Great SC rebuild.......

[Forumadmin]

I concentarted on the window runners, seals and mechanism. First job was a trial run with glass in to reduce play at the top and bottom of the rear runner whose lower bracket made out of some aluminium angle was marked out and then drilled and tapped to fix to the door. The runner was then located in place with a self tapper only at the bottom, as the top is held firm with the window seals. The runners had some WD40 lubrication. The winder mechanism was put to the top to check and mark with Tippex the location of the glass in the glass clamp. One side needed the glass to be built up from the base of the clamp in order for the glass to go right to the top to meet the hood frame. The gap was filled with some flat strips of rubber and black silicone sealer, then clamped with frame clamps to hold the glass in place for a day to cure. Before fixing the glass clamp you must check the wheels do not jump out of the glass clamp runners throughout their travel. I found the clamp needed to be about 1cm from rear edge of glass.

The rubber under the quarter light was remade as it had not been continued far enough to meet up with the glass seal. The outside glass seal was fixed with 5 small self tappers. The inside glass seal was fixed similarly onto the door topping.

Now once the glass clamp is in place, you need to take out the winder mechanism to get the glass into the door. Then you need to put the glass up to the top, then insert the winder mechanism; but get the wheels into the glass clamp before fixing the winder mechanism.

Having done all this a final check showed that the parallel arm mechanism fouled the door lock. So we started measuring everything and noticed some diffrences. Were these due to SA/SC or Jav/Jup differences or just non-Jowett replacements? Investigation continues!

[Chris Spencer]

Jack states that we have not too far to go now with the paintwork - I hate to say this Jack but you are wrong again - we have an awful lot of flatting / polishing and final detailing before the paintwork is anything like complete - it will take at least all of next weekend before we are ready for wax, Amy is mastering the skill though and at times is very guilty in acheiving the same padantic standards that I set myself !

[Amy]

Amy is mastering the skill though and at times is very guilty in acheiving the same padantic standards that I set myself !

Pedantic.

[Forumadmin]

I set about the passenger side window mechanism tonight, missing the car club meet just 50 yards from the garage where there was a collection of 'hot rods'. Next month we should be able to join them.

First the quarter light rubber was extended, then the runner fitted, before offering up the glass which went in easily but needed the door lock arm removed to get it out. Jowetts! This side too needed the glass clamp moving rearwards ( almost touching the runner ) and, as the silicone had set, needed loosening with a pallet knife. The glass was put to the top of its travel. More silicone was applied into the clamp and the adjuster moved to just below the top of its travel ( a stop on a parallel arm limits the travel). The felt inner strip was fitted to the door cap. So when the silicone sets the window should be good to go.

This side did not foul the lock; so tomorrow night's job is to figure out why the driver's side does.

Meanwhile Jack had been making the hood to windscreen fixing brackets out of stainless. Believe it or not they work. He is off to the chromers tomorrow.

No Amy, it is a technical term for the antics he gets up to with his rubbing down pad.

[Jack]

Another lateish night in the garage, the primary job for me was to get the hood we have from John Blankeley fitted to the car for a possible journey up the M1/M6 in a few weeks time.

The first thing to sort was fitting at the front - as those of you who are familiar with Jupiters will know, there are a couple of fittings under the front edge that bolts kind of drop through, with knurled nuts to tighten things up. My job tonight was to make a couple of sturdy brackets for the front edge, that attach to the top of the windscreen frame and have a couple of fingers at a fairly precise angle for the hood to tighten up against.

Unfortunately, the perfect material to make it with was some hard as nails stainless that I seem to end up using for all kinds of jobs. Somehow the stuff is easy to cut and file, but trying to drill it is like trying to cut diamonds. A lot of fluid and some sharp drills and I was through.

Trial fitting went well, angle was adjusted slightly, then adjusted back a bit, and now we have a couple of fittings that will keep the passengers dry and keep the hood firmly attached.

Discussions continue on the back of the hood, how we are going to get it to fit temporarily, I think we've now worked it out but probably a few hours of fabrication required to get it looking good.

Jack.

[Tony Fearn]

but trying to drill it is like trying to cut diamonds

Have a look at 'Roper Whitney punch' on eBay.

Tony

[Chris Spencer]

Deer Ami, meny fanks fr ur spelng lessan - i wil try arder nesst tim

[Jack]

Another late night in the garage, a few jobs keeping us there until 11:30 tonight.

The good news is that the front grille has now been chromed and is a lovely mirror finish. Thanks to Premier Plating in High Wycombe, who have done the work at a very reasonable price, and asked for another couple of days to get a finish that they would be happy to let out of the shop. It looked great, nothing to worry about there, and the director I spoke to was happy to show me the process of chroming taking place, as well as some of their work on other pieces.

A couple of other items have been left with them, the rear number plate light housing needs rechroming, and the brackets I made up for holding the front of the roof also will need doing. They seemed happy to turn these around by Friday.

Anyway, the evening started with me making a template for the boot carpet. This won't be visible for the large part, but as we are getting carpets done it would be nice to have them all matching, and the quality of the carpets they are producing will be very hardwearing in the boot as well as everywhere else in the car.

Once this was done I moved on to the chrome strip down the centre of the bonnet. This needed to be shortened after initial testing last night, unfortunately there wasn't far it could move due to the fittings but this is now neat and tidy and fits with the look of the bonnet. We also think the strip is stainless steel, which isn't original but should last nicely and has a reasonable shine when polished.

Next job was to adjust the lower grilles, one corner of the right hand grille had dropped back, leaving an uneven appearance. It was solid, but didn't look nice. Once the bolts were loosened this went back into place fairly easily, if we'd had more time before the rally in May we'd have got this right first time.

Final job was to get the mesh fitted to the rear of the grille, and get the bonnet jewellery fitted. Once the mesh was attached, this went in fairly easily and with a minor nudge was lined up and looked good.

Hopefully Amy is going to get some photos of the work so far tomorrow evening, so that we can share the latest with all of you in pictures as well.

I have been granted two evenings off this week, going to the cinema tomorrow for a quiet evening planning a possible trip to Le Mans next year in the Motorhome with the lads, and then off to sunny Birmingham on Thursday. Hoping to be back for a decent day's work by Saturday, we've certainly put a few hours in this week already, but the difference is significant.

Jack.

[Amy]

Whilst Jack fettled with the chrome work I continued the work on cutting the paintwork on the nearside. At the weekend Chris had flatted all nearside rear panels and I had cut the door and some of the rear wing. I finished off the rear wing tonight, taking my time over it as it's a big panel which will (hopefully) look beautiful and it'll really show if not done properly.

I got put to work under the bonnet getting some of the bolts secured for the main strip and provided moral support for Clements snr who is still battling with the window in the driver's door - the door locking mechanism was thought to be the cause of the snagging, but after fixing that back the window glass will go all the way up, but not down again...

We're getting nearer to completion with various of the little jobs getting ticked off the list. I should be able to put in a few hours tomorrow whilst Jack's off planning next year's road trip in the Love Bus so will cut the rest of the boot and hopefully help dad get the windows done.

Amy.

[Chris Spencer]

Now that our finalist postion in The Classic Car of the year has been made public (see Amy's mail) - you can see why there has been a burst of activity to ready the SC for the NEC in couple of weeks time - this really is the icing on the cake for us - never did we expect to be in this position - still quite a bit to get done in between the day jobs but we will get there one way or the other.

[Amy]

I've been in the garage again this evening, more cutting to the panels that Chris had flatted; the boot is now done, so we're over half-way through what we needed to flat and cut. Hopefully Chris and I will manage to get through quite a lot of the rest of the bodywork this weekend - the bits we've done are already looking so much better than they were, Napoleon's turned from a 25-yard car into a 5-yard car, and will be a 5" car by the time we've finished

Dad came and joined me after he'd finished dinner, and carried on swearing at the driver's window. He managed to get the runner to locate and we were getting the glass to wind up and down quite nicely, apart from the top 1.5" at which point the mechanism seemed to snag on something (the door catch mechnism we think) and rather than keep the window in the quarterlight runner, was forcing it out at a 30+degree angle. After quite a lot of fiddling and swearing, we decided that the window mechanism needed something to keep pressure on the glass to force it towards the outside of the door (I hope that makes sense!)... I then grabbed the doorcap, which has a nice thick bit of felt next to the window - we put this in place, wound the window and - Hey Presto! - it worked So that's another job ticked off the list - we have both windows in, and the hood is halfway to being attached.

A couple of nights off now before a weekend in the garage - we only have this and next weekend in order to get Napoleon looking his finest, so it'll be all hands to the deck.

Amy.

[Forumadmin]

Amy and I finally fixed the window that was being trapped by the door lock. First the rivets on the lock had to be ground flat. Just 1 mm was causing the problem. Then the inside felt on the door capping had to be fitted so as to push the glass outwards. Sounds simple but it took us many hours of trial and error sorting the problems. The lock was in and out 4 times, the window at least 6.
Amy continued rubbing down; so now we are ready for Chris again and the flatting.

[Jack]

There is a rumour from oop north that there may be some interior coming our way on Friday.

Here's hoping. We'll definitely get some photos of that for everyone.

While Amy and Keith were in the garage this evening, I was out at the cinema for a night off. Back to things this weekend - we're heading for the home straight again, dead without a deadline as always!

Jack.

[Chris Spencer]

Jack - You have spelt it wrong it's 'Up't North' - from where many good things come - vehicle trim, Grumpy Northerners, Jowetts, bad weather, more bad weather etc.

[Forumadmin]

Jack has just collected the trim and seat from the upholsterers, and my VISA card has taken a hammering.
Lots of hard work over the weekend then....
Also sorting insurance. Footman James are happy to take vehicle condition form and photos by email, so that will save some time.
Also have press coming around on Sunday, so have been to have a hair cut and manicure.