Year end comments

Seeker is ready for a ride

It is nearing the end of 2010 and I am going to reflect on the year. Looking back I can see the progress I have made since January of this year.

I started the year with a chassis on a rotisserie and a few bits and pieces on it. I assembled most of the car on the rotisserie for the ease of being able to rotate the car and install pieces standing up. Installing the battery cable and fuel line, to name a couple, were a snap with the car rotated on its side. If any one is thinking of doing a car seriously consider using a rotisserie.

Assembling the car has been fun, interesting , educational, and occasionally frustrating. The manuals and repair information is sparse on some details, I have been using a lot of pictures to confirm the placement, orientation and routing of the bits. One of the best resources is the before pictures and I have found that the most important picture is the one you didn't take. The other one is what you are looking for is just outside of your picture. I have become friends with a gentleman in Italy who has a wealth of pictures and hand drawn diagrams that I have been lucky enough to have access to. Andreas's photo album which has several hundred photos of many projects around the world. I have been very interested in how others have done there cars, and see the same issues with deconstruction and rebuild problems. I have to say thanks to Andreas for making the info available to me.

The end of the year brings me to the point where the car is on the ground with engine almost ready to start, I still have to check all the wiring. Once this is done a couple of small parts need to be installed then time to go vrooooom vrooooom. I doubt that it will happen before the new year so late Jan 2011 might be the time. At that point the car will be able to return to Jason for final assembly.

So in short Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. I will start posting again late January

Aaron

More bits and pieces

Over the last few days I have been continuing the assembly of unseen parts. Last weekend my brother Ian called to say he was coming to the house. After he and Cindy arrived he said he needed a hand with something in the back of his car, and there was a new stainless exhaust front to back. Ian said happy birthday and merry Christmas, needless to say I am still in shock and disbelief.

I installed the down pipes today and a word to the wise remove the labels first I have seen several with square black spots where the labels were. What I did was warm them up with a heat gun this softens the glue so the label comes off easily if you are careful, the residue will come off with an orange cleaner ( GooGone)

Recently I have been following the Peking to Paris rally. There is a local car in it (041) and I think is is good to support our neighbors. The address is http://www.pekingparis.com/ and the local car is http://flora2010.blogspot.com/. I have had fun watching the progress and reading the blog entries of several entrants. Unit 028 has been replaced with a Healey since the original car was damaged, and they are just continuing with their friends even though they are out of the rally. Vewy interesting.

Any way on to my car. I have been busy finishing up small tasks that no one would notice even if I had a picture to show. Little things like the rear transmission mount, tightening bolts and screws, I also rebuilt the distributor, I ordered a new capacitor for it and it came in 4 pieces not quite what I expected, however a quick call to Moss and a chat with a delightful person a new one is on its way, great company to deal with.

I have bent a new heater core supply pipe from some soft copper pipe, not perfect but passable, I have also made a new fuel line between carbs much nicer than the original one. I have also installed the radiator and hoses. The dash went in last weekend and the control escutcheon are now in as well. Other small things include connecting the fresh air control cable the heater control cable and the heat control are done also. Misc oiling and greasing is also complete.

Even more gets done

I spent part of today to trim the mounting bolts the new ones were about 3/8th too long I also tightened up the rear mount also. I also installed the clutch slave and put the generator in place, I can't locate the bolt for this so I will make one later this week. All in all it has been a very productive day and I look forward to continuing the assembly later this week. As usual work gets in the way yet again.

Next big step is done

I went to Sidney yesterday to get a new satellite receiver from my best friend. On the way I stopped in to see if Jason was around. My older brother is having a BN6 restored for him in metallic light blue, I really wanted to see what his freshly painted chassis looked like.

Any way I mentioned that the engine was ready to go in, to which Jason said there is the engine lift and that he would be happy to help. I thought about it for about 5 nano seconds and asked if he was sure so the lift was put in my van and I took it home waiting for Sun afternoon.

This morning Laura (my wife) and I put the transmission and engine together. A couple of hours later Jason arrived and the install began there was only one or two small problems that only took minutes to overcome. It was obvious it was not Jason's first rodeo. An hour later it was in and secured ready for the next step of assembly. To me this was way over the top for Jason to help, I can't properly convey to him how much I appreciate his help. Thanks Jason.

Things are still progressing

I haven't been posting much as the progress has been hard to see. Lots of little steps and nothing that is noticeable on any pictures I have taken. But, the latest steps have been a little more noticeable, the installation of the drivers seat rails set, the passenger seat is fixed. I have used a new chrome source for the emergency brake handle, which I think turned out superb. These two changes have been quite welcome.

I have also finished cleaning and painting the transmission this week it is now ready to marry to the engine and then drop the whole assembly into the car. I replaced the rear seal, it was a challenge but I got it done and back together.

I painted the cross in front of the radiator black, this is one of those jobs I was not excited to do but turned out it was quite easy with good results. Surprising what a lot of masking tape and paper will accomplish. I also rebuilt the original fuel pump rather than use the new one I bought, since it didn't fit.

Captain there be wheels

Over the past few weeks I have been finishing up lots of little things to the car. There are just too many to mention also I can't remember all of them. The biggest was the coil springs for the front suspension, it took me almost 3 hours to do both sides but it was safe and the method was slick. I used two 8" pieces of 3/8 nf ready rod and tightened them up in unison.


After a lot of time and effort I now have a rolling chassis, YEHHHH, right now I have approximately 600 to 650 hours invested in the car. This covers things like deconstruction, cleaning, sandblasting, powder coating, and reassembly. The next big step is to install the engine and start getting it to the point of will it run?

Keep checking I will try to update more often in the future.

Continuing assembly

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get the rear end assembled and installed in the car. Today I reached this goal and have put the rear wheels on. I have also installed the steering column with a small amount of frustration. Every thing has to be installed in the correct order otherwise you will be disassembling it again like I did.

The rear of the car except the fuel pump is complete, the engine compartment is about 90% complete. the next push for me is to finish the wiring and install the engine. I have the front suspension on and just need to finish installing the front breaks.

The last dirty piece is back

I picked up the rear end yesterday as soon as it came out of the booth. John did a really nice job of cleaning it up. It looks like all I need to do is prime and paint it. I won't powder coat it as the dis-assembly is more than needed and the working parts are in good shape.I also stripped the steering column all apart, the oil was in poor shape and the oil seal is gone in it, I also found the other rubber parts were almost all gone. Again I don't think powder coating is the best way to continue so I will prime and paint it also. I have cleaned a lot of guck from the bottom of the steering column, I am really glad I stripped it apart.

Stage 2 of assembly.

Last night I had 6 of my burly friends from Grayline come over and remove the chassis from the rotisserie. Now the chassis is on jack stands and ready for the heavy parts like the rear end and wheels. I am hoping to get the wiring on the firewall completed now that the car is stable and easier to do that kind of thing. I can't say enough thanks to Rick the Kid, German, Will, John, Dave and Wayne it was so smooth and I couldn't do it with out them.

The rear end also went to QuickStrip media blaster for cleanup. I am looking forward to it coming home as it is the last real dirty piece to clean up. I will evaluate what needs to be done when I get it back.

Time to update progress

Things have been rather hectic at the shop and not much has been accomplished over the past few weeks. Four weekends of dog shows and a quick trip to northern California for one of them.

Front brake assembly before and after.


I have also been waiting until I could order some more parts for the front of the car, now that they are in route I can get going and finish the engine compartment just a small amount of wiring to clean up and run the brake lines. I just got a set of copper nickel brake lines that look super.Now that they are installed I am happy I went this route.




The heater, fresh air ducts, and the hoses for the heater core is completed . I have also rebuilt the wiper motor and replaced the wheel boxes.

I have the front suspension just about ready to re-assemble I just have to make the the upper trunnion link fit the king pin.Front suspension


Gas tank installed this afternoon

Slow like a snail

Recently I have been puttering on the car. You know cleaning, coating and repairing, some of it was easy, most was cheap and some was very difficult. The labours of my efforts is that I have gotten a lot done in a reasonable time. As the project progresses I know there will be problems but other than one broken bolt in a rivnut everything has gone well.

I have gotten the foot peddles all fixed up, all that is left to do is get the links for the carbs installed. As usual they are all powder coated for protection.



The master cylinders for the breaks are in and connected to the peddles


Some of the fire wall is still to complete , some is done and some will have to wait until other parts I don't have, are installed first.

The front right suspension is on and the left shock is on, as soon as the left bushings get reamed and fitted to the king pin it can go on as well.


Thanks for taking interest in the Healey and checking out my Blog

Annual vacation is over and the wrath of being away has been taken care of. I have had very little time to putter but I have done some minor things to the car.


One of the first pieces was the heater box since it had been rebuilt and was ready to go. The next was the fan motor and ducting for the heater and fresh air.



Then came the right front suspension, it was a bit of a challenge by myself but I was able to get it on and secured



In this picture you can see the installed wiring harness and the heat shield. The heat shield for the fire wall is not done, I still have to install some plumbing to the dash and install the break and clutch peddle box befor it can go on.