Topic

The doors close with more of a thud than the higher frequency ringing. Bonnet not so much.
Driving around it seems to have less rattling and creaks. But that might well be my imagination. 🤷‍♂️
Doing the floor pans I think will make a big difference.
Washing it earlier I noticed the instrument binnacle is cracked as they do towards the centre console. Anyone done a repair without sourcing another?
Michael.

If you’ve pushed your sound deadening material up/on/over & between all the rattly squeaky things then they’ve nothing to do but stop.
That sound a win to me.
The mistake with the binnacle was noticing it in the first place, you will notice it every time you go near the car, you’ll have to attend to it or you’ll get no peace.

Hmmm. I fear you’re right.

As with so many binnacles mine was cracked at the front & was devoid of the rear tabs, but the absence of the tabs I considered to be a plus point. I biased the crack open & allowed the thin cyanoacrylate to run in, the capillary action drawing it down the crack, the crack was closed immediately & tape drawn across the binnacle to hold it so & walked away. Later I formed plastic strips to the inner radius & glued those on to reenforce the structure, roughing up both surfaces first.
Structurally it was fine but there was a shinny line where the cyno’ had been drawn in & that irritated probably more than the crack.
A few weeks ago I commented that when I first got my f the plastic bits had little value & my pet scrappy was happy for me to help myself to whatever I wanted, whether off the f’s & tf’s.
A conversation I had about a binnacle, unbroken at the front, went just like this; “how much for this lot” I asked waving a binnacle & other bits “the tabs are broken on that” pointing to the binnacle, “you can have that, the rest give me a fiver.
And that dear friend is how I ended up with a flawless binnacle although I did reenforce the areas prone to cracking.
M

Mine’s cracked at the far side if you’re sat in the drivers seat as it joins the dash proper. Is that where yours went or facing you again as you sit in the drivers seat.
According to Roger Parker’s F/TF Restoration Manual that’s the common place.
At the moment it doesn’t bother me as I only see it when I’m washing it - I creep up on it from behind to get in!!
There seems to be a few on yon EBay for what I consider a reasonable fee (£25ish). I am after all someone who has forked out in an earlier life for head gaskets and timing chains etc on a Jaguar XK8.
At any rate there’s another pack of sound deadening pads inbound so that’s got priority when it lands, and a passenger door rattle that does irk a LOT.
Regards,
Michael.

The binnacle is one of the few things that I don't have to repair! I'm really interested in the soundproofing work that you are doing though.
What materials do you recommend?

My crack (and wait for Cobber to jump on that statement) was right in the middle, right between the gauges (cheeks). You know those portraits where the sitters eyes seem to follow you around the room, the crack was a bit like that, wherever you looked at the binnacle it seemed to be there, hence the need to change it.
I commented on the lack of mounting clips around where you have your discontinuity ( I’m avoiding any chance of more smutty humour from the man down under). If it were fixed how on earth are you supposed to remove the instrument cluster? If I’d acquired one with clips I think I’d have removed them.
M

This is what I’ve used:
https://www.deadening.co.uk/products/dodo-mat-deadn-hex-20-sheets

Very easy to work with, cuts with scissors.
Cheers,
Michael.

Thanks, I will have a look at that 👍

Ive reinstated the exhaust manifold heat shield on my 135.
I was surprised to see the heatshield was missing then realised a PO had removed it to reuse the right hand mounting point as an anchor for a bracket to support the side of the cambelt cover.
I wanted to fit a heat shield but thought it could be useful to keep the cambelt cover support as it had clearly been fitted for a reason and though it was a bit Heath Robinson it did the job nicely.
By carefully grinding the edge of the thick steel metal plate it was possible to gain enough clearance so that this could be fitted back on the mounting point once the heatshield was in place. . The long bracket was then able to be rebolted to this.
At some point i will give the bracketry a coat of VHT manifold paint. Also i spotted a cut out area on the back of the cambelt cover so will search for something I can make a solid job of covering that with.

I nearly forgot. I finally got round to fitting my replacement hood at the weekend. The old one had a couple of wear holes and would have needed patching and a general clean up so it seemed a good opportunity to upgrade. .

The replacement has a glass rear screen and was easy to fit as it came with the frame. 4 bolts, 2 helpers, 10 minutes.
Its slightly dusty from where it was stored so I'l wash it with the car one evening and give it a quick coat of Febsil as that stuff worked wonders on the 115's hood

That’s turning into such a fine car, even at a distance you can see it’s a keeper. Good job.