POST 49 - FEB 2013 - NO MORE SNOOZING

The long standing appointment with trimmer John Richardson looms ever closer, with friend Geoff's trailer booked for Monday 4th March to take the car to Shildon.  Two major jobs need to be completed in the next few days, neither of which I had really planned to do at this stage.  John tells me that he needs to be able to drive the car in and out of his workshop so it needs to be operational - just.  It also dawned on me the other day, that in order to make and fit the hood (soft top), the windscreen would have to be in place - duh!
So with two weeks to go, the snoozing and socialising will have to stop.  John has already completed the dash board, seats, armrest and door panels and I would have to say that he has made a superb job of them.  The remaining work, hood, tonneau cover, cockpit rolls, side screens and carpets will be tailored specifically to the car, hence the need for it to be away at his workshop for the best part of a month.

Special dispensation given to store seats at home for a while

Exceptional job by John Richardson of Shildon County Durham

The seats in particular have worked out very well.  The bases are close to original but the backs have been changed from the slide around variety  to bucket.  This also allows for the central armrest to have an opening top with storage inside - something in very short supply in a 120 OTS.
This is an ideal place to hide the controls for the ICE kit and other occasional use switches, plus a switch to activate a small digital display showing battery voltage, to avoid fitting a voltmeter, much more use than an ammeter if the cars been fitted with an alternator.
I had some nice period switch labels engraved but couldn't resist having a second set made up for the benefit of the grand kids.  Telling grandson Freddy that he shouldn't on any account open the lid between the seats in Bobsy's 'special car' then leaving him to play should be interesting, especially when the 'countdown' LED's illuminate immediately after he's activated the eject switch.

Work in progress with alternative label for grand kids

 With the engine installation imminent, the past week has been spent fitting out the engine bay and completing any other jobs which would be harder to do with the engine in place.  The plan is to fit the engine on Sunday 17th Feb and hopefully most of the ancillary bits, exhaust system etc.  A few years back, young friend Kev Woods gave me hand to remove and re-fit the engine in my 140 when it developed an oil leak and will be on hand again to assist which will make the job a great deal easier.  Kev's day job involves maintaining heavy plant and machinery, often on site, so for him, this task should be fairly straightforward and his help invaluable.
 

Engine bay - almost ready for engine installation on 17th Feb

One item I wasn't too happy about re-using was the brake fluid reservoir - made from glass !!
Thinking about this, I realise that the early 120 master cylinder (also used on the 140) effectively has its own reservoir holding around half a pint of fluid which in turn is kept topped up by the glass one.  I can only guess that the glass reservoir was added to make it easy to check the fluid level and top it up.  In any event, it was a very satisfying part to recondition.  New rubber seals were made and fitted top and bottom and the metalwork powder coated in a colour very close to the original.  Local and ever helpful company Hawk fasteners actually had in stock the tiny rivets used to fasten the brass manufacturers plate back in place.

Master cylinder with its own half pint reservoir - ready for assembly

 

Glass brake fluid reservoir - scarey!

Lovely original brass plaque

Miscellany

The weather today, Saturday 16th, has taken a turn for the better, so time to disinter the 140 from it's winter slumbers.  I've run the engine and moved the car a few feet back and forth every couple of weeks, but this will be it's first run out this year.  As ever it started without any fuss and ran beautifully with all gauges indicating healthy levels of everything.
Just around the corner from my workshop is a newly re-furbished building dating from 1916.  Originally the HQ for the Cargo Fleet Iron Company which peaked in output in the 1950's and may even have made the steel used in the 140's construction.  The entrance makes an interesting backdrop for a photograph. 
Preceding this building by around fifty years, Prime Minister William Gladstone, visiting Middlesbrough's Iron Foundries in the 1860's described the town thus :
"This remarkable place, the youngest child of England's enterprise, is an infant, but if an infant, an infant Hercules"
I can't help but wonder what he would say if he could see the town in middle age.

140 after its winter break, a little dusty but otherwise superb

 Now here's an extraordinary thing.  Last year I insured my ancient Audi S4 Avant with Saga and literally halved the premium from the previous company.  (never thought I'd see Saga and S4 in the same sentence).  My Renewal Schedule arrived the other day and around the same time an invitation to renew my AA subscription.  An all singing and dancing Gold family membership, this had previously been paid by the company by recurring Direct Debit so the gradually increasing cost, this time £202.96 had not been flagged up.
Now retired with the company DD cancelled, it would from hereon be up to me. So, I had two calls to make, Saga and the AA.  Fortuitously I chose Saga first.
Answered by a UK call center, no multiple choice button punching, recorded messages and music, just a charming young man called Zack, who efficiently arranged my renewal.  He went on to pitch for breakdown cover, in conjunction with - you've guessed - the AA.  I read from my renewal document exactly what £202.96 provided and explained that was precisely what he needed to quote for, stressing each aspect, family membership etc. He absolutely confirmed it would be identical, and quoted me £37.00 yes - thirty seven pounds!  I look forward to receiving the documents to see if this can be true.

Next Post end of February

POST 48 - FEB 2013 - LED's INDICATORS & ACCIDENTS

Determined to avoid ‘add-on’ indicators if at all possible, the only solution it would seem, is to somehow incorporate them into the existing side lights.  As we're no longer fettered by MOT requirements and with the quite recent memory of my Healey 3000’s solution of incorporating the rear indicators within the tail / brake light, this might be a possible way forward.  Some time is spent assessing the possibilities but space within both front and rear side / tail light enclosures is somewhat restricted by the existing filament bulbs.   This is easily resolved by replacing them with new LED type lamps.  Brighter and smaller, they also have a ridiculous life expectancy.  The front side light LED has an expected life of 50,000 hours (continuous for 6 years).  Assuming say 5000 miles a year at an average speed of say 50 MPH and 33% of that time with the side lights on, I'll need to think about changing them in spring - 3,528AD  !!!

LED front and rear (dual tail & brake) replacements

Now here's an interesting if slightly odd thought which has occurred to me on a number of occasions.  It would not be unreasonable to assume that this car will continue to be cherished for the foreseeable future, by me hopefully until I expire and then by countless others, but how long exactly is that.  I could quite rationally guess that it would take some catastrophic event to intervene.   This might be in the form of plague or pestilence as the bible would have it, a world war where material objects become irrelevant, or some other cataclysmic event like an asteroid strike.  All sounds very dramatic but I would imagine that at least one of the above occurring in the next fifteen hundred or so years is likely. 

It would be good to download this entire blog onto a pen drive and secrete it somewhere that I know a future restorer would find it.  Only problem is, will they be able to do anything with pen drives in 3500AD, considering that we don’t have a computer in our office now able to look at the contents of a twenty five year old 3.5” floppy disc!

Anyway, enough of this nonsense.  My discovery of LED’s to replace filament bulbs gets me thinking about indicators, but of course nothing is available for my specific application.  After a little research, it turns out that LED’s despite extreme life spans are quite fragile devices, easily destroyed by inappropriate usage.  A brief summary of their requirements would be:

They present an almost zero resistance to an unlimited current supply (a 12 Volt car battery) so must have a correctly calculated resistor value in series to limit current, typically 200 to 500 ohms depending on type, colour, forward voltage and number in series.  When you get this even slightly wrong, typically by using too low a value resistor, they go pop and produce that unique electrical burning smell, odd for something so small.  They really don’t like more than typically 20mA but some seem to be more tolerant than others.  The long leg is positive (anode). Reverse this for more than a micro second and it will probably expire.  It might be OK to connect a few in parallel with a common resistor, but this is generally considered to be a risky strategy.

So, equipped with this basic information, the task remains to physically fit enough LED’s into the space available to provide a flashing indicator of such intensity that it really cannot be missed.   Whilst both front and rear are important I reason that the rear indicators must be exceptional whilst the fronts need to just OK.

12 super bright orange / red LED's as a starting point

 For the rear, twelve super High Intensity 10,000 mcd, red to orange / red  30 degree LED’s are set into a clear acrylic housing which will sit inside the rear light lens but will allow the new LED side / brake light to show through.  (LED’s are measured in mille candela power - mcd - so I suppose each LED is equivalent to 10 candles with all light focused into a 30 degree beam)The LED’s are arranged in four sets of three. Each set of three is in series and is fed via a 470 ohm resistor.  This indicates a current flow of 20mA at 13 Volts through each set.

The acrylic housing holding the LED’s is sandwiched between the tail light glass and the metal bulb holder with a polyethylene insulator, all quite a tight fit.   

Acrylic housing with LED's - interference fit in lens

 Connected to an electronic LED type flasher unit (Max 30mA as opposed to a filament bulb bi-metal strip flasher – 10 to 200mA) it produces a very distinct orange flash of extreme intensity.  I leave it flashing for a couple of days until I feel confident that it will be reliable.  Total current for each tail light with all three functions running, side light, brake light and indicators is less than 200mA so virtually all energy is converted to light with very little heat produced.  For comparison the original filament lamps at 5 and 25 Watts for side and brake lights consumed around 2.4 Amps, 12 time the current with around 90% dissipated as heat.

Very bright and surely unmissable!

 Having found a satisfactory solution for the rear indicators, attention turned to the front.  With much less space available, the maximum number of 5mm LED's I could fit in was 5 so I may have to re-think this and see what can be achieved with the smaller 3mm variety.

Two sets in series (3 and 2) drawing between 30 and 40 mA

Not bad but I think it can be improved on

 Miscellany (not for the squeamish)

Over the past fifteen years I have produced a good many risk assessments, mainly relating to that dangerous occupation, working at height.  I thought I had a good awareness of what was likely to hurt, and given my low risk ground floor level working environment this 'accident' took me completely by surprise, culminating in the best part of an afternoon entirely wasted in A&E.  My Dewalt battery drill (which I rate as exceptional as I do most of my Dewalt tools) was sat upright on it's battery base on the bench, in hindsight a little to close to the edge, with a 3/16, longer than usual, drill bit in the chuck.  I carelessly caught it and it fell of the bench landing drill first (exactly vertical) in my left foot, having gone straight through a good leather shoe and stopping just short of the shoe sole.  Strange thing is, I have no recollection of pulling it out, only some surprise at how quickly my shoe overflowed.  An X-ray showed that the drill bit had slipped neatly between two metatarsal bones with no real damage.  Contrary to the usual H&S gurus opinions, I see no point in proffering advice for fluke accidents as I know from experience that nobody takes the slightest bit of notice.

Staged recreation of the drill through the foot incident

 I did however receive a text (one of many over the past year) offering to sue me on a no win no fee basis at absolutely no cost to myself.  These ambulance chasing 'lawyers' or whatever other dodgy profession they lay claim to, should be ashamed of themselves.  I may however take them up on the offer, just to waste their time.  Unless of course it can be proved that shoe manufacturer, Clarks are entirely to blame, disgracefully selling everyday shoes with leather so thin that it cannot withstand a puncture from a 3/16 drill with a 1.5Kg weight behind it, falling from a height 1 Mtr.

Next post mid February

POST 47 JAN 2013 MORE ELECTRICAL

My main task for the month is to finish the electrical work which I thought would be fairly easy, but it's going rather slower than I had expected, partly due to the large number of alterations and additions.
As mentioned in a previous post, I've replaced the Lucas dynamo with a Dynalite alternator which looks almost identical.  Producing 40 amps, it is a considerable improvement on the dynamo output of 25 amps and will also start charging at a much lower RPM.  However it still falls quite a good way short of a modern car alternator at 70 to 80 amps output.  This would not normally be an issue with a fifties car, but given the amount of junk I've added I need to be aware of it's limitations.
Take for example, theoretical power requirements on a very cold and wet night - Essentials first :

Head Lights - Halogen - 2 @ 65 Watt       11.0 Amps
Side Lights 4 @ 5 Watts                          1.7 Amps
Wipers                                                    3.3 Amps
Water Pump (Electric)                             10.0 Amps
Heater Blower (Max)                                8.0 Amps
Heater Matrix Pump (Max)                       1.3 Amps

Total circa 35 Amps based on 12 Volts (31 Amps at 13.5 Volts).

Add in 8 Amps for the radiator cooling fan (unlikely, but possible if stuck in traffic) and we are on, or possibly over the edge. With 80 amp hours of fully charged battery capacity and an 'off' switch for the heater fan, not really a worry, but not a good idea to turn on the spot lights, another 7.5 Amps.  The music system (at full whack a potentially massive 20 plus amps) is definitely out. Other odds and ends like phone charger, instrument and map reading lights (or sat-nav) are negligible, but it all adds up.

All of the push in type bullet connectors which are the source of endless problems after a year or two are being replaced with fully soldered joints.  Other terminations used are screw type terminal blocks in enclosures and modern high quality multi-way connectors to connect the dash-board, the small ancillary switch panel for indicators / spot light switches, and the switches and other bits hidden away in the central arm rest.  The plan to ensure none of the additions are visible seems likely to be realised.

Common but reliable termination block for lights and indicators.

With lid in place, enclosure is IP66 rated

Multi-way connectors make dashboard removal easy.

One wiring job I've not been looking forward to is the mess of cables and connections around the Voltage control box.  In addition to the very stiff and awkward original looms there are another twenty odd cables (immobiliser, indicators and new hidden fuse box feeds in and out, of varying gauge) which need to be terminated but all out of sight.  The key to a reliable termination for the RF95 control box and other screw down terminals is having unstressed cables which don't rely on the screw to hold them in place but sit naturally where they need to be.  It takes a good deal of time and some stripping back of the original looms outer cotton covering to achieve this. Even with the utmost time and care, I would have to say this is not a happy arrangement.

Only the original wiring on show

 Back in the early ninety's car theft in the North East of England was endemic, with joy riders stealing anything that was not reasonably protected from theft.  After-market car alarms and immobilisers were big business but their design and installation often left a great deal to be desired.  Trac Communications designed and manufactured one of the better products using a newly developed fob which transmitted a code into a receptor and then to a processor which in turn opened or closed a couple of relays usually feeding ignition and fuel pump circuits.  Certainly possible to work around by a clever lad with plenty of time and a good knowledge auto electrics,but sophisticated enough to stop 99.99% of half wit twoc'ers.  The product was picked up by the UK's biggest car security and  immobiliser company at that time.  Trac manufactured them on their behalf and did very well out of it.  Eventually it became the norm for manufacturers to fit their own devices to all new cars and production ceased, but a small stock of a few hundred were retained as spares / replacements but never used. Since then I've fitted one to every classic I have owned and given quite a few to other classic owners.  100% reliable, they will certainly stop an opportunist thief which is probably the most likely sort to nick your classic.  Needless to say, one is secreted within the innermost depths of the 120 with its confusingly identical mass of black unmarked cables.

Trac Immobiliser - at the cutting edge of theft prevention in the ninety's.

Miscellany

Slightly fanciful, but I came across this image by accident and couldn't help noticing the similarity in shape.

Next Post early February

POST 46 - JAN 2013 - ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

This part of the restoration is most closely related to my daytime job as a Communal TV systems Engineer.  Much easier in some ways because I'm simply dealing with 12 Volts rather than the losses and gains of various cables, amplifiers, switches etc. all at varying frequencies.

Batteries
The starting point for any automotive system has to be the battery and I have chosen to retain the original location but use two 12 volt batteries in parallel rather than two six volt in series.  Two advantages - a saving of around £100.00 and a gain of 30 Ampere Hours.  As long as they are the same and ideally both new and connected with very short fat cables, the problems associated with batteries in parallel will not be an issue. I purchased two Type 202 (the same number is used by most manufactures, Lucas, Varta etc.) rated at 40Amps and 350Amps Cold Cranking which when doubled should be very adequate for a 3.4 motor.  They sit a little lower than the original batteries but amazingly, the retaining bars are a perfect fit

One of the type 202 batteries in the original location - a perfect fit!

Ancillary Systems
The list of additional and upgraded electrical items, I will readily admit, has got out of hand, but reviewing it, there is nothing I want to omit so I just need to get a handle on it.  Having spent many hours over the years producing schematics and circuit diagrams, it's second nature to draw up exactly what I require.
It's an interesting exercise and and I should point out that it is still a work in progress but is now pretty close to how it will finish up

Circuit diagram for additions and upgrades
All still needs validating, but won't be far out.

Ancillary wiring harness
Rather than add wiring on an ad-hock basis, I made up an additional wiring harness incorporating every additional cable, and all to be kept out of sight.  This was eventually achieved by laying out the complete set of cables on the floor and first wrapping them in PVC loom tape, then cotton tape which looks very original.

Part of ancillary loom runs through sill with original loom

Alternator / Ammeter mods
One slightly tricky area to address is the problem of modifying the charging and power circuits to accommodate an alternator and still have the ammeter register both charge and discharge.  For obvious reasons, the starter motor feed is far too heavy to pass through the ammeter.  This in turn means that an additional heavy terminal is required for all power requirements except the starter motor.  However, if a gear reduction starter with internal solenoid is used, this effectively frees up the second heavy terminal on the original solenoid which is ideal for this purpose and is also in exactly the right place.

Note - Direct feed to fuse box is not routed through the ammeter
to minimise voltage drop to Halogen lights - see below

It is of course necessary to disable the solenoid and I achieved this by simply drilling a small hole through the hand operated 'plunger' and fitting a split pin.  The solenoid's starter terminal is also redundant because the feed from the starter button now goes directly to the new starter motor.

Solenoid - Cleaned up and manual operation disabled with
a split pin through the end of the 'plunger'

Halogen Headlights and relays
The next upgrade to deal with is the wiring requirements for halogen head lights.  Optimum performance is only achieved if they are served by their full design voltage (typically 12.8V) and light output diminishes by a factor of 3 with a reduction in that voltage.  For example, a 10% reduction from say 12.5 Volts to 11.25 Volts will reduce brightness by around 30%. (from approx 1,500 lumens to 1,050 lumens for a 65 watt rated main beam filament) which is probably only slightly better than a new original tungsten bulb.
The 120 power supply to the lights takes a fairly circuitous route from the battery.  Through the ammeter, then the voltage controller, light switch, dipper switch, fuse box and various nasty interference fit connectors, so the potential for high resistance and subsequent voltage drop is pretty good  (I would not be at all surprised to see one to two volts disappear on route).

Relays located in headlamp pods

My solution (hopefully), is to use the original wiring to switch a relay located close to to the headlights and fed by a heavy (27 Amp) wire direct from the battery feed terminal on the solenoid.  This should pretty well ensure that the halogen lamps are always fed by something closer to the full battery voltage, or even the slightly higher alternator output voltage.  Taking this feed through the ammeter again would rather defeat the purpose, so I just need to be aware that the headlights will not register a discharge.  Strictly speaking, conversion to an alternator means that the ammeter is now semi redundant anyway, and a discreetly placed volt meter will give a better indication of system performance and health if required.

Relays and heavy feed cable should give 50% more light

All of the above have been tried and tested in previous projects, but that doesn't mean that there is not an error in the drawings at this stage.  Only when the  it's all up and running will I be confident enough to suggest that it's 100% correct.

Miscellany
This post should have appeared around the 2nd of January but a series of events prevented that happening and subsequently caused me a great deal of hassle.  It started with me being unable to add pictures to this blog on my PC at home using the Internet Explorer browser.   I could however add them using an office PC which used Firefox.  I attempted to download Firefox onto my home PC but in spite of all manner of Anti-Virus Software it was quite literally Hi-Jacked / redirected by a nasty bug browser called MyStart by Incredibar, apparently a product of Perion Networks Ltd.  Reverting to Internet Explorer, 'incredibly' it had replaced that also, but did not appear anywhere in my lists of programs when I looked for it to remove.  This rubbish browser with endless pop up adds also suffered from the same issue re. adding pictures to this blog, presumably due to some change made by Google.  Consequently, on my home PC I seemed to be stuck with it.  These people at Perion are obviously very clever to be able to do this, but also incredibly stupid to allow this to sully their reputation (assuming they have one of course).  Not as stupid however, as the companies who presumably pay to advertise (or do they?) and by association will be universally despised along with Perion.  Ironically, using their browser I find a mass of posts all relating to this issue and all very cross.  Perion appear to be an organisation of some substance.  If they are in fact linked to My Start and can only get their products onto your PC by the use of malware, then I fear for their future - or am I being naive because this is the future?
One of our clever lads at work found and removed the horror without too much trouble so things are back to normal (unless MyStart Inrcedibar / Perion Networks Ltd knows better!).  I do take some comfort from knowing that approaching 5,000 people (assuming Googles Stats are to be believed) will have read this by the end of January

Next post Mid January

POST 45 - DECEMBER 2012 - EARLY LEARNING

A few days ago I was chatting to an acquaintance deeply involved in the Classic Car Concours scene.   I went to some lengths to explain what I hoped to achieve with this particular restoration and the reasoning behind the many upgrades.  He was clearly a little puzzled and asked, when did this urge to modify and hopefully improve bits of machinery first manifest itself?  Had there ever been a time when I felt truly content to the point of simply, riding, driving and enjoying whatever mode of old bike or car transport I owned at the time?
Looking back, I had to say, as far as I could remember, probably never.

Aged about three.  I am pretty sure that the Britool
ring spanner in the picture is the same one I borrowed
from my dad many years ago and still have and use.

This conversation spurred me on to dig out a short piece I wrote quite a few years back and illustrates the point rather well :

In 1961 I was 13 years old and a keen member, possibly even a founder member of the local track bike riders club. Not formally recognised as a club (not even by its members) it never the less had a quite definite set of rules and hierarchy.  It was I think the same year that I distinguished  myself by riding from home to school (about a mile) entirely on the back wheel of my very tatty old black bike.  Also in that year, I remember that success in the 11 plus exam had rewarded a friend with a brand new Raleigh Blue Streak Racing Bike.  A similar inducement from my parents had failed.  I suppose somewhat piqued, I couldn't help but remind him that his pride and joy was named after a failed ballistic missile design.  

With my new status as a teenager (just) it was obvious that something needed to be done to retain my perceived standing in the small community of Stokesley (as it was fifty years ago).  It seemed to me that the measure of a man (boy) was mainly determined by his bike and to that end, my well worn old screeve (as bikes were then locally known) would need some serious attention. 

The frame was duly stripped and re-painted with Humbrol black enamel.  Cow-horn handlebars and knobbly tyres were purchased from Westbrookes Garage, and then the ultimate accessory – a new back wheel with Sturmey Archer all steel 3 speed ball bearing hub and 28 tooth cog, a special order from Place's bike shop.   Total cost all in, about seven pounds.  At two shillings and thrupence (11P) a day from my milk round (6.30 to 8.00am, 365 days a year) this equated to over two months wages, a big outlay.  Life was hard... you know the rest.     Anyway, all was well for a while.  My re-furbished machine looked pretty good and performed very well on the various circuits around the towns beck-side but my slightly enhanced position in the pecking order was to be short lived.  The local Blacksmiths son (another founder club member) had also been busy re-building his bike and I was given a preview. 

Astonishment quickly turned to envy.  It had front suspension.  Now I know that the mountain bike fraternity generally believe that this development appeared around 25? years ago (no pedants please) but this 'son of a blacksmith' can lay claim to being a clear 20 or so years ahead of the game.  Close scrutiny of the design revealed the following:

The front forks had been turned round.  Telescopic tubes were fabricated from an old bike frame, the cross bar removed then cut in half and neatly slid inside the cut to length down tubes.  The tubes were squashed flat at the fixing ends and valve springs inserted down the larger ones to effectively form a sprung tube.  A ‘U’ shaped bracket had been made to hold the top of the spring tubes.  This was fixed to the top of the forks with a 1/4 inch bolt where the front brake was previously attached.  The scrap frames forks formed the swinging arm which pivoted on the bikes reversed forks and held the wheel and the bottom of spring tubes – Greaves / Dot style.   The front brake was now attached to the swinging arm forks.  Damping would apparently be considered as the next area for development.

In spite of my recent significant outlay, this new cycle technology really couldn't be ignored.  Fortunately, in the early sixties almost every home had at least one old bike frame in the back garden, so I dashed (almost certainly on my back wheel) home to my workshop (the wash house) and got to work with hack saw, hammer and hand drill. 

A couple of days later the bike emerged with a close technical facsimile of the previously described  front suspension, admittedly with some of the finer details omitted.Now for the trial ride.  The first thing I noticed was that the front wheel seemed strangely  disconnected from the handlebars.  The suspension actually worked quite well but went up and down in unison with pedal strokes.   My new found engineering acumen told me that wheelies (not a 1960’s term) would take a little more effort due to the additional weight of the re-constituted bike frame now attached to the front.  Not to be put off, up went the front wheel, then gravity kicked in, the spring tubes parted company and the valve springs fell out and “boinged” down the road.  Pedalling and balancing for a few seconds, I quickly acknowledged defeat and jumped off the back.

  Re-assembly by the roadside was fairly straight forward and off we went again.  The front brake was applied at the road end.  Up went the swinging arm, (now attached via brake blocks to the wheel), and the entire assembly parted company again.  Being approximately half my current weight and a little more agile, I once again landed more or less right side up.  Becoming quite adept  in the process of road side re-assembly, and considering myself on a par with aviation test pilots, undeterred I was  off again in no time.   So carefully avoiding wheelies and braking, how will it perform on some real bumps at speed.  The engineers amongst you should be able to calculate the next critical path, but probably not the outcome.   At the first bump, the  1/4 inch bolt holding the entire front suspension contrivance promptly snapped.  The bottom of the stem tube landed on the knobbly tyre stopping the front of the bike instantly.  The back of the bike (with me still attached) turned somersault as I shot over the handlebars.   Unlike the previous two incidents, this one really hurt.

It took a little while to resolve the teething troubles but they were eventually sorted.  Now armed with a high level of knowledge relating to spring rates and advanced suspension geometry, it was time to focus on the rear.  This was almost entirely my design, plagiarism being limited to the telescopic sprung tubes.  A gudgeon pin formed the pivot for the swinging arm, constructed from yet another pair of front forks (but somewhat modified).  The gudgeon pin was welded with some difficulty to the frame by a puzzled mechanic at Neasham’s Garage.  Similar complex technology as used for the front suspension provided the springing bits.  A Derailleur gear solved the problem of the chain constantly coming off, the cost of this being the only real expenditure for the entire suspension project.

   The bike (now the best part of 3 bikes) weighed quite a bit and the entire contraption now bounced up and down evenly in unison with pedal strokes.   I have a wonderful memory of a group of racing cyclists slowing down to pass me, each one totally transfixed as I nonchalantly laboured in first gear up Seamer Hill, bum out of the saddle, the whole strange affair oscillating happily.  

After a couple of years, girls replaced bikes and I gave the contraption to my then girlfriends brother, (in the hope of some interesting reward – from the girlfriend that is – not the brother).   Looking back, I really can’t believe that anyone could scrap such a wonderful thing.  I wonder where it is now.

Many thanks to good friend and artist Pete Baker for the illustrations

Next serious post about 120 progress - beginning of January

POST 44 - DECEMBER 2012 - HOT AIR REQUIRED

It's a shame that the comments facility on Google blogspot attracts mainly spammers.  Nothing malicious, just some automated system that sends positive anonymous comments to probably millions of blogs simultaneously in the hope that we will be flattered and might reciprocate, thus increasing their viewing numbers.  I can only guess that the motive is financial, linked to some dodgy advertising income.  Deleting this rubbish is time consuming, so comments for the time being are de-activated.  Get a grip Google!

One serious shortcoming in every old car I've ever owned has been the heaters inability to live up to it's name.  I've resolved the problem in my 140 fixed head by fitting a Mazda MX5 Matrix and blower unit.  It works at least 5 times better than the original but I feel could still be improved on.
My requirement for the 120 is in a different league.  I'm not too bothered about de-misting but on cold days the heater will need to send out a constant blast of really hot air to keep me, and in particular my legs (which are invariably cold) toasty warm. 
As the car wasn't fitted with a heater of any kind, my only constraint is to try to make whatever I fit, appear reasonably similar to the optional equipment item. I also want it to work a good deal better than some of the modern after market heaters currently available. 
So, two areas to consider - first is as big a matrix as I can possibly accommodate in the very limited space available and second is a a multi-speed blower, capable of shifting serious amounts of air through the heater matrix. 
There is absolutely no point in having a matrix filled with slow moving warm water, and that I believe, is a major reason why many old car heaters are so poor.  The colder the day, the less heat they appear to produce.  I think (hope) the solution to this is to use an electric booster pump (EBP).

Bosch Heater Pump with PWM control.  Just need to hide
the knob under the dash.

This will work in conjunction with my electric water pump conversion (see post 42).  The heater will have (when required) first call on the hot water supply, with the main water pump, radiator and fan topping up the cooling as and when required.  As with the main water pump, the heater booster pump will have pulse width modulation (PWM) control to set its speed, effectively allowing control of the temperature in the matrix. 

My interpretation of how this will look and work with both
Electric Water Pump (EWP) and Electric Booster Pump (EBP)
shown.  The graph relates to the EWP control only.

The matrix needs to be enclosed in a box mounted on the engine side of the bulkhead with it's output passing to the other side, the passenger compartment just above the gearbox cover, more or less as the original heater.  The largest unit I can find that will fit comes from Car Builder Solutions http://www.nfauto.co.uk/ and measures 8" x 5" x 2" high.  It also has its pipes running in the right direction for what I think will make for a neat installation.

£48.00 Heater Matrix from Car Builder Solutions

The worst part of the job is tackled first.  Not that it's difficult, but I hate cutting holes regardless of necessity.  It makes me feel a little better to know that this one is in the same place as the original would have been if the optional heater had been fitted, just a slightly different shape.

Hole for Heater Matrix output cut in bulkhead

Next I need to work out the design of the enclosure.  Air will be pushed into the top of the matrix from a blower which will be mounted under the passenger wing in a 140 style battery box.  The hot air will come out of the heater matrix into the cabin from two 3" vents, each with rocking and rotating vanes to direct the flow.  It may even be possible to fit an original heater cover over these (if I can find one)



Draw it first, half the fun, if like me you enjoy that sort of thing,
but still leaves some elements of 'making it up as you go along'



The enclosure is made from 1.5mm Aluminium sheet, cut, bent and riveted together.  Isopon sealed the joints airtight and high temperature silicone fixed the matrix in place and ensured no leakage between the input and output chambers. On completion, to check for leakage, I submerged it in water to see if any air bubbles emerged - none.

Inside of enclosure with chamber divider Araldited in place

Years ago I borrowed and used some cracking good and very clever 'sprung' rivets to temporarily hold sheets of aluminium together, mainly to allow accurate drilling of additional holes, but also to allow easy dismantling and de-burring before final assembly.  I lent the kit to someone and you can guess the rest.  I saw something almost identical advertised (again Car Builder Solutions) but under the brand name of 'Cleko'.  I bought the base kit, insertion tool and 10 1/8 inch Clekos and they were once again indispensable.

Side of heater matrix enclosure temporarily 'cleko'd' together.

Happy with the matrix enclosure, I give it a roughing up in my blast cabinet to ensure good paint adhesion, before applying a few coats of satin black to match the rest of the engine compartment.

Finished enclosure - Air inlet sits below bulkhead and has 4Nr
3/16 UNF inserts araldited on to allow fixing of 63mm flange
for flexible pipe from blower.

Water in / out side of enclosure

Finally in place on the bulkhead.  Just needs a couple of Smiths
Heater labels to fool all but the most astute XK aficionados.
The rivets will hopefully be less obvious without the camera flash.

The second part of the installation, the blower, to be ensconced under the passenger wing will be completed in February and finally, the booster pump and plumbing after the engine is re-installed, probably in April. 

Whilst I optimistically hope this will produce all the heat I could ever ask for, I am aware that it is at this stage mainly theoretical - The proof of the pudding etc.
My glass remains as ever, more than half full!!!

Rear wings and doors - Trial fit

Having secured the body to the chassis and carefully and continually checked the door gap measurement between two datum points, it's time to trial fit the rear wings and doors, just to ensure nothing major has occurred during the process. 

I also have the wing beading made up by the trim man so this is also trial fitted. Alex and Niel from Auto-Bodycraft arrive 7.00am prompt and spend a couple of hours hanging the doors and setting the gaps back up. Door and wing fit turns out to be as good as I have seen anywhere. The beading still needs a little 'tweaking'.

Doors will be taken off again to prevent damage, but I now
know for certain that the gaps and fit are excellent. 
Thanks to Alex and Niel at Auto-Bodycraft

Miscellany
Visitors invariably comment on the general tidiness of the workshop, but in reality they don't see the real mess it gets into on occasions.  I usually call a halt when I can't find things anymore.

Halfway through the heater enclosure job.  Picture proves that
it's not quite as organised as it sometimes seems.

Next Post Early January 2013