Weekends here.

Yeah the weekends here but I'll be at the shop. I want to do a bit of re-organizing and it's hard to get it done during the week. Dad's off to Canada to do a bit of snowmobiling so now's my chance to get a few things done.

Today was paint day, There must have been 20+ parts in the booth that I've been waiting for. Today they got painted. The shocks and linkage, pedals, master cylinder, drive shaft and brake drums for BlownTC were painted. And a few other pieces of linkage for the Jag. There were even a pair of shocks for a '40 Ford... go figure???

I have a few more days here then I'm off to Buffalo for a few days. Catch you when I get back!

Progress!

Today was productive; I’m able to start putting BlownTC back together. Even though work is getting done sometimes it doesn't feel like it because you can't physically see it. So seeing the trans back in made me feel better. The rear brakes are all back together as well.

Trans in.

I’m hoping my dad will be able to get into the paint booth tomorrow and get the brake drums painted, the pedals and the master cylinder painted. Then most of what was taken apart can go back together. I don’t like getting so many things going on at one time, but as anyone that works on one of these old cars knows once you get into it one thing leads to another and another… Which brings up one sour note. A bit of rot was found on the left door striker pillar, which has to be pulled out and replaced. Not a hard job in itself but a lot of things have to be loosened and pulled back to get at it. Hopefully the parts will get in next week and work can get started.

The rotted pillar

On RacerTD the seats are reupholstered they look great (I get pics tomorrow and add them.) The seats look to have been recovered twice before. They may have been green to start then they got covered in black with red piping. Then the red covers were put over the black. Now they are biscuit and have the original bucket feel to the seats.

The Healey Sprite’s door glass if finally finished and tomorrow the oil filter will get fixed and it’ll be back on the ground and movable. Finally some breathing room…. here’s hoping…

FUN!!!

Friday was a blast… we left work early to go race go-carts. We went to a place in Maine with a few of my dad’s friends. Let me tell you these carts were fast. When we first got there a couple of guys were racing on the track, they were going by so fast they were almost a blur and I was “like” Holy Crap (well not exactly!) Those things were flying; they can do 40 mph. The two guys that went with us, ummm, one was a pro driver and the other owned his own cart. I think they took us so they would have someone to pass. Well it wasn’t that bad, as far as lap times went we were only a couple seconds behind them and neither of us had driven carts before. It was a fun time and I can see it happening again.

After the race we went to a Chinese place that was buffet style. I’m not a big fan of buffet but I went with the flow. This place had everything on the buffet. King crab legs (I think they were the smaller Alaskan crabs), shrimp five different ways, mussels, clams, sushi and sashimi… it was quite a spread, and for only $11.99. I don’t know how they do it!

Saturday was a slow day. I went to the shop and put up another pegboard with a little help from dad. Instead of cooking we headed out for dinner and went to the place where I’m in the process of drinking 50 different beers to get into the beer club and get my mug at the bar. The bummer is that you can only drink 3 per night (that count or I’d be there already!)

Today we got out with the beagle to run some rabbits. We were out there for about 3 hours. It was nice to be outside in the woods; I have to get out for some winter hikes. Some home made pizza and 2 football games rounded out the day. LOL
Big week on BlownTC, all the parts are in and the shocks will be back tomorrow. That will finally mean a busy workweek…YEA!

1 little, 2 little...

I know I write mainly about 3 cars but there are a couple of others at the shop. I haven’t really done a count… let me see. There are 4 TD’s, RacerTD, The 53TD, my dads (which is all over the place, you know the “Plumbers” syndrome) and mine. The 1948 TC known as BlownTC. A ’37 TA, which will be getting back under way sometime this summer. A ’56 MGA, My dad’s Austin Healey 104 (Plumbers syndrome again, you know the plumber has pipes leaking in his own house! Some day they will get done.) The Austin Healey sprite that is just getting some repair work and a new top. And last a Jaguar 140. If I’m not mistaken that’s an even 10.

The Jaguar is a nice car. It’s my understanding that the engine and drive train was in the Dakota’s and I don’t know where the body was before it came to the shop. I don’t remember the first time I saw it there which I don’t understand because it’s huge! Some body alignment went on last week and the carbs were put on this week. I don’t think dad’s happy about it, so I won’t mention it often, but here are a few pics:

Nice!!!

Sweet Engine

Real long Car!!!

A note: RacerTD got welded up today the repair looks good.

Lazy day...

Today was almost a non-productive day for me at the shop. I seem to be stopped short of getting something done by something broken that we don’t have at the shop over the last few days. I’m working on BlownTC if you aren’t following the blog. I’m waiting for clips for the rear brakes, a master cylinder push rod to get the master cylinder finished and the pedals back in, the bushings for the pedals, and a pressure plate for the clutch assembly. And guess what!!! They will all probably be here Thursday or Friday. That’s what is nice about this job, I “duffed” it today and will have another easy job tomorrow but Saturday will probably be a workday to catch up.

Here’s a pic of the Trans

There was an oil leak at the rear so I pulled the back plate off and guess what, we had the gasket for it! So it’s back together and ready to go back in. I’ll probably get dad to put a bit of paint on it tomorrow…

You can see the leak just between the aluminum and the case just by the bolt hole

Exercise...not much...

In the snow and sleet we had the Monday I left my car at the shop and road home with my dad. In the AM he was busy and I wanted to get sown to the shop so I walked (I could use it!) Not like it’s far about a mile but it was a nice walk.

I took this picture off the bridge by the stream at the bottom of the property.

The turkeys are right in the center of the picture just over the hedge!

Then when I got to the end of the driveway, about a half-mile, I caught this flock of turkeys waking up so I snapped another picture. I was a nice walk even in the cold. If I’m still living with my parents in the spring I can see a lot more walking to work.

Good Progress

Today was a good day for BlownTC. Although it was a bit rough for me! It seems that the more you look the more you find.

I’m ready to take out the trans (first thing in the AM.) The master cylinder for the brakes is out as well as the clutch and brake pedals, they needed to come out to get the foot rest out to get the trans out. While they are out I'll put new bushings in, the pedals were a little sloppy.

On the master cylinder the push rod was broken at on time and was welded. It doesn't look good at all. It was pushing at an odd angle which is probably why the cylinder front is in such bad shape. I'm learning not to question too much, just accept it and fix it. The brake light switch also had one post just hanging there, I haven't taken a look at that yet, I wonder if that is fixable. Everything else looks good so far. For the most part it is a real nice looking car, just a little worn out.

On the trans the mounting bolts were loose already, it's easier to take apart when the bolts are already loose, BONUS! Once the trans is out the last thing is to take out the clutch and pressure plate. Then it's time to start putting things back together.

Trans visible and ready to come out.

Home Wreckers!

I don’t know if I mentioned it before in the Blog and I’m not going to search it…we had a slight problem with mouse population explosion in the shop a few weeks ago. All of a sudden there seemed to be quite a few around. Since the only new car in the shop was RacerTD and one day while dad was working on it there was a mouse standing on the frame looking up at him... You draw the conclusion. Traps were set and in a couple days 10 yes 10 were dispatched. I thought BlownTC was the culprit but it was only filled with droppings. It seems that mice love these old cars as much as we do.

Today the mouse “house” interior was taken apart and the nest cleaned out. There’s probably a nest in the seat. We shall see when it’s recovered.

And there were a few more surprises! It seems that there was a modification or two done to the sheet metal of the body. For some reason the cross brace between the wheel arches was cut down the sides, hammered back and then bolted to a piece of angle iron that was welded to the frame. ??? Like we say you never know what you’ll find on one of these cars.

What it shouldn't look like. It should be flat on the top then straight down.

Fixed and ready to weld.

So dad spent some time today removing the interior (it’s getting replaced) and putting everything back the way it was originally.

The gas tank is also painted and ready to put back on.

Lazy weekend

Just a quick post...Dad and I went out to fix a bridge used for snowmobiles to cross a stream. There was one rail that was left to be put on so we hiked out to put it on ( it wasn't that far.) But it was nice to be out hiking in the snow, we had a dusting this weekend. Then we walked to the corner of the property to see if there was any animal tracks, with the exception of some squirrel tracks the animals seemed to be staying put. I wish I had the camera with me there were a few nice shots I could have gotten. I'll have to get out again soon.

This is one of my favorite old pics of the shop when it was going through it's "Red Period"!

Every now and then I may post an old pic of a car that was done at the shop or something esle that may be interesting.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Parts came in for BlownTC, mainly the half-shafts. They have been installed. There were a couple parts that were missing that have to be ordered then the rear end will be finished. The brake cylinders were rebuilt and installed this week. Tomorrow the new master cylinder should be in, and then the brakes will be done from the master to the back. The work hasn't begun on the front end other than pulling the shocks for rebuilding. All the parts are in for the clutch replacement. That sounds like next weeks work!

The new half-shafts ready to go in.

Dad finally got the top on the Sprite finished what a pain that seemed to be.

He will also have the gas tank painted tomorrow for RacerTD. Hopefully we will find the other gauges needed to put a dash panel together for this one. We have the center panel going out with 5 others to be chromed and painted (mine included.) That's 3 TD's, a TC and a TA! The TA was a job the customer put on hold 6 years ago and recently gave the go ahead to get it going again. I didn't even know that one was here! But when i thought about it there was that painted frame...the rebuilt engine sitting by the engine wall, etc... I never put it together. So that's another car! I'll have to do another count.

Some body panel fitting got done on the Jaguar 140. I think dad is finally happy with the fit. Looking in pictures it seems like none of the bodies had the greatest fits back then. I guess that’s where the piping came into play! I’m sure the cars that leave the shop are fitted better than the day they rolled out off the dealer’s lot.

On a final note I shed my first blood today. BlownTC got me! Time for bed….

First week...

Working on these old cars can be trying at times. Finding things that are wrong, trying to loosen bolts and screws that just snap in two or crumble. They have been together for 50+ years why should they come apart now? Well that’s my little gripe this week and no there's not going to be a weekly gripe. I hope not at least.

I didn't put in many hours (maybe a fourth of a week, LOL) but I got a bit of work done on BlownTC; I guess that’s where some on the gripe comes from. I’m going to have to get used to it if I’m going to work on these cars. I had a couple bolts snap. It’s not a big thing they have to be replaced anyway but when you don’t expect it you can loose some skin! We got the center panel of the dash out Friday. The dash is going to get recovered with the new interior so it’s best to get it out of the way which will give a bit more room to get the trans out to replace the mounts, clutch and pressure plate etc.

Hopefully the new top will be on the sprite tomorrow and it’ll be gone. Then dad can paint the gas tank for the RacerTD.

I was able to get a bit of organization done in the shop this weekend. (Yeah I work weekends…what else is there to do at this time? Not much going on, no social life yet, I haven’t found the hot spots if they have any up here.) I moved a couple cabinets to make room for a big pegboard to organize belts, cables and such. More to do…Later.

Road Maps!!!

Ahh, road maps, what are road maps? Did you ever look at a mechanics hands? Those black lines, which are black grease and solvents and God knows what in the grooves, cracks and folds of your hands, not unlike the black lines representing roads on maps. Well it took one day and I have them again! I started pulling apart BlownTC. These cars blew a lot of oil, grease and brake fluid around; the under body is covered in black gunk. It will for the most part get cleaned off and get a bit of paint.

Before (dirty)

and after of the rear Brakes

I pulled the rear axles apart; one of the axle nut keepers was missing. They are a washer that has tabs the get bent around the axle nut to keep it from coming off. Not a big thing in itself they are designed to tighten with the forward movement of the car. But to keep the nut on they used a drift pin and hit the threads so the nut can’t back off. The things you find on these old cars! It was a quick fix with a small grinding wheel, nothing to worry about.

The rear brake cylinders all cleaned. This TC has twice the HP of the standard so good brakes are a must... didn't have working brakes when it came in!!! At about $280 each it's well worth rebuilding them if the cylinders are in good condition.

Floorboards are out as well as the drive shaft. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll drop the tranny and get the bell housing off in preparation for the new clutch and pressure plate that is on order.

Racer TD's dash wood came in ... still hunting parts. Dad has been working on the Sprite so we can get a bit of space in the shop. hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get a bit of organizing done and get a bit more room. Here's hoping...