Jack's Stupid Bradford Questions - Part 1

[Jack]

Huge thanks to Keith for updating the software so that we can embed videos now (I can feel a whole new thread coming on!) as this was only mentioned at dinner after a hard few hours in the garage - before bedtime he had got it all done!

The weekend was a strange mixture of rugby matches (Saracens beating Clermont, very good news) and Bradford wiring. The wiring was much less exciting, but it is now proving that my two weeks of wiring was fairly optimistic despite my feeling we were getting there at the half way stage.

Most of the confusion centred around an earth connected to the wrong place on the regulator box. This lead to double checking of the wiring diagram, and showed that my wiring was exactly as shown on the bottom of the box on the thing. However, and this is a big however, the terminals shown in the wiring diagram are different to the terminals on the actual regulator box. Keith was left with the fun task of working out which wire was supposed to go where, as well as moving them about a bit on the box to make them work properly. Any restorers take note - the wiring diagrams are theoretically right, but in the real world are not to be relied on without understanding the circuits they are attached to.

Once sorted, we then tested the trafficators and the switch I had installed on the column. My original stalk with the buttons and switches was present, but on disassembly all the plastic just disintegrated. New switches can be bought for this, but given the odd layout and the two holes that I had in the dashboard already I decided to go with a simple aftermarket indicator stalk and a couple of switches on the dashboard for the dip switch and horn button.

Helpfully, the aftermarket stalk came with no instructions whatsoever, so I had a bit of a guess. When tested flicking the lever down resulted in the passenger side trafficator coming on, unfortunately when flicking the lever up the same thing happened. A bit of guessing, taking the switch apart to understand how it worked, wiring it, then rewiring it, and we had working trafficators and lever. 5 minute job turned into a lost hour, if not more.

Next job was the windscreen wiper, luckily a couple of wires went in and everything was splendid. It was mildly reluctant at first, and I wonder how much noise a wiper is supposed to make, but then it is right next to my head and it did improve a bit as things got back into the routine of working after 50 years in a box.

Home for the evening and not sure whether it is a productive weekend or not. It felt like I had got nowhere really, but at the same time the only electrics left to wire up are the dynamo and the rear light.

In other news, got to work and the A post was waiting for me, all the way from New Zealand. Looks good, and will certainly save me quite a lot of time trying to make something as complicated as this.

Jack.

[Jack]

Timber!



The workbench, as all workbenches should, showing the required can of coke, empty teacup, pot of unknown nuts and bolts and the all important great laptop of wise internet knowledge and ability to zoom.

Not much time in the garage yesterday, but I did manage to do some more timberectomy - this is now complete, with all the rotten nasty bits of wood now removed from the Bradford. I hope. I have gone round with a screwdriver and can't find any more rotten bits, but there is always a chance of a hidden bit of wood somewhere causing problems.

Luckily the rotten bits only extended as far as the top of the A post, and the wood above the door and across the top of the windscreen is solid. I have no idea why, other than clearly they have got wet and stayed wet for some time, so much of the A post is completely gone. I know the mirror holes apparently let in water, and perhaps the windscreen has leaked a bit, but surely it would rot the timber underneath the screen, and the rot wouldn't travel all the way up the A post? Who knows, but it definitely had to come out.

I got as far as testing the new A post for fit before being summoned for dinner again at 9, but the early signs are pretty good. Initially I wasn't sure if the screws would be visible, but I soon remembered the metal trim that goes over the top. Not sure if I will put the metal trim back on just yet, I might see how the wood comes out with a bit of varnish on it as it will be hidden when the door is closed anyway. Only when opening the door to get in will the nice grain of the wood be visible, but we will see.

The A post is looking like a fairly involved but probably not too difficult job given that I have the rough shape. It will need a bit of tweaking and some sanding to get just right, but fingers crossed it won't be too time consuming. To try and fabricate an A post from scratch, given the piece of wood I now have in front of me, would have been about a month of work I think, so I am very pleased to avoid that particular hurdle.

Today I think a journey to the exhaust company is in order, since the engine is now running and very noisy. They seem to sell components to basically make whatever exhaust you like, and for not a lot of money. The question to any Bradford owners is how loud is too loud? In the handbook it has the exhaust coming out in front of the drivers side wheel, which I think I will do to keep things simple, and I assume standard is a 2" outlet from the back box? How loud is that? Has anyone tried different exhaust designs on a Bradford, and how did they sound?

Jack.

[Jack]

Well, the trip to the exhaust company didn't pan out yesterday, we will see how today goes!

The late night garage visit was taken up playing with A posts, and with very little work it was in position and ready for a bit of tweaking to get it to fit the door nicely - though this is going to be a challenge I am reassured by comments from other Bradford owners which seems to suggest that the door fit on most is not a precise art, but we will do the best we can.

I am now debating whether to refit the threaded rod between the A post and bulkhead which was doing a very effective job of keeing the door on despite there being almost no wood left around the top hinge. Concours considerations aside, is it a good idea to replace this even with new A post, just to give the weight of the door some support and prevent sagging in future?

Luckily I didn't need the magic computer fairies to help me this time, rotated the picture all on my own!



Jack.

[Jack]

A night off yesterday to take Amy to see new Brad Pitt film, luckily it was about tanks and guns and other boy stuff.

Back to the garage tonight to find the throttle thingy, an email from doug rath in Australia showed me what I was looking for, and it was soon fitted and I now have a fully working and responsive throttle pedal.



Next up was refitting the dynamo, simple job, and the handbrake, surprisingly fiddly.

Back home for bed, rugby on tomorrow so quiet evening then busy weekend I suspect!

Jack.

[Jack]

Well Friday I managed before the rugby to get the radiator out to give it a good flush. Our local motor shop recommended a product I've never heard of over the usual brands, and it did seem to do the job. A fair bit of muck came out, and it was soon running clear with no obvious cold spots.

Today the rad went back in, with the new hoses going on after I'd cleaned out anything I could from the engine. Started it up and managed to get the idle speed adjusted. After a bit of running it came up to temp without any leaks or problems. Popped the air filter bend onto the carb, to keep me from dropping anything down there more than anything!

I had to abandon any more work to get a few bits done in the house, but progress seems to be ok at the moment and we will see if I can spare an hour or two tomorrow to get any more done.

Jack.

[Jack]

The idle from Idle: http://youtu.be/ZzrLdIZwkYM

[george garside]

should idle much slower so you can count the individual explosions!. It will rock on the mountings when idling correctly

george

[Jack]

Thanks George. I've tweaked it down a bit and now ticks over at a much slower rate.

Lunchtime meant the chance to get the new engine mountings fitted. Bit of faff, as always with these things, but they went on without too much fuss. The engine is now more solid on the chassis, and given the ease with which the old ones came apart I am pleased that I spent the few quid on these from JCS.

Later on I will have a test to see if the thermostat has come to life - I didn't know if it had stuck a bit or if the element bit had failed. Might be another call to JCS if the old one has gone. The water system seems to only have one leak, the engine end of the top hose is losing a bit of water, but otherwise radiator and everything else seems to be bang on - more good work from Ray all those years ago!

Jack.

[David Kemp]

Refit the threaded rod on the door post, it was a much used upgrade that worked well. It will help your car last another 50 years.

[george garside]

Jack, have you checked/replaced the torque reaction buffers. They are the same as on jav/jup and Daimler conquest!. F or what its worth I found rubber door stops worked just as well if not better. Attach them to the bracket with a large woodscrew screwed into the door stop.

definately agree with David re threaded rod



george

[Jack]

Refit the threaded rod on the door post, it was a much used upgrade that worked well. It will help your car last another 50 years.

Got it, and will do, thanks David - I conveniently have some spare stainless threaded rod in almost exactly the right length, so that will be the job for later this week! I suspect it will also help me with fine tuning the door fit, on the passenger side nipping up the bolt got the door closing much smoother than it did before.

Jack.

[Jack]

Jack, have you checked/replaced the torque reaction buffers. They are the same as on jav/jup and Daimler conquest!. F or what its worth I found rubber door stops worked just as well if not better. Attach them to the bracket with a large woodscrew screwed into the door stop.

definately agree with David re threaded rod



george

Hi George,

I have replaced these, JCS had them in stock and mine were in one case perished and in the other had nothing but the bolt still in place, no rubber at all. I hadn't thought about the door stop as a source of good solid rubber, but now I know for any other jobs that come up!

Thanks,

Jack.

[Jack]

The internet came to my rescue today, allowing me to work from home - just imagine trying to do that without internet and e-mail! That meant an early trip to the garage, and time to make some progress while feeling brave on the A post.

First job was to offer the door up to the post I had rough fitted. Luckily it wasn't a million miles out on the lower section, but further up the curves needed a little tweak to get the door fitting just right. After offering up the door I made a few rough marks and decided to have a go at cutting things back to size allowing a bit of spare for sanding if required to get it bang on. Good thing I did, because first pass with the jigsaw and I would have been in trouble if I'd gone any further! Almost nailed it first time, by pure chance, second attempt and the wood was in the hole:



The view from the front - check out the alignment of the bead down the side. Really chuffed with it so far.



And the view from the back, of the van that is. Next challenge for the week is how to get the hinges fitted without losing the alignment that we've got on the test fit. Lots of looking and thinking for me perhaps. So far my approach of walking away from any job that I am getting even mildly frustrated with is working quite nicely, coming back to it when I feel better about it and getting on with other stuff in the meantime. Get bored with the engine? Do some woodwork. Bored of exhaust fitting? Play with the brakes. It keeps things moving along without me getting annoyed with anything, after all it is supposed to be fun.

Jack.

[Chris Spencer]

So far my approach of walking away from any job that I am getting even mildly frustrated with is working quite nicely, coming back to it when I feel better about it and getting on with other stuff in the meantime. Get bored with the engine? Do some woodwork. Bored of exhaust fitting? Play with the brakes. It keeps things moving along without me getting annoyed with anything

An approach that I adopted 35 years ago and one that many vehicle restorers also adopt - there is the odd time though when you run out of other jobs and time is against you so you have no choice but to stick at it - my default option has always been to walk away from it for 10 minutes and have a cup of tea - then give it another go - chances are that you get it sorted - (Just don't let Mr Clements make the tea - that's the one thing that he is useless at)

[Keith Clements]

I wondered why so much tea was drunk.