sr2

Time to see if Rigamortice’s horns have any life left in them. I pulled the covers off and the insides looked a lot better than expected. I dressed up the contacts with 2500 sandpaper …..hooked them up to the battery… holey sh**, I’d forgotten how loud they were! I added “much flashness” with a bit of polishing. As per usual I’m re-using as many of the old fasteners as I can. love the heads on some of these old bolts. Made up a bracket…… Trimmed it down a bit….. Painted it with the now famous “insipid green” And I’m happy with the horny looking result.

Having been born with short arms and deep pockets I’ve always tried to do as many jobs as I can myself, rather than buying of the shelf items or paying someone else to do it. Up until recently I’ve always made up my own starter cables by soldering the lugs on as oppose to crimping. Of late I’ve come to the conclusion that that the capillary action of the solder can make it harder for the lead to bend close the lug making it more prone to failure. Not having the correct crimping tool and being too tight to buy one may I present…. Starter Cable Crimping for Tight Bastards 101 Find a nut slightly smaller than the terminal and cut it in half. Strip the wire…. Tape the two half nuts around the terminal…. Slide the exposed wire back into the terminal and squeeze the living daylights out of it in an old vice to crimp. I than give it an additional tap with a punch (optional)... And then two layers of heat shrink with glue lining…. Yes it is thirsty work...... Made up a bunch of them…(Hick!). And fitted them up to the old girl.

Thanks for that mate, I'll post it again as a .png to see if the quality is better.

Hi Guys, I’m in the process of drawing up a circuit/wiring diagram for the old girl. I’ve reached the stage where I’m drinking heavily while slowly going nuts, staring at it looking for mistakes. Thought I’d tap into the ’Oldschool Brains Trust’ and see if there are any experts who can critique my effort. Feel free to let rip with comments, good or bad - I’ve learnt from bitter experience that it’s hard to put the smoke back into the wires! A few points: · Most of the switches are over 75 years old hence the number of relays I’m using. · I’m using 2 flasher relays because the Trafficators obviously need continuous current. · I’m using the front mudguard mounted park lights as blinkers and have ordered P700 headlights that have park lights included, hence the blocking diode on the tail light to stop the tail light circuit feeding back through the headlight circuit. (I don’t want to run the P700 park lights when I’m using them as headlights). · If you can’t read the detail in JPG, PM me and I can send you a PDF. Cheers, & thanks for looking - Simon.

In the interest of being kind to 70 year old switchgear I decided I’d use the original firewall mounted starter switch to power up the starter relay rather than the starter itself. This end poked through the firewall While this end poked through the dashboard with the remnants of a starter button on it. I needed to make a suitable replacement so I bought a 20mm bolt and bored a hole through the middle… Turned most of the head off… And ended up with a “one of these”……. Cut off a bit of round ally stock… Turned it down a bit and drilled and tapped one end… Hit it with some emery tape until the “one of these” was a nice sliding fit. I then flipped it around and made it into an old-school push button. Started with this… And ended with this…. Looks the part to me & as an added bonus it even works!

Thought I’d have a play with some body work for a change. Dug these two out of the parts shed… Started scraping…. Did a little hammer and dolly stuff… Then some underseal… Bit of a mission getting things to fit…. Had to massage the front of the guard for clearance… Happy with the result. Time to finish painting the floor with the famous “insipid green”… 2 coats and I’m over painting.

Time for the accelerator linkage. I’m keeping it oldschool; no cables, just linkage all the way. I started with Rigamortice’s original, rusty pedal. A wee dip in the rust electrolysis bath. Same thing for my collection of original levers and pivot blocks. Amazing detail on some of the bolt heads - just love reusing old shit. Bought some small ball joints on Ebay. Had a go at making up a replacement for the pushrod from the pedal to the cross shaft that goes behind the motor. Discovered there wasn’t enough clearance for the pedal linkage with the ball joints so I reused the original… had to do a bit of repair work. Mounted the pedal with the old push rod…. Connected it up to the horizontal cross shaft on the other side of the firewall. Needed a shaft to run (via a 2nd pushrod) from the cross shaft to the carb spindle. I’m re-using 70 year old steel just because I can! Couldn’t fit the rod in my lathe, (the bent end was just longer than my 20mm spindle bore) so I hacked the end off…. Turned it down to fit an old rose joint I had lying around….. And welded it back together again. I needed a lever to link to the 2nd pushrod so I fired up the mill. And ended up with this. Made up a temporary bracket to check it all worked and it was that smooth that it was returning with only the small coil spring on the carb spindle. (Sometimes you just get lucky). Started cutting up a piece of angle to make a bracket. My system is to go chunky, make it work and then remove material to hopefully give it that sexy made for purpose look. Trimmed it right down and gave it a lick of insipid green. Very sexy….(yes I know I need to get a life!). Needed a 2nd return spring so I knocked up a rocker cover washer (original on the right, new on the left)….. And used it as a spring mount. Rigamortice has now officially got a loud pedal that works! One very time consuming and fiddly job ticked off the list.

Bent up a 5/16” pipe to go over the motor from the pump to the carb. I need a fitting to go from a 5/16” copper ferrule to a 5/16” tailpiece to fit the flexible fuel hose to the Weber carb. I found an old brass fitting and turned one end into a tailpiece. I love how old brass fittings clean up so willingly on the wire buff. Very happy with the result. Made up a pipe for the vacuum advance using leftover 3/16” copper-nickel brake line. Installed the new plumbing using Oetiker clamps on the hoses. Yes they are single use only but they’re neat and tidy and easy to use. I installed the vacuum line to the booster at the same time….. I installed an additional in-line check valve to the booster to play it safe, those early Falcon Tandem Mastervac’s have a bakerlite valve body’s that self-destruct with a good backfire through the carby! All looking good to me - must be Wild Turkey time!

Over the years I've had a great run out of a comprehensive set of cordless Hitachi/Hikoki power tools . I particularly like how they've kept their move to 36 Volt backwards compatible, they get my vote.

Time to make up some fuel lines. Ordered some 5/16” copper line.. Marked up some 10mm ally square to make some saddles. Cut some slots in the mill. Drilled some mounting holes. A bit of work with the band saw and linisher. And a few beers to decide which type of screw to use. Bought some new compression olives to use with buffed up old brass fittings. Back to bending up welding wire patterns…. And copying it on the same bender…. Working my way back from the gas tank… Looks like someone left an old spanner in there….. Using some of the original 75 year old spring metal clips where I can Finally arriving at the fuel pump. Almost there, I always put the fuel filter on the suction side.

Hi Mate, I didn't realise you were so close. I'm usually at my brothers place in Mooloolaba once or twice a year, will look you up next time I'm over.

So I took a couple of weeks off for some R&R. Jumped the ditch to help my brother run a Grady White 326 from Mooloolaba to Bundarberg for 5 days of rum and fishing with some Aussie mates. 30 Km off the coast, no land in sight, 35 Knots with 700 hp hanging off the back of the boat. https://youtu.be/M81qba9EON0 Returned home to run the race car in the Targa Bambina, jeez life can be tough! Back home and back to reality. Time for some radiator plumbing. I found an interesting old brass pipe fitting… Cleaned it up a bit…. Did some pipe notching in the mill…. Some Ezyflo for the brass and this will be the radiator filler point. Threw on a bit of paint…. Looks OK to me… Hunted through Supercheap’s collection of radiator hosed for bends I could use… I bought an adaptor with a fitting that takes an electric fan sender and used it to make up a bottom hose with two 90 deg. bends. Final challenge was what to use for a header tank? I had this old tin tank that had been painted with many layers of paint over many years. I forgot to take a before picture but after a can of CRC paint stripper, ½ a bottle of Barossa Valley Pinot Noir, and an evening of elbow grease this really cool brass tank emerged. Talk about bloody stoked!

Time to figure out how to make a nose cone brace…… help - I’m running out of room! Started with some 12mm EWS tube. Welding wire templates….. Out with the world’s oldest pipe bender….. It still works…. Heated the ends up with the oxy and hit it with a very old hammer on a very old vise. For some perverse reason I love doing this shit! Decided the top brace was too high… I’m just cutting freehand and notching with a rat-tail file. Interesting challenge needing some interesting bends to make things fit. Dropped the nose cone off to tack it all together. The original support Vs the new apparition... Some ‘insipid green’ paint…… Does the job and looks neat and tidy…..

I’d like to think I’ve picked up a few ideas over the years trying to keep race cars cool but some would argue the jury’s still out; i.e. if you learn from your mistakes I must be either a slow learner or a frigging genius! Golden rule I was taught is to match the CFM rating with the size/hp output of your engine. As a rule of thumb for the V8 crowd 2,000 cfm will cool a 400 hp street car. Considering Rigamortice’s little old X2 186 puts out a whopping great, earth shattering 145 bhp (downhill with a tail wind and the boot lid open!) I settled on a 14”, 1650 cfm from Silverdale Radiators. It pays to use one with square blade ends as the curved blades although quieter are less efficient. Sadly I’ll have to run the less desirable pusher (fan in front of radiator) configuration as there is not enough room between the motor and the radiator for a puller set up. Fan arrived a few days later. It’s important for fans to be mounted properly, avoid those shortcut systems where you attach them to the radiator with plastic zip ties - from all too painful experience I can vouch for the fact that they eat aluminium radiator cores for breakfast! I cut out a few tabs ….. Tacked them to the headlight brace for a top mount… It’s a tight fit but it will work…… Bottom mounts were pretty straight forward…

Yeah, this one's been a lot of fun. Ticks all the boxes for my irrational passion for overly impractical solutions to problems that never existed in the first place. The worlds full of boring people acting like sheep making the same old boring rods & custom cars that just confirm to the "boring rules" that they all seem to make for each other. Long live OldSchool anarchy! Still have a complete rewire (resurrecting 75 year old gauges and switches...etc.),Interior doors and body panels to fit and one thousand and one small time consuming jobs to have it fully on road as my daily driver. I'm hoping I'll be doing illegal skis around the block within 4 months and on road legal by the end of the year. I'm already planning my next project, watch this space!

Time to make some clearance for a bottom mount bracket. The obligatory Trial fit with a bit of 6 x 2…….. Knocked up a lower mount…. And glued it to the front cross member…. A couple of grommets for the bottom mounting pins and some foam to stop the bottom rubbing…. It finally fits……… Got a local shop to Tig a top mount on…… And drilled it out to take a grommet.

The new custom radiator finally arrived. Enough cooling for future engine mods. (Still collecting bits for the 208CI injected 186 motor). Big plug for “Real Deal Radiators” in Kelston Auck for a great job at a sharp price. The horizontal headlight bar was causing the top of the radiator to lean back. Time to make a new headlight bar that’s smaller and further forward to get more clearance. First I’ll need a jig……. I cut up and drilled some scrap angle…. And tacked together a jig…. Cut up and drilled some plate, still getting used to the novelty of having a mill, great for drilling slotted holes. Bolted the plates into the jig….. Tacked in a piece of scrap re-bar so I could trial check for fit inside the nose cone… The fit looked good so back into the jig to replace the re-bar with a piece of square section EWS. Before……….. And after…… And the grill still fits……phew!

Bugger………suddenly remembered over the weekend I’d been tweaking the gearbox mount up a little for better driveshaft clearance…….which had raised the height of the exhaust collector…. which meant my new front pipe wouldn’t fit………i.e. "fiddent dit".......duh! Out with the angle grinder, a bit of bending and welding…… And it fits like a glove. Front & rear hangers on the muffler…….. Adjustable rear hanger…… Another job ticked off the list.

At the risk of preaching to the converted, (there are people on this site who’s fabrication/construction skills make my meager ham-fisted attempts at stitching metal together fade into insignificance); here’s my approach to cutting up pre-bent bends. First I trace the bend onto a piece of cardboard - yes it’s CAD all over again! I then find the center of the bend with the trusty dividers (or a compass). I can then draw my desired angle (from a protractor, an adjustable square or cardboard template). Then it’s easy to mark the cut with a stiff piece of cardboard cut to neatly fit over the tube. Yes it’s a simple and rudimentary method but it works. I knew getting over the diff and past the gas tank was going to be a pain in the proverbial and I wasn’t wrong. The gas tank was close to the chassis rail for even the original 1 ¼ inch pea shooter exhaust - with 2 ½” things started to get interesting. Managed to sneak past the spring hanger on the inside It’s close but I’m confident the bump stops will hit before the rear end hits the exhaust Made it over the top…… And then a squeeze past the newly fitted gas tank Had to fit the rear bumper to make sure I had clearance - if that’s not a sexy arse end I don’t know what is? (On re-reading this I think I may need to get a life!). Time for a rear tail pipe mount. Because it’s so close to the chassis rail and gas tank I decided on a double hanger. Dusted off the old gas set - hasn’t seen much use of late. Just couldn’t resist using a piece of re-bar, i.e. this is a real jokers car with a real jokers Aussie engine - To quote Monty Python “rule one, no poofters”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L220PFMkunI Heated it up in an old vise and hit it with an even older hammer…. And made this….. Stitched it all up…. And hit it with some HT paint. Couldn’t believe how much time and effort had gone into making two bent bits of pipe.

+1 for Sterling Brake & Clutch.

I realise it's British and usually used for clocks and instruments but is BA metric?

That's what I initially thought but I BA doesn't go over 6mm?

Gas tank arrived back from the good old boys at Kwikstrip. The usual great job, all paint and rust gone. I was going to use a lining compound but it looks good inside. Thought I’d leave my favorite gas tank ding. Despite numerous attempts and intense interrogation techniques Rigamortice has so far refused to divulge the story behind it. Only sheared off one bolt removing the sender…. Applied some gentle heat but when I saw solder starting to melt I backed off quick. - Yes in those days they soldered gas tanks together. Shock, horror and panic! On drilling out the errant bolt I discovered my old friend Rigamortice, the last bastion of all things Imperial was harboring an embarrassing skeleton in her closet. Oh the pain and humiliation when I discovered a metric thread. With any remaining vestige of authenticity and moral fortitude thrown out to the dogs Rigamortice hung her head in shame as I lowered my standards and defiled the rebuild with a metric tap. “Oh the humanity”. Numerous Wild Turkeys and extensive counseling later, I slunk into the now desecrated sr2 man cave and pulled out the favored CRC rust converter... Love that little ding….. Applied the obligatory coat of insipid green…. And it was time to attack the sender. A small amount of heat….. And it fell to bits with a little tap. You have to love this old shit. What we have here is simply a 75 year old rheostat (or potentiometer - for those who love big words or suffer from bouts of verbosity) that needed no more than a quick dip in the cleaning bath and a spray with CRC contact cleaner to be restored to its former glory. Try that with a bloody Corolla’s gas gauge sender in 75 years’ time! Gas tank Empty….. Gas tank full…. Cut out a cork gasket…. Gave the crusty old cork float one more chance with a water test and considering the specific gravity (or relative density) of water is higher than that of petrol it passed with flying colors. One 75 year old piece of history just got a reprieve. I assembled it all and dropped it into the old girls boot. (Complete with the original PK screws to hold the tank in place. in place!). The lack of room between the tank and the chassis rail will be a challenge for the exhaust……..

Yes the "throw a #### engine in there" posters enthusiasm is often well ahead of of their experience in tackling the myriad of engineering challenges that your average engine transplant involves. That aside most of us were once like that and youthful automotive exuberance should be encouraged rather than criticized. My favourite classic choice would have to be a 2 litre Pinto. Cheap, readily available (Cortina's rusted as only Pommy cars could!), a plentiful supply of both new and 2nd hand hot-up parts and most importantly the fit. For a crazy solution I'd go for my favourite 4cyl RWD setup. A 4G63T (VR4 to Evo 3) hooked up to a RWD Mitsi gearbox makes for an economical, reliable, abundant source of horsepower. Lots of good info here https://projectzerog.com/ I've been involved in two RWD 4G63 swaps, one for a mates road car (Mitzi ute) and the other some years back for our Targa race car; a little tweaking and the HP/torque is simply brutal. As Cletus pointed out you would need to look at substantial suspension and braking upgrades to get it road legal.

Well spotted mate. I have yet to get to installing the plumbing and bleeding. I'll take your most welcomed advise.