815 coupe restoration

[Kevinlincs]

It's not all doom and gloom though, some sections are still in great shape! The car has at some point in it's fairly recent history sat outside and had water fill up the sills so no real surprise that the bottom few inches are in such a state.

Centre sill under construction.

[lancianut666]

Turning into an Epic resto this one Kev...keep those pictures coming!
Clarkey

[lancialulu]

Write it up for vl please.

[Kevinlincs]

Yes, it certainly will end up being an epic I can see, not that I can take much credit for anything yet! Dan is making great progress, new sections going in to make the sill area/box section strong again and rust free.
I did get a message today saying there's a lot more rot and rust up in the toe board and down around the subframe mounts, all of which will be tackled in whatever way Dan sees fit. I trust him to do the job well and I too am looking forward to seeing it pregress.

Now things are starting Tim I could draft something and send it in, see if it's to be considered worthy.

[Kevinlincs]

The central cross member is now fully under construction, as much as the original to be saved but if any parts are.in any way dubious Dan is removing and remaking, exactly the way I would wish it so happy to leave him to do as he decides fit.

Refer back to the previous page and you'll see this section has the seat mounts but also provides a lot of torsional rigidity to the floor and body shell in general.
Love that he insists on making the dimples in pieces that nobody will really ever see. I know they look smaller than the ones on the original remaining section, but again look back at the original, that's how they were!

[Kevinlincs]

Car is now on the rollover frame so Dan is starting to make headway on the underside, so much easier and nicer to work than way than laid underneath.
A couple of pics that he sent me today of the area around the drivers rear footwell and the rear spring hanger mount which obviously needs to be solid!
The new looking repair piece above the spring hanger studs I believe is the part he repaired before from inside the car.
I'm liking that he's recreating the round and long impressions in the repair sections, should make it look more like it hasn't been got at ...the red oxide painted floor pans came from Dave Gee last year, really has saved a lot of time so thanks again Dave 
I'm actually going up to Dan's place near Market Rasen tomorrow to have a look, Dan is actually wondering if we are getting in a bit deep, or more than he's warning me of the fact and trying to keep my eyes open to what's going on and how much more work is needed than first thought, is it ever less? I'm hoping that it doesn't get too out of hand, I had hoped to have enough budget left to pay for a pro paint job but that may have to change. I've sprayed a few cars now, my own and for other people so it's not a concern if that ends up being the case cost wise, but it will mean more time and effort on my part.

[Kevinlincs]

Had a positive meeting with Dan yesterday afternoon, think he'd been a bit worried about how much extra work was being unearthed and the estimate going skyward!
I've been here before so knew it was only going to be that way, they're never better overall than you think, so I think he was relieved that I'm happy for him to continue in the way he is going as in trying his best to make repair sections with the pressings as similar to original as he can. This all takes time of course, it would be much simpler and quicker to weld in flat repair pieces which if I was doing it then that would most likely have been the case, the extra hours needed to make a more original looking panel I'm happy to accept will inevitably cost me more but will end up in a better finished product.
Another potentially great bit of news is that he has a guy who sometimes works for him or in his unit and they are talking of being able to spray the car too, other guy is a retired bodyshop man and he's seen the Flavia a few times at Dan's place and wants to be involved as he's never worked on one before, always nice if someone wants to do a job rather than having to do the job.
If the paint thing happens it will save me a load of work, I was thinking that I may have to use all my spare time/weekends travelling to my unit to do it myself, once I'd constructed a building to do it in of course!

[bobhenry999]

Blimey Kevin !

No one could ever question your commitment, good for you, it looks like things are coming along nicely, just stick with it and you will have a wonderful car at the end as all of us old serial Flavia owners know.

Bo

[Kevinlincs]

I'm actually enjoying having someone else do the majority of the work! So no big commitment needed from me yet, apart from prising my walet open!
I may though have jumped the gun a bit re the paint guy friend of Dan's, seems he's not fully on board with taking the task on whih I can't exactly blame him as he is now retired. Means I may yet be painting the car myself. Which I won't mind to be honest, it'd be nice to have some involvement and the painting stage I do enjoy unlike the welding stage!
Colour choice I had narrowed down to around 6 of the available for the time so I went to my local suppliers armed with the list and the hope of buying a 1/4 litre of each and doing test spray so I can see what they look like, unfortuneatly they only have the formula for one shade now, Grigio York. A few enquiries and they found a code for Tor de Valle but no formula, another call to a PPG agent armed with the code also drew a blank, it seems the ingredients list needed to blend the paint is no longer available. I would be grateful if anyone has access to the data maybe?

[Kevinlincs]

The front toe board has been made and fitted, this is the area under your feet when driving, under the pedals.
This area also encompasses the reinforcement that the subframe bolts to, a fair proportion of which has been replaced.
Dan asked if I mind if all the circular indents are recreated or not, I have decided not. It would be time consuming (expensive) to make a tool just to do the pressings as they are different to the ones in the rear floor, as both sides will ultimately be replaced it will look symmetrical so I'm more than happy with the outcome.

[Kevinlincs]

Whilst the welding is still ongoing, the whole floor on the passenger side is being cut out and all around the toe board like the drivers side so it's all fresh and rust free I've been busy in my shed building the engine up.
All has been going ok with the new piston rings etc and the heads went on without issue so it came to the task of doing the camshaft timing which seemed like quite a complicated task so I wasn't looking forward to it.
The cams have a series of holes in them with a similar setup in the pulleys, but a different number in the pulley so that multiple adjustments can be made to get the timing right.

[Kevinlincs]

As there are no timings marks or keyways as such it's quite an odd process to time the camshafts.
First off the inlet tappet for cylinders 1 and 2 need setting to 1.03mm. The cams are then rotated until the tappet clearance goes down to 0.03mm then the cam is in the right position. With the crankshaft set to the timing mark the chain and pulleys can go on.
Now this is where it gets tricky.
There is a small pin that goes through the pulley and locates in one of the holes in the camshaft, then being offset with each other means at least one will line up.
The tricky bit comes from keeping chain tension enough so that when it is all assembled that everything lines up still, so that when the crankshaft hits the mark the aforementioned tappets are at the right clearance meaning the cam timing is right.
One camshaft lined up perfectly but the left side cam was always a shade out whatever I did, always a flywheel tooth out whatever combination I tried.
It took a while to dawn on me that you need to rotate the pulley around the chain another tooth so that it aligns a different hole set in the cam. After a few trial and errors I hit on the right combination and now both are perfectly timed.
Quite an elaborate and probably over complicated way of doing things but it's not nearly as bad as I feared.
The new chain is getting a good coating in build lube, a sticky substance that prevents rust build up and provides good lubrication until the oil fully circulates.

[Kevinlincs]

I was going to leave the front timing cover off so I could the chain as near to starting as possible but on looking closer there is an oil hole from the main crankcase into the housing so once oil is in the sump it will flow into the cavity to around the level of the chain run at the bottom so will coat it all well, so I have coated it in the Lucas engine build lube for now and fitted the replacement cover that came from Dave Gee to replace mt cracked one, thanks again Dave for saving the day. 

All the cooling system connections, inlet manifold plus anything else that needed a good clean then went into the parts washer to clean off the years of baked on oil and grime.

This part though looks like it may be a drain for the coolant but I can't figure out how. Does the long tube come off or twist somehow? I need to get the banjo bolt out so will apply some gentle heat, but nothing flows down the longer pipe so I'm not sure how it works or what it's for ...

[Kevinlincs]

The part directly opposite the longer pipe is just a circular hole, which again doesn't go anywhere or allow liquids through.
Any ideas?

[frankxhv773t]

Comparing it to a Flaminia, is the long pipe just the handle of a drain tap? I'm thinking that rotating the long pipe might open a passageway for water to flow out the hole in the bottom. Flaminia ones are prone to seizing solid.