NWL – Project Concours Carmine Sprint

[James467]

He is just like me, a real human being!

I've been called lots of things, strangely never been called a human being!

Desk is 'organised', I'm in the process of decorating the office hence the mess, have to plaster a chimney breast and build some cupboards and shelves in the alcoves.

Workshop is ALWAYS tidy though!

[James467]

I haven't welded for about 10 years, so I got some gas and did some practice runs on a piece of scrap to get a feel for the new machine.

The thing is a revelation, took me about 5 minutes to set up and tune to a nice 'bacon sizzling' sound and work out what wire speed to have for the various power settings.

It just feels so good and I forgot how rewarding welding is.

So I got on and welded the panhard rod tube to the shock bracket on the MG to see how I got on.



Not too bad, I have welded the other side as well and it's certainly not going anywhere! I have some bodywork to do on it as part of the 'bumper removal' process so that'll give me some more practice before I go near NWL.

[tony g]

Looks very nice James- now go and try some thin stuff

Tony

[Toledo Man]

The welding looks good. I wish I could get welds like that. Mine was described as like pigeon sh*t.

[James467]

Looks very nice James- now go and try some thin stuff

Yes sir!

The welding looks good. I wish I could get welds like that. Mine was described as like pigeon sh*t.

Thanks Dave!

[James467]

Rod balancer hasn't been shipped yet so I have given the seller a boot up the backside! So whilst I am waiting for it I'm having a tidy up and think about what's left to do before bodywork.

As soon as I have it and the rods have been balanced I will be popping the late head that I got from Julian over to Leon at Roes to have a look at what, if anything, needs to be done to it. Then I'll take it away and give it a good clean again so it should turn up as good as the early one I have. I noticed that the Triumph logo on the cam cover had been faced to remove the powder coat as I can see the machining marks on it so I'll have this one blasted and coated then get Mick to face it to remove the pc and I think it'll look great.

Had a chat with Leon about rod and piston balancing and got some really good advice and tips on how to do it so as soon as I get on with it I'll post a full 'how I did it'!

I'm not starting the gearbox until the engine is done so it can receive my full attention. As I have never done one before I don't want to leave the job half way through and come back to it forgetting what bit goes where!

In the meantime I have the pedals, handbrake etc... to be pc'd and put back together. I have the correct American Walnut veneer for the cappings and the dash, a long strip of it so the grain should run around the car nicely when it's done. I don't want to do this until the weather is better though. Because my car is late I have a moulded carpet and that has come up looking brand new with a good clean with the VAX and some BioBrisk. The po used mats so all of the footwell carpet sections are in really good condition. The seats that I have are new, and the door cards that I got from Matt will clean up well with some new hardboard behind them. I have a headlining but the pattern isn't correct so I'll look for something else. The rest of the interior just needs cleaning which I'll just do as it goes back in.

I will need a windscreen though, mine is delaminating on the bottom corner, I'll deal with this when the time comes. I have all of the external trim including the gutter trim clips as well as a Martrim roof. Need the rear C pillar plastic sections though (they seem to have disappeared!) and I am sure that there will be other little bits and bobs missing so I'll have to source when I need them.

The electric system should be easy. I have new OE lights and bowls front and rear, I'll have a look at the starter, the engine bay loom is being replaced because the old one is rather tatty and dirty and I have new seals for all of the gauges so I'll remove the bezels, repaint them black then I have a way of removing the paint from the rim to give the chrome edge on them, clean the glass and put everything back together, I now have a steering wheel which I can work with as well.

Cooling system is done, heater is fine, just needs a clean.

Before final assembly and probably whilst the car is at the bodyshop being painted I'll redo the front and rear suspension. There was pitting on the axle and some of the arms so I want that gone before it goes back on the car.

So looking at things, I don't have a huge amount to do before I get onto bodywork and now that I have the welder I should be able to crack on with that quite quickly, I may get a rotisserie thing to help with the bodywork as well.

[GTS290N]

.... of the gauges so I'll remove the bezels, repaint them black then I have a way of removing the paint from the rim to give the chrome edge on them, .....

I'll be very interested in how this is done.

[sprint95m]

I have a headlining but the pattern isn't correct so I'll look for something else.

http://www.chriswitor.com/search.php
A couple of years ago (or more) Chris Witor advertised remade headlinings in the T2000 Register magazine.
I am not sure if the above link is for that product, but a mark 2 2000/2500 headlining definitely has the same pattern as an early Sprint
so this may be worth following up?
A while back I posted that early and late Dolomite headlinings are different (I had compared a 73 Sprint to a W reg Dolomite 1300) but was
assured (by MikeyB) that this isn't so.

Anyhow, a T2000 headlining fits a Dolomite.




Ian.

[tony g]

Anyhow, a T2000 headlining fits a Dolomite.

Ian.[/quote]

Is it the same size as well or do you mean a t2000 will need cutting? if its the same exactly I am surprised as a 2000 seems a bigger interior but maybe im deceived

Tony

[sprint95m]

The roof area of a 2000 is not much bigger than a Dolomite but, crucially the
spacing between the tensioning bars is the same.
You simply trim off the excess once the headlining is positioned.

(It is best to fit a (warm) headlining on either a hot summer's day or in a well heated garage,
as it cools the headlining will become taut.)




Ian.

[James467]

Thanks Ian, thats really useful!

[geeksteve]

(It is best to fit a (warm) headlining on either a hot summer's day or in a well heated garage,
as it cools the headlining will become taut.)

And where are we supposed to find one of them in the UK?

[James467]

This was a good start to the week, after complaining to Andy on Saturday about the Royal Mail screwing around with customs fees look what arrived this morning!



It's very nice, the base plate has a few scuffs from the bolt that was floating around in the box but that wont matter, the clamp and pivot are really well machined and easy to adjust. I need to have the smaller mandrel turned down for me as the supplied ones are slightly too large. The pivot points have double bearings on them and after a trial setup I reset and removed the rod 10 times and was able to get a consistent reading on the not particularly accurate set of kitchen scales. I have ordered some (recommended) 0.1-2KG Scales from eBay and calibration weights (£14.73 for both!), they should arrive on Thursday just in time for the easter weekend!

It just needs some way of making sure the scales and the small end jig don't move.

I'm now looking at the K Series as well thinking hmmmm full balance now I wonder!

[Mahesh]

I hope your going to do all of them roughly at the same time, wouldn't want the moons gravitational pull to affect the readings throughout the day.

You can tell I'm feeling better, (probably not for long )

[James467]

Scales are here plus I didn't have anything to do on the MG this weekend so I thought I would have a look at balancing the pistons and rods. It may be cold, wet and windy outside but it's lovely and warm in here!



Don't need to balance anything yet so I just used the plate as a flat base to put the scales on and just got myself organised ready to weigh everything.





I have been told to weigh the pistons and balance them separately from the rods. Apparently you can match rods and pistons, ie heaviest rod to lightest piston and do it that way but it makes more sense to me to do it this way. Then the individual components all weigh the same therefore I think the engine will be in better balance if that makes sense.



You will notice that one of the pistons is about 7.5g lighter than the heaviest and that's way outside my tolerances especially as the others are so close together. I took a bit of the skirts on the others to see what difference it made and it's miniscule. I weighed the pins and they are within about 0.5g of each other so I think they are fine and the clips are all within 0.1g of each other as well! I'm just a bit concerned about the weight difference so I have sent JP Pistons a quick email asking them if it's within their tolerances and if it is ok where can I remove weight from the others to match them.

I have had a good practice with the rods and can take them on and off with a 0.1 gram variation. One is quite far out but it's more big end than small. I'm not so worried about them after reading Jeroen's thread and seeing how much he took off his so whilst I'm waiting for a reply from JP Pistons to reply I'll crack on with them.