Early Javelin Restoration

[Chris Spencer]

Meanwhile Keith has been busy sorting the handbrake - the fractures to the handle were welded up and strengthening added to the weak areas

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A new pin to retain the cable bracket was machined up in order take into account the strengthening webs added to the handle

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[Chris Spencer]

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Still to sort is the wear in the brake pedal yoke

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This will be welded up and re milled

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Whilst bodges from previous owners require a remake of parts like this gearbox selector rod

[Keith Clements]

The handbrake lever in all the ones I have seen has stress fractures emanating from the sharp angled slot cut for the ratchet quadrant. These creep towards the two holes cut for the pin that holds the handrake cable U shaped holder, and will eventually cause the lever to totally fail. Not happy with just adding a strenthening rod either side of the quadrant, I added a washer on the outside of each of the pin's holes. On most other repairs I have seen the pin has been replaced with a bolt, albeit with the pin's holes having to be moved to accomodate the ratchet finger between the pin and the lever casing. This is because the correct pin has a reduced diameter slot to allow the finger to reach the ratchet , but this also serves to locate the finger and keep it parallel with the ratchet. So a new longer pin was made on the lathe and the mill/drill with the slot cut after a trial assembly so that it accurately located the finger in the centre of the lever arm.
This shows the ratchet finger installed.


This shows the slot in the pin more clearly.


The brake pedal wear is shown clearly here.


And one of Chris pouring the gooooo.


Also note that as well as sealing any pin holes in the tank, the fuel tank sealer will stop rusting from the inside which is acclerated by ethanol petrols and by the standing of petrol in infrequently used classic cars.



Finally, just to add that for accurate location of the leaks we brushed on soapy water to reveal bubbles where there were leaks, with presurization of the tank accomplished by using an air gun down the filler tube that was partially blocked with rag.

[Keith Clements]

108 pieces of beautifully polished chrome picked up today. Just three new door handles to be purchased which hopefully will match this new chrome. Some of the Mazak retains its patina with a few small holes. Perhaps these could have been filled with a lot of effort, to make them better than new. The permanent answer would be to get the parts made by 3d printing which I will try to investigate further.

[Keith Clements]

Hinges and brackets grit blasted and primed today.

[Keith Clements]

Spent an hour or two trying to find the screws, then a die and then on the web for both. Most unusual that the petrol gauge sender uses 6 of these, but I eventualy found a source http://www.ba-bolts.co.uk/steelcheese.html
Chris and I borrowed some from Jack's bits to do the pin hole test on the tank. But they do have a habit of shearing after 60 years in the muck. I have a good set of BA taps and dies but the 3 BA die was missing.

My 'almost local' tool shop does a High Speed Steel die, but is nearly £12. http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/sh000 ... e_2e_2e_2d
Carbon Steel ones are half the price from various sources including BA bolts.

[RichardvanBuul]

For what I know, in the past ( 1948- 1952/1953?) Bradfords and Jowetts have been assembled in new Zealand by Arthur Turner and his sons in central Auckland in Greys Avenue, now Aotea square. In 1951 assembly shifted to the Passenger Transport building in Otahuhu on the corner of Great South road and Fort Richard Road.
These facts are written in the Book: "Assembly New Zealand Car Prodution 1921-98". Could this have been an knocked down pakkage car built up later?
An imported second hand sold and licenced again later on could also be a possibility.

[Keith Clements]

Well, having honed my skills on sorting Marcel's fasteners, I started sorting through the various boxes containing Rhowina's little bits. The problem was slightly easier because most items were not rusted, but with such a varied rebuild history almost any thread type was possible. Armed with Mike Allfrey's synopsis, the parts book and a large spreadsheet the major items were sorted.
I must admit it would have been much better to do this on disassembly rather than now when specifying the use of some parts is not that easy!

One problem is that the parts book does not identify all the fasteners and their quantity. A few domed set screws, eventually identified as fixing the window winders, defied the usual identification methods. But thread gauge revealed 24TPI and diameter as 7/32. This means a Whit thread but these bolts have not yet found a supplier. We may not need one as our 'stores' should contain some. But worth noting! If any of the winders have stripped threads then finding a tap could be a challenge.

A common problem is that without such diligence the wrong thread type will be used or will be retapped with the incorrect thread. Then, if the fastener is subsequently removed, the problem can be compounded when it is put on a similar location, ruining yet another fastener. If a fastener does not go on easily or is loose then check with a tap or die or just look to see if the thread is clean. There is a danger that an incorrect fastener will fail in service.

[Keith Clements]

The pedal and gear linkage were welded up. Hole was milled and threads redone .

Some tidying up ready for spraying at the weekend.

Tomorrow I will try to assemble all the parts together and find those still missing. Wouldn't it be great if you could put a microdot identifier on each one when it came off and have a device to find it before reassembly!

Whilst at Retromobile in Paris at the weekend I found a stall with BSF and Whit Taps and Dies to my surprise. A large selection, but no 7/32 whit

[Keith Clements]

One day was spent removing old and fitting new trunnion bushes. Not an easy job as they were pressed on and have since rusted even tighter. First the press was used to remove the outer sleeve and rubber. Then a disk metal cutter and air saw were used to remove the inner sleeve.
After cleaning the shaft with emery cloth the nylon bush was trial fitted part of the way. A small amount was removed with emery cloth to get a push fit.
The outer front ring was trial fitted, but the new bush needed about 5 thou removing off the diameter to obtain the desired tight fit. On one ring there was a dent, presumably caused by the heavy force used to remove it from the car, so this was filed circular and polished with emery cloth. By tight, I mean that the ring would just move with the light tap of a mallet. The rear rings are clamps so the fit can be adjusted on assembly.
The aim is to get the small amount of rotation needed by the front suspension arm to occur by slippage of the outer ring on the bush rather than the inner surface of the bush.


The front bushes

What they replaced

The rear bushes

[Keith Clements]

[Chris Spencer]

The day job has been slowing things down a little so time to play catch up - Keith has been very busy behind the scenes prepping all the mechanical bits / brackets / running gear etc - I spent the day just readying everything for paint - parts were keyed up with scotchbrite before being wiped over with panel wipe - threads / nipples / shafts / tapers were masked with tape accordingly

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[Chris Spencer]

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Rear axle was placed so that I could gain access all the way around it

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Although the petrol tank was now repaired there was the odd cosmetic ding to the visible underside of it - I had lead loaded the deep dents so it just required a skim across them to finish the process - this was sanded back prior to paint

[Chris Spencer]

Then on with the paint

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Keith kept passing the parts to me - fortunately there is a large industrial extractor fitted in the corner of the bodyshop which takes the vast majority of the sprayed dust / vapour out of the air - I would then pass the painted item back to Keith for rehanging

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3 litres of zinc phosphate primer later - I hope to get everything into colour a little later this week all being well - but with my day job and the current flooding situation - you never know from one day to the next

[Chris Spencer]

I spent several hours late afternoon / evening applying 4 litres of satin finish chassis black to this lot

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Keith once again acting as my assistant passing the parts to me - once sprayed I handed them back to Keith for careful rehanging to the drying racks - all parts had a light keying with a scotchbrite pad and was then wiped over with panel wipe prior to paint

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