Weatherspripping

Couldn't think of a catchy title for todays post, put in the passengers seat and decided to get going on the weather stripping.  RJ's seals were likely original and as such hard and brittle having long since given up on the task they were originally intended for.  Turns out to be quite tedious, scraping out the old seals, cleaning the 'track' and installing the new ones.  Some of them fit into a track and getting them 'squished' into this track will likely result in hand cramps tonight.

Wanted to remember ho the old seals intersected here

Don't think this shows it very well but the seal in this 'B' 'pillar' is completely broken off.

To replace the seals on the door one has to remove the door to get at them.  Will have to fix the track on the front seal as the rivets missed the track and will need to be replaced.

This is the seal for the rear window and was dry and crispy, someone had tried to seal the window with Home Depot weather stripping

Messy job, right after I cleaned the interior-Oh well.

new quarter window seal, nice and soft but a bugger to wedge into the track

Tires continue to be problematic, local tire shop has suggested going to a larger tire as they are finding it hard to locate what we need.  I will likely suggest that we wait till we can get Vredsteins.

Cheers,

5.5 hrs

Interior

Today was interior day, kind of a break from the greasy work that I've been doing for the past 5 months ;-)  I started with making underlayment for the carpet/mats/hardura.  Originally the car would have had a jute product but I was able to find a product that worked as well from my favorite Auto Upholstery shop (Chip Knight). This should help with noise I hope,  on my car I used Koolmat but Michelle may want to wait on considering something like that till she decides that she likes RJ enough to spend the extra money.

Drew asked if it was hard to get the console out, frankly Drew I don't recall so I think it came out easily.  Going back in was slightly different though, I was on the verge of getting under the car to release the parking brake when it miraculously dropped into  place sorta like the fuel tank.  I did run into issues with the drop down access to the fuses though and no mater what I tried the panel would catch on the radio console.  I finely went with an option that I don't really like but had learned about on Jag Lovers which was to take out the middle two screws on the light panel and tap the ends for a couple of screws like the ones holding the panel in place (nice to have extra parts laying around) that can be easily removed allowing the identification strip to be easily removed and the panel opened. 

I finished up the day by putting some gunny sack material on the bottom of the drivers seat to keep the deteriorating foam from dropping onto the mat under the seat, installed the new seat belts and then the drivers seat.

felt in place of OEM jute

Console, center and radio in place. What a PITA trying to get them low enough to drop the center panel 

Seat and frame installed, seems like real progress

Had to bang out the floor pan, not as bad as the drivers side but years of nicompoops with floor jacks have left their toll.

Well that's it for today,

Cheers.

7.5 hrs

Something in the way she moves...

...well I can't remember the rest of the words to the song but it really was special to see it move under power.  I drove it around the block and other than a antifreeze leak and a balky reverse gear it ran very well.  Did not take it far as the tires are ancient and potentially dangerous.  I spent some of this morning trying to get a quote on new tires, tubes and rim strips, then off to Chip Knight's to get some felt to put under the carpet and a piece of foam to insulate the transmission as per OEM.

Cutting the foam to fit

How to make a big piece of foam into a lot of little pieces

The foam in place and awaiting the cover

Cutting the felt to fit under the seats

Straightening the floor where it had been damaged by a poorly placed jack sometime in the past

Installing the center console, also replaced the rubber around the brake lever, old one was shot

Added antifreeze through the opening by the temperature sender, unfortunately the bolts were seized and one of them broke off-DRATS.  tried to drill it out but then the bit broke-DOUBLE DRATS!  Made a new cap, drilled a new hole and taped it for a new bolt, thus far it's not leaking.  

One thing that was good that came from this was that I decided to check the thermostat and there wasn't one,  this is a big deal since the thermostat prevents water from taking a short cut back to the radiator through the bypass. Car would have been much more prone to overheating.

New thermostat-brass thing in the cener of the picture

Going through the electrics revealed that the back up light wasn't working,  turned out that the seat for the bulb was corroded to the point that there was not electrical continuity

Cheers,

9.5 hrs

Bloody brakes...

...as Jan says "blood letting", at any rate I got the flex line in for the rear brakes and installed the new clutch flex line.  The clutch flex line was a bit time consuming as it is difficult to get at with tools but finally got the old one off and the new one on.  After bleeding the clutch I checked the free play and reset it to spec, hopefully this will improve shifting as it had a 1/2" play.  Of course it is a Moss Box which has been likened to stirring a bucket of coal so my expectations are low (this should get a rise out of Jerry who loves his Moss box and views anyone who can't shift it gracefully with just a slight bit of disdain ;-)

Didn't have many pictures to day so here's a crappy picture of the new flex line to the IRS

Bleeding the brakes with my homemade pressure bleeder, seemed to work quite well.  Could not get the rears to bleed at all using the old up-down helper technique.

The upper master cylinder with massive amount of play,  seeking advice from Jerry makes me think the piston may not be coming to it's fully out position and it may have to come apart-naturally since the lines don't seem to have any leaks.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all,
Cheers,


6 hrs

Two steps forwards....

...and one step back?  Planned on flushing the brakes today and bleeding them using DOT 4 fluid.  The choice of brake fluid is somewhat controversial,  Glycol based vs Silicone based fluids and each has it's pros and cons.  Glycol based fluids such as DOT 4 AND DOT 5.1 can damage paint and are hygroscopic while silicone based fluid, DOT 5 is not and will not damage paint.  I use DOT 5 in my '68  and DOT 4 in my 73, both work fine BUT the DOT 5 fluid needs to be changed as often as the DOT 4 IMO.  While the DOT 5 is not hygroscopic water still gets into the system from condensation pooling in the lowest area leading to corrosion.  The glycol based fluids hold the water in solution and are easier to bleed the water out, often when I bleed my car with the silicone fluid I will loosen the lowest line in the caliper to get the water out of the system.  One other thing I've noticed is that with silicone fluid one has to be very careful to avoid having air in the system to the point I'll put the fluid in the reservoirs the day before (sucking out the old stuff from the reservoirs) so that the air bubbles have a chance to settle out.

With RJ, knowing what was in the rear calipers I decided to flush the system with 91% isopropyl alcohol then blow them out with compressed air then replenish with DOT 4.  I did this with the clutch lines as well but ran into problems when I decided I had flushed the rear line (hadn't hooked up the flex hose as I didn't want any debris getting into our newly refurbished rear calipers).  Well the hose that that came with the kit had the wrong fittings and was too short.  Dang it, stalled and will have to order a correct line.  I wonder if I've run into the same issue as I had with the rotors, the transition from 3.8 to 4.2 cars?

So when I stalled on this part of the project it was time to do something else and the resonators needed to be installed.  If you look back to one of the early pictures they looked pretty snaggle toothed, one was longer than the other, they weren't parallel and just looked bad.  Well that's ancient history now, the correct mounts fixed that right up and they look acceptable IMHO ;-)

The other thing that I addressed today were the tie rod ends, there has been a problem with some of the tie rod ends that have been shipped to people and I was concerned but with the assistance of Dick Maury of Coventry West I determined that we do indeed have the right ones-thanks Dick!

This is what was in the calipers

Tie rod ends held in position, the ones for later cars such as the XJ6 look identical except they don't have the same range of motion that the E Type units do and if used in the place of the correct ones will damage the rack.

Well, that's all folks.

Cheers,

5 hrs

Re-United and it feels so good...

Well, maybe not that good but it's nice to have the IRS in it's proper place.  The motorcycle lift made the job doable and relatively safe for one person.  The IRS is held in place by its rubber 'isolation' mounts and getting them to line up is a bear requiring the jack to be moved, the unit tilted and so forth.  But I'm happy to report that it is back where it belongs.  Future tasks include tightening all the rubber bushings(wait till it's down on it's wheels or the rubber bushings will get locked in a 'hyperextended' position and subject to premature failure as Jerry mentioned in the comment section yesterday).

Rolling it under the body and preparing to raise it up into position.

In position, awaiting the rocking and jockeying that is required to get the bolt holes to ling up, sometimes taking a fair amount of persuasion to accomplish.  Needless to say challenging. 

Jack out of the way and radius arms in place. Drive shaft connected, parking brake hooked up but the brake line isn't and wont be till I flush the brake system with isopropyl alcohol in preparation for changing the car to DOT 4 brake fluid.

All together now.... except as mentioned above. Tomorrow, flush the lines, check on tires and....

Cheers,

5.5 hrs

A day with the IRS....

Lots of pictures today, so that means not much substance right?  First thing I did today was make a trip to Home Depot to find a piece of material that I could use for the special JD14 tool that I would need to hold all the pieces of the outer fulcrum shaft in proper position during the installation process.  I was able to find a 5/8 inch steel rod that fit the bill almost perfectly, if it had been the right length then it would have been perfect.  As a side note, I've had to make or acquire several special tool for this job, I guess that's part of the fun? Right!

Making the JD14 tool

Simple but precisely engineered ;-)  

Getting ready to load the JD14 with the spacers and shims that would drop out of position

Driving the bolt in that in turn pushes the tool out leaving all in the correct position

One thing that puzzled me was having to install the radius arm AND tighten it prior to installing the hub carrier.  There is no way to get to the radius arm bolt head once the carrier is in position so I tried to have the control arm in a 'neutral' position so as to avoid undue strain on the radius arm bushing.

The right side completed now moving on to the left side

Poor picture, but shows threading the inner fulcrum arm through and fastening the lower control arm in place

Almost there, need to put the bottom plate on

Completed unit, now trying to figure out how to man handle this 350 pound unit onto the jack

Decided to try putting the wheels and tires on it so I could roll it over

Bingo, now just need to turn the jack around-Doh!

There we go, ready to feed onto the car, needs a few things to finish the job but by this time next week RJ should be back on his wheels- Michelle, might be time to start thinking about tires and tubes!

That's it for this week, stay tuned for future exciting developments.

Cheers.


7 hrs