Not a lot to report this week. These first shots are before and after on the brackets that hold the windshield wiper posts. They fit immediately behind the dash and are in good shape. Just needed cleaning and painting. The smaller brackets are the behind the dash supports for the chrome passanger grab bar.



The last shot is of the painted front motor mount.

Just so you can remember what the original motor mount looked like.

The primed front motor mount in position. First shot is from the front, other is from the rear. It should be substantially stronger than the original and looks a lot better than when those large plates were in place.

The steering column is painted. Unfortunately, the steering column cannot be installed until the body shell is replaced, so it is wrapped up and put aside until later. This is awkward as the tie rods for the front suspension cannot be installed until the steering column is in place, too.

The trans bolts arrived and the tranny is now fully assembled (except for the gearshift bushings). The tail piece that was repaired aluminum from an earlier post fits good and holds the brass gear drive for the speedometer. Dee has been grousing lately- something about good bath towels. It's a mystery.


Next shot is showing some of the fun tools that get used at the sanding parties. Many of my tools are older now but were purchased new. Others are old when purchased new.

The front motor mount has been repaired. I cut the mount in the location of the cracks and Wilson Welding welded it and filled the oversized holes. I fitted the gussets to make the mount stronger and hopefully if I measured properly, it should miss the crank damper and the fan belt.


The next shots are of the cleaned up clutch pressure plate and the flywheel. The flywheel seems to be fine- no cracks or scores- but the ring gear is shot. I'm thinking that I may want to get an aluminum replacement anyway because by the time I get the ring gear, then get it machined off and on, then possibly get it resurfaced, it is about another $100 to get a new aluminum with a new ring gear already mounted. The pressure plate is fine and will be reused.

The new pistons are here! The new pistons are here! These are 9:1 CR, 83mm plus 0.060 overbore, forged aluminum, as manufactured by JE. Excellent finish. I got the design specs from Beere Racing in the UK. They were good enough to give me the design rather than having me purchase through them as it is les expensive to purchase direct and there are no import fees.


Note how much shorter the skirt is than on the ones that were removed. It is also longer from the wrist pin to the top of the piston short of the dome.

So these are off to the machinist to be attached to the connecting rods then balanced.

Also the crank was straightened and all is right with the world.

Not only are there fantasticly exciting sanding parties, occasionally there are paint removal festivities. Lacking some of the parts to continue putting the transmission and the front brakes together, I moved on to striping the paint from the back of the bonnet. It cleaned up pretty well although it became evident that there more repairs required than previously thought. First shot shows most of the paint, but not all removed as does the second. Third shows all done except to the inside of the rear stiffiners where it will need to be soda blasted.


Last just shows a shot of the prop rod so I can remember how to mre assemble. This is an early xk120 so the prop rods front and rear as well as the convertable top frame are chrome plated. Later versions had these painted. Unfortunately, almost all of the chrome plating is gone. And the entire trunk prop rod assembly is lost. If you recall from much earlier there was a strange sort of extending prop rod assembly from some unknown car installed in the trunk. It went away.

The driveshaft with new universal joints and paint.



Next shot is of the transmission mount attached to the frame.


Last shot is of the repaired tailpiece of the transmission mainshaft. The photo is bad, but the far edge was broken through and was rewelded and then reshaped to fit over the rear bearing of the mainshaft.

More on the assembly of the steering box. It went together well. Now to sand it (another sanding party!), and paint it.

Started to reassemble the steering box. New balls and races are installed. The balls are all loose and getting them to stay in place even with using a bed of grease on the race is very fiddley. But I finally got them to stay all together for a bit and the remainder is fairly straight forward. I'm working on getting the rest of the box together tomorrow.

More on the transmission. I was able to locate shim stock to finish the assembly of the constant motion shaft. Turns out that you have to ask for "Shim Stock in a Can". Really. The machinists have it and I bought a small sheet of 0.004 stock and using a scissors and an x-acto knife, cut three washers and ta da-the constant motion shaft is done. So the box itself is closed up. I rebuilt the top assembly from pieces lying around and although it is Moss chunky, it seems to be working fine.

The thing that sets off the proper JH style box is the tail assembly that encloses the longer mainshaft. There is a yet- to- be- installed rear housing that is having some repair welding completed. That final housing contains the rear seal, the speedometer gearing, and the yoke to mount to the driveshaft. I need to order a new rubber bushing for the gearshift- currently it rotates as one moves through the gears. Also, the top cover needs new bolts (they are a British thread style- approximately 5/16" x 21 pitch- try finding those in your local Ace Hardware) and the bellhousing bolts need new locktabs.



The jack is painted.

The clutch and brake pedals are primed.

Other news- the crankshaft that I just bought is bent 0.003". Bouchers is going to try to straighten it next week. Believe it or not, they have this big-a__ machine that has a hook that grabs the crank and pulls it into shape. It cannot be turned again as it is already cut to the max over at 0.030" on the mains. Joy. I am optomistic that it will straighten. Pistons at 9:1 CR and 0.060" over are currently being fabricated.