Lambda....the journey begins!

[Dikappa]

David,

I think that would be a great solution too, my problem is off course that when I bought the car the body came already painted, which sort of limits my options....now I only need to carefully replace the rivets, which as far as I learned from google, is done cold for these small sizes...  I'm going to order some and learn how to properly use them, all new to me!

[DavidLaver]

"For me it would more be an optical thing, to give it a more finished and racy look....."

Go for it !!!!

(My reason NOW for pushing that way is so I can enjoy watching you engineer a blind to blank the radiator).

 

[Dikappa]

As before I can mount the fuel tank I must have at least the rear electrics in place, I thought I should think a bit about rear light mounting brackets and connected to that a position for the number plate.  The rear lamps (of Fiat Topolino furgone origin apparently) also have an incorperated number plate lamp so it would be nice to use that one.

As I didn't feel like attaching them directly on the body, nor wanted to have 'loose' wiring to the lamp units, I devised a bracket out of a 13 mm pipe that is attached to the underside of the car, out off sight.
In one go I also made a numberplate holder, and sort of hope this will be accepted by the Belgian MOT.  (in Belgium numberplates are incredibly big and ugly nowadays, and if there is not enought room for a big one, you can ask as an exceptionto use a motorcycle one instead)  I made the plate slightly bigger then a motor cycle plate....

Opinions on the height of the position of the lampunits welcome.  I fixed 'm now with two tiny welds, so can still alter.  First I thought of having them about 6 cm lower, but I think the higher they are the bigger the chance oncoming traffic sees the stop lights.....(it will be difficult to find an acceptable way of fitting a 3rd stop lamp on this car IMO)

Another matter that got resolved is the the rear spring brackets.  Both of these had a worn out the inner hole (normal 16mm).  Strangely enough the outer one is OK on both brackets.  As one of them is still attached to the car, and painted, I needed to find away to drill out the inner hole to an oversize, in order to later on fit a flanged bushing to bring it back to a perfectly centered 16mm.  I had a special ring turned that can be clamped in the rear compartment, with a 6mm hole, that centers the small hole saw I discovered on the internet.  As the shaft was then too short I made a holder, giving me the chance to make the outside diameter 16mm, so that( it centers in the forward hole.  All went smooth with the electric drill so a nice perfectly centered 22mm hole is now ready to receive the bushing....

[JohnMillham]

Can't find any reference to it, but are you still looking for one of these? If so, one of them is yours. Let me have your address and I'll pop it in the post. It might take a day or two, as I'm not allowed out and will have to get someone to post it for me. Which one?
Regards, John

[Dikappa]

Dear John!  That seems to be just right, and I saw the bottom part in the parts wanted section.  Which one: keep the best one for yourself as a spare I would say.

I hope you did'nt have to canibalize a good magneto for that?

I'll send a seperate mail, thanks John!

[Dikappa]

You probably all think I fell asleep or something?  Past Corona real work more and more catches up with me...not a bad thing off course, but it limits Lambda time...although some things have been adressed meantime, like finisching the drawings for the windscreens, the laserwork has been ordered and will be ready sometime during the coming week.

Also this week John's regulator housing arrived in the mail, a very big THANK YOU for that!!!!!
So yesterday evening I just couldn't resist and set to fitting it.  I had to make a small fat aluminium adaptor plate for the modern regulator that was fitted inside the scintilla box, and rework some cables.  Also John's box turned out to be laid out for a smaller diameter generator housing, so I had to mildly adjust the diameter to get a good fit.
This morning fitted the houding and it looks much better!  The brass cover wll get some attention and painting later, to make it look even better.

I send the intruments to a restoration service, as this is something I really don't see myself bringing to a good end.  One of the zamac/mazak frames of the speedo appears to be in poor shape, and the dial of the rpm counter needs to bee sourced of replicated, so I fear this will be a costly affair....

[Dikappa]

Strugling a bit to find time to work on the Lambda, but this afternoon a little progres was made...
The laser cut parts to finish of the radiator surround reinforcement came in that seemed like an ideal small job.

Folowing the poll I finally decided to cut the desired holes in the 3mm plate, and then refitted it with the welded together angles pieces.  This pieces precisely fill up the space between the new reinforcement plate and the sides of the radiator frame, and I hope they thus help to transfer the forces induced by the supension directly into the reinforcement plate. (I had to cut the new plate less wide than the original one because due to it's rigidity I could not flex it to get it inside the radiator surround, thus it was 3mm away from the original sides)

Hope this makes sense, otherwise some pictures will hopefully do.

With everything in place and botded up the holes for the rivets were marked, and after removal drilled and countersunk.

All ready for a blast and paint now.

Also did some experimenting with the steel rivets and an air hammer, and decided this is not the way to go on an already painted car.  Next week I hope do build a home made hydraulic rivetting tool, watch this space!

[Dikappa]

Last week I found some time and decided it was time to tackle some mechanical jobs.
I already reconditioned the steering gear before, and filled it up with Penrite steering box lube, but as it was probe mounted in the car it soon became clear there were several leaks.  Talking (read: e-mailing....) about this to Iain Simpson in Australia he strongly advised to convert the housing to accept modern lip seals and to turn a groove into the big adjuster nut for an O-ring (indeed it was leaking there too...)

This turned out to be a rather straightforward turning job so I did as he suggested.  Last week friday I assembled it again, with loctite for the flanges and copper washers on both sides of the bolts (leaking even there!) and filled it up again.  We were out for the weekend and on my return I was very disapointed to find oil under the steering gear again!  Closer inspection learned that the now remaining leak was due to a fault in the casting where the lower positioning bolt is.  Instead of taking it apart again I decided to simply turn two grooves in the positioning bolt (which is an offset affair and non original anyway, and stop the leak with two additional O-rings there.

Also some work done in preparation of assembling the rear axle.  The shaft in the diff for the sattelites was worn out, and will be replaced by a piece of 25mm hardchromed bar.  Drilling the holes in it was rather adventourous using 'any material' stone drills, but it worked OK, and the same drills were used to drill out the holes in the new crown wheel to the desired 9mm (the later diff's use larger bolts)
I then still had to make the oil grooves in the shaft, on which the machinist advised: "just use an angle grinder and cut 'm in by hand."
Now that I found a bit crude so devised a way to get more control on the business: real metalworkers beware as this could be shocking images!!!!

[Mikenoangelo]

I once had to put a spiral oil groove in the vertical shaft which drives the overhead camshaft of a Brescia Bugatti. I mounted a small air powered grinder on the tool post of my lathe and set up the gearing of the lead screw of the lathe so as to get the correct mm per turn of the groove as the carriage was advanced. I put a handle on the lead screw and my wife turned that, which moved the carriage and through the gearing, rotated the chuck while I operated the grinder. Amazingly it worked, although we did not get quite as nice a result with the hardened steel shaft as I had when practicing on a piece of mild steel.

I did not take a picture of the method but here is the result, the new shaft at the top and the original below. I had to make the new shaft because a previous owner had hard chromed the the shaft above the gear to fit the bronze bush, thereby making it impossible to remove the worn out skew gear for the magneto drive cross shaft! I had to make a new bush and the driving dog at the top, both of which were oversize to fit the chromed shaft.

For me this is half the fun of restoring old things.

Mike

[Dikappa]

High time for an update.  Lot's of real work interfered with working on the Lambda, hence the long silence.  This does not mean nothing has happened: the diff got mounted in the mean time, and I'm working now on the conversion of the pinion housing to use tapered bearings. (no pic's, I'll make some next time)

I also tried to really finish off some previous work, in blasting and painting the body reinforcement behind the seats, finishing the 'cable operated stops' for the roof support, and re-installing all that.
Another long pending item was a suitable bracket for the spotlight, and a way to fix it to the body.  This had to be done before final blasting and painting of the windscreen support bracket, which is now hopefully definitely fitted....

Last week I made up the wooden boards behind the pedals, trimmed the holes in 'm for the pedals, and primed and painted together with the front floor boards and the panel behind the seats.  I also made up a lock to fix the latter panel into position, so that hard braking will not cause everything in the luggage compartment to come out!

It always amazes me how much time small items like this take to properly make, trial fit, take out again for painting and refitting....which often makes me wonder how much money it would cost to have this done professionaly....

Today I finally fitted the floorboards and cut the rubber mats to size, and again, making up the surrounds for the pedals in aluminium took up a good part of the time, but happy with the result.
I now find the (new) rubber mats looking much too shiny, but a quick test blasting them with glass bead gives them a much more matt appearance!

Another thing that took some thinking was finding a good way to do the riveting of the front frame reinforcement.  I ordered tru the internet some adaptors to do this using an air hammer/chisel, but found this way to brute to use on the already painted body, and the result was also highly depending on how good the 'counter weight' was being held....this led me to test if the hydraulic press would cope with it's 25 tons power, and it did the job perfectly.  Since it was impossible to bring the car to the press, I turned up a holder for the hollowed tool to fit in the treaded cylinder of the press, and welded up a bracket to hold the cylinder.  It is a massive and heavy piece off equipment, but I tested it and it works a treat!  It will be a two man job however....

[Dikappa]

One and a half day uninterupted Lambda time, now that was a long time ago!

Yesterday I finally fitted the footboards, and glued the rubber mat to them (I left it in one piece for now)  It then took some final adjustments to the pedals to get everything going without too much interference at the pedal surrounds, but all seems well now.
Prior to fitting the rubber I blasted it with glass beat, as I found it way to shiny...that wouldn't have lasted long anyway, but I like the matted look much better!

This morning I started on the roof support bar, which has been lying on the bench way too long.  I made up the end pieces out of solid 30x15 mm steel bar, with a more pronounced bend in them to better match the curve of the body.  Took quite a bit of a lever to get the bend in!  I then ground it more or less into shape before cutting it to lenght and weld it to the elliptic tube.  Then final grounding till the result looks acceptable.  For the fixing scews a piece of solid metal was welded into place inside the tube, as I found the 1.6mm wall thickness a bit thin...

Time left over was used to properly paint the radiator reinforcement plate.

Happy with the progress...

[Dikappa]

Even with the news that Fobello 2021 will be postponed to 2022, which means one year extra to finish of the car, I felt something had to be done today.  Yesterday I already prepared the rivets and set the press up, and today with help from son and later daughter (no screens so very very very very boring it is to help papa......) I got the rivets in.  It took two modifications to the C-press to get it to do the job right...so the nice yellow colour is now less nice but it did the job!
More imoprtant is that I feel the rivets are very well compessed with no er little damage to the paintwork.  Later on I'll touch up the rivets with a small brush...

More was done: I drew up a little 'rotating contact' for the horn wire in the steering shaft, it is swiftly written down but took me a few hours to come up with a solution and make the drawings...

The rear diff pinion housing got some sort of Bill Smith modification to create a better oil flow to and from the front bearing.  All rear axle parts will be delivered to a specialised guy in Holland who will assemble it and set it up.  We planned to do this together so htat I could learn about it, but with covid now in fifth gear again we decided to be carefull.....a great learning opportunity missed....

You will notice a second Lambda in the background, which is not mine and is merely a visitor as he owner wanted to check out my roof support system and see if he would copy it.  The car is one of the three Casaro copy's and has exactly the same body.  The story is all three were built during winter in the dining room of a hotel in Italy.....
For me it is a welcome visitor, very nice to be able to check out some details....

[Dikappa]

We have a saying in Belgium  'Met passen en meten wordt veel tijd verscheten'.  A liberate translation: measuring and fitting a lot of time is wasted, which was certainly true today.  Before finally mounting the steering box I wanted to tick one item of the list, and come up with a good solution for the claxon wire connection.  Not sure how this was originally, I only found a bit of completely rottened reddisch plastic tube in the shaft when cleaning the steering gear.
As the shaft is rotating but the screwed on end cap is not I decided to make a rotating contact.

In the rotating shaft comes a plastic sleeve in which a brass contact piece is fitted (with a 3mm hole and a little srcew to fit and fasten the wire to the horn button)
In the end cap, which has a 12mm hole, I also fitted a plastic sleeve with a brass core, in which at one side fits a 6mm carcon brush I stole from an old distributor cap, and on the other side has a connection for the wire.

It has a little step to center a spring which keeps this assy under pressure to prevent it from wanting to rotate (as the plastic sleeve was a press fit into the end cap this was probably not necessary)

After fitting it all together the Ohm-meter confirmed we had a go!

This was an excellent exercise for my non existing lathe skills, but as I now invested in some proper tooling I find it very rewarding to make such things up, even if it takes me a ridiculous amount of time....

If anyone is interested in this mod I have a dwawing of the parts....

The rest of the day (not much...) was used to make a proper housing for the electric fuel pump, which I want under the car, where it should be.  I found a suitable location just behind the rear axle, where there is a void above the floor level so well protected.

[Dikappa]

Today a milling exercise!

Last week I had a well known Lambda restorer on visit, (Leo Schildkamp) and he promptly spotted a missing part, that I was not aware of.  It is a little plate that sits at the underside of the rear spring package, and keeps the two U-bolts in position.  It all seems very logical now, but thanks to Leo for spotting this, as I would have mounted the springs without.  The dangers of buying a basket case car....

[Dikappa]

High time for an update!

Although not everything always goes according to plan good progress has been made.  After mounting the steering arm I found too much play in the center position of the steering gear, and even after trying several positions I did not get it to my liking.  I thus took the spare steering gear apart, which looked much more promising I must admit.  (the first one came dismanteled with the car and I found it better to put that one together)
So the whole process of cleaning, blasting, making anti oil leak mods, painting and reassembling was done again, and hura, a much tighter result!
That being done the next step was to fit the steering column.  Since the mounting hole in the dash for the bearing holder had been lowered, fitting it with the original spring proved quite a challenge, resulting in several mounting/dismounting operations and (slight) modifications to the bearing carrier to take up more 'angle'.  In the end I quickly welded together a special tool which allowed just that little bit of extra power to compress the spring and get the nut seated properly.  Available if anyone needs it!

More cleaning and painting was done, not very interesting, but this resulted in the assembly of some steering parts and the rear brake transfer shafts, which are now ready for installation.
I did the final preps, cleaned up damaged treads of the rear axle housing and shafts, before taking it to a friend in Holland for final assembly.  Three days later the good news came that the rear axle is ready!
The rear axle is now using tapered bearings, and has the Bill Smith mods for better oil flow to and from the pinion bearings.

This prompted me to spend some time on the little brake actuator camshafts.  Getting the rear ones, that were in a miserable state, disassembled proved a real challenge.  I ended up using a disk grinder to get the completely locked up rollers and shafts out, and assembled with other shafts and rollers....all cleaned now and ready for fitment to the fresh axle.

Today some time was spend on assembly of the fuel pump assy, which will be fitted under the car on the drivers side, and the construction of a spare wheel carrier.