Butch builds a door panel
We’re hoping to be done on Friday with the Morgan +4 which as a frame up restoration beginning with a new frame, has consumed much of our time and a lot of the owner’s money. Virtually the last loose ends are the windshield wipers, the mirrors and the license plate brackets. Oh, and the inside door latches, the location of which is given by the thickness of the door panels, a convenient oversite on the part of the paint shop.
Very early E-type on test Tuesday
Fortunately, this is a simple fabrication and every so often we’ll whip one up to suit the occasion. The necessary materials in this case are a piece of panel board, some black vinyl, a roll of thin foam rubber and a can of upholstery adhesive, all of which we have to hand. Butch did the honors.
Tuesday we put this early E-type thru its final paces. This one had been V.O.R. (Vehicle Off Road) for a number of years, and apart from the usual steps to get it running it also required a small remediation to the passenger’s floor where the radius arm would have been attached by little more than baling wire, had it been available at the time. It wasn’t, which made the prep work somewhat easier. This car is good to go now.
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
In other Jaguar news, I finished off a full lubrication of the right hand drive Mk2, including a complete renewal of the brake & clutch hydraulic fluids, the former being somewhat exacerbated by some overtight bleed screws, one of which (the right front) required a judicious application of heat to free it off. The same sort of problem occurred with the differential drain & fill plugs which were only removable by vice grips,
Steve stopped by
a tool known internally here as “The Wrong Tool”, in this case about the only way to get ’em out short of welding hex stock onto the plugs, but we don’t like to do that next to the gas tank.
Another problem is illustrated above: Although the driveshaft had new universal joints, the zerk fitting in the rear one was facing the wrong way. I briefly debated spending two hours taking the driveshaft out and fixing it, but opted to spend five minutes taking the flange bolt out instead and using our grease gun adaptor. You can find ’em at NAPA if you want one too.
Our former co-worker Steve Reed stopped by Friday, we hadn’t seen him in a year. Butch and I thought he looked pretty good, but you’re entitled to your own opinion, of course. We immediately pressed him into service ferrying out a load of MG TD parts for reconditioning. Steve’s also selling his TR4, details below:
Solid axle TR4 on wires. Some of the usual rust. Machine shop fresh spare engine with 87 mm pistons, performance cam. Crank turned, rods reconditioned. Complete valve job with new valves & guides. Assembly required
