A Merry Christmas Phase II Update

Hello and Merry Christmas to all. I have made enough headway to put together another post. Again, stopping and waiting for parts is the most frustrating of delays. However, I have managed to get the headlights and turn signals in. All new brake and clutch hydraulic lines are installed. I bench bled and installed the master cylinder. New rear wheel brake cylinders are installed as well as shoes and pads all around. I still need to bleed the brakes and clutch. Lastly, I installed the header after having it ceramic coated. I also have the manifold for the weber installed. I think it looks pretty cool. The main reason for doing the header now is that it allowed me to reinstall the steering column which was holding up the dashboard installation.

Headlights and Turn Signals

 

The front end is all wired.

 

Brakes and Hydraulics

 

I replaced the original rubber hoses with stainless steel front and back

 

Header and Manifold

 

 

 



Phase II Update

I have been reminded by more than a few of you that I have not posted for some time. I have been working on the car though Lori reminds me that there needs to be balance in our lives so every waking moment is not spent in the garage. Ask me about the bathroom remodel. Sigh. Yet progress is being made. One of the things I am finding is that my approach to methodically working through each stage has it's advantages and disadvantages. The main purpose of this approach is to make sure that any area that I am focused on gets completed and I do not have a bunch of half finished sections on the car. While it helps me to not forget something, it can considerably slow me down when I need parts or have to stop figure out how something goes back together. Many parts deliveries and much head scratching later, I think I have a logical transition point. That being from the rear end to the front end. The two areas I have been focusing on are getting all of the work finished in the rear of the car and getting all of the under dash components in so I can install the dashboard.

The latest accomplishments are: The wiring harness is completely in and all connections are identified and labeled, the windshield is in (it only took three times for me to like the result), the windshield wiper motor and mechanism is in, most of the dashboard components are mounted, both tail lights are in and wired up as is the license plate light. Essentially the complete rear end is wired and ready to go with the exception of the fuel gauge wiring for the gas tank.

Next stop. Headlights and front turn signals.

Windshield and Wiper Motor Assembly

 

 

Wiper Boxes

 

Taillight Assembly

 

Wired up taillight

 

Trunk latch and License Plate Light Assembly

 

The latch is new the plate light cover is well over 50 years old

Complete Rear End

Headlight and Turn Signal components

 

Phase II Begins

One of the best parts of this journey are the people you meet and the friendships you develop. One of those for me is a gentleman named Jerry who I have been talking to for many years, but only since my project came to life have we begun to trade parts, how to's and how not to's . I talked with Jerry at the recent swap meet at Montgomery Park and he told me that He knew the best aluminum polisher left in Portland. This is important because the windshield surround is aluminum and is in bad need of a good polishing. As part of phase II it is highly recommended to install the new windshield before the dashboard. Since the wiring harness, and thus all of the dash components are part of phase II, I thought I should heed the sage advice and get the windshield in first. This, in turn, led me to Jerry's buddy Paul. I contacted Paul and he was in agreement with Jerry that he is probably the best polisher left in business or still alive in Portland. He said to get the windshield apart, clean it up and bring it over to him. So I did.

 The screws were a lot more difficult than I imagined. I used a lot of penetrating oil and had to easy out two of them. But it finally came apart. The new windshield glass is in the box in the far left part of the picture.

I delivered the fully dismantled parts to Paul. Paul was really fun to talk to as he told me about his long career working in the polishing business and starting his own chrome and polishing shop in Portland. He has been working on his own subcontracting for a few select shops for the last 20 years or so. Everyone else in town ships their work out of state or does a less than professional job according to Paul. I can't wait to see the results.

In the meantime, I have started looking at the wiring restoration. I have the new wiring harness and pulled out the old one to compare them. Long ago, I was really good while taking the car apart to label every wire and leave as many components attached to the old harness as possible to make reassembly easier. There is good news and bad news. The components all look great (for 50 year old parts) but all of the ink on the labels has completely faded. (see the picture below) Fortunately. I have a new color coded wiring diagram to go by. So I think all will be well. Hoping that Dad's lessons will help me with this part as he was the wiring guru.

 

I first laid out the old wiring harness. I can see the whole car when I look closely, just as an anthropologist can see the whole body of T-Rex from a few half buried bones. This view is from the rear, tail lights, then dash components, then engine connections and finally the headlights. Below is the wiring diagram. Note the wiring is the same for MG Midgets. I checked a few of the old wires to see if the colors were the same as the new diagram and they matched up perfectly. So far, so good.

A few closer shots below of the old harness. Note the old plastic bags just falling apart as I they are handled for the first time in many years. Next will be to lay out the new wiring harness and label every connection. One lesson learned, I will not wait 30 years to read the labels this time around. Then plan when to move the existing components onto the new harness. I will show a picture of the newly restored and painted dash in the next post.

Turn signal lever, ignition switch, and a few switches



Fuel gauge



Nice label huh?

 

 

Phase I comes to a close

Bill at British Auto Works delivered the painted and rolling Austin Healey last week for the close of phase I+. Phase I now consisted of all of the body work and paint (minus the final cut and buff of the paint job), front and rear suspension, the steering rack, the engine and transmission and driveline, all rebuilt and installed. Essentially a rolling frame now with the full drive train in.

The first thing I needed to do was pull the two front shocks and paint them in order to really call the suspension rebuild complete.

Removing the shocks



Cleaning

Painted

 

Installed

 

Notice the nice new poly bushings

Next up is planning phase II. Phase II will consist of a new wiring harness, all of the engine and ignition wiring, rebuilding the dash with all of the instrumentation, wiring up all of the lights, new hydraulics for both the brakes and clutch, and finally the fuel system. If all goes well I should be able to start up the new engine somewhere near the end of Phase II. Moss is having a 20% off sale at the end of this month so I will be buying the wiring harness and a few other ancillaries. 

Finishing up Phase I - The paint is perfect!

I had been waiting to take the rebuilt engine out to Bill at British Auto works. However, I did not want to make the trip out until after the car was back in his shop with new paint so I could see it first hand. I had been really anxious to see the final color in person after seeing the pictures of it while it was still in the paint booth. If you can recall from the last post, the actual color could have been one of about three shades of blue the way it showed up in the pictures due to the lighting and flash. I just needed to see it in person. I was again accompanied by my good friend George Pouch. Both he and my wife could tell this was a special day for me. My excitement was hardly contained.

I think I wrote earlier about how difficult it was to nail down the color from the original color codes. There is no official color code cross reference from the old British paint codes. Of course, there are a bunch of unofficial references online. Each professing to be the accurate color rendition. So, choosing the color became a long and drawn out exercise with Bill taking a color code to the painter, painting up and sending me a sample or two and me adjusting lighter or darker based on my interpretation of the original Riviera Blue. This is just one area where Bill has been extremely patient with me and understood just how important this decision was. Let me tell you it was more than just a little nerve racking to finally say go based on a 4x6 paint sample knowing you don't get a second chance. At least not a cheap second chance. Finally, last Saturday I got to see it. Thanks to George for the pictures. I was just in awe walking around the car noting everything that had been fixed.


Riviera Blue

What do you think? I think we nailed the color. There were a number of issues with the front end that are all fixed and straightened out. Bill noted that the paint job has not yet been cut and buffed and that it should be shiny once that is done. It looked pretty good to me. I can't wait. Bill told me that he has never seen another Riviera Blue Sprite in the area.

The other reason for the trip out was to deliver the engine and take a look at the rebuilt transmission. I had also refurbished the drive line and installed new U-Joints, and cleaned up and painted the engine mounts. At this point BAW has all of the parts to install the new suspension, steering rack and drive train. Then it is back to me for Phase II which entails installing a new wiring harness (including the dash components), all new brake hydraulics and the fuel system. The end of phase II will culminate in the first engine start up. Not so fast John, for now, let's get Phase I finished and paid for.

Note the slight overkill on strapping the engine in the truck. That baby was not going anywhere. At the shop they jokingly said the truck could have flipped end over end and the engine would have stayed in the truck bed. I didn't mind.

It was a beautiful day to take the engine to British Auto Works

Ready for installation. All new motor and tranny mounts in the plastic bag.

Blasted and primed.

Rebuilt, ready for paint and installation

 

Paint! Early Pics of Phase I Progress

 

The main updates are that the shell has been painted and that the transmission is almost finished being rebuilt. Thank you to George Pouch for riding with me out to North Plains to deliver the transmission for rebuilding. It was a fun trip and I think George had as much fun in the shop as I did. George is an old car aficionado too and we have spent many hours at some great car races. Ask me about the Laguna Seca trip some time. The guys at British Auto Works accepted George quite well even though he is a BMW guy with a restoration of his own on his hands. There is a lot of history between those Brits and Germans and I was just glad the discussion stayed civil.

Paint changes everything. It is hard to believe this is the same car in the photo leaving my garage earlier in the blog. I can't wait to see it live since it is always tough to gauge the exact color so soon after application and still under the bright paint lights, but is looking good. Remember you can click on the photos for a larger view. Highly recommended for these. I am currently trying to schedule my next trip out to British Auto Works to deliver the engine, engine mounts, and the rebuilt drive line (new U joints installed and painted) so they can drop the full drive train in. Our original plan was for BAW to bring back the painted shell to me with the suspension installed and I was going to drop the engine and transmission in. The discretionary decision on my part is to now have them put the engine and transmission in taking a little stress out of my life after seeing that new Riviera Blue paint. I have removed and installed these engines for myself and others about four times and I know it can be a little messy banging a few hundred pounds around just getting the things to fit right. Again Bill at BAW is really cool about changing things up. We are really close to finishing Phase I.

A quick remembrance of Kevin Sheridan who spent many hours with me in this car and will not have the opportunity to see it finished. Godspeed Kevin.

Stripped and ready for primer.

Rebuilt driveline and engine mounts with new rubber mounts in the plastic bag.