WARNING here comes another of my long ramblings!!
I've had a couple of weekends of small car jobs that grew, though none related to the TF.
Neither are MG related either, but the first was at least related to a car built at Abingdon, and one that is 60 years old this year.
Having borrowed lots of tools from my uncle in the course of refurbishing the rear end of the TF I thought it was about time I repaid the favour!
His Riley 1 & 1/2 RME has been going through a restoration which is now in it's 19th year
, but really doesn't much have left to-do. The plan was to recover the roof on a nice warm day, but to-do that we needed to get the car out into the sunshine, only it wouldn't start. It looked like the fuel pump had failed, so off came the air box, to get some access, and the pump was eventually removed and then rebuilt with a kit which had been procured via e-bay. That made it sound easy. But I can tell you it was not. Just finding the right spanners that would fit the nuts and bolts was a length process, and they seem to have employed the "why use to the same size when you can have a selection" method when they originally put it together.
The following picture shows what it was like when I started the strip down having removed the top and the filter mesh.
There is a handle at the front that can be used to prime the carb with fuel (they through of everything back then
)and the built in filter had done it's job of capturing the crud and dirt. I didn't notice at the time but there were signs of a leak in the pipe to the carb float.
Anyway by early afternoon the pump was rebuilt and re-fitted. In doing this, that pipe to the carb fell off. The solder had degraded over the years. So would need re-doing; Well we had some solder, but no flux, 10 minutes later some had been borrowed from a friend. The banjo would need to come of the float bowl but it wasn't playing ball so the top was taken of and went into the vice so I cold apply the necessary force more safely.
Then I realised I need to be quite precise in how it was soldered back together otherwise it wasn't going to connect up properly. Oh for a bit of braided hoes!
So it all went back together again to be marked up.
Once soldered and refitted the system was primed using that useful hand pump, and it got enough pressure in the system to blow petrol past the banjo washer!
But she still didn't start.
Time now to check the electrics. We seemed to be getting a spark, on number 1 so tried again. No joy. On checking the rest they were found to be quite cruddy, luckily we had some more, so in the went....
...and this time after a couple of miss fires she start up.
However petrol was leaking from the pump and the banjo, the ignition light was staying on and the oil pressure was so high I though the oil pressure gauge needle would break!
The pump just needed the top to be tightened down a little, but the banjo need a new washer. I tried it the other way round, which was slightly better, but really not good.
We spent about 20 minutes looking through 2 draws full of gaskets but could find nothing suitable, by now it was nearly six PM so we decided to pack up for the day.
Sunday we started early, too early to go to Halfords to buy some of the bits and pieces we needed.
So we check the dynamo. The output was less than 1 volt. So off it came and on strip down we found a broken brush spring. No worries my uncle had 4 RMA ones in the loft, so we liberated one of the necessary spring, reassemble the dynamo and got it back on the car.
Once fired up (and she was starting rely quickly now so we were chuffed) we were getting 1.5 volts. Better but not right. So off it came again and we clean up the commutator, but only after considering put one of the RMA ones on, however they were a different shape and had a different pulley. once back on the results were no better.
It was now past 10am so it wouldn't be long before Halfords would be open. The sun was shinning, so we had to make the difficult decision of going for a 20 minutes journey up winding country roads including the Fosse Way to Leamington Spa in the TF or the Soft top Triumph Herald vitess with it's glorious sounding 2ltr straight 6. The TF won out because it was at the end of the drive and had to be moved any way.
So an hour later we were back with various things including a selection box of paper and rubber washers. Non of which were exactly the right size, so we reduced the outer size of one on the bench grinder. It did the job a treat. no more petrol leak!
So finally time to get the old girl out of the garage.
On removing the ladders etc that were being stored under her we found the front bumper.
"Let's put that on, won't take long" my uncle said. Yeah right!
Exactly what goes where?
First fit was upside down, through the wrong holes and fighting with rusted fixing nuts & bolts. Of it came again, we cleaned up or found replacement fixings. Stopped for lunch, then wrestled with it for another 30+ minutes. No flexible plastic her just great big lumps of solid chromed steel.
But it looked a bit strange, something was missing.
The badge board!
With it fixed to one of the over riders I stopped my self laughing just long to pointed out that it was 6+ inches short of the other one.
Out came some old pictures and it was apparent that the badge bar should be attached to the wings behind the bumper.
It was now 2pm and I had to leave by 4:30, so the car finally came out into the sunshine.
The metal mesh roof was treated to 2 coats of rust converter, and then we stuck the wadding on with some spray on impact adhesive.
She finally looked like this...
...but it was time for me to go home.
So she went back into the garage, and the hessian blanked and roof covering were draped over so that gravity can gradually force out creases as shape it ready for fitment.
So we ended the weekend, with an unfinished roof, sky high oil pressure and a dynamo problem.
Despite not achieving what we had hoped, we'd had a great weekend, drank some
, had a lot fun spannering, and the experience gave my uncle his mechanical mojo back. So I'm hoping he will have made a bit more progress before I can find the time to get over and help some more.