Did you bleed the brakes with the engine running?

LOL; a wonderfully in-depth synopsis / diagnosis, in fact very similar to myself explaining my lathe misbehaving to the "ever lovely" Mrs sr2" as "its a f*****g c**t" etc. The correct term for this type of behavior is 'anthropomorphism'. The definition of anthropomorphism is "attributing human characteristics to nonhumans - i.e. gods, animals, or inanimate objects".

Just a couple of questions before I dive in. (Boosters are a lot simpler than most are let to believe). Can you confirm it wasn't making the noise before you replaced the pads and bled the system? (i.e. where you listening for it before?). What "3 basic booster tests" did you use. If you found them through Mr. Google feel free to provide the link.

Good to hear re the public liability insurance, it's becoming a minefield out there. The other one that's out there to trip you up is Worksafe who have been getting very aggressive - to say the least! (I've been working in the industry of late). I wouldn't be surprised if Worksafe classified you guys as PCBU's (I'm presuming you're not employees?),could be worthwhile checking what policy's re duty of care need to be in place.

Hi mate, not trying to beat up the messenger (wouldn't want your job for all the tea in China!) but it does raise a question. I'm interested to know if you are given any specific guidelines or is the subjective "you can usually tell just from looking at something whether its shit or not" that you have to rely on? If so that's a huge amount of potential personal liability you have to shoulder and the obvious question is do you guys get any public liability cover?