Drivellings from Rover Road
Jul 10, 2016 3:58:20 GMT
Phil Nottingham, moonchariot, and 1 more like this
Post by djm16 on Jul 10, 2016 3:58:20 GMT
Once more I wander not lonely as a cloud but lonely as a loon, talking to myself. My excuse is of course that I am talking to the dogs. We know the truth though. Jenny is away in the USA visiting her family. “You can follow me on Facebook, you just have to make friends with me” she said. Hah! I have seen the time she wastes on drivelings on her Facebook. No I will wait until the real thing returns.
There are innumerable things to go wrong restoring a car, here are three of my recent mishaps and triumphs.
First we have the instrument cluster back lights for Her, her 3 litre. On our visit to Busselton for the British Car Show, the instrument lights kept going out, and blowing a fuse at the same time. Yet each time I investigated there was no short. But repeatably, within 10 mins of putting the lights on, out they would go again. Here was the problem, heat melting the plastic part of the bulb holders causing a heat dependent short. Irreplaceable parts, so a home solution was needed, a drilled section of wood dowel and several layers of shrink wrap was the fix. Four of these make to had I [Yoda]. The effect was complete with the addition of 4 LED bulbs (less heat). I had been knocking out these myself from disassembled filament bulbs and eBay LEDs, but I had had enough and just bought the suckers.
This next is a lesson in what not to do. The what in question here is a bonnet and the not to do is take it to be sandblasted. You can see the extent of the sag induced by blasting too close and too long. This bonnet is toast, so I am indebted to Paul Gentelli for providing me with a replacement.
Lastly, we see on the left a close up of the passenger sun visor. The vinyl has darkened and stained with age. You can see the extent of the staining when you compare the cleaned visor with the headlining (same material). Apparently according to the internet, the problem is bromine plasticiser leaching out of the vinyl and coming to the surface. The fix is to soak in activated hydrogen peroxide and exposure to UV. In practical terms, this means getting a Chemists' hair bleaching kit, mixing up the components and applying them under cling film. I tried leaving them in the sun which was the recommended method, but the result was quite uneven, and the infra red component heated the peroxide and inactivated it leaving a streaky appearance. What worked much better was simply leaving it under a fluorescent lamp. These lamps work by generating a UV discharge in the gas, the UV then interacts with phosphors on the inside of the glass producing more useful light. Knowing this, I reasoned that a fair amount of UV would escape. I was right. The finished article is back hanging in the car. So now I know what to do with the headliner when I get around to taking it out some time in 2020.
But soft! What rust through yonder grub screw flakes? [sorry William, Ed. “Hang on, I am the Ed”. So? Your point is? Ed] Not really presentable is it. All the mounting screws, the grub screw in the visor and the mounting rods were like this so all were sandblasted back to clean metal and then freshly nickel plated. I have a home plating kit. Total investment in time? Massive, in excess of 40 hours. It is a good thing I don't do this stuff for a living, and I really must get out more as I am getting obsessional about this restoration thing.
There are innumerable things to go wrong restoring a car, here are three of my recent mishaps and triumphs.
First we have the instrument cluster back lights for Her, her 3 litre. On our visit to Busselton for the British Car Show, the instrument lights kept going out, and blowing a fuse at the same time. Yet each time I investigated there was no short. But repeatably, within 10 mins of putting the lights on, out they would go again. Here was the problem, heat melting the plastic part of the bulb holders causing a heat dependent short. Irreplaceable parts, so a home solution was needed, a drilled section of wood dowel and several layers of shrink wrap was the fix. Four of these make to had I [Yoda]. The effect was complete with the addition of 4 LED bulbs (less heat). I had been knocking out these myself from disassembled filament bulbs and eBay LEDs, but I had had enough and just bought the suckers.
This next is a lesson in what not to do. The what in question here is a bonnet and the not to do is take it to be sandblasted. You can see the extent of the sag induced by blasting too close and too long. This bonnet is toast, so I am indebted to Paul Gentelli for providing me with a replacement.
Lastly, we see on the left a close up of the passenger sun visor. The vinyl has darkened and stained with age. You can see the extent of the staining when you compare the cleaned visor with the headlining (same material). Apparently according to the internet, the problem is bromine plasticiser leaching out of the vinyl and coming to the surface. The fix is to soak in activated hydrogen peroxide and exposure to UV. In practical terms, this means getting a Chemists' hair bleaching kit, mixing up the components and applying them under cling film. I tried leaving them in the sun which was the recommended method, but the result was quite uneven, and the infra red component heated the peroxide and inactivated it leaving a streaky appearance. What worked much better was simply leaving it under a fluorescent lamp. These lamps work by generating a UV discharge in the gas, the UV then interacts with phosphors on the inside of the glass producing more useful light. Knowing this, I reasoned that a fair amount of UV would escape. I was right. The finished article is back hanging in the car. So now I know what to do with the headliner when I get around to taking it out some time in 2020.
But soft! What rust through yonder grub screw flakes? [sorry William, Ed. “Hang on, I am the Ed”. So? Your point is? Ed] Not really presentable is it. All the mounting screws, the grub screw in the visor and the mounting rods were like this so all were sandblasted back to clean metal and then freshly nickel plated. I have a home plating kit. Total investment in time? Massive, in excess of 40 hours. It is a good thing I don't do this stuff for a living, and I really must get out more as I am getting obsessional about this restoration thing.
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