Restoring & Servicing Classics at our Workshop 
Restoring & Servicing Classics at our Workshop
The good news this week is that the Snowdrop the 1934 Rover 10 HP has made it's way back from the blast cleaners. As you can see from the photographs the years have been quite kind to her and the repairs needed now are fairly small scale. Once welding has been completed what little of the underside will be finished in black as near to the originlal finish as we can get.
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There are now opdates in the projects section for the Rovers P4 and 10HP
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The 1934 Rover 10 body shell is still away being blast cleaned. Whilst it's away, the wooden components have been sent to the joiners shop for replicas to be manufactured in traditional Ash and Rosewood.
The Dolomite Sprint is back from the blast cleaners- see projects page
The Rover P5B Coupe has been sent for a spell at the trimmers fo a new lining to be fitted to the full legnth sun roof and a set of matching de-lux pure wool carpets for the boot area.
The Rover P4 now has door steps again on the passenger side and it's hoped that all the welding will be done this week.
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It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the year 2000. Can it really be eleven years ago? Things never stand still and the trials that classic car owners faced a decade ago have been replaced with yet more challenges this year. One concern that we are starting to become increasingly aware of is the EEC drive to add ethanol to our fuel.
The idea of growing our own fuel seems appealing ( although you’d need a bloody large allotment to get enough of the stuff!) but the implications for classic car owners are quite serious.
One of our customers here writes for the Rover Sporting owners club and has passed on to me the following list of recommendations:
Recommendations for materials considered for use in Ethanol and Ethanol/Petrol blend applications
Petrol containing ethanol is potentially harmful to the fuel systems of the majority of historic vehicles. There are no benefits to vehicles from the inclusion of ethanol, and in general, the higher the ethanol content....the greater the concerns.
Carbon steel with post -weld heat treatment of carbon steel piping and internal lining of carbon steel tanks.
Zinc and galvanised materials
Aluminium (may be an issue for E100)
Buna-n ( hoses and gaskets)
Neopreme ( hoses and gaskets)
Acrylonitrile-butadiene hoses
Fibreglass-reinforced plastic
Polymers containing alcohol groups ( such as alcohol based dope)
Fibreglass Reinforced polyester and epoxy resins
This list is not comprehensive and the quality of the material must be appropriate for the intended application. It is strongly advised that the manufacturers of these products are consulted before ethanol/petrol blends are introduced. These additives have been developed, designed to be added to the tank when refuelling, to prevent degradation of the fuel in the tank, as ethanol is highly hygroscopic, if the tank is not tightly sealed there could be a severe degradation of the fuel with moisture from the surrounding atmosphere.
Another matter is the use of tank sealants. Great care must be taken when using tank sealants, of course as it is known that they are not all compatible with ethanol in petrol.
Many thanks to Chris for passing on this information.
Wednesday 22nd December
The local St.Johns first aid station is bracing it's self this morning- Woodruff our Old English sheep dog puppy is off to the pooch parlour this morning for a wash and blow dry! For a little while now one or two people have been commenting on the slight odor from Mr Woodruff so he's going in for his very first shampoo and set for Christmas! He's six months old on Boxing day.
Saturday, 11 December 2010. New exhaust for Austin.
It's taken a while to come in but the new polished stainless steel exhaust is finally in for the Austin A35. This car is sheduled to leave us in the spring. At the moment we are re-fitting it in a fairly leisurely way in between other projects
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MGB trials
As regular readers would already know, Our youngest member Adam has at 16 bought his first car. It's an MGB Roadster for restoration. The engine now runs on this car which is a good start. Or rather it did run as Adam hes now had an introduction to a constant problem for anyone working on classic cars- poor quality components.
In particular, service items and anything made from rubber just don't last any more. I'm not sure if this is due to modern rules governing the materials that manufacturers are allowed to use of is it's just down to suppliers constantly outsourcing work to the far east. Either way there seems to be no quality control meaning the owners of classic cars now need to buy ignition parts in set of three at a time because you can expect at least one or two break downs before you get a good component by chance.
In Adam's case a new capacitor has been put on order but it's all a bit disappointing.
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Pride of the workshop this week is the newly painted Rover P5B Coupe#2. Just about out of the dog house last week was Woodruff.
As covered more fully in the projects page, the second of our Rover Coupe’s has returned from the paint shop. This has been a rather painful experience for all concerned but the results this time have made it all worthwhile. The re-assembly now begins in earnest- including fitting that lovely hand made wool carpet set.
Part timer Adam brought himself a restoration project a week ago. Steve, our part time project manager and owner of SJS Vehicle Recovery, one of our preferred recovery companies brought his MGB Roadster in on his recovery truck, sparking memories of every member of staff’s first car.
At 16 it’s an ambitious project but already he has the engine running and plans to have it drivable by the end of this week.
The re-bodying of Snowdrop, one of our 1935 rover twins is now well under way. This week there will be further re-assembly work and hopefully a meeting between the owner, our painter and ourselves before it all comes apart again.
The decision to fit cruise control to the Scimitar has been put on the back burner for the time being due to costs. The project is still moving ahead with many modifications however the funds for any project can rarely be a bottomless pit and so the £600 mod will shelved. That said we will still be providing the wiring for this for future work. For the full story, see the projects page.
What has happened to P5B1, fondly known as Reginald by his friends? The Rover has been away in the car of our painter Nick for some time now but good things come to those who wait. The main tub is due back any time now from a full concourse paint job. We hope to send the car straight to the trimmer provided we can time things well. More details on the project page.
Woodruff: After the packet of soggy wine gums incident Woody is on a complete sugar ban. For those of you not on facebook, Woodruff is our 6 month old Old English Sheep dog puppy. Usually, he’s very well behaved but after discovering a pile of sticky wine gums discarded behind the seats on one of our Rover’s he became a nightmare: he had never had sugar before.
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The work on the Rover P4 continues to increase. I make a point of never criticising someone else’s handiwork on classic cars. Often the slightly rough and ready repairs that you come across were at one time the only thing that was standing between the classic and the crusher. However, I have to say that putting off getting the welding done is like putting off getting a filling sorted out- the longer that you leave it the more painful it will be. The Rover really should have come in before now as the corrosion is currently extensive.
What started out as a simple repair has turned into a huge job. The lower A-post was all but filler, The door hinges are actually broken and held in place by welded on patches and the rust has eaten away a large chunk of the floor.
Luckily for the owner- or rather, unluckily for me, the job is a set price one so the owner hasn’t got to take out a second mortgage. This is the main reason why I tend to shy away from giving a quote at the start of a job, you just never know what you will find.
It’s also a good argument for getting the work done early. Rust can seriously damage your wallet!
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Workshop round up November
Considering the fact that we have been a little short staffed this week we seem to be making good progress on several fronts.....
The MG that's just come in from storage is well underway after ten hours welding this week. A consignment of panels have now been ordered and will be in next week.The main body tub has been blast cleaned and etch primed. The state of the body was mostly in good order as the car has been previously restored. Work is mainly focused around the odd repair that had started to rust again and general tidying up. The outer sills, and rear wing both need renewal . With any luck this one will shortly be off to be painted.
The Triumph Herald that has been under chassis repair for the last two weeks is now about to enter it's third and final week of welding. Beau spent some time in the boot re-welding the floors and underneath welding the rear outrigger. For a time, every part we touched seemed to be terminally rusty but we seem to have managed to cut most of it away now. Most of the panels have been supplied by T.D.Fitchett in Telford. These panels are amongst the best for small Triumph's and always save time and money by fitting into place easily.
The electrical work on the scimitar continues, Clint is currently planning out the wiring runs and handing me lists of parts required A run over to the trimmers with a sample of material of the right colour had them going through books of colour swatches looking for the nearest match.
The wiring on the Stag continues to make Clint scratch his head. The original loom is to be saved, however, first he has to understand how it's working in the first place. Early casualties are the hazard switch and indicator flasher cans that have been proclaimed as not up to the job. The new hood is due next week.
The two Rovers currently away being painted are progressing well as is the chassis for "Snowdrop", the first of the two mid 30's Rovers. The chassis here is being restored by the owner at home.
The third Rover P5b is still at the welding stage and is scheduled for more work next week.
The Cortina renovation is somewhat on the back burner at this point- the owner is in Afghanistan and understandably isn't available. The Austin A35 is also at a stop whilst we await parts to continue.
Parts slowly are starting to drift in for the Triumph 2L roadster now- the overdrive wiring loom is in and will be fitted next week.
The Karman Ghia is also at the welding stage and we hope to be underway with this late next week.
The second Spitfire that we have has been at the blasters for some time. Word came through on the wettest week of the year that we could now collect the car but transporting a car with no paint on it is clearly out of the question.
The Dolomite Sprint is also at the blasters but it hasn't yet been done. Hopefully next week.
The Sunbeam Talbot has work slowed up just recently but a quick chat with the owner via the Internet has given us a bit of direction and so this should be back under repair next week.
With one or two cars leaving next week and possibly one or two arriving, it looks like being an interesting week next week.
The Karman Ghia is back! The MG Midget is back! This week the VW Karman ghia has made a return from the blast cleaners. As usual there are more holes than expected. However, the general condition is excellent and should make a fairly straight forward restoration.
Also making a return this week is the round wheel arch MG Midget. This has been on the back burner for quite some time but is now in for restoration. I already have my spares catalogue out!
Midget on Steve's truck last week.
Woody bit me, Sadie, Beau, the Wurth rep, the college assessor and just about anything that moved. He wrecked his bed and was generally an uncontrollable ball of energy for eight hours! He’s now come back off of the ceiling and behaving himself again but is definitely on an asbo!
