A lovely sunny day today so base and clear coated the bumpers, wheels and track covers in pastel white:
Sorted the running issues with the engine too. Turned out to be an air leak on the N/S inlet manifold flange due to a poorly pressed gasket (old right, new left).
Fitted a new one and the engine now runs great. Drove the van for the first time around the yard, and reversed it into the workshop. Felt surreal driving it for the first time in a long while! I’ll grab a video tomorrow of it driving.
New master brake cylinder to replace the old one which had a split rubber cup:
Front belly pan and propex heater mount while I had the gun out:
With the cylinder fitted I bled all the brakes and adjusted the parking brake so we now have working brakes. Having the right tools for the job makes it all so much easier. I bought a one man vacuum bleed kit which came with this little fill bottle that has a little valve to top up the reservoir. No more carefully trying to avoid spilling it.
The rest of the week has been spent trying to get my engine to run properly, including cleaning and rebuilding the carb, refitting the old dizzy and ht leads and a lot of arsing about. I’ve now isolated this to an air leak in the flange between inlet manifold and cylinder head. New gaskets on their way to replace this and hopefully we’ll be running properly.
My Madmatz set arrived this week. Very happy with these, and should look lovely once in:
Fancying a change I’ve moved onto sorting some interior bits. First up transforming it into the International Space Station with some silent coat sound deadening, followed by Dodomat for insulation:
I’ve started carpet lining the living area. We’ve gone with anthacite grey, feels very cosy (ignore the rough edges, I’ve not trimmed it down yet!):
Fitted my slightly nicer fuel pump from heritage too:
I’m having a few issues getting the engine to idle properly. It will quite happily run with a small amount of throttle applied, but when released it fails to idle properly. I’m thinking it may be the idle jet in the carb not working as it should. The carb was one thing I didn’t look at when assembling the engine so I’ve stripped it down and will clean it all out to see if that helps.
Engine lid on tonight via sneaky use of a bit of paracord:
Number plate and door catch back on too, OMG! Just need to replace the plate screws with black ones at some point:
I fitted the cheapy fuel pump I bought a few years back to replace the old dead pump and lo and behold it only bloody started!
I’ve a better quality pump on the way so I’ll fit that, check it works, then refit the SVDA dizzy and set the timing etc and it shouldn’t be too far off a spin round the yard (brakes first though)!
Each step is a little closer to being on the road!
Wired up the reversing lights and fuel shutoff valve:
A few bits back from the powder coaters so built up the quarter lights with new seals and powder coated frames:
Powder coated Window wiper arms with new hella blades:
Painted a few bits. Repainted an engine lid hinge I wasn’t happy with (I’d painted it in the open position so when closed had a bit missing paint) and front wheel caps:
Insides of the bumpers and track covers painted (I don’t have enough racks to hang it all from to paint both insides and out):
Front grill and petrol flap:
Max came down over the last two days to help with sorting the brakes and to try and start the engine. The front brakes bled fine, however the rears wouldn’t even produce fluid. There were no leaks in the line so I disconnected the line from the master cylinder. When pumped no fluid was pushed through so it was off with the cylinder for investigation. I ended up stripping the cylinder and I think I’ve tracked down the culprit:
This is the seal between the front and rear pistons in the cylinder so I think the fluid is leaking from the rear piston to the front piston rather than flowing into the rear brake lines. I think I’ll take a look at getting a rebuild kit and repairing this.
We attempted to start up the engine tonight! The starter motor turned over fine which is a great sign, however the engine didn’t kick into life. After investigation it would appear the fuel pump has died (assume the diaphragm has dried out and cracked) so I’ll fit my spare pump I bought a while back to see if that helps. In addition the SVDA Dizzy I fitted wasn’t producing a spark so I’ve put the 009 back on for now. The SVDA dizzy has a pertronix unit fitted to it so I wonder if it’s duff?
It’s far too cold and damp to paint the bumpers and other bits, even with my little Infrared lamp, so I’ve been busying myself with a few other bits.
Gave the air filter a few coats of satin black, and reinstalled in the van:
Fuel lines installed with the addition of a fuel shutoff valve:
Cut and polished the engine lid:
And the same treatment for the rear hatch. Warmed the hatch window seal in a bucket of hot water (car thermometer said it was -1 today!) and fitted to the window:
New door seal, and rubber block fitted to the striker plate:
