I had a chance to go over the all of the engine tin once I got it back from Crown plating. For the most part, the tin pieces were in good shape and not real banged up. Some rusty pitting on some bits, but overall not terrible. The old issues that I could see that I would have to resolve before I started painting, was a cracked braze on the side cover vent tube and a broken weld on the oil pan splash guard. I had a bit of time to repair the vent tube, but the oil pan would have to wait.

With the tin nice and clean, the brazed crack was easily noticeable. I soaked the tin in brake cleaner to degrease the cracked area, and blasted it with an oxy/ace torch. After a few blobs of braze, the tin looked good as new, and ready to paint.

Tags: engine tin
Categories: engine

I spent most of the morning collecting parts today. First, I stopped by Six States and picked up the pressure plate and friction plate. As promised, they did them both for under a hundred dollars… SWEET!

Then, I picked up the radiator and fuel tank from Intermountain Radiator

And Finally, I stopped by Crown Plating, and collected the engine tin that I had acid dipped and chrome stripped.

Tags: clutch,fuel tank,radiator
Categories: clutch

I dropped the clutch friction plate and pressure plate off at Six States to be redone. They seemed to think that they would be able to overhaul both for under a hundred dollars….fingers crossed! The pressure plate didn’t look terrible, but being so old, the spring tension concerned me. The friction plate, however, was in sad shape; oil soaked and unevenly worn.

After returning home from Six States, I spent some time on the internet researching parts suppliers and engine coding information. I made a great discovery when I happened upon the Hillman Club of South Australia website and found this engine code page which linked to this page from Team.net. It was all the engine number information I would even need, thank you MR. INTERNET! But the discovery soon proved to be bitter sweet. It seems that the engine in our 1959 Rapier series 2 ( B1008462 H LSX) was originally from a Hillman Minx Series 111A De-Luxe Special (09/23/59). Major bummer, especially since the motor was suppose to be original.

Tags: clutch,engine
Categories: clutch, engine

I took apart the starter motor this afternoon to clean it out and check the brushes. I bench tested the starter, and to my surprise it functioned as it should. I was not thrilled about how the bendix gears looked, but my figured was that if the internals were ok, maybe I would just clean it and run it. Well, as luck would have it, as soon as I pulled the armature out of the case, one of the brushes broke loose from it’s crimp weld. A simple solder job would not fix it, so it looks like I’ll need to either get new brushes, or find a new starter. I do kinda have my eye on one of those fancy high torque starters that BritishStarters.com stocks. Hmmm…

Tags: starter
Categories: starter

Liz and I took the kids to the British Field Day event at Liberty Park today. The turn out seemed to be on par with past events. Lots of your typical British livery present, TR’s, MG’s, a bunch of series Rovers, a few minis (old and new) and only a hand full of British bikes (I heart old British bikes). We did manage to get a few photos of the kids standing next to their favorite cars at the show. Ironically 2 of the 3 were cars we’ve owned in the past.

The kids striking a pose next to a fun coral and white Metropolitan.

Our met from our living room. Liz circa 2001 next to her met.

Ruby loved the MINI too. Liz circa 2000 in our 67 Mini mk1.

Miles really liked the Jaguar. He said it looked so “fancy” that a “rich” person must own it.
if he only knew

Tags: fluff
Categories: fluff