RogerH Posted June 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2021 I have run a straight edge on the before and after repair from the front wing to the rear wing Before repair the front of the sill aligned very well with the front wing. The back of the sill aligned very well with the rear wing BUT this made the door look as if standing out proud. With the rear wing aligned with the door the rear of the sill was inset by apprx 10mm. After repair (but not fully finished - the rear of the sill aligned very well with the rear wing and the wing aligns with the door. I'll show more pics when it is finished. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ntc Posted June 21, 2021 Report Share Posted June 21, 2021 7 hours ago, stuart said: No sill trim on a 4 Stuart. I know but you can spot what’s right or wrong Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2021 57 minutes ago, ntc said: I know but you can spot what’s right or wrong Not until it is sorted you can't. Couldn't do any work today - rain stopped play. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2021 Hi folks, after a tough week of metal bashing and filling I have finally finished the off side sill. The rear wing, the door and the sill all meet happily together at the rear lower corner of the door. It looks pretty good in rattle can primer. Tomorrow I'll put a coat of 2K hi build on, give it a good rub down and then on Sunday put the top coat on. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2021 Hi Folks, the top coat has gone on nicely and the greenfly are staying away. It may be possible that the shiny "out of the gun" finish on there now will stay there and I won't have to chisel it off. There was quite a lot of work to get the sill to line up with the door and wing but I am happy I only repaired the back end rather than remove the whole sill (knowing how dodgy some are) If I had to do the same repair again I would attack it in a similar manner but with a few better ideas. Having seen a few old repairs within the sill I am confident that the mis-alignment was the result of a prang. When I got the car back in 2010 therer were plenty of clues that it had be used for racing/rallying. So a prang would be highly likely. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Motorsport Mickey Posted June 26, 2021 Report Share Posted June 26, 2021 Can't wait to see the detailed photos of the repair process...I need something to copy ! Mick Richards Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted June 26, 2021 Report Share Posted June 26, 2021 33 minutes ago, Motorsport Mickey said: Can't wait to see the detailed photos of the repair process...I need something to copy ! Mick Richards Nope just fit a new sill, the latest Heritage ones are good. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2021 Hi Mick, I will post a better description of what I did. But, Stuart is quite right - a complete new sill is the way to go. If mine was rubbish because of rust that is what I would have done. But mine was due to some damage caused in the long distant past. I needed to cut the back ed apart to make sure that I could put something back that lined up properly. So I decided to cut the rear 1/3rd away and take it from there. I was happy in what I did for me. 'If' I was doing for somebody else or the whole sill was dicky then I would have gone for the complete item. As for what I did - it is seriously robust and the right shape. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2021 Hi Folks, the front off side wing needed to be fastened down properly. To date it had a couple of screws to hold it in place. All went well except for one. Guess which screw would not go in - the very front countersink spire screw had no spire nut. Thankfully all the screws/nuts/bolts are new and so the wing was off in twenty minutes The spire nut was there but had slipped around because the infill panel was not anchored down fully. So I sort that out and refit the wing. When I come to the front spire screw the bl**dy things just spins around in the nut. We have a knackered nut Fate was telling me it was time to pack up for the day. Tomorrow I shall show no mercy to the knackered nut - it will be dust. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted June 29, 2021 Report Share Posted June 29, 2021 14 hours ago, RogerH said: Hi Folks, the front off side wing needed to be fastened down properly. To date it had a couple of screws to hold it in place. All went well except for one. Guess which screw would not go in - the very front countersink spire screw had no spire nut. Thankfully all the screws/nuts/bolts are new and so the wing was off in twenty minutes The spire nut was there but had slipped around because the infill panel was not anchored down fully. So I sort that out and refit the wing. When I come to the front spire screw the bl**dy things just spins around in the nut. We have a knackered nut Fate was telling me it was time to pack up for the day. Tomorrow I shall show no mercy to the knackered nut - it will be dust. Roger They are a pain as the spire has to fit into a hole that isnt really suitable for it, Ive had a few problems with them too. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MichaelH Posted June 29, 2021 Report Share Posted June 29, 2021 I am interested that the filler piece between the wing and the front panel is welded to the wing. I have left mine separate and that leaves access to get a spire nut onto the wing at the front. I bolt the filler bit to the front panel then hook the wing over it to start to bolt it up. MichaelH Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted June 29, 2021 Report Share Posted June 29, 2021 50 minutes ago, MichaelH said: I am interested that the filler piece between the wing and the front panel is welded to the wing. I have left mine separate and that leaves access to get a spire nut onto the wing at the front. I bolt the filler bit to the front panel then hook the wing over it to start to bolt it up. MichaelH Only thing with that is you`ll find you get water/mud in between the filler and the wing and as that part of the wing is very vulnerable anyway you dont want to make it worse. I weld them on and seam seal them to the wing and then seal the wings to the inner wing/front panel with non setting sealer. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MichaelH Posted June 29, 2021 Report Share Posted June 29, 2021 Hi Stuart That makes a very good reason to fit plastic inner liners between wing and the metal inner wheel arch both front and back : it keeps the dirt and water out Michael Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted June 30, 2021 Report Share Posted June 30, 2021 14 hours ago, MichaelH said: Hi Stuart That makes a very good reason to fit plastic inner liners between wing and the metal inner wheel arch both front and back : it keeps the dirt and water out Michael Well that`ll stop it coming up from the wheel but it wont stop it coming in from the front. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted June 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2021 Isn't it odd how the same little item can plague you. The front fastener on the righthand wing will not die quietly Firstly the spire nut was jammed in the wrong place and I couldn't fit the screw. Then with the spire nut in the right pace it's thread stripped I then fitted a new spire nut and when the wing was all buttoned up I found that the head of the spire nut passed through the inner wing hole and thus leaving the front of the wing loose. I had to open the inner wing hole so that I could fit a bush that could be welded in place. This had a countersink on the engine side to take the screw. Both sides were smoothed down so as not to interfere with the bonnet So now the right hand wing is fitted and looks good. I am touching up some dings in the paint work. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2021 Hi Folks, yesterday one of the areas that needed a little attention was the bottom forward corner of the rear off side wing. (next tot he area of sill that has been repaired. The bottom 6" had a spray with top coat. Today the paint was still rubbery - it hadn;t set hard like it should. Not had a problem with this paint before and I'm sure I put the hardener in and mixed well. Anyway I had to wash it off with thinners which was not a simple process. Eventually I got down to a good surface. Applied some primer and then put a top coat on. An hoour or so after that it all looked good and appeared dry. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) Hi Folks, the sill is all finished and looks pretty good. I then had a small issue with the boot lid. There cracks in the skin coming from the handle hole. This was caused by the filler. In trying to tidy it up I made it worse. I ended up re-painting the whole are below the number plate. It looks fine but I feel I should have painted the whole boot lid.. There may be a natural work around for this as I have another boot lid that needs the bottom repairing. When this is done I'll swap the new one for the old one. There are no problems only opportunities The next opportunity was to put the door cards onto the doors. Another thread on the 4/4A forum was complaining about how hard it is to fit new cards. When I did this back in the 80's I remembered making a hardboard template to align the clips. Not wanting to tear my hair out I decided to remake the template from 9mm MDF - see the attached drawing for key dimensions. Having aligned the clips on the right hand door it took about 5 minutes to fir on the door. However getting the clips aligned for the template did take longer but was easy work. The left hand door card had a clip hole a good 1" out pf place. Drilling this 1/2" hole is a bit scary with the vinyl still on the back face - but do'able. Without the template finding this opportunity would have been a serious situation. Anyway, the door cards were fitted. The right hand card already had the holes for the internal door pull - albeit rather tatty and elongated. I must have done this years before. The left hand door card had no holes. Making the holes in the correct place is easy if you know how. See the pic below for the simple tool that we use on aircraft for transferring rivet holes. A simple bent piece of mild steel about 4" long. Drill a hole through both pieces so they are in the same place. Fit a solid rivet into one hole and give it a point. This point goes into the hole that you are trying to find. The door card goes between the two legs and you drill through the hole exposed to you - it can only work Roger Door card template.docx Edited July 7, 2021 by RogerH Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 Hi Folks, I think the door window weather seals are somehow related to the getting in of GB into the clutch splines. You can struggle for hours to get it sorted with no joy and then it pops in. The outer seal can be very difficult, especially the rearmost clip. Very satisfying when they are all in and done. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
boxofbits Posted July 9, 2021 Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 16 minutes ago, RogerH said: Hi Folks, I think the door window weather seals are somehow related to the getting in of GB into the clutch splines. You can struggle for hours to get it sorted with no joy and then it pops in. The outer seal can be very difficult, especially the rearmost clip. Very satisfying when they are all in and done. Roger Hi Roger Good work, nice to see it coming together. Bit like a bolt that you’ve got between your fingertips and refuses to start for ages, then comes out of your fingers, clanks and drops down into the crossmember somewhere and the washers come off and disappear . But after a tea and 15 minutes it goes in first time! Out of interest which door weather seals did you use? Some time back my repro seals were getting a bit tatty. Moss offered me both OEM and repro. I chose OEM but found they had hardened quite a bit and hence don’t think they were as good as the repro’s. Regards Kevin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 Hi Kevin, Mine are the Moss seals. Their WebCat only shows one quality and they look OK and are flexible enough. Bought them last week. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2021 Hi Folks, Have taken the GB out and have started to strip it down. Got the selector rods out only to find that I had already fitted lip seals in place of the 'O' rings - oops! When putting the taper lock screws into the forks I had a brain wave (more trouble on the horizon). I have previously wire locked them in place - 3/32" drill hole in the head and wrap the wire around the forks. This was never tidy and took a bit f effort to do. So today I made some tab washers One tab is against the taper screw head, the other tab is folded down against the fork body. It looks secure and quite neat - I'll do a pic for tomorrow. Another issue is inside the bell housing. There is a ring a grease/oil around the bell housing. I assumed this came from the gearbox oil via the seal in the front face extension. Having taken the seal out I then thought could it be the grease in the release bearing spinning out. The grease is attached to the bell housing and not easily moved. So what is dripping out of the bell housing. The crank rear seal is of the Land Rover type where the crank is ground down to fit. I hope this is not leaking. Tomorrow I will fit the GB extension seal Split the OD from the GB and sort the OD engage mechanism, fit new gasket and seal up. Make a spanner to hold the prop flange and undo the big nut and then replace the seal at the back. Then on Tuesday fit the GB back into the car. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2021 Hi Folks, I did split the OD from the GB - mainly to see why the operating valve as not working. The first thing I noticed was that the gasket at the 6-o-clock position was not stuck to either face. Whereas from 8-o-clock round to 4-o-clock it was like the proverbial blanket and smelly stuff. The OD operating valve was in fact installed correctly but I found that the operating arm under the solenoid was not set very well. The rear oil seal at the end of the OD was easy enough to replace. I fitted a new output flange for the prop as it had a slight wear mark caused by the seal lip. Friday I shall try to re-install the GB into the car - I hope it is not too hot. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Salisbury Posted July 21, 2021 Report Share Posted July 21, 2021 Roger, I really don't know how you are managing to do all this work in this heat, I mean just today I picked up a spanner and quickly put it down again 'cause it was so hot!! Cheers Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John L Posted July 21, 2021 Report Share Posted July 21, 2021 That reminded me when I worked in Sudan, we would keep the spanners/tools in a bucket of water, if we put them down on the soil or machine, there was no way you could pick them up again! John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted July 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2021 Yes it is hot and I am sweating cobs. since the beginning of July I'm on a 6 week course under the hospital. Before treatment I have to fill my bladder to a certain amount. In the morning when I get up I down 2Ltr of water and even 2 hours later it doesn;t turn up where it is meant to. It took 3 Ltr today to get to the minimum reading. Roger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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