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1st December, Action - Flippy front
& wheels.
Spent a while playing with the spare steel front end of Doris,
to see what the options of a real lifty bonnet are. Maybe those spare tailgate
struts could be used for a nice slow opening bonnet ????? Not sure, to
many options (as bloody usual!).
The last 2 of the superlites have finally been lacquered
to hold in their fabulous orangy glow, so it won't be long before they find
their way under the all new 'Group 5 Wide' arches :-)
7th-8th December, Action.
Pulled the steel front back off again, mainly because there are
too many other jobs to do at the moment, and I really can't be arsed to rewire
the steel front & sort out lights !!
I removed the temporary plywood cowling around the rear radiator
(which had just been gaffer taped on), trimmed it to fit snugly, then drilled
and screwed the panels back in place. An extra panel was also cut to separate
the radiator area from the boot, leaving enough space for a spare wheel, trolley
jack and sundry other emergency tools :-)
The white parcel shelf had proved to be a bit 'glarey' so Elaine
was press ganged into painting it and the plywood cowling with some black
Hammerite.
14th - 15th December, Action!
V8 Micra pilot extraordinaire (Paul) popped down for a weekend
of boozing, grinding, welding, boozing & boozing.
A cunning (or maybe drunken..) plan was hatched to fit an under
tray to the rear subframe to let the air exit more cleanly from the rear
radiator, hopefully smoothing the airflow under the car and creating a bit of a
venturi effect to suck air through. Well that was the plan so Paul got on with
cutting and folding up some steel sheet which was dutifully riveted on.
Since the last refit of the engine the gearchange had been a bit
'iffy' getting across into 1st & 2nd, so a bit of hunting around found us a
larger nut & bolt to go in the gear linkage (where a roll pin should rightly
live). Just to make sure that all the gears were available we did a quick test
run, up and down the driveway, for about 2 and a 1/2 hours !! These V8 things
are just too addictive ;-)
On Sunday the header tank was removed from the cooling system
and the larger one salvaged from Fiona was fitted, in a convenient space - on
the other side of the car, so a bit of a re-plumb was required. But as the tank
is larger with bigger bore outlets it should act as a swirl pot to self bleed
air from the system.
Paul also folded up some ends for the B&Q BBQ grill that
protects the front rad, so the scary sharp pedestrian unfriendly bits of steel
are hidden, but his choice of yellowy paint was a bad plan as Doris appeared to
have large yellowing fangs.
A bit more test drivery showed that under hard acceleration the
engine would pop & fart & bang, and generally not run too well, and an
hour or so of tweaking wouldn't sort it. So we went in out of the rain :-(
Pics of rad cowls and
things
16th December, Action.
1/2 day off work , so fixed the sticky, non parking wipers, by
replacing the motor, wheel boxes and track. Hmm, 2 speed self parking
wipers - even on a dry screen :-)
Also to help with safety a new set of EBC Green pads were bunged
on, which seem to prove that the old pads were a combination of concrete and
Teflon.
Quick test drive and some thinking seem to indicate that the
rough running under hard acceleration if G related !!! When you boot it with
only 1/2 a gallon of fuel in the tank, it all seems to run and hide at the back,
far, far away from the pickup pipe. So that needs fixing (added to the
list).
21st December, Action
Not a big action day, more a sort of odd job day, but that
wouldn't make much of a heading now would it ?
The crappy sticky labels on the dashboard switch panel were
removed with nice sniffy solvent, then when dry the panel was re labelled using
a glittery silver pen for a real top quality finish ;-)
Then Paul's evil yellow fang things at the side of the front
grill were painted a more subtle colour - matt black - far nicer. The temporary
steel bonnet lump also got a coat of black, and front section was riveted on
too.
Next task was a quick fix to the fuel surge problem. After what
could almost be described as seconds of deliberation, I hit upon a stunning
plan.... Fill the tank up !
Obviously after taking this drastic corrective action some
testing would be needed, so some 'fast starts' were tried with the results being
caught on video for future analysis.
Pics & Vids
include 'Elaines First Time', several 1st - 2nd gear runs, a 3rd gear start and
a dashboard ride..
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