Great SC rebuild.......

[Jack]

Sanding, cleaning, oiling and painting was the order of the day for me and Amy.

The first important job was to get the right recesses cut for the front of the hood latches, a quick bit of routing and chiselling and these were done. A few holes drilled, and they were solid. Which is nice, because otherwise the hood wouldn't stay closed properly at high speed. Which would be bad.

Keith was busy taking photos of things, clearly a bit fragile after a few drinks yesterday at the rugby I'm sure he'll post some photos soon enough of our progress, if he hasn't gone to bed early that is.

Final bit of shaping was to rout a rounded edge on the inside front of the vertical baton. This will avoid anyone catching their shoulder or anything else as they get into and out of the car, and also if there was a crash it is one less sharp edge to hit things on. It also looks pretty, and will avoid any damage to the edge of the wood, which might accumulate dirt otherwise.

Once this was done all the woodwork was ready to go. No more cutting and chiselling, just clean the pieces up and get the magic oil/varnish stuff that Chris had brought along onto them.

Sanding began in earnest, cleaning up all the sides of the 6 pieces, removing pencil marks, ironing out any imperfections in the surfaces. This took rather a long time, but soon enough we could mask off the surfaces that we will be applying sealant to for the door and windscreen seals and then Amy could get some of the magic treatment onto the wood.

Apparently we need to do about 4 coats of this stuff. So a few days of doing that before I can put everything back together.

While Amy was sanding, I did a bit of work on the steering wheel. The paint on the centre was a bit rough, and when trying to polish it up it was clear that it wasn't very thick either. No problem, a quick wipe and a few coats of black spraypaint and it was looking a lot better. Once it is completely dry I'll be able to give it a quick T-cut and put a bit of wax on it to protect it from all the hands running over it for years.

Next job while coats are drying on the hood frame is to sand the steering wheel, which will be treated with the same magic stuff so that the wood matches all the other wood in the car. Not so much pressure on the steering wheel, whereas the hood frame has to be fitted and ready for vinyl fitting next weekend, otherwise we won't have much time left before the rally. Two weekends to go now, and the SC needs an MOT and a working horn before then...

Jack.

[Jack]

Another evening in the garage, and first job was brushing on the next coat of oily stuff. I managed to get about the same amount on my hands as on the wood, and discovered a cheap fake tan if anyone is interested.

Hands clean, and then on to some fun metalwork. First job was finding the right metal, some very strong but thin stainless steel, for the retaining latches to engage with on the top of the windscreen. Because our design has changed a bit from the two latches on John's hood to four latches that seems to be original on our hood frame, and makes a lot of sense for additional security and also to ensure a good seal along the top edge, we've had to make another two catches.

Luckily I had to make the first two for the hood, so the process was fairly simple. A bit of drilling, cutting and filing later, and I'd got two pieces of the right shape with the right bend in them, and just three attachment holes to drill and they will be ready for chroming.

Lunchtime was fun today with a visit to the auto trim suppliers. I bought two big sheets of PVC for the hood windows, hopefully we can get Amy's rear windows out of one sheet, as Keith has been eyeing up the PVC for his back window as well.

Jack.

[Jack]

Quick update - the brackets that hold the front of the hood are now made, just need chroming. Little job for lunchtime tomorrow for me.

I touched up the paint on the hood frame and the front hoop, just a couple of bits where the primer was showing, and a bit more paint can't be a bad thing because we won't be getting them out again in a hurry once the hood is fitted.

Amy gave the oak another coat of sealant, they are probably done once this coat dries, and we can start the job of rebuilding the frame and getting the seals glued in to various channels etc.

Next job was sorting the toolbox that arrived from Teng yesterday as part of the Classic Car of the Year prize. It is a big toolbox with ratchets, sockets, spanners and a few other useful things like universal joints and things. Assembling the various socket rails and parts took a while, but we now have a toolbox with almost everything we need for most jobs on the various cars.

Final job of the night was to get the horn working for the MOT this week. Unfortunately not quite as simple as expected, a wire had broken off the horn button and needs to be replaced, otherwise it seems to be a fairly simple fix. The old steering wheel has gone back on to take it up for the test, because we've got to sand down and seal the new oak steering wheel before the rally.

Jack.

[Amy]

The hood is getting there! We've actually all taken a well-earned evening off today - although that did involve taking Napoleon out for a run down the village where he was much admired in the company of a couple of very loud Ferraris.

Over the evenings this week Jack and I have been finishing off oiling the wood, which has now had four coats of sealant, which has really brought out the colour of the oak and should also offer very good protection from the elements. This has been hanging to dry in the garage for a few days, and is now dry enough to work with quite happily.

Yesterday was the big job that we were rather nervous about; fitting the seal into the wood that goes along the top of the windscreen.

Our nervousness stemmed from the glue we were using - Tiger Seal. Apparently it will stick just about anything to anything else, and is pretty damned hard to shift once it's on. We got a tube from our local motor factor's (I am starting to wonder whether there's anything they don't stock!) and it has absolutely no instructions on the side and says in large letters "FOR PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY". Oh well, I think we count as professional amateurs by now...

We had, the previous evening, screwed the wood into the metal frame, so I did a final clean out of the channel using some panel wipe, we assembled our kit which consisted of some other batons coated in waxed paper to clamp the seal down with, more wax paper, lots of G clamps, and the tin of panel wipe and cloth, just in case... We have spent a LONG time preparing wood, we really didn't want some Tiger Seal to get where it shouldn't be, particulary with the oak looking so lovely after its coats of sealing oil.

In the event, the Tiger Seal was very easy to apply - Jack and I both made sure we had decent gloves on, mind! - with Jack applying the gunk and me pressing the seal into the channel after it. We did one side, then clamped it down, then repeated with the other side. The whole thing has now been left to set for a while; the theory being that once we take the clamps off tomorrow, the seal will be about as permanently attached to the wooden frame as it is possible to be, and hopefully therefore offer some waterproofing...

Over the weekend there will be the inaugural fitting of the vinyl hood to check the fit before the windows are sown in. Napoleon's quite excited at the prospect

When I get a moment I'll upload some pictures I've taken over the course of some of this work so you can see what we've been doing.

[Amy]

All the seals are now on the wood, apart from the nearside upright one. We've left them to dry overnight, and will fit the frame back together (again!) tomorrow so that it's ready for when Sharon wants to fit the hood. Panel wipe is definitely the stuff to have to hand to get rid of excesses of Tiger Seal - it had seeped out of a couple of the seals, and a few moments later was all gone, courtesy of a cotton bud and panel wipe

In other news, Clements Snr had a fettle with the brakes which he had decreed as being a bit useless and as Napoleon has his MoT on Tuesday, it seemed like a good thing to do!

[Leo Bolter]

Amy.
You said:

In other news, Clements Snr had a fettle with the brakes which he had decreed as being a bit useless and as Napoleon has his MoT on Tuesday, it seemed like a good thing to do!

Please remind Keith to check out that obscure fault I found with the rear brakes on my Jupiter . . . the shoe supporting "dimples" weren't pressed to the correct depth in the backplates at the factory. This was preventing the shoes from contacting the drum properly. I'm sure I posted the explanatory .doc on here (or the Gallery), but I can't find it by doing a quick search. Let me know if you haven't sighted it . . . It's title is probably "Jupiter Rear Brake Improvements".

With that problem fixed the improvement in braking was very impressive!

[Chris Spencer]

Sharon has been busy in her studio with the cutting and fabrication the hood for the Jupiter - being the first one this has resulted in some small trials in order to find the best way of fabrication - in the end resorting to her industrial leather sewing machine in order to stitch the rear window into place. There has been a lot of thought gone into the hood and will hopefully result in a very much improved design yet original style hood. She brought the rear window panel home with her last night for comment - and I have to say it looks superb - we are up against it on time before the rally - she has full work commitments elsewhere but is trying to fit everything in - fingers crossed it should go to plan.

[Amy]

Well I took Napoleon out this morning for a jaunt to our local MoT station. Rather like when I take the cats to the vet, I didn't tell Napoleon where we were going and as the road is also the one that we take to a couple of local car meets and a good pub, he didn't know he was on his way to be poked and prodded and so behaved beautifully for me

When we arrived, the MoT station had somewhat confusingly crossed my appointment off their list, but they were able to fit me in with no trouble. After a bit of grumbling from the tester that it was a bit of a tight fit behind the steering wheel (!), Napoleon was driven onto the ramps in the test bay.

I returned to find him up in the air on the four post lift and had a quick peek myself whilst he was up there - always nice to inspect the underside without having to crawl all over the floor! I then left the MoT man to get on with things, and a few minutes later heard him being driven out of the test bay, with a clean bill of health in the form of a new MoT under his bonnet

I took the longer / more scenic way home, at which point Napoleon decided to show his displeasure at being poked and prodded, and promptly started sounding the horn whenever I turned the steering wheel even half an inch to the right. Which made the drive home interesting, and somewhat noisy, with a lot of confused pedestrians who all seemed to think I was hooting at them...

I promise he'll be on his best behaviour in Daventry!!

[Amy]

Amy.
You said:

In other news, Clements Snr had a fettle with the brakes which he had decreed as being a bit useless and as Napoleon has his MoT on Tuesday, it seemed like a good thing to do!

Please remind Keith to check out that obscure fault I found with the rear brakes on my Jupiter . . . the shoe supporting "dimples" weren't pressed to the correct depth in the backplates at the factory. This was preventing the shoes from contacting the drum properly. I'm sure I posted the explanatory .doc on here (or the Gallery), but I can't find it by doing a quick search. Let me know if you haven't sighted it . . . It's title is probably "Jupiter Rear Brake Improvements".

With that problem fixed the improvement in braking was very impressive!

Leo,

Thanks for this. There's always something on Jowetts that you don't know about, isn't there?!

I don't think this is something we're suffering from - it was the master cylinder not returning which was the root cause of our brake failure last year, and dad was mainly checking that our roadside fix was still good, and bolstering it a bit. The car has passed his MoT (roadworthiness check) without issue today, so I can only assume that the brakes are functioning well I'll bear it in mind next time we have to change the brake shoes though.

Amy.

[Leo Bolter]

Amy.
When you said:

. . . . . . promptly started sounding the horn whenever I turned the steering wheel even half an inch to the right.

It reminded be of the time when I drew up as second in the queue at a red traffic light. I decided to do something in the glove box while waiting for the lights to change and leant over, pressing on the rim of the steering wheel in doing so. The force was enough to slightly bend the inner steering shaft so that the horn slip ring made contact with "earth" inside the outer column . . . . the result was a very loud BAAAARP . . of course! Luckily the lights had just turned green at that very moment otherwise I might have had a major alteration to my face . . and maybe even modifications to the car! The large group of "Hells Angels" that I was behind was in the process of roaring off and appeared to not notice the horn blast (or at least where it was coming from!) Whew!

I can assure you that I promptly made a loose bush out of nylon, split it, fitted it to the inner shaft, held it together with a couple of layers of "Sellotape" then pushed to down the outer tube with a length of 1/8" welding wire as far as the slip ring . . . . from then on, with this as a "support" at the slip ring, I felt considerably safer when driving about.
Leo.

[Leo Bolter]

Hi all.
Recently I said to Amy (re poor brakes on her Jupiter):

. . . check out that obscure fault I found with the rear brakes on my Jupiter . . . the shoe supporting "dimples" weren't pressed to the correct depth in the backplates at the factory.

Last night I posted the notes on sorting out a remedy for this problem on the Gallery at: TOPIC

See ya . . .
Leo.

[Jack]

What a weekend.

Fitting hoods has now officially moved from skill to artform to a form of magic that I'm not sure I want to do again.

After a few evenings this week of getting jobs done ready for hood fitting, Sharon arrived on Saturday with the hood ready for test fitting. We started with the rear centre bolt and worked our way around the outside of the car, putting tension into the vinyl as we went.

We discovered a couple of bits that needed tweaking, mostly just on the back right and left of the cockpit, where there is a fairly tight radius corner to get around and the pull and fit is fairly critical.

After we had fitted the back edge, we then had to set where the vertical edge would be behind the windows, this was marked and we carried on forwards. The top of the window line was marked, and then the front edge of the hood marked.

Quite a bit of looking at things, working out where wrinkles had come from (a familiar pastime for JCC members) and how to remove them (our career in anti-aging products is secure) and how to make a certain amount of vinyl fit over a space that is slightly larger than it, trying to get the same amount of stretch in every direction, and making sure that windows line up with holes, and then a bit of dinner later, and we had worked out most of it.

Sunday was spent preparing the steering wheel we'd got so that we could get into and out of the car (it was a bit tight even for Amy) sealing it with the same material as was used on the rest of the oak in the car and generally cleaning it up. It has now been coated and will get another coat or two before it goes onto the car again for the weekend.

Once that was done, Sharon arrived with the final fit version of the hood. We refitted it to the car by first attaching the vinyl to the vertical batons, then the back edge of the hood, then working forwards to the front edge. Everything fitted nicely, and was going as planned, until we hit the front corners. One side was fitting nicely, the front point was there, but the other side we just couldn't get the corner to fit properly. I think we are out by around half an inch, perhaps three quarters of an inch, so the job for this evening is to resolve this. It should be a fairly simple fix, and once this is done the hood will fit as it should and we can finish nailing it to the front edge and putting the finishing strips in place etc.

Overall I am convinced that the fit will be right, and though there will be a bit of time for it to settle down and find its way properly, the fit is currently very good, with very few wrinkles and problems. Quite something for a hood that has been manufactured off site without the car to refer to. We will see if we can get it perfect this evening and finish the job.

Amy is away all week with work, so the first time she will get to see it is Friday afternoon. This will be fun, assuming we can get it all done this week.

Jack.

[Forumadmin]

Still a little work to do; but it is getting there.

[p.p.]

by the first rain it will stretch and after drying it will fit just perfect.... all material will shrink a little..
peter

see you all in two days...

[Jack]

by the first rain it will stretch and after drying it will fit just perfect.... all material will shrink a little..
peter

see you all in two days...

I couldn't believe how much difference a bit of heat from a hairdryer makes to the material. It will stretch if you pull it, tighten up if you don't, you can do all kinds of things with it with a bit of heat applied.

Currently it is my firm belief that a couple of hours in the sunshine of Daventry and we are going to have a perfectly fitted hood. The photos show up a few shadows of wrinkles a bit, but in the flesh it is really quite something. It certainly fits better than Amy's MX5 hood, and the side windows provide a fair bit of rigidity to avoid any flapping at high speed. They are also brilliant for rear visbility - before I saw the hood I was undecided about them, but I think they look good and it is like being in the car with the top down when you look in the rear view and over your shoulder.

The other thing is that there is nothing attaching the horizontal batons above the windows to the hood. Velcro is probably going to be the tool of choice for that, and it will pull some of the slight wrinkles from the front out. The pressure from front to back is currently pulling things around a bit, it just needs to settle down.

Other things to note on the hood - the zip out rear window. This avoids the rear window being folded in half, or the need to have a very small window that they did originally - this means that it should last a very long time, and also that the hood folds as flat as possible in the middle. This was an idea we stole from the MX5 because it works so well, I think a few other cars in the 70s and 80s did it the same way from the factory to fix the same problems and keep rear visibility good.

Jack.