Body Work and Engine Continued

I was down at TVR this afternoon and one side of the body has been primered ready for filler and skimming so this is a quick update with some photos. Also I picked up my engine parts from the machine shop after a crank polish, valve grind, a wash of the parts and a couple of valve guides so again just a few pics. Should hopefully have the engine case sent off for an align bore this week.

Repair

Primer

Ready for filler

Head Ports Matched to Inlets

Case cleaned ready for A line Bore

Reground valve like new

Polished Crank

Body work Part 1 - half inch of kipper

My plan is to get down to the spray shop every day an take a few photos so over the next couple of weeks there will be not many words but lots of photos. Work started today and when I got to the spray shop I was told it is a shed. Lots of bad repairs, panels and holes bogged up with filler and seam sealer. The lower rear quarters are bogged up with a half inch layer of filler! The result in filler over original paint an rust under the filler coming through, so a lot of the panel has had to be stripped back down to bare metal. He did reassure me that another week or so of prep and it won't look so bad! So any way here are the photo's from today.

gutter cleaned up nice

1/2 inch of kipper!

bad ding bogged up, filler now gone

hole in the rear

Bad Repair

same hole upside down for some reason

New Skin

The blog entry's are starting slow down now, I've not lost interest, just not lots to report as its come to a bit of a hold now. The budget for this build has gone out the window since I decided to do a proper rebuild on the engine so Blackpool Breeze is looking like a no go for now. My plan is to get the shell sealed with a shiny paint job, brakes sorted, electrics in and the head liner fitted before the nights get dark early. That way the last job is the wheel refurbishment and engine rebuild which can be done over winter.

Any way the rolling shell went to the old TVR factory for a new paint job on Saturday, exciting times. Me and Paul stripped out the windows head liners and wiring on Friday night ready to go. I still need to get the wiring out at the back where it feeds through to the engine bay, it is stuck in with expanding foam and a special too in the form of a threaded bar to mash it out is required. Now it is at this stage, when people ask me how the project is going, I can say with a smile that it is going well rather than depressingly tell them its doing my head it. There will be photo's posted up over the next few weeks as the body work and paint progresses. So for now here is a photo of it in the paint shop.

Engine Rebuild Part 1 - Teardown

So when it comes to the engine rebuild I've gone past the point of no return. To day I split the engine case and found a few shocking things! The oil punp came out painlessly and the case split with out a trauma.

No 1 Burning Oil

Over all the internals look good, ish! On first look inside the case the main bearings had no signs of abnormal and, although  it could do with a proper inspection, it looks as though the crank may not need a regrind. I measured the crank and the thrust and everything is at standard size. However the thrust has pounded 0.1mm out of my crank case, this was no surprise to me as there was a bit of visible movement.

All to do now for the tear down is to pull off the crank gear, remove the con rods and give every thing a good de greasing and clean and then post the case to the machine shop for a line bore.

Now for the bad parts, well not so much bad but shoddy workman ship. The first thing I found was the gland nut, I couldn't get my 36mm socket on it because some bright spark used a chisel to knock it off instead of leavers, shock and heat as I had done successfully on Paul's engine. When I removed the heads I found that the shoot was a bit oily so this could be worn piston rings or maybe worn valve guides so a closer inspection is required. The next bit of shoddyness I found was that piston No 3 had one of the gudgeon pin retaining clips missing!

Anyway, tomorrow is strip down of the heads ready for shot blasting and rebuild.

Milestone

So I've hit a bit of a mile stone with the rot box, all major panels welded, gear box cleaned up and on Sunday we  dragged it back to my garage in Fleetwood. The next job is to rip out the headliner, strip the doors and cut out the window rubbers ready for spraying. I have some one coming to look at it on Saturday morning to give me a price. Also I've asked him to finish off bits of welding which are cosmetic and don't want to mess up.

Rolling Again!

I decided that the front suspension and brakes are to be done after paint because of any welding any such at the front so my attention has turned to the power plant. Currently its a boggo VW twin port 1600 air cooled motor with a cracked cylinder head. I've managed to acquire a used replacement at the right price so the heads will be rebuilt. I toyed with different ideas for a street machine like high ratio rockers and a longer duration cam and back to keeping it stock. I also thought about twin carbs or going back to stock. I was reading about twin choke  carbs and how the MPG can be gained along with performance if set up correctly and that the stock manifolds are very inefficient (currently I have a progressive 32/36 of stock manifold and the MPG return is not the best.

Meaty

I've got to a where I've bought parts and made a decision and sticking with it. I am upping to 1641 as I found a bargain set on-line which will be working with a stock cam and stock rockers. I would like to go for a after market cam like an Engel 110 with 1:1.25 rocker but cost and time for a rebuild is a bit of a restriction if I am to get her back on the road for Blackpool Breeze so stock its is. The heads will be stock rebuilt as mentioned and for the carbs I found a pair of Dellorto 36 twin choke on ebay and I've just ordered the linkage, manifolds and the correct size jets. Just now need the parts to arrive and I can get on with it.

Raw skin

 Not updated for a while so this what I've been doing. After taking the gear box out it was discovered one of the gear box mount studs had been sheared so I've bought an intermediate box mount and decided the studs also need to be replaced.

Broken studs

In the past week I have been splitting the axles from the gear box ready for cleaning and painting. After much degreasing and preping the axle tubes, spring plates and the gear box all have at least one coat of paint and should have the final coats done tomorrow.

Painted Axle Tubes

Painted Gear Box

Also tonight I cut the broken gear box studs off and fabricated an angle bracket with two new studs which I then  welded over the chassis in the correct position. I was a bit concerned by this and welding upside down is not ideal but it all seemed to go well.

New Stubs welded in

Gearbox mount stud bracket

Once the bracket was welded in I decided to start the first coat of POR15 on the chassis at the rear. I ended up doing the whole floor pan as once the lid is removed it wont go back on properly so I didn't want to waste it in case it goes off over night. Hopefully I should be ok tomorrow so I can give it a second coat before a final consolidation coat using Hammerite. Even wearing and old hoodie and vinyl gloves I still seemed to get it all over my arms and hands and this doesn't come off in a hurry so I'm sat here with sores from scrubbing!

New Brakes so it might stop now!

Slime

Just a quick update and a few pictures. Last night was de motivating, first of all I found another hole which may be to difficult for me to weld so I'll have to ask the spray shop if they can do it, then tried to get the rear hub nuts off but no joy. Over night I reassessed the situation and thought gear box out then try then hub nuts again with the nut smacker I ordered today.

Gear Box Out

Tonight I got the gear box out along with the spring plates, fairly straight forward after following Rob and Dave's air-cooled pages (http://www.vw-resource.com/). So no trauma other than a few tight nuts so nothing exciting to report. Monday night I should finish stripping down the gear box and start cleaning up and prep ready for painting.

Zinc Induced Dank

So yesterday (Friday) I was forced to take a day off the job as I was in dank/hangover mode. I crawled in at about half 4 in the morning and woke up and I had a bit of a hangover and the dreaded dank. Thursday I started to feel the symptoms of the Flu coming on but I knew exactly what it was. Wednesday I was welding zinc nuts for the seat mounts and I remember having trouble with one because the wire speed was wrong and I remember an odd smell which must have been the zinc fumes. Some one at work told me that if you inhale fumes from welding galv steel you can get flu symptoms, I'm guessing this is the case as today (Saturday) I woke up feeling fine apart from a bit of a sore throat and my missing voice. So yesterday was sat in front of the TV all day feeling sorry for my self subjected to nothing but Royal Wedding coverage be cause there was nothing else on, Like showing it on one channel isn't enough!

Right Hanger Tacked and Clamped

Left Hanger Tacked

So to day I was back on the job. Wednesdays post I wrote that I had bolted up all the rear panels ready to tack weld up. Today I put the wing beading on between the wings and body so that the wings were in there true position. Next I did a bit of tapping and aligning so that every thing looked straight, one I was happy with this I clamped up the new bumper hanger panels and tack welded them in place. These were not the best fit so it took a bit of hammering, clamping and forcing to get them in the right place before tack welding.

Next I removed the wings and fully welded up the bumper hangers and rear valence. I wanted to have the rear panel as a bolt on but I decided it will be a much more neat job if I weld it on and won't scratch the paint every time I remove it. The welding was straight forward and I had to make a couple of filler pieces but once doe that was all the major welding done.

Patches Required all over

Back end complete

All there is to do for the welding is patch up a few small areas and then its on to the gear box, suspension and steering.

Deep Cuts

Bolted up for a test fit

Last night I was in the pub and notice cuts all over my hands and arms I looked like I was self harming! I did it again today, a sharp edge of plate cut through my crappy B&Q gloves and gave me a pretty nasty slice. After I some time I managed to stop it bleeding and I could get on with things.

Back End Gone!

Another angle just incase

I've been messing with the back end, firstly I chopped out the rotten bumper hangers and some of my finger. I then bolted up the new panels, wings and rear valence. The original plan was to make the rear valence a bolt up panel, but it doesn't fit straight in and requires a bit of jiggling and the likelihood is that it will get scratched when I remove this so I've decided to weld it on. I had a look at what adjustments I need to do to the new panels and then in bolted every thing.

New Beam

All preped up

I then got a phone call from work to tell me I had a package arrive at the office, great, this would be the new narrowed beam! So after I picked up the large very heavy box I went back the Paul's garage where I was greeted with a piece of chocolate cake. I spent the next hour or so grinding, cleaning and preping the original metal ready for the new panels.

Once that was done I bolted every thing back up again and that was as far as I got, well all I could be bothered doing although it did take most the day. Next trip should be Saturday and start aligning the panels amd tacking them up. After this the next job is to pull out the gear box, I'll leave the rear valence off while I do this to give me a bit more room.

Comfy Ride

Mounts Completed

Today I finally got the seat mounts finished off, took a lot longer that expected although there was a lot of messing around working out how I was going to do it. There are a few pictured to show what I've done. Just before I finished for the day, I also welded the accelerator pedal clip in place.

Accelerator Pedal Clip

Rear Inner Mount

Rear Outer Mount

Rear Mounts

 The seats are looking a but tatty and fancy a red interior so I got a quote for the front and back seats to be covered in red leather and they said it would be around £1100 so I think I'll get a leather restorer on them for now. Tomorrow I should be able to crack on with the rear bumper hangers and valence and once they are done that will be the major repairs done and just a bit of tidying to do.