• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

...and then a miracle happened

Share this page

69sprite

69sprite

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
First, let me apologize for not being an active participant in this forum.

Second, I have a announcement... About two weeks ago, a miracle happened and I actually got my looooong overdue '69 MKIV project back on the road again!

This would not have happened without the help of a good British car specialized shop in Austin! I took the car off the road over 3+years ago. Initially, it was to do a Rivergate 5-speed conversion...which morphed into an engine rebuild...a this...a that...etc...etc...

For the last year or so, the car was at a state to where it really should have required another day or two worth of work. Personal issues got in the way and that work never got done. When we sold our home, I knew that I was at the point to where it had to be done, so I contacted Ron Shimek (Austin). He and his team took on the task of finishing a car that they didn't have a clue as to what I had done. Even though I believed I was meticulous about all the work I did, things happen. The engine was strong, but I apparently hadn't gotten the rear engine plate sealed good enough, so that was leak 1. Additionally, Ron realized that I had the clutch fork set within the Rivergate specs, but the fork wasn't moving far enough to have the throwout bearing fully engage the clutch. Ron talked to Rivergate and found out that this happens on a few cars (mine being one) and the fork needs shimming. Once done, leak 2 showed up as an oil gallery plug needing a bit of teflon tape. Ron also helped reconfigure a concern I had of the location of the positive battery cable connection on the new starter I had installed. It would only clock one way and that left the post too close to the oil pan.

Two weeks ago, I got the car back from Ron and am now a happy camper/driver. Engine is strong, 5th gear is nice, car sounds great... and all the squeaks and rattles are still there for me to start tracking down!

If anyone knows of a really good deal for an interior panel set or set of minilite style wheels, tell me. My attempt at panel making ended up with the panels being too thick... and all the wheels on my car look great after I powder coated them, but the PO(s) must have like driving through every pot hole on the planet, so they can't be completely balanced.

Thanks for listening...and for all the advice over the years. I hope I can now be more active in this forum.

I will post some pictures as soon as I get them uploaded and shrunk to an appropriate size.
Larry
 
Use 1/8" masonite for the panels and foam from Pergo flooring or similar from Home Defect or Lowes.
As for the balancing of the rims, tell the tire shop they are LUG centric, not HUB centric. They have to be mounted via the lug holes not the hub as most wheels.
You will be surprised how many out of round wheels there are because they were not balanced the correct way.
 
Thanks. I think I have been down about every road that I can think of with these wheels. I actually found some 'old school' guys who still had all the equipment to spin up the tires on while mounted on the car and do the 'magic hub' balancing act. To me, this was the best way they used to balance tires, since it took the wheel and all of the spindle attachments into account for the balancing. The problem is that a couple of the rims have some pretty good flat spots on them from PO(s) not knowing what happens when you hit pot holes, curbs, speed bumps too hard. There used to be a guy here in Austin that could true bent rims, but he was run out of business after 30-50 years by his landlord who wouldn't renew his lease, so he could get another (less reliable) auto shop that only does quick fixes in the facility.

As for the 1/8 masonite, that was what I used for my first attempt, but the panels ended up too thick and caused the door to not close well. If Moss or VB sold just a panel backing kit (no covering), I might consider it, since I would like to be able to have a smoother look to the door panels, instead of so many welded seams.
 
Get the stuff the use for countertop surfaces. They sell it at Home depot, waterproof, somewhat flexible and will last forever. The same folks in that link sell door panels by themselves. $100 a pair. I was blessed enough to have a club memeber give me a brand new pair FOR FREE !!!
 
OK, I think I have found the brain cells that tell me how I add a photo to forum replies (dang, lemme see, age, beer, c.r.s, it's a wonder that I remember my own name!). I guess due to the size of the pictures, I can only add one at a time to my post. I will add a total of four posts to put all pictures up. If someone a lot smarter than I knows how to shrink my photo sizes further or knows what I am doing wrong to only allow 1 photo per post, please tell me.

Here are some photos I took of my car 'before' I got the brilliant idea to take it off the road to do the RG 5-speed conversion, engine rebuild, etc. For some stoopid reason, I didn't think it measured up to the fine standards of those owning cars in this forum! :bow:

If it will ever stop raining here, I will take new pictures showing the car, engine, etc...to give an idea of the car's present condition.

Larry
 

Attachments

  • 21912.jpg
    21912.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 212
Nice looking car, that car would look awesome with a set of silver Retro 4s
 

Attachments

  • 21919.jpg
    21919.jpg
    65.8 KB · Views: 172
Hap Waldrop said:
Nice looking car, that car would look awesome with a set of silver Retro 4s
Click to expand...

Agreed!! That would look really awesome!!
 
Back
Top