148 replies to this topic

[DUF2]

Still struggling with the brakes! I contacted an eBay seller to ask if their calipers were suitable for banjo fittings, but did not really get a proper answer, I think they buy in and sell on stuff and don’t actually have the item on their shelf. They just asked for the Reg No or VIN number.

So I had a go at at drilling out the bleed nipple, I was still unable to remove the old nipple so just kept drilling then tried to tap the hole a bit larger at M8. But the hole I drilled has gone a bit off centre so I suspect I may have trouble sealing the bleed hole.  I bought some M8 bleed nipples, but they seem a bit shorter than the hole in the caliper so I think I’ll just have to bite the bullet and order a replacement caliper, hoping I get a one with the faced flexi tappings.

In the meantime, I have started to fit the vinyl covering to the dash rail. I thought I see if I could make the rail a bit ”soft touch” so covered the rail with some 6mm sound deadening foam

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I then applied the vinyl to that, looking good?

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it did not go as planned, whilst initially it was looking fine, when I tried to fit the chrome trim around the switch plinth the chrome trim would not fit due to the extra thickness of the foam! I have tried to remove the foam in the area of the switch panel, but am not sure whether the vinyl will go back as it may be a bit stretched.  I will try again tomorrow, as I have given up for the day! 

 

 

 

[DUF2]

Duffy originally had a positive earth dynamo electric system with a 2 fuse box.  It was upgraded prior to my ownership to a negative earth system with an alternator and a 4 fuse box.

The fuse box was not in good condition so I renewed the fuse box keeping the standard glass fuses. The contacts in the new fuse box were of naff quality, I was also going to install a supplementary fuse box for the headlight, spot light and horn relay systems.

so I thought why have two different types of fuses? Now this car is not an original, so I decided to install one 8 fuse box.

I tried to install this fuse box vertically on the inner wing, but realised that access would have been difficult with the elephant trunk fresh air inlet. 
So I made a bracket to hold the fuse box horizontally 

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I have yet to re wrap the loom. The colours on the original loom had faded, so I had to split the loom to trace all the wires back and create a wiring diagram identifying what fuse fed what. I have also installed a relay set up for the headlights to reduce the load through the standard toggle switch, also to reduce any voltage drop.

I also elected to fit some daylight running lights for safety reasons, I know these are not “period” but they are wired through the ignition switch, in addition I have mounted a small switch under the bonnet so these can be isolated for whatever reason.

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The DRLs use a standard 5w capless sidelight (led) bulb within the headlight that was not in use on the Elf as it has it’s own sidelight/indicator light unit below the headlight. Also the spotlights have a halo ring on them. But whilst some folks may not agree with these on a ‘65 car, they can easily be switched off.
Once  I have finished with any additions to the wiring I shall be wrapping the loom with fabric tape to tidy it all up.

 

 

[DUF2]

 Brakes, still causing grief! I ordered another caliper from a different supplier, but this is what it looked like.  C58410D3-2888-4164-9E29-E7FA7A0D23FB.jpeg   77.63K   0 downloads

This was despite asking them to ensure the ports had been faced! So I returned the caliper. These are remanufactured calipers made by REMY. I have emailed them asking if I am quoting an incorrect part number, but am awaiting their reply.

I have tried to buy some secondhand calipers from Forum members, but invariably there is at least one snapped nipple on them all! Or they are for solid discs.

I shall just have to keep trying. I did spot a pair of NOS calipers for sale in France, but when I looked closely they were for solid discs.

 

One thing I have been busy with is the indicator switch, this is how it was when I got the car, someone had tried to repair the stalk light but it looked shocking!

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whilst the main part of the switch was working fine, the little warning light was not working and it looked terrible. I have been unable to locate a switch with a decent bulb holder, so I had a bit play about.  8B131E82-FAF2-45E7-B0D5-78AD746B017D.jpeg   75.79K   0 downloads

I cleaned the old rusty stalk and covered it in heat shrink. I found a miniature capless bulb holder I filed this down until it fitted inside the chrome barrel from the original repair, and fitted the green cap and this is how it Looked when finished, I was quite pleased with the result

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[sonscar]

If the callipers were mine I would get some pipes made up that would seal on the tapered seats,safe and easy.I am not advocating this in any way but I would carefully file the mating surfaces flat and use an annealed copper washer.but much more user skill and failure possibility with this method.Good work.Steve,..

[DUF2]

If the callipers were mine I would get some pipes made up that would seal on the tapered seats,safe and easy.I am not advocating this in any way but I would carefully file the mating surfaces flat and use an annealed copper washer.but much more user skill and failure possibility with this method.Good work.Steve,..

The hoses were the standard twin rubber hoses, with a multitude of dual brake pipes under the bonnet including one 6 way connector!  one inlet, 2 outlet RH, 2 outlets LH and also the brake light switch.

So whilst trying to tidy things up I bought the Goodridge braided hose kit and stripped out & replaced all the metal brake lines. The LH is good because that is the original (when I got car) caliper, it is the RH that is causing problems trying to get a caliper that will accept the banjo connections.

[DUF2]

I’m still trying to resolves the caliper issue.
In the meantime I decided to have a look at the boot lock. When the car was painted all the trim, windows etc was removed, the captive nuts securing the boot latch had to be cut off, which left this.

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I thought all I needed to do was remove the seized captive nuts and insert some rivnuts, but when the captive nuts were removed the holes were huge!

So I made up a bracket to hold the new rivnuts,

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I was able to manipulate this through the latch hole, fit the lock to the outside, then attach the boot lock.

I refitted the boot seal rubber and the boot now closes fine.

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I’m not too happy with the bit of seal which shows under the boot latch.

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Here is the seal from the inside,

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You may have spotted the new location for the screen wash reservoir.

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It no longer takes up precious space under the bonnet.

 

 

 

 

 

[DUF2]

I was having trouble getting a tacho to work on Duffy see http://www.theminifo...achometer-on-a/

The first tacho I bought did not work,

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It was not the best match, but it was got just to see I could get it to work on Duffy. Even this one did not have a chrome bezel, so it was swapped for a bezel off an old gauge.

 

So I hunted for another one on eBay. I wanted a 52mm tacho, black face, white figures and a chrome bezel, but I could not find one. So I bought this one

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as you can see it has a black bezel and a red needle.

i fitted it temporarily to check it worked. I started the Engine, then saw the gauge go to 8K so was thinking this one had the same problem as the first one! Then the needle dropped to 0 before reading 1500 rpm, the car was running fast on the choke.  So the tacho was working fine but went through a needle sweep when first switched on.

i then pulled off the bezel and painted the needle.

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starting to look better already.

I then looked at the black bezel to see if anything could be done with that. I tried chrome vinyl wrap, but I am ******* with that! I was now using a dual water temp/oil pressure gauge, so I decided to try the chrome bezel of one of the redundant gauges. This is how it looked fitted into the centre panel

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Not looking too bad a match to the Smiths instruments.

One problem I have to address it the instrument lighting, the tacho being LED backlit, is considerably brighter than the Smiths gauges! I have fitted new standard bulbs, but they are are dull. I shall have to see if I can find some LED instrument bulbs.

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I have got some LED instrument bulbs, I have tried one in the dual gauge, but it does not make much difference to the standard tungsten bulb!

Edited by DUF2, 21 June 2020 - 05:57 PM.

[DUF2]

When I got Duffy, the boot floor was a muckle thick piece of plywood that did not fit too well. 
I bought a piece of 12mm ply and cut that to shape, it was a good fit without the spare, so I put that in to make sure all was OK.

The wheel was a very tight fit between the tank and the battery. The car runs on 12” wheels due to the 8.4 discs, and there is a steel spare with a 135/80R12 spare, this is about 1 1/2”  larger in diameter than the 10” wheel the Spare wheel well was designed to fit, it also prevented the new floor from dropping into position.

I adjusted the space available by manipulating the bottom edge of the fuel tank with a persuader, so the wheel fits a bit better and the board is closer to fitting properly, it was still slightly raised but a couple of screw behind the latch hold it down.

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A bit of carpet makes it look a bit tidier, I just need to get the edge of the carpet bound to finish it off.  984DE6EE-4165-49BC-8BD1-FECFF433E041.jpeg   72.18K   0 downloads

[DUF2]

SUCCESS!!! I think.

Here is a picture of the inlet ports on the 8.4” vented disc caliper

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Here is a picture of how new (refurbished) calipers are.

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i have been seeking out somewhere to get the ports faced, Thanks to Fraser Brown of Fraser Brown Engineering of Nipple Therapy fame, I have a suitable tool.

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I plugged the ports and ran the tool across the faces and got this result.

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with the pipe connected it looks like this.

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I just need to fit the caliper and brake pipes bleed the system and check everything is completely leak free.

 

 

 

 

[GraemeC]

Result

[DUF2]

I have not posted on here for a while, so thought I’d better bring this up to date.

I had a bit of a problem with the clutch not releasing, you can see all the comments here

https://www.theminif...-2#entry3676802

 

I also had a query about Rivnuts see here.

https://www.theminif...s/#entry3673702

 

One about rear wheel bearings

https://www.theminif...wheel-bearings/

 

One about wheel arch extensions

https://www.theminif...-arch-location/

 

This about brings me upto date. Not a lot of progress in the time but that is due to me being lazy.

I have started to fit the headliner.

I bought this recently and was surprised how dark it was, I was expecting the Cream Crackle to be a bit lighter. It is a LOT darker than the Sun visors. I have got a photo somewhere, but can’t find it at the moment.

Here's  the headliner hang loose and looking a big “baggy”. Ignore all the sheets in the back window aperture, they are just the dust covers protecting the roof.

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[DUF2]

I have found the photo of the headliner & the existing sun  visors.

it can’t be fading as the visor is the same colour on each side.

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so I will need to find a paint suitable for vinyl of the matching colour.

[GraemeC]

I’ve read a post about something similar before - might have been on the Mk1 forum

 

edit - just found it and it was your post 

Edited by GraemeC, 18 December 2020 - 07:12 PM.

[surfblue]

Hi,

 

Just read your thread through start to finish. Loving what you are doing to this little car. Some nice mods and because the car is not totally standard you dont need to be too precious about originality. You'll have a cracking wee car when its done, hopefully on the road for this coming summer?

Id love to put a new floor into my Mk1 because it was fitted with over sills and he floors are not correct when it was restored before I bought it but its solid and rust free so hard to justify such an expense on something that you cant actually see.

Keep up the good work, the end is in sight now!  

 

Love to see photos of your A frame set up. This is a minefield of a topic in itself, leading to much debate about whether you can or cant. Only issue that would concern me is the idler gear turning without an oil feed. What's your views on that?

Edited by surfblue, 19 December 2020 - 09:35 AM.

[DUF2]

 

Love to see photos of your A frame set up. This is a minefield of a topic in itself, leading to much debate about whether you can or cant. Only issue that would concern me is the idler gear turning without an oil feed. What's your views on that?

here are a couple of pics of the A Frame.

The eye bolts replace the standard subframe to valance bolts.

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Here is a pic of the A Frame attached to the car.

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The A Frame is an Armitage one, which I bought used, but still had to buy some extra bits from Armitage. It is the inertia brake type, where the hitch is a sliding type and when the Towing vehicle brakes, the hitch compresses and pulls on the brake pedal via a cable between the pedal and the hitch.

I asked about the cable they said they did not know the length suitable! So sent me a one 1100mm long. Much too long. I have shortened the external cable, but need to shorten the inner & refix the nipple on the end. I am not in a desperate hurry so am just leaving this for the time being, I may just order another cable made to the correct length.

 

The idler bearing, my proposal to tow the car has raised a few concerns from folks about the bearing. My thoughts are, the gears will still be running in a sump full of oil so should still be lubricated. In addition the car is not going to be towed long distances at high speed. So I will take my chance, if the bearing goes I shall have to pull the box and replace the bearing.