Carbs 2

More before shots. Peter, the dashpot plungers are stuck so I squirted them with a lot of WD-40 and let them set. Ok? I'll let you know when they are free. I hate to hold you up like this.

Carbs 1

I purchased a set of H6 S.U. carbs on ebay. Supposedly, these came off a Mk VII with 27,000 miles. They are rough but it appears that all of the important pieces are there. When they came both were froze at the butterfly shaft but a little WD-40 and they freed right up. The low mileage could be correct as the shafts show almost no play. Peter wants to redo these so I'm cleaning them a bit like I am sure he wants then I'll turn them over.

Radiator core

The radiator core has arrived. It looks very good and weighs a mere ton. I didn't weigh it; I should have. It's solid copper with solder covering most of the copper. I'll weigh the completed radiator and report back. It should be done this week.

Still no head or chrome bits. Used carbs have been purchased.

Rear fenders

No head. No radiator. No chrome bits. So smoothing continues. I've preped the rear fenders for the panel beater. Both need repairs to patch the rusted through places on the top of the panels where the fender attaches to the rear clip. The left rear fender is not set up for the spats and will need to be modified to accept same. The big differences are that the fenders must have rods extending from the bottom to accept the forks of the spats and the top needs a reinforcement block for the fender lock.

Last shot is of the new gear reduction starter mounted in place. Nothing wrong with the original starter, but I have replaced all the starters on the British cars. The originals have a tendency to drag particularly if the compression is increased.

Even More Boot Lid

The boot lid frame pretty much completed. It needs a skin and finish primer and paint. And it only took me about three weeks of spare time- a lot of it waiting for glue and epoxy to dry and set on all of the separate parts.

I'm still waiting for the head, the re chromed bits, and the radiator to be finished. The lack of head is really starting to be a pain. The machinist tells me next week it might be finished, so I probably need to give it a couple more weeks. In the meantime, there is always additional smoothing to be done.

Boot lid frame

The boot lid frame is again in one piece and the aluminum (1/32") side panels over the wood frame have been remade. The first shots here are showing the frame with the aluminun side panels pretty much fitted. It is surprising how many pieces make up this boot lid. There are 21 pieces of wood alone. There are an additional 4 pieces of aluminum side panels and 6 more 18 ga. steel pieces making the lip for the skin. There are two hinge supports each made up of 7 seperate pieces; approximately 100 3/4" x 16 ga. nails; 12 #8 x 1-1/2 screws; approximately 50 #6x 3/4" screws, and this doesn't include the hinges themselves, the hinge bolts,washers, and lock washers, the locking mechanism (and all of it's seperate pieces), the locking handle, the wiring, interior switch and light, the interior skin, and the license plate holder and light, and gaskets and misc. fasteners. And don't forget the trunk skin itself. And they all need to be refurbished or replaced.

The last shot shows the reconstructed bottom corner with the skin lips in place.

Boot lid, rear clip

Not a lot to update this week. The head is not done. The radiator is not done. The chrome bits are not done. I have been working on reconstructing and regluing the boot lid frame and the shot here shows the reassembled frame with some epoxy filler smeared around on the edges and bottom rail. This should finish all of the regluing and filling. Then it is off for some smoothing and primer. It was very floppy and is now quite rigid again.

The next two shots show the rear clip after some sand blasting. I have yet to blast up inside the parcel tray and on each side of it to finish this piece. It is cleaning up well, now if the high humidity of summer will leave it alone until it gets to the panel beater and painter.