Engine bay advice

[bushhouse]

Hello everyone,

Our '56 4 door renovation is going well and we're busy stripping down and not finding any great horrors, thus far !!
My question is how to strip the engine bay ? In particular, if one is going to put in a new harness, is it all out through the grommets with the old one i.e into the space behind the dash or just mask off and work around the bundles. What does one do about the regulator, fuses etc. Is the new harness insertion a fairly straightforward job ? i.e well labelled and logical.

Any advice / guidance would be most welcomed.

Many thanks,

Stu

[MarkyB]

Sorry if I'm being slow, but are you asking about rewiring or about respraying?

[bmcecosse]

I think he wants to strip it all out before respraying the engine bay. And so yes - it ALL needs to be removed and then refitted.

[ASL642]

And no sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the new wiring loom doesn't come with any labels. Label the old one (i.e. rear lights, indicators etc. Remove wiring loom. Lay out the new one along side the old (on the lawn on a dry day?) and transfer the labels across. Trying to do this upsidedown under the car and get the wires right is impossible.

[bushhouse]

Thanks for the warning !!!! Can't wait !!!! Oh, God, what have I started !!

Well, it's full steam ahead - DRAW DIAGRAM/TAKE PHOTO/CHECK DIAGRAM & PHOTO. Label, check labels, strip and keep a cool head.

Thanks for the advice

Stu

[ASL642]

A digital camera is invaluable. Take close up pictures of everything. Then you have them to refer to when re-assembling if you find you can't remember what goes where.

[youngun]

I also recommend removing as many of the cable and hose clips/tags as possible as they are a good place for grit and crud to collect that will spoil your new paint! If any of the spot welded tags that hold down the brake lines etc are rusted, now would be a good time to replace them or at least gently bend them up and clean thoroughly beneath them. Having just sprayed my engine bay I can tell you...its a marathon cleaning job even with a shot blaster! Let me know how the wiring goes as this is a job I hope to do at the end of the summer.

YG

[bushhouse]

Thanks YG

Wiring loom could be tricky but a cool and calm head should help. Did you wire brush/ disc sands back to the shiny stuff ?

Which rust killer did you use before stopper/priming ? Did you brush or spray ?

Cheers for the post

Stu

[RobThomas]

You COULD roll the loom up and hang it in a plastic bag if you didn't want to pull it through the bulkhead. Depends how sad you are. Ahem
[frame][/frame]

[bushhouse]

OMG I've got EBE (Engine Bay Envy !!!)

Well done indeed - what a great bay !

[polo2k]

If you are scrapping the old loom (dont, they are a great source of spare cable) then leave the terminals on their components so that you can see the wire colours. then label the spurs off the loom (wiper motor, coil, dynamo etc) putt out all the loom, do the painting and then when refitting, just replace the colours.
Take care that you dont pull the tags off when pulling the loom back through grommet holes.

Its no fun spraying around a loom, but its doable. make sure you get all the original black seam sealer out, otherwise it will sink and the paint doesnt last long

[youngun]

Thats some impressive engine bays being shown off there....ill have to get mine on show!

Regards prep, I used a combination of wire brush on the angle grinder, sand flap disc, cup brush and pencil brush on drill and the shotblaster for the very tricky bits!
Rust treatment: Kurust
Base paint: Isopon zinc 182....everyone who gets the urge to say i should have used etch please refrain ive had a belly full of that argument off other sites!
primer: Isopon P88 high build cellulose (wonderful stuff).

yet to topcoat

YG

[bmcecosse]

No need to label the wires - they are colour coded so you know which wire to connect to the service you require. Run off a copy of Barry's excellent simplified wiring diagram - and laminate it !

[youngun]

Heres my engine bay!

Just needs 6 or so top coats on it now![frame][/frame]

[polo2k]

Heres a few more pics of mine, unfortunately I cant find any with the engine in
I had only just fitted the brake lines and was rushing (I did all the engine bay while the crank was being ground after low oil pressure.

[RobThomas]

Polo. Is that 2-pack gloss?

[beero]

Stu, I would strip everything out, I learnt my lesson on my MGB, I wasn't happy with the finish, so I stripped everything from the morris except the exhaust and the wiper cable.
As everyone is showing off there engine bay..............[frame][/frame]

[bushhouse]

Wow, hope mine gets to be as impressive as these are. I guess do it well, do it once. Inspiring guys and gals - thanks.

Engine out next then rush, sanding discs and hard graft.

Has anyone managed to extract an engine without a hoist or is it better to just bite the bullet and hire one ?

Upwards and onwards.... thanks for the tips

Stu

[ASL642]

Hire/borrow an engine hoist/crane. Doing it without can be dangerous. They're unwieldy at the best of times.

[gazzcross]

as others are putting theirs up i thought i would too
this is with everything removed and the paint mostly stripped[frame][/frame]