Popular Post sr2 Posted January 6 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 6 Time to take on a job I’ve been dreading somewhat; repairing the damage to Rigamortice’s port side B pillar that was the result of the body falling off my homemade body rotisserie. I used a profile gauge on the good side…….. Converted it to CAD……. Swapped sides…….. …. And it was easy to see how out of shape things were…. After a lot of measuring I cut a section out of the replacement B pillar…. And did the same on the car. I went back to using an old school hacksaw - far more accurate than an angle grinder for me. It popped out with a bit of a bang, obviously under some tension. Started tacking the repair piece in… Checking it with the CAD template…. Still just little tacks, a bit messy but I’m cognisant of avoiding putting too much heat in and distorting things. A quick test fit of the doors and it looks OK. Cut out some 16 gauge zintex strips… Marked out and drilled for plug welds.. Put the reinforcing strips inside the pillar and started welding……. A quick test fit of the doors and nothing has moved….(phew!). A few coats of sandable primer… The obligatory insipid green… Doors finally back on and everything fits. 25 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sr2 Posted March 7 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 7 …………Yes I know I’ve been a slack prick, re: this thread. With final arrival of summer the good ship Aquaholic insisted that I take her and some of my disreputable mates out fishing… (What could possibly go wrong?). It was a hot day, we got thirsty, we drank heavily and we “got fush”…….(as you do). A few days later my brother turned up at the Viaduct in this bloody monstrosity, and the good ship Aquaholic (and a certain part of my anatomy) felt very, very, …. small…….(Sibling rivalry can get complicated!). ….so we headed north. The view from the bridge was cool…… Accommodation wasn’t too shabby…. …. And the lounge was bigger than the one at home… Thankfully there was a bar on board for self medication! Back home I was stricken with a bout of the much feared “home handyman-itis” and I accidentally started rebuilding the front of the house… (Note the cunning accumulation of Brownie points with the “ever lovely Mrs. sr2”). After the above brief hiatus I’m finally back to Rigamortice’s wiring. I’m trying to document as much as I can because my memory is like a sieve. I managed to source some cool old fashioned bullet connectors…. I’m almost finished under the dashboard, getting sick of working upside down. The dip switch still works so I hit it with some contact cleaner and we’ll see how it lasts. I’m running relays on the lights so it won’t be carrying the amps that it used to. I’m using my 70 year old meter just because I can. The horns are all wired up but they sound like two strangled cats, I’ll have to do some research on how to tune them. Circuit breaker in place instead of a fusible link. Mounted the battery earth cut out through the fire wall Repurposed an old offset ring spanner for a battery clamp. Managed to get some life out of the interior light with a new bulb and fresh wiring. Cleaned a ton of crud of the diffuser…. And it works. 23 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sr2 Posted March 18 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 18 With space in the nose cone so tight the only way to wire the headlights and fan was to take the front off for the umpteenth bloody time….grrr….! So much easier to wire on the bench. Found some heavy connectors to make disassembly easier in the future. Love using the old school fabric wrap. I’d bought a big box of connectors off Banggood for a price that was too good to be true…….. … so I wired up the headlights. I refitted the front………. I installed the gorgeous over-priced P700 headlights…. ……..and started blowing fuses whenever I powered them up! After an evening of uttering nasty horrible words and throwing thinly veiled insults at Rigamortice re the marital status of her parents at her time of inception, while going round and round in circles with a variety of test lights, test probes and multi meters - I discovered the f****** “too good to be true” Bangood connectors were………. You guessed it ‘too good to be F****** true’! After a quick trip to Jaycar the following day, I paid through the nose for the right connectors…and we now have head lights. And as an added bonus they even worked in the dark! So I stuck the bonnet on and discovered it didn’t fit…. I loosened it off and started pulling things into line before re-tightening. Finally, it all fits, (sort of). 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sr2 Posted March 26 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26 A while back I spent quite some time making a sleeve to tidy up the gap between the steering column and the steering wheel. Problem was the top bearing just had too much play in it for my liking. When I pulled out the bearing I found it was a piece of pressed sheet metal rubbish that was close to impossible to replace. The solution was a trip to the local bearing supplier and the massive investment of $13.50 (and to think the “ever lovely Mrs. sr2” accuses me of being cheap!). I bought a large piece of mild steel round and chucked it in the Emco. I bored it for a firm fit to the OD of the new bearing. I flipped it over and cut it to size in the bandsaw… I then line bored it to fit the steering Column tube. That’s an end I cut off from an old column; you can see how light the original bearing was. I double checked everything still fitted…… …… and then turned down a piece of scrap water pipe to act as a cover between the bearing and the steering wheel. I then turned it down to the same OD……. …. Took the cover off and turned a taper at the other end…… All set to assemble……. (The tube on the left is just for setting it up). Checked it with the Triumph steering assembly…. …….some plug welding…… A bit of paint………… And I’m back to where I started, (story of my life!) but with no play in the steering wheel. The only thing I don’t like is the cheap, shiny, aftermarket “hotrod” indicator switch. To its credit it works well but looks very out of place - far too new and shiny for Rigamortice’s discerning taste. I’ll keep looking for something old and quirky to replace it with. Any suggestions gratefully accepted… https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49843-sr2%E2%80%99s-1947-vauxhall-%E2%80%9Crigamortice%E2%80%9D-discussion-thread/ 18 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sr2 Posted April 10 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 10 One of Rigamortice’s dirty little secrets was a set of these little shockers hidden behind the front wheels! I found a pair of proper hub-centric spacers on Trademe for a very reasonable price. I then upgraded to some ARP studs at a very unreasonable price. (Talk about charging like a friggin wounded bull!). All torqued up with a snug fit on the hub and wheel. Finally got the front ride height and wheel track just where I want it. Decided the rear needed a tweak, so I backed off the rear U bolts…. …and figured out how much I could safely lower the rear. I ended up using solid bar for the spacers I’m expecting the rear springs to settle with a little use….. Have to say I’m finally happy with the old girls stance. 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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