UOL 524 1957 A35 Restoration

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Edosan
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Edosan »

From my reading of the thread he's already primed it by cranking it over and checking for pressure at the switch before putting engine back in but great tip from Neil about packing oil pump, would assembly lube work as well, just worried about how easily Vaseline would break down. I'll be rebuilding my spare old engine soon so interested in this :wave:
Paulc
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Paulc »

My engine was in situ and hadn't been stripped. It took two hours to get the pump working and my mechanic used an old wheeze of using 80/90 oil in the primer plug (before that I had visions of taking the engine out again, the atmosphere in the garage could be described as fraught). We still needed to prime from the pressure switch side which apparently defied logic but seemed to do the trick. I assume we had an air lock.
Dave Clark
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Dave Clark »

Neil,s tip about using Vaseline is one I have used many times. The fact that Vaseline breaks down easily in the oil is in it,s favour as it is then absorbed harmlessly in the oil.

Can I suggest that you turn the engine as little as possible after doing this as the pump will, of course. try to pump the Vaseline out, although I have never had a problem in this respect.I usually remember my own warning when I am about half way through setting the valve clearances !
AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

Neil Evans wrote:
AustinofEngland wrote:Found some original looking cotton braided cable and re soldered them on.
Autosparks will re-braid the original cable if you remove the old braiding and clean it meticulously before sending it to them... :thumbs:
Sorry my bad description, already had the main loom rebraided after repair by Autosparks see:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10223&start=30#p116484

I meant an off the roll battery cable pre braided over the insulation,
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Original cable top and replacement bottom.
Dave Clark wrote:That fuel pipe from pump to carb has always been painted green on cars that I have owned,but you probably know that.
Yes I'm trying to do it as close to factory new as possible and 95% of the pipe is green...
Paulc wrote:Before the engine goes back in you might want to loosen the primer plug as it isn't in the easiest position once the engine is in. I had a lot of trouble priming the oil pump and resorted to priming the pump from both the primer and the oil switch and eventually the pump 'worked', when it did it pumped oil all over the clean engine bay.
Already primed up before fitting, spark plugs out and cranked over and multimeter on the oil switch. The starter motor slowed down slightly with the extra resistance from driving the oil pump when it achieved pressure.
Neil Evans wrote:
Paulc wrote: I had a lot of trouble priming the oil pump...

Packing the pump with vaseline helps... :thumbs:
Excellent tip, if you left the older Rover V8 draining too long with the oil filter removed they sometimes didn't regain oil pressure and this trick was the only way to recover them....
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

Painting the engine.
As some of you will gather this A35 now has the engine fitted and has suspension to make it a rolling shell, you may have seen the car at the National Meet on Sunday. I've not had the chance to properly update this thread but have taken plenty of photos in order to do that and get back up to date.

In the meantime I've carried out a great deal of research on exactly how the power unit was finished when new, this changed several times over A30 to A35 production but fortunately this car was very original so gave many good clues on exactly how it was finished.
The main points are the engine is fully built up and hot run before paint is applied. Once tested some very crude masking applied and some minor dismantling (such as removing the coil, distributor cap and plug leads) before one single coat of BMC MOWOG green was sprayed on over the whole lot, paint runs and missed parts included!
One part of BMC masking was a giant bit of tooling in the way of a handle with a series of metal bars, tubes, plates, boxes and shielding etc that would be clamped over the engine prior to panting. This would shield the distributor body (with distributor cap and leads removed), the end of the dynamo, the four spark plug insulation posts and carburettor. It looks like the Austin with patents labels were masked off with tape along with the oil filler cap and oil switch, again crudely as there was plenty of overspray found here as well as hand applied brush paint!
If it's car with the gearbox painted, a few things were masked off with tape, such as the speedo, gear change apature and both RHD and LHD clutch rod pivot points...

Although out of period have a look at this excellent film about the Austin 1300 Automatic, this gives a good insight to some of the A Series production, but at 11 minutes there is a few seconds of green paint in process with said masking clamp...
http://streaming.britishpathe.com/hls-v ... 4.mp4.m3u8
Just say there is no sound with this film...

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Cleaned up and masked off ready to paint
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Carburettor crudely masked off to promote some overspray!
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Rocker labels masked as per original overspray marks and the oil cap too with a chunk missed out as found originally
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Green at last!
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Depending on the application of the engine, some of the front wheel drive stuff even had the fanbelt painted!
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Engine now dressed. I've fabricated a new set of plug leads, fortunately the original spacer and numbered plug terminal covers all survived fitted to the replacement leads fitted in the 1980s. The coil brackets and oil filler cap were in the batch of parts sent away for zinc plating. Image
Overspray on the carburettor and a paint fade out on the fuel and vacuum pipes.
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I was unable to find a correct coil sticker anywhere with correct Lucas font or LA 12 type, credit to "I say ding dong" for making one from scratch using two very old tatty original stickers as templates.
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Close up of carburettor
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Fan with green hub
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Distributor with clamp and vacuum unit in overspray, also the crude edge on the dynamo and spark plugs. The numbers 445 were the original shift number for this engine as found on the rocker cover, although these were applied with yellow wax crayon I've done it with yellow paint pen to make it more permanent.
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Battery leads in green too, but gearbox mounting bolted on afterwards.
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:42 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Paulc
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Paulc »

Not too much concern with Health & Safety in the factory.
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Neil Evans
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Neil Evans »

AustinofEngland wrote:
Neil Evans wrote:
AustinofEngland wrote:Found some original looking cotton braided cable and re soldered them on.
Autosparks will re-braid the original cable if you remove the old braiding and clean it meticulously before sending it to them... :thumbs:
Sorry my bad description, already had the main loom rebraided after repair by Autosparks see:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10223&start=30#p116484

I meant an off the roll battery cable pre braided over the insulation,
Autosparks will also rebraid the starter cables... have had several done over the years...
AustinofEngland wrote: Excellent tip, if you left the older Rover V8 draining too long with the oil filter removed they sometimes didn't regain oil pressure and this trick was the only way to recover them....
A friend was always playing with Rover V8's and got a reputation at the village pharmacy for wanting Vaseline in bulk... :whistle:
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Neil Evans
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Neil Evans »

Paulc wrote:Not too much concern with Health & Safety in the factory.
I've seen similar photos of J40 pedal car production at Bargoed, and these were supposedly disabled miners, often with lung conditions... :whistle:
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A40FARINAGURU
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by A40FARINAGURU »

Neil Evans wrote:
Paulc wrote:Not too much concern with Health & Safety in the factory.
I've seen similar photos of J40 pedal car production at Bargoed, and these were supposedly disabled miners, often with lung conditions... :whistle:
yes it is on the the best of Austin in the fifties dvd :thumbs:
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AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

A40FARINAGURU wrote:
Neil Evans wrote:
Paulc wrote:Not too much concern with Health & Safety in the factory.
I've seen similar photos of J40 pedal car production at Bargoed, and these were supposedly disabled miners, often with lung conditions... :whistle:
yes it is on the the best of Austin in the fifties dvd :thumbs:

Click here to learn how to add YouTube Videos to your phpBB forum

In this film two A35s and one van...
Also of interest the supply of small parts, notice the rocker covers pre painted in that light blue undercoat rather like military engines and the Austin labels riveted on before painting in topcoat green. I noticed during the engine build that the tappet chest covers were finished in this colour too...
I watched this film years ago and always remember the PC "even disabled men can once again be useful members of society" statement... :!:
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AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

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Starting to get some parts back on the body shell. I managed to save all of the wing filler strips, but they took some cleaning up as lots of flaking rust had become stuck to them. They are very hard but I discovered that warming them up in hot water made them very pliable again to aid both removing rust from them and fitting back into the bodywork.
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Going back in with wax sandwiched between them
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Getting organised with fixings
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Pulling the wiring loom through
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Using the wiring diagram to wire up the various electrical components
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The new location of the washer bottle to make way for a future heater, note one of the duplicated "faults", the plain washer stuck to the inner wing with paint...Image
The front grille and lighting fitted, with NOS horseshoe about to come out of its packaging
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I love the BMC bodging behind with bits of boot lid seals chopped up to wedge the fitting studs in place! In the end just two studs needed replacement due to corrosion, the rest were stripped and zinc replated.
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:52 am, edited 3 times in total.
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AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

Assembling the steering gear, both the idler and column were leaking oil quite badly and the idler has been dismantled for assessment in an earlier post on this thread.
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The original cork seal
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Close up of the bore which has a chamfered lower edge, ideally this could do with machining out to a right angle to fit a modern lip seal, but...
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Seal on the left in its original state, on the right the seal outer ring ground down slightly to shorten the depth.
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This allowed the seal to be pushed down the bore far enough....
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....to fit the metal ring retainer and peen over the alloy casting and hold it in position
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The shaft with tape over the splines to protect the seal and a light smear of grease
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Pushed through and located in place [URL=http://imgbox.com/st6OqxoD]Image
Filled with oil, main body painted and fully assembled with the steering arm ready to fit
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:53 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Big Daddy
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by Big Daddy »

AustinofEngland wrote:This allowed the seal to be pushed down the bore far enough...to fit the metal ring retainer and peen over the alloy casting and hold it in position
Metal retaining ring can be discarded. Outer case of lip seal should be a light interference fit in the casting, which is more than sufficient to retain it securely... :thumbs:
Image
AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

Big Daddy wrote:
AustinofEngland wrote:This allowed the seal to be pushed down the bore far enough...to fit the metal ring retainer and peen over the alloy casting and hold it in position
Metal retaining ring can be discarded. Outer case of lip seal should be a light interference fit in the casting, which is more than sufficient to retain it securely... :thumbs:
Yes I'm pretty sure its only there to hold in the original cork seal design in place. But I refitted it because although the modern lip seal seems to grip the bore only 70% or so was engaged, I thought it was good insurance to refit the ring since the whole lot is mounted upside down, plus from the outside it still looks original
:thumbs:
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Starting on the steering column with exactly the same idea and parts
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Shaft and peg removed
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Didn't have to drain any oil, this was all that was left! There is a very thin paper gasket on the top plate that fortunately didn't disintegrate when the plate was removed.
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The seal was an even tighter fit here so I took some material off the top of the seal and...
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...gave the lower part a chamfered edge to make it fit into the bore as snugly as possible.
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Seal positioned in the bore
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Retaining ring refitted and edges peened over to secure
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Reassembled and mounted in a vice, filled with oil and tested for leaks.
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No leaks found, fully reassembled and painted ready to fit
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AustinofEngland
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Re: UOL 1957 A35 Restoration

Post by AustinofEngland »

Engine bay with a few more parts fitted including the dampers, brake pipes and heater blanking plates
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Installing the steering column
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Recycling the chrome horseshoe packaging over the freshly painted column to prevent scratches during fitting!
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I stripped the flaking paint from the column bracket then made a bracket so that it could be used as a mounting handle when it was painted.
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The rest of the steering gear fitted, note the colour coded bolts. I believe every car had this as it was the factory way to keep the UNF threads clear during the body shell painting process.
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The last time on the temporary dolly!
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Engine rolled into position and distributor cap removed ready for the "body drop"
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In position ready for mounting brackets etc
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Secured in place.
Last edited by AustinofEngland on Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
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