More results following yesterday’s big news. Today I got a safety-belt installed, cleaned the glass, and went for a shakedown-run near home. First thing was a stop at a nearby petrol station since the tank only had about three gallons in it and I was curious to see if anything would leak with more. Nothing did!
The car did well overall, and I was pleased that it handled well and the front alignment seemed to be mostly correct. I did notice during a brief blat up to about 60 MPH on a large divided road that some jiggles on the steering wheel didn’t translate into much response from the car, so some further refinement may be needed. Or maybe the missing bonnet was causing a little aerodynamic lift? I doubt it but we’ll see. It’s not getting put back on until I’m done with a few other jobs anyway.
The sticking clutch master cylinder was annoying at times but did seem to improve some with use; time will tell if it clears up altogether or I get sufficiently impatient with it to buy a new one.
Two disappointments: after about ten miles I noticed that the blend of funky smells was changing a bit and at a stop I saw a little smoke. More of it at the next stop, coming from the front-right corner, and the brakes got a little soft. Uh-oh. I made for home immediately at that point (thankfully I was less than a mile away), and noticed that it didn’t really want to get above around 2500 RPM at as I got onto my street. I recall too that mid-range acceleration seemed tepid earlier in the run.
Upon parking at home I found that the front-right caliper was leaking a little, which doesn’t really surprise me considering that I have no idea when or if the calipers have ever been serviced. Will order some caliper-rebuild kits and new pads and install them before driving again.
Looks really good, Ben. Unlike the rears, rebuilt front calipers are generally available - so as you get them off if the’re looking rougher than you expect you can send them off for exchange for a rebuilt pair for not too much more than the cost of parts to rebuild yourself.
My next project is to convert from whatever shock/spring is on the car now (only a couple of POs before me might know) with shocks adjustable for damping and ride height with 12" 115 lb/in springs.
I checked out RDE and DBE and went with what DBE has been providing for years - AVO shocks withe the 115 springs.
The firsts challenge is that DBE doesn’t mount the springs for you. Ken @ DBE sent me a picture of how he does it - using a std external spring compressor hooked at the bottom on a bar through the lower shock mount, and hooked to “S” hooks at the upper end of the springs.
I borrowed a spring compressor from Autozone and followed Ken’s process, except used nylon strapping instead of S hooks to attach the compressor.
So now the springs are on the shocks.
The next challenge - the shocks didn’t come with a wrench to adjust the height, I guess I need to call Ken back and see about that…
And then get them on the car - any tricks to doing that?
What’s the condition of the rest of the suspension: bushings, trunnions, ball joints, rack mounts, etc ?
Refreshing these items can really tighten up the overall handling to go with the adjustable stiffer springs/new shocks. But, maybe these have been addressed before.
When I did mine a couple years back they were the originals. Much crisper now.
Then, there is also the rear.
But, this can be a slippery slope- one thing leading to another.
More yesterday than today:
Tidied up a bit of wiring, made a boot carpet out of some black stuff I had in stock, straightened the steering wheel on the splines so it now faces up when the car is going forwards and hopefully have also cured the odd rubbing noise… clean the horn connector and then rubbed a bit of pencil over it and it seems to have quietened things down.
Can also turn the steering without the horn sounding on its own. Result
I’ve got no significant concerns about the suspension given how it ‘feels’ - supposedly the car was rebuilt a few years before I got it. I’m planning on taking the body off for a repaint/likely color change next spring - I’ll go through every bit of the kit at that time in any event.
Thanks, looks interesting and have seen some similar solutions including indicator and dimming functions.
The Ring set up I have seen comes with a module to dim when other lights are on.
My normal regulations source in the UK is the IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) manual which are applicable if you build a new car / kit etc and the manuals (M1 in this case) are freely available via .GOV.UK so a good resource of info and easy to find.
C&U and UK lighting regs are others I have used in the past.
The basic requirements for DRL are the position (height / distance from edge angles of visibility and then the switching eg extinguish with dip beam.
Take the panel off the door, unplug the motor from the harness and apply power to the motor. And switching
the leads will reverse the motor. You can also check voltage coming from the switch.
With a two year-old running around the house, I really have to plan any extended projects I do. The worst thing I can do is start a quick job and be forced to put it down for a few days, only to try and remember where I left off when I get another free block of time!
I’m 41 and I think I’m already there. I’m stuck between wanting to learn how the car functions and keeping my son from licking the garage floor while I’m working.
