2 door VAE 306H

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midget
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by midget »

Thanks for prompt reply Kevin, completely understand your answer(I am in the middle of fitting Ital engine and driveline to mine) but you failed to mention the all important starter motor position which you briefly mentioned in an earlier post.
I have no problem with mine--it's all been done before and I have the necessary hardware, but will be looking at 5speed options in the future, and think that an mx5 box would be ideal.Not convinced about the usual type 9 Ford job.
I take it you are aware of the American Gent who made a sub-frame for his traveller/mx5 conversion?
John
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

For the starter I will be using the marina one in the marina position, this will involve cutting some of the bell housing away but hopefully not too much, I would like to have used the mx5 one but it wipes out the distributor.
midget
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by midget »

Will watch with interest and wish you the best, but as I understand, this necessitates moving the starter position further down and around the Marina backplate to clear minor bulkhead, as you are using the Marina flywheel. In fact I've just acquired one for mine.Good luck hope it works.
John
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

I think the starter is going to be close to the chassis leg, I hope I can accomodate this by moving the engine over slightly, another option may be to use one of the smaller geared starters. This is the main reason I want to carry out a trial fit before spending too much money on parts.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

This discussion got me thinking so I had a better look, the marina starter position is 13 mm further out than the minor, I don't think it will be a major problem to accomodate this.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

The door post is now finished and given a light primer coat.

[frame]Image[/frame]

I then moved up the a pillar and along the roof, the panel connecting the roof to inner roof rail was completely replaced.

[frame]Image[/frame]
[frame]Image[/frame]


The outer 5 mm of the roof was badly rusted so I cut this back and seam welded it to the new panel.

Next up I moved to the rear, here there were some holes at the centre of the b post and the bulge in the centre had rusted away.[frame]Image[/frame]
[frame]Image[/frame]
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I then replaced the only part of the flange around the rear window which had rusted.
[frame]Image[/frame]

Just need to clean the welds up.

Next up re fit the door then I can replace the bottom of the rear wing and finish the inner wheelhouse repairs, I also need to swap the mechanicals and frame from the original door before fitting the gutter.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

I have now got the door fitted and frame and mechanisms fitted, I spent ages getting the door on and still can not get it to line up perfectly, now it opens and closes perfectly, the top edge aligns with the rear wing and the frame fits the A pillar well, but the gap to the rear wing is not parrallel and narrows towards the bottom, If I raise the front any more the frame hits the A pillar, so I will probably cut the rear wing and re weld to get the fit perfect, if I don' get it right now I will always notice it.

[frame]Image[/frame]
[frame]Image[/frame]

The other thing I have noticed is the new door has a lock hole and the original does not, would this mean it came off a left hand drive car?
DAVIDMCCULLOUGH
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by DAVIDMCCULLOUGH »

Door locks were fitted to the passenger door of all 2 door, traveller and convertible from around September 1963 along with a few other improvements to the body, so chances are the door that was fitted was off an older car.

Door fitting is a long slow process, I spent 3 days getting them to fit perfectly on my traveller before it went for painting only for the painter to take them off!! At least I knew I would be able to get them to fit eventually....


Too many Minors so little time.....
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Ok thanks so I will keep an eye out for a latch / handle assy with a key.

The doors will have to come off ours for paint as well but if I can get it right now as you say they should go back on properly, also as it may be a couple of years before it is painted putting it all together avoids loosing parts.
ian.mcdougall
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by ian.mcdougall »

Tip for refitting door after removing for painting, if you were happy with fit drill a 1/8 or metric equiv hole through hinge, a-post, and plate at back of a-post then when refitting use the drill bit to get the original alignment

kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

ian.mcdougall wrote:Tip for refitting door after removing for painting, if you were happy with fit drill a 1/8 or metric equiv hole through hinge, a-post, and plate at back of a-post then when refitting use the drill bit to get the original alignment
Thanks, A great idea.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Yesterday I cut and re welded the rear wing, this is the resulting door gap.

[frame]Image[/frame]

Next up I made a new lower part for the bodyside, it was made from card templates and curved around the post of my ramp by hand which was also welded in. After a bit of fitting and grinding back the welds I ended up with this:

[frame]Image[/frame]

Next up is to make the closing panels for each end and trial fit thed rear wing.
Last edited by kevin s on Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Virtually finished the rear quarter now, I made all the repair sections and welded in place as well as replacing most of the wing mounting flange, just need to clean up the welds, add a couple of weldnuts for the wing and a flange on the inside for the quarter trim to fit to.[frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame]
irmscher
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by irmscher »

The car is coming on well :)
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Slow but steady progress, gutters made, firstly folded over a piece of iron ( the edge of my home made metal folder) using a slapper and some soft headed mallets.

[frame]Image[/frame].

Then cut off

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To give this

[frame]Image[/frame]

Then bent to shape by hand, holes for plug welding punched and primed with weld through.

[frame]Image[/frame]

They were then fitted to the car, the welds ground back and the whole lot gone over with a body file to iron out any imperfections.

[frame]Image[/frame]

[frame]Image[/frame]

[frame]Image[/frame]

The fiberglass rear wing has also been fitted and a the holes drilled for the bolts, where you can't get to the back to use nuts and bolts I have welded in stainless weld nuts, with this we only have the lh inner wing left to sort out, might even get some paint on it this summer !
Last edited by kevin s on Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Slow progress due to so many other commiments, but I have started on the last area of welding on the main bodyshell, after this it is just the inside of the front panel and lower rear edge of one front wing before we start paint.

This is the starting point[frame]Image[/frame]

The area around the bump stop has patches over it but I could not see any corrosion, on cutting it off the reason became obvious there were a number of fatigue cracks and splits, so this is it with the old patches and rust cut out.

[frame]Image[/frame]

There was also some rust around the damper mounting which was cut out

[frame]Image[/frame]

Hopefully I can get the time to weld repair sections in this week, then move onto the front end of the inner wing.

The plan is to use synthetic Paint rollered on over an epoxy primer, I have achieved some very good results with this before and it will enable us to do panels seperately without having to move and mask all the contents of the garage each time. It also doesent annoy the neighbours and suffer sinkage like spraying cellulose.
jagnut66
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by jagnut66 »

It will be interesting to see the results once you've painted her, can we have some close up shots to show the finish please.
Best wishes,
Mike.
1954 Series 2: 4 door: "Sally" -- Back on the ground with (slave) wheels and waiting to be resprayed......
1970 Triumph Herald 1200: "Hetty" -- Driven back from Llangollen in Wales (twice.....)
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Some more welding on the inner wing tonight, the repair pieces are all butt welded in from the outside which leaves a good finish on the inside.

[frame]Image[/frame]
[frame]Image[/frame]


Just a couple of more pieces to be butt welded on th lower front corner, one to replace the area cut out and another to replace the seam ( I will be loosing this) and after 2 years we will have finished all the welding on the bodyshell, there is only a small area of one wing and the inside of the front panel left after this.

[frame]Image[/frame]
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Inner wing now finished.

[frame]Image[/frame]

Stainless rivnuts welded in for the wing mounting bolts.

[frame]Image[/frame]
[frame]Image[/frame]

So that concludes the welding on the main bodyshell, still have the inside of the front panel and trailing edge of one wing to do though.

I started looking at my home brewed disc brake conversion based on a corsa c.

The disc bore was opened out the it was fitted over the hub and the caliper pushed over it., unfortunatelly the calipers are non vented and the disc vented so I will need to double check with a solid disc but at the moment it looks very promising, the 10mm drill bit in the picture below is between the caliper and upright flange, which should mean it will be very simple to make an adaptor plate out of 10 mm steel.

[frame]Image[/frame]
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On the otherside it will need around a half inch wheelspacer.

[frame]Image[/frame]
kevin s
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Re: 2 door VAE 306H

Post by kevin s »

Now the welding is finished I have started preping it for paint, this is where we are now.



[frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame]

I have now also stripped the paint off the scuttle to find some nasty suprises, this the rh bonnet hinge,[frame]Image[/frame]

And repaired, just need to open the holes out.[frame]Image[/frame]

This week I plan to get the underside and wheelarches stone chipped then re fit the suspension so it can be moved to start the painting, hopefully within a couple of weeks it will be in primer.

I have also done a bit more on fitting the mx5 box to the 1098 engine, I made a temporary pilot bearing from alloy then used this to align the engine to the box, to make sure the input shaft was central I packed it to the nose piece with alloy shims. The box was then dropped onto the engine and suitable sized drills used to mark the centre of each hole, these were then drilled to the required size.[frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame][frame]Image[/frame]

I now need to cut pieces out for the starter and to clear the steering rack, the marina flywheel is also touching the inside of the bell housing idealy the bell housing would be fly cut out a couple of mm, I will probably improvise a clamp to allow me to use an angle grinder pivoted about the input shaft to give the same effect.
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