Great SC rebuild.......

[Jack]

Well, tonight started fairly late for me and Amy, and finished fairly early as we're both getting pretty exhausted with work and car and not much else in between!

Amy managed to get the holes drilled for the floorboard, which is now ready to be painted. We had to do a bit of thinking to get the holes in all the right places, and it should be good for the rigidity of the car once bolted up. All it needs now is a coat of paint, which should be going on tomorrow.

We do need to drill the board for the seat runners, unfortunately these are in the old Javelin which is rather well blocked in by Keith's Jupiter in the garage, so this may have to wait until we've made a bit more progress with the wings and other bits and we can move the other Jupiter to get to them. Or something. The steering wheel is in the same car, so when we get access we can finish off the interior fairly quickly.

I spent a bit of time fitting the headlight bowls very carefully with the fresh new paint on the bonnet, a new gasket was made for one and a good condition original was found for the other - Keith fitted the headlight bulbs and the front end is really taking shape now. I hooked up the wiring from the bowls to the wiring loom, so once the chrome goes on the headlights should be ready to roll! The lights are slightly yellow for continental use - opinions welcome on whether this is likely to be a problem at MOT? I'm sure we'll get through, even if we get an advisory for them, the tint is very minor really, but anyone with experience of this please shout.

Chris was working on amongst other things the trim for the inside of the windscreen/dashboard, the trim that covers the screen heater outlets with slots in it and the other trim parts. The dedication of the man is quite something, every night this week he's been there before us and left after us, I don't think he's going to be allowed to buy himself a drink through the entire rally at this rate

Jack.

[Leo Bolter]

Here's a thought for when you are doing your final titivations. That’s when you have that spare day or so after all the "essentials" for the drive to the Rally are complete! (See http://jowett.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7979#7979 ).

You guys are all HEROS . . . This effort will go down in Jowett history, I'm sure! You are achieving in a couple of months that which took me about 4 years to do . . . and doesn’t the car look beautiful, even at this stage.

I’d have loved to have been part of this team, but although you haven’t seen me hovering about I can assure you that I “visitâ€

[Chris Spencer]

Sunday 9th May: The windscreen on the SC is quite different in the type of fitting than that of the SA - Chrome metal trims are not involved - instead a new windscreen rubber was made up from a endless roll which Kieth had obtained from Edgeware Motor Trim. This is known within the trade as a 'Lip in Rubber' - care must be taken to mitre the two bottom corners of the rubber - fit the rubber to the frame - leave plenty of overlap on the two bottom corners - if the rubber keeps creeping off the frame tape it on with masking tape. Mark the mitres in the corners on to the rubber with masking tape - (The rubber when cut in section looks like a H section) - the narrow side accepts the steel windscreen frame and the wide side takes the windscreen glass. If the tape keeps coming off the rubber - degrease it with some panel wipe !! - Cut the corner mitres with a sharp blade - you can leave the remaining windscreen rubber on the frame - just put something soilid under the area of rubber you are cutting - i.e. - a peice of timber.

With the rubber cut - trial fit your mitres - adjust / trim if required - degrease the each side of the mitre - refit to the frame - carefully superglue the mitred rubber together whilst on the frame - clean up etc - result a windscreen rubber that looks like it is factory produced and that does not part over time in the corners.

To install the glass use a light lubricant on the rubber edge that accepts the glass - vaseline is ideal - tape the end of medium size screwdriver with some tank tape or make yourself a small dibber out of hardwood / or a solid plastic - ease the glass in to the bottom of the rubber - just slide it into the section - keep the pressure on the glass from the top - pushing downwards - use the screwdriver / dibber to ease the rubber over the glass - CAUTION DO NOT LEAVER AGAINST THE GLASS !! just take your time and work methodically - a little pressure on the glass and keep easing the rubber over - more lube if you need it but do not make it too slippy - once in - repeat for the other side - I would always recomend a suitable windscreen sealer is used once the frame / glass / rubber has been degreased with panel wipe.

Now just the locking strip to install - we decided to install a plastic chrome style one but they are available in just plain black rubber - lubricate the windscreen rubber - to install the trim I made up a small diamond shape installation tool out of 3mm hardened wire and put a small file handle on the end of it - these tools are available in the UK from 'Frost' - let me know if require further details.

Once installed - just mitre the coners of the trim and carefully ease in to the rubber with a dibber / screwdriver - Clean up and the job is done!

It is easy for me to write this - I have had years of doing it - I hope to do some windscreen / bodywork classes for you all at some stage - but I am more than happy to take questions or offer help if you are stuck !!

The day job is now interviening so I must dash - I will post Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday - Bodyshop progress before I leave for my hols on Fri.

Tony - You lucky man - getting to sit down on the job !! We would not dare try that at Team SC or the webmaster becomes the whipmaster!

Alastair - Stop sticking up for Jack - he needs to learn the error of his ways !! we are just removing the paper pages from the book and replacing them with lead ones before the book gets thrown at him.

[Forumadmin]

Chris finished spraying at 00.30 in freezing temperatures so hope the finish turns out well.

Meanwhile I had started at 6.00pm braizing up the bonnet strut and refitting, realigning the exhaust to put less strain on rear mount, sealing around the seat back, fixing the battery cables and finding the errant indicator base in with the headlights. The rims were cleaned and assembled, one fixing lobe will need rechroming. I have not found the tails for the top of the lights that fix to the bonnet.

Also cannot find the U bolts that hold the bonnet catches.

After painting the floor after J&A left, I tried to get the windscreen wiper motor to work. It has 3 connections labelled 1, 2 and E. I think when I tested it, I connected between 1 &2 not 1 and E as it is now connected. Once that is fixed we can put on the wings and complete the bonnet.

Hopefully Chris will complete all painting tonight and I can have half my garage back. Then all the stuff piled on and around the Jup can be moved. As Jack says, seat and steering wheel are next to go in; but I would like to get all the electrics tested first as it is easier to get under the dashboard with them off.

To do that we need the boot lid and rear light holders that Chris has just painted. Then we have the major task to get the doors assembled.

Chris also painted the SA windscreen and trim last night so a job for the weekend is to get that assembled.

But it is starting to look like a Jup with its eyes open.

[Forumadmin]

00.30 finish again.

I did some work sealing the rear area and painting the frame under the floor.

I investigated the wiper motor, and thought I had found a fault with the self parking mechanism. but was disturbed by Chris as we decided to fit the boot lid. Very nice it looks too.

Chris then finished preping and spraying the valence which is the last bit of painting.
I cleared away everything around the jup which then decided to start first time!

Unloaded the Javelin of all Jup bits including SA frame, quarter lights, and SC seat. Decided we had to use that in preference to the SA AS THEY HAVE DIFFERENT RUNNERS.

Amy completed the floor, Jack set about the SC seat giving half to Jen to clean. I put the bonnet front cross-member in,, prepared the SA bulkhead for windscreen whilst Chris had the difficult job of assembling it without the L shaped corner pieces. Any idea if they are available or I will have to make some?

Bottom of seat is now installed, just waiting for cleaned back.

[Drummond Black]

Keith, I had to make new L shape corner plates when I fitted the SA windscreen in 1994. Made them from 3mm stainless steel and tapped holes 4BA and used 4BA stainless steel countersunk screws. May still have a few - SOMEWHERE !!!

[Forumadmin]

Keep looking Drums!

I have been sitting looking at an empty bottle of wine we had on Sunday. A special Pinot Noir from Franschhoek in South Africa that I brought back when I visited the winery. 2002 Haute Cabriere by Achim von Arnim.

Must try to replenish the stock!

[Leo Bolter]

Drummond, you said:

I had to make new L shape corner plates when I fitted the SA windscreen in 1994. Made them from 3mm stainless steel and tapped holes 4BA and used 4BA stainless steel countersunk screws.

Oh how the memories come flooding back . . . My restoration job log book/diary* says that on 28 February 1978 I "made new SS (stainless steel) angle brackets for windscreen frame - made SS 4 BA screws for brackets . . . ".

Possibly of interest is that I had written a running total of accumulated time spent on the restoration at the bottom of each page of the notebook . . . the total time at that stage was 473.5 hours. The last page, when I considered the restoration "nominally finished", (22 March 1983) has a total of 1152.25 hours recorded. Of course, as we all know, there were a few odd jobs that cropped up after that! Our cars are never really completely finished . . .

* I kept a diary/log of everything I did each day as I worked on the restoration (and I tried to do SOMETHING each day no matter how insignificant). I also kept a record of ALL payments as they occurred (this total will NOT be revealed! My wife still doesn't know it ) . . . but both records make for interesting reading 27 years later!

[Jack]

Another late finish last night for us, though it was a late start as well - work getting in the way of play as always.

The seat was an interesting challenge, as you'd expect the back was structurally in much better condition than the seat, however the condition of the leather was much better in the seat, probably because of bums polishing it over the years and protection from the sunshine which has evidently affected the top of the back.

Jen is planning (I think) to dye the seat back with leather dye, to get it back to black, and match the rest of the seat. This is very much a temporary measure, as the seat will be reupholstered, but it would be nice to get it into the best condition we can for the rally.

I had to do quite a lot of work on the seat, which required the underside repinning to the wooden rail at the back (a thin cloth which holds the horse hair in place) and then a lot of repinning to get the top of the seat back on the rail as well - almost every nail had either rusted out or pulled through the end of the leather, which had become very very dry and brittle. Application of a huge number of nails and about half a roll of gaffer tape, and the seat is serviceable, if a little ugly. For the rally there will have to be a rule that any photos of the interior are taken with a driver in place, as the drivers side is where the majority of damage has occured - as you would expect.

On investigation it is clear that the seat was originally a light brown colour, and looks to have been treated with something to turn it black, possibly leather dye or even paint. This I expect was when the colour of the car was changed - originally the car was green we think, so the brown interior would be right, then when changed to blue and then white(ish) the black interior would have been the right match. Obviously now the car is green again, and because Amy wants it, the seat and hood will be brown as per factory spec.

The bolts are in for the floorboard, though some are waiting to be tightened up. It takes at least two people to get the big bench seat in so Amy had to stop with the bolting bit to help me get things in.

Me and Amy managed to drill our hole perfectly from the top, through the hole in the metal support underneath, and all fitted nicely. Keith had a go and told me exactly where to drill. He missed by over an inch I even offered to measure it again for him, but he insisted - that's where the hole is. Little bit of silicon later and you'd never spot the tiny pilot hole under the seat runner, but I'll know it's there

Also for the record (and the internet accident book) I managed to hit my head really rather hard on the pointy bit of the jack. Which hurt rather a lot. In future, check where head is going before head goes there, unfortunately it was in the blind spot just above my head as I went to look under the car. Ow ow ow ow ow. I have a little lump now, luckily it's behind the hairline so it won't affect my devilishly good looks

Last night of the week for me tonight, I am hoping to have the seat installed and the steering wheel checked and possibly fitted. There's some checking to do on the wiring loom, but I can't see access being a problem once the seat is moved to the furthest back position. As long as the passenger door doesn't go on everything is easy to get to and check and work on if required.

There was some grumbling last night about windscreen wipers not working, but I don't think this is down to my wiring, as they are getting power, possibly a problem further down the system. Keith investigating.

Jack.

[Forumadmin]

Wiper fixed in lunchtime break. The motor was wired to pin 1 which did not seem to work, but pin 2 did, provided the parking ring was permanently earthed. Anyway now works as I fixed earth to input to brass ringalthough the wipers may go backwards!

Drums called and gave advice on L plates for windscreen. No they are not for Jack!

[Amy]

And another late finish... just home and waiting for my bath to run!

Jack and I have been fitting the front wings to the car. Chris had cut the rubber for the beading, so all we needed to do was pop it all in place. The offside wing went first, and actually went quite smoothly. It was definitely a two-person job, but once we'd got a couple of bolts in, it all fit together quite smoothly.

The nearside wing is proving a touch more troublesome as the wing is slightly too far back and the bolt holes aren't lining up. Having tried for quite a while to get it to line up on my own, I gave in to exhaustion and have retired for the evening - it won't be a tricky job, it just needs a little more patience than I had this evening at 11.20pm...

I did arrive in the garage this evening to a rather lovely surprise though: Jack has bought me (us) a full set of BS / Whit sockets and spanners, with extension bars and two sizes of ratchet, some small BA spanners, feeler gauges and allen keys, all in a lovely tool bag - which happen to fit in the battery box . We already have lots of screwdrivers, so some will be joining my beautifully shiny new tools, and we will hope that Napolean won't be needing us to deploy them on his first trip!

Right, bath and bed for a rather tired Jowetteer.

Amy.

[Chris Spencer]

Quick update from me - The rear wings were fitted on Sunday after the windscreen was fitted - piping bead was adjusted before the bolts were nipped tight.

Monday - Late getting to Keiths from work - piping bead was pre cut for the front wings and the boot along with several items of trim were sprayed in top coat. With the air temp being at only 2 degrees this is no where near what I needed for painting - hence I am not happy with the finish - I may paint the boot again at a later date.

Tuesday - Windcreen frame for Keiths SA painted red - better air temps tonight.

Wednesday - Boot lid fitted to the SC and most of the windscreen frame assembled for the SA.

Last update from me for a week or so as I am off to Santorini in a few hours for a well earned break.

I shall be back in time to possibly undertake the polishing on some of the panels before the rally but also have a little to do on my own steed for the rally.

Amy, Jack, Keith - Good luck with the remaining work / MOT test - keep up with the updates - I may just find a internet cafe whilst on the hols !!

[Forumadmin]

Tried getting the indicators to work but they would not as the bulbs were too low a wattage. This caused me to rethink, and after sorting through various other options decided to fit stop tail bases in the front with the indiactor on the 21w part of the bulb and the sidelight on the 5w. The original white front lenses then look the part rather than an orange pimple.

On the rear the problem was finding a 21w bulb that would fit above the body and not be recessed, as I did not want to cut a hole in the boot lid. After some research on the internet found a suitable bulb that would fit the pimple holders as fitted to the SA. So then carefully marked up the positions of numberplate, indicators and reflectors and drilled and tapped the holes for fixings.

Chris,
Have a great holiday with Sharon and hope you do not read this till you get back! And happy birthday Sharon!

The car is booked in for MOT on Tuesday. So we have a deadline.....

[Forumadmin]

I was lonely down the garage tonight!

But I did manage to wire up all the lights and they all work. Jack had chosen the wrong way to wire up the indicator switch so I swapped feeds to indicators at front and rear as it was easier.
Still need to fit lights into body; so will be doing some trim tomorrow.

Anybody else coming around tomorrow, Saturday that is? We could do with some help.

Scott in CA has found some bonnet catches so they will be fitted the day before the rally.

[Leo Bolter]

Hi Keith . . don't be lonely . . I'm with you!

How'd you get on with the wiper motor? . . . does it self park as well as go? You'll be pleased to know that the motor doesn't run in reverse no matter what the polarity (so your wiper blades will still go back and forth and NOT forth and back!)

Out of curiosity, I did a bench test on a unit I have here ("old" Lucas, single speed, self parking) and it appears that the wiper actuating switch is in the motor's earth circuit. This panel switch overrides the "in parallel" built in rotary switch earthing slip ring until the panel switch is turned off. The rotary switch then continues to conduct juice through the motor until the gap in the slip ring is reached. The blades are parked by then.

Want a simple circuit diagram? . . . but you probably know all this anyway

Bye for now.
Leo.