Let the Waiting Begin.
This portion describes how we spent our time while the block was in the machine shop.
Sunday 4/21/02
Spent yesterday cleaning out the garage. Today I dissembled the radiator components, cleaned them and gave them a fresh coating of black paint. I cleaned the front suspension and gave that a coat of black paint also. I noticed that the left bottom “A” frame where the sway bar is connected is broken. Something else to put on the list.
Friday 4/26/02
The machine shop called and said that the cylinders have a taper and will need to be bored .030 over. The crank is salvageable and will be reground -.010. The main journals are in good condition and are within .0005 total from each other and will not need to be line honed. I ordered the new pistons, small end bearings, oil pump, a connecting rod and am waiting for them to magically appear on my front doorstep. When these come in I will bring them to the machine shop so they can match the pistons, conrods, pins and bearings for weight; balance the dynamic components and hone each cylinder to exact match each piston.
In the meantime I have been painting the arterials and suspension components. It looks a lot nicer under the bonnet with a fresh coat of paint. This weekend I’ll tackle the rust on the firewall shelf where the leaking master cylinder removed all the paint.
Friday 5/3/02
I checked and recalibrated my torque wrench. To see how I accomplished this , go to: Torque Wrench Recalibration
Saturday 5/4/02
I spent a lot of time working on painting and detailing the spitfire recently and I can tell that the Mrs is getting a little peeved. Today I spent detailing my wife’s Windstar. I washed, vacuumed, waxed, and armoralled the mini van with my youngest daughter. My wife was presently surprised and I earned brownie points. She asked if I did my car, and I told her no, not yet. I was going to wash the outside only. I think this gave me even more points. You never know when they will come in handy.
Sunday 5/5/02
This morning we (the wife and I) went to a Triumph Swap Meet that my local club sponsored. There were about 10 venders with lots of used parts for spitfires, tr6, 4, and a guy selling MG parts. This meet was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 28, but it’s an outdoor event and it poured that day.
We looked at all the things that they had for sale but didn’t need anything. One of the gentlemen there told us that he saw another vendor last year sell a pair of original “New Old Stock” Lucas headlights for $125 each. He said that used ones go for $95.00 each. I have to pull the two that are on the parts car and test them. If I can get that much for the pair, I’ll be tickled pink.
We did buy 3 shirts that the club was selling. They’re leftovers from the previous auto shows that the club sponsors in mid September of each year. They were a steal at only $5.00 each.
I was able to clean, sand and paint the timing chain cover when I got home. Wow does it look pretty.
Wednesday 5/8/02
I called the parts supplier out in California to see the status of my order. I was told that the order went out via ups on 5/7. I’ll be tracking the shipment to see when it arrives at my door. I called the machine shop and told them that the pistons were on their way, and was told that the crank was ground and the only thing that’s holding them back it the receipt of the pistons.
In the meantime I cleaned the valve cover, oil pan, front and rear covers. The oil pan, front and rear covers received a coat of paint and look new. I still have to go to Paint World and have them mix up a custom paint for the valve cover. While I’m there I’ll see if I can get a can of paint for the fire wall shelf to re-spray where the leaking master brake cylinder removed the paint. A rebuilding kit is in with the other parts ordered.
Monday 5/13/02
This past weekend spitfire work was limited to whatever I could get done on Saturday as Sunday was mothers day, and I don’t want to get the Mrs mad at me by spending her day working on my car. It was decided that we would spend the time tearing down the old 72 for parts. The Mrs is getting a little peeved with a car sitting in the back yard with a blue cover on top of it. She wants it out of the yard before the pool season starts. She doesn’t want the guests thinking we going 70’s retro with Sanford and Son.
The plan will be to remove as much as I can on the car, then offering what’s left to fellow club members before the sawsall cuts it up into little pieces for the recycling center. Just thinking about touching the car with a sawsall makes me cringe, but the car is well past salvation. The floor boards are gone, the trunk floor is gone, the whole back end from the top of the back wheel arch to the bumpers is loaded with Bondo 2 to 3 inches thick.
The first thing I did was to remove the hood from its hinges. I continued to remove the front suspension while my son removed parts from the hood. We were able to remove the radiator and support; front bumper; grill; left, right, and center valance; left and right suspension. We removed the drivers door , the brake and clutch master cylinders and supports. Once we removed these, we placed them neatly into the tool shed.
The weather called for rain on Sunday so we covered what was remaining. I felt better about it raining, because I know that I would be temped to go out there and work some more and that would not have been a wise choice on Mothers Day.
Tuesday 5/14/02
The parts that I was waiting for came in. What a pleasant surprise to find a box in the breezeway with my name on it. Inspection reviled that everything ordered was in the box. Now the spitfire (we now call Little Audrey) will have a new oil pump, a Master cylinder rebuild kit for the breaks, pistons, a connecting rod, small end bearings, top end gasket set to go with my lower end set that was won on ebay.
I brought the new pistons, old pistons with connecting rods, small end bearings to the machine shop. The Flywheel was brought along with the camshaft. Don inspected the flywheel and told me that the bevel on the ring gear looked ok, and in his opinion would not need replacing. The Cam looked ok except for the lobe that operates the mechanical gas pump. He suggested to either replace the cam and lifters or to replace the mechanical pump with an electric one. I’ll have to decide which one the pocketbook will handle.
Don told me that the work will be don by the beginning of next week. I’ll give him a call next Tuesday and see how things are going. In the meantime, I’ll need to go to Paint World and see if I can get some spray cans mixed up with the white color of Little Audrey and the correct color of the valve cover. I can always rebuild the brakes.
Monday 5/20/02
I went to Paint World Friday during lunch and had them make up 3 cans of Leland White for the firewall and front frame. While I was there I had them make a can to match the color of the valve cover. Saturday it rained so I spent the time rebuilding the brake master cylinder.
If you don’t have the Bentley manual for your car, I would recommend getting it. It tells you step by step how to disassemble and rebuild each part of your car along with detailed drawings. One thing they don’t tell you is how to remove the rear piston assembly when it won’t come out.
I wound up screwing my grease gun into the rear brake line fitting, pumping the master cylinder with grease and pushing the piston out. That was the easy part. I spent the next hour and half cleaning the grease out of the cylinder. An old gun cleaning kit and a few cans of brake cleaner really comes in handy cleaning this. Just make sure that if you are going to paint the master cylinder, do it after you clean the grease out.
Sunday morning Eddie and I removed the body out of the garage and did a through job cleaning the grease off of the frame and firewall. I thought I got all of it when I cleaned the engine. A couple of cans of engine brite, a toilet bowl brush and some old toothbrushes did a great job. We removed everything off of the firewall shelf before we started. Lots of pictures were taken so we could replace things in their proper order. We tried using simple green on the frame first, but it was just too much for the simple green to handle. Here is a picture before and after
The next thing we tackled was the rusted area on the firewall shelf caused by the leaking master cylinder. A liberal amount of Rust-Oleum rusty metal cleaner was applied with more old toothbrushes and scrubbed in. After soaking for a half hour, a good jet spray from the hose was applied. Wow that stuff did a GREAT job. This is a picture of rusty and here’s another. This is after using the Rust-Oleum cleaner
After blow drying the car and letting it sit for an hour in the sun we pushed the car back into its place in the garage. I had to get ready for a graduation party, but left Eddie some parts to sand down, prime and paint. He does a much better job on the sanding part than I do. I’ll have to gain patience in order to do a better job.
A side note: I was involved in an automobile accident on Saturday morning while bringing my daughter to work. No one was hurt, that’s the main thing. A young kid hit the back end of my car. All I could think was “ Thank God that I wasn’t driving the spitfire”. It’s ok for the 98 car to get hit, but not the 79.
Guess what came home with me today?
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