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.