Starting to get to grips with the teething challenges whilst getting the milage up, 121 in total now.  I discovered that a really good car show is on my doorstep, well not literally but as good as.  The Capel Manor car show is about 4 miles from me and it was fantastic.  On the way my wife and I were trying to guess the number of cars that would be there and I optimistically went for 30.  I'm a donut, there were hundreds.  It was close enough for me to get there without incident and on entry we were asked to go to the front of house area which turned out to be the exclusive area.  We had a lovely time.

So, full of confidence now we set off for the classic car night at the Ace Cafe which is 13 miles round the North Circular Road just after rush hour in the late summer heat.  With the benefit of hindsight I was an idiot.  The car got way to hot in traffic and then the throttle linkage went soft and the pedal slid to the floor and stayed there.  I was double lucky that the section of the road had a small turn off about 200 metres from where we were and we managed to cox the car on tick-over alone to get there.  I had the sense to take a few tools and managed to tighten it up and got going.

By the time we got there I was exhausted with the stress of worrying about the car and desperate for a chilled drink.  Only we discovered that the damn place had to shut at 7 because of the damn virus.  We were the only people in the car park.

We let the engine cool off and then started back home only to get stuck in heaven traffic and within a few miles we pulled off the North Circular and the throttle went again.  This time it was a different junction and I needed the help of my lovely wife who happened to be wearing a brand new dress.  I don't know what I did to deserve this lady.

I decided that I should make a proper effort to sort out the timing and fuelling in an effort to sort out the over heating.  To do this I needed to find TDC and mark the pulley and the casing as neither have them as standard.  The original engine was supplied with timing set by a mechanic without a timing gun, amazing.  Anyway to do that I needed to get the alternator off so that I could get the spanner onto the nut on the end f the crank. When I removed the bolts that held the alternator brackets on I noticed a little dampness which seemed odd.  A while later I removed the radiator cap to see how much water was in the rad still only for the engine to turn into a fountain.

I discovered that I should have had studs in the block that are sealed rather than bolts, phew.

Having found TDC and painted it and the small arrow on the casing I refitted it and it seems to be okay. I then found that my old timing light couldn't see the marks that I had put on the engine which was very frustrating.  I even used some of my wife's metal flake nail polish but couldn't see.  I spent a few days doing some research and bit the bullet and bought an Accuspark kit including a fancy timing light and the Gunston colourtune for sorting out the fuelling.  This morning I sorted the timing in about 20 minutes and the fuelling in about an hour and when I test drove the car it felt better than I could have hoped for.

I have lots of things to do still.  The tick-over isn't right and I think it is something to do with the choke linkages.  The overdrive still doesn't work although I know it isn't the relays as I have had them out and tested.  I also need to install the cavity wax in the chassis but for some reason I just don't want to do it.  I haven't tightened up the throttle linkages.  Despite changing the oil seal I am still getting oil thrown out of the rev cable so that needs more work. I really should check every nut and bolt on the car but again I can't be bothered.  And so it goes on.  It is getting closer to being usable and I love it.

It's been a few weeks since I got the car on the road and it is fair to say that it has been an eventful journey.

I decided to do some routine checks on the car after two drives totalling 20 miles when I discovered that the oil was completely emulsified.  It looked like a coffee frappe.  I was devastated.  I had replaced the gasket a year back when I first got it running as I had an issue with water coming up one of the studs and bubbling out of the nut and washer so I knew it wasn't the cylinder head gasket.  I contacted John who offered to lend me his tools to test pressure and compression which showed what I suspected all along, the head was knackered.  I took the head off, using an engine hoist as it is so damn heavy, and discovered this lot.

One doesn't need to see that much water in the cylinders to know something is seriously wrong.

I have spent a lot of money, well in teacher terms that is, over the past month getting the car to the final stage and I didn't have any left to spend.  My wife suggested we cash in our rainy day fund and get the job done properly and that meant it had to be an aluminium head from Denis Welch Motorsport.  I spent a few days contemplating selling the motorbike and then relented and ordered it.  A few days later I had been to the factory and collected it.  

It is a very impressive thing and I enjoyed installing it with the slight exception being that I thought I had over tightened two of the heavy duty studs.  Oh, and despite all the evidence I was still worried that I had got it wrong and the head was ok and it was in fact something else.

I got it running and then took it for series of short drives all of which went without the oil getting emulsified or the engine overheating.  I am mighty relieved but not yet completely relaxed about it.

I found out that the front wheels were a little loose which I thought caused the steering to be a little wayward.

Two things left to do: bolt the bonnet on and get it to release correctly and finish and install the screen.

The bonnet first, Vic and I spent a happy half hour bolting the bonnet on, it fits in the aperture quiet well although one side is a little higher than I would like but that will be another task for the winter.  I mounted the bonnet catch and aligned it using the masking tape and paint technique learnt on the AH Experience website.

Then this happened:

Very happy and onto the final task, the screen.

The screen glass was nicer to fit than the second hand glass I used last week, it was thinner and so was the rubber that came from Moss.  I had to bend the channels a tad to get them to line up and it was surprisingly easy to do that by putting them over my knee and pushing.  It went together well.

With Vic's help it went into the pillars, not effortlessly but it was forced either.  I am conscious that I will not be inclined to try and lay the screen flat though and this is crazy as it is one of the features that made me fall in love with the car in the first place. So having stalled the screen and given the car a wash there was nothing stopping me driving it.  

After eleven years I am now going to do something that felt very far away for the majority of that time.

I was beyond nervous and completely over excited.  I took it out and went round the block twice before venturing a little further afield and eventually stopped at my mother in-law's house for a photo and a break.  It was as I could have expected with the benefit of hindsight; an old car in need of some setting up.  The brakes were good, as was the engine and the drive train.  The steering was shocking though.  It also got a little too hot but it was a very hot day for London and I guess the timing needs refining.

Even as I type now I can't quite comprehend that the journey has come to an end.  Eleven years, just like that.  For sure I have many more hours to spend on the car sorting the engine and steering for starters then the tonneau, roof, side screens, carpet, trim etc, etc. but it is different now, it is a car.

A friend called round as I was recovering and we went for another lap of the local area and he pointed out that people were shouting at us.  I realised that people were actually doing that, crazy.  I'm going to enjoy this car.

Boy, does it look good.

Started the day with three jobs between me and a first ever road trip in the Healey: Grille, windscreen & bonnet.

The grille was first.  I trial fitted it and thought that the inner section was still not as good as it could be so I made some adjustments and then bolted it on.

Very pleased with that so onto the screen.  I laid out a sheet in the garden to remove the broken used one from the frame and set about pulling it apart.  It was very hard to get the U channels off the glass and I am already glad that the new glass appears to be thinner.  I did get it off though and disposed of the old glass.  I had marked the frame with what I thought would be the required adjustments before I took it apart.

I checked all of the brackets and replaced two of them with brackets from the new set bought from Moss.  These appeared to be identical to the original set supplied by AH4H.  

I was unable to file the corners down, it turns out that chromed brass is incredibly hard.  This meant that I had to use the bench grinder, that was quite a scary moment I can tell you.  As I put the frame back together and tested it in the mountings on the car I became more and more conscious that these were not in the correct position.  I previously wrote that this is on original metal so should be ok but I look at them now and see that the shroud is quite pronounced on the passenger side, the same side that the screen is too high on.  Also, I am now more convinced that the angle of the bracket is out.  I bite the bullet and remove it.  Thinking back to my dad's day I remember him hitting a hammer on a panel to get an impact but reduce damage so that is what I did.  I took a panel beaters hammer and put it on the shroud where the mounting was sitting on and shacked it with a club hammer and it worked.  Remarkably the panel dropped down a few millimetres and all of the metal around it stayed undamaged.  This enabled the mounting bracket to sit on the car a few millimetres lower and once re-installed with a packing washers at the top all seemed much better.

I sat the glass in the frame and placed it in the car and it all fitted nicely.  I only needed to fit the rubber now and I was in business but that would be tomorrows task.

 

I finished the tunnel on the understanding to myself that I would research it in greater detail before I carpet the car.  You see the tunnel doesn't sit cleanly on the chassis and upon research I realise that it should sit on the underlay.  This strikes me as odd because that will enable water ingress.

Vic trying it for size.

I then stuck the boot badge on.Next up was painting the battery cover.  I decided I could face the agro with it being ICE blue so I painted it black.  Hell, it'll be covered in carpet in no time at all.  I also made the straps for the cover out of leftover leather from from the seats.

Today I collected the windscreen from Moss London, I always love going into a classic car shop and this didn't disappoint.  Now I didn't desperately need a dashboard handle but I wanted one; what can I say?

When I returned I started on installing the tunnel.

I started to fit the main tunnel section when I realised that I hadn't yet made the inspection panel, this was very enjoyable to do. 

When it got to a sensible hour I grabbed a beer and sat and gawped at the car.  I am feeling very lucky right about now.

Today is Wednesday 5th August 2020 and I am hoping to take the car to the Ace Cafe classic car night next Thursday, the 11th.  This is possibly hampered by the weather forecast of rain and as I won't have windscreen wipers installed this is definitely a major consideration.

Apart from that, these are the tasks I have left to do:

Install the bonnet

Replace the windscreen glass

Fit the grille

Fit the wiper mechanism 

Install the tunnel cover

Paint and install the battery cover

Install the fire extinguisher 

I am hoping that my lovely wife will have got me some wiper blades for my birthday which is on the day after the Ace Cafe night so I could ask her for my present a tad early.

Other than that I am conscious that I have two very tricky tasks ahead of me.  The windscreen is a real worry as the glass I have now installed has cracked multiple times and it must be it is out of line with the mounting brackets.  I had initially thought that it was the screen frame that was the problem and so I have ordered another set of corner brackets along with the glass from Moss which I am collecting this morning. I now think that the mounting brackets themselves might be out and this worries me, a lot.  I had not worried about this before as these brackets mount to the front bulkhead and that is one of the few structural pieces to be carried over from the original chassis.  But thinking of the fitting of the screen I am concerned that the bars that slide into the mounts from the windscreen pillars would not line up that well so I am concerned that the pillars may be out of line and changing that is going to be a big job.

I'm also extremely negative about the bonnet closing mechanism.  I know that the bonnet fits the car as I have previously installed it but I have not installed it with the bonnet catch mechanism.  What is the chance that this will line up?  based on every stage that I have got to so far in this rebuild I am inclined to think that this is somewhere around zero.  I have nightmares when thinking of the bonnet closing and not coming open again, it is not easy to get to.  Oh well, I shouldn't be worried about what might not happen.

The rest of the list should be ok to do.  Then I just need to drive the car, gulp.  It is now road legal with tax, MOT exemption, insurance and breakdown cover which is good. 

Going to be a week to remember.