2 door VAE 306H

[kevin s]

Made some progress over the last few days, the car now has paint on it, a first coat of epoxy primer.
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There are a couple of runs and it will need a fair bit of cutting back and probably a second coat in places, but on the whole I am pretty pleased with progress, I might even get some colour on the interior and engine compartment this week.

[Johnd103]

Brilliant job alot of work went into it looking forward to seeing it done

[kevin s]

Slowly getting there, it has had 3 sessions of cutting back and overpainting now and is pretty close to ready for the first top coats, I have also stripped prepped and primed the rear wings in the same way, all being well I hope to get the first top coat on it over this weekend, trouble is other things keep getting in the way, I have sold my series 2 land rover subject to some minor jobs (plan to replace with Range rover classic rolling resto project) and need to service my niece's KA this wekend.

The good news is the sale of the land rover has freed up some funds so I plan to order most of the rubber and trim parts for the minor to enable me to put the glass and door / side trims back in.

One other item, it turned out the passenger side door glass frame was stainless steel painted white, I plan to keep this and am now on the look out for a drivers side one, I already have the quarterlight so only need the basic frame, even a broken one which can be welded will be fine, does any one have one they are not using? (I have a rust free painted one if anyone wants to swap) etc.

[kevin s]

Finaly got some paint on the minor today, 3 litres of cellulose on the lower half.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

There are a few areas which need some further work but generally very pleased (as is my son!)

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Looking good!

[Johnd103]

Nice should be on the road by Christmas

[kevin s]

Xmas 2017 perhaps!

Plan once paint is finished is:

clean paint, re bush and fit suspension / steering.

Fit headlining
Build up doors
Fit glass.(so interior stays clean)
fit door rr qtr and parcel shelf trim.
Brakes
Wiring
Engine / gearbox
Front panels

The objective being to get as much fitted to the car as soon as possible to alleviate some of the storage problems.

[Johnd103]

I know the feeling I'm doing mine in my yard and haven't got a shed for storage so its all ending up back in the car good luck with it Enjoying watching this restoration

[kevin s]

For the last couple of years all the parts have been piled in and on this, can't really do that now it has been painted.

I haven't fitted /painted the wings because they stick out where it is storred and will get scratched, but thinking about it I may strip them, paint the insides fit them to the car and then paint them next year.

[kevin s]

The final coats of paint have now been done on the main shell and rear panels, its now as it was when used by Bristol omnibus.
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We have also spent £400 on parts so we now have almost everything we need to put most of the trim and steering /suspension back together so that will be the winter task.

Progress may slow for a few weeks though as I have bought an old range rover as a every day car which needs a fair bit of welding before it's mot in January!
I will still get a few evenings on the minor though, the first thing will be to fit the rear wings and front suspension /steering

Kevin

[Johnd103]

Really unusual colour its nice keep the progress coming

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

You have certainly come a long way from the first pictures! I have the corgi model of this car, somewhere

[kevin s]

Yes we have 2 of the corgi models, though they got the green paint wrong with it going down to the feature line on the body, the pictures of the Bristol minors we have (unfortunately only 2 of the 4 minors and not ours) show it stops at the bottom of the windows.

I am now trying to sort through all the boxes to get the parts together to re-assemble it, fortunatelly most still seems to be there and sevicable.

[kevin s]

Tried fitting the engine and mazda box today, but struck a bit of a problem, when I measured up there was no suspension fitted but now it is the gearbox and starter motor hit the eye bolt nuts, this should not be to difficult to fix, either use some half height nuts and cut the bolt down or bore the inner end of the crush tube out and machine up a couple of top hat nuts with a very slim hexagon.

For the moment though we are going to focus on finishing the rear end off as this all painted and we have most of the parts, so it will be bolting the wings on, rear lights, fuel tank and removing cleaning and painting the axle and re fitting with new bushes.

[kevin s]

Progress has been very slow mainly because I replaced my series 2 Land rover with a range rover classic which turned out to be largely made of filler, I have done a few bits on the minor though (limited access as it is in a corner), the drivers door is now fully assembled and the rear wings, lights boot lid fuel tank etc. are now fitted, the rear looks like this.

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I have also stripped the wiring of it's insulation and started to add fuses, relays etc.

[kevin s]

finally some progress, the wiring has been re-made.

basically started with the original loom, modified it to add 2 fuse boxes (one for permanent live the other ignition fed) 4 relays, ignition, headlights, horn, an inertia switch for the fuel pump and conversion to alternator.

It's all mounted to a test board with most of the components connected (all except the lights, engine and horn), next step is to power it up, check everything works using a test lamp for the missing parts then it can be taped and put in the car.


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[kevin s]

Wiring is all done powered up and checked, apart from the poor quality relays and fuses bought from ebay it all works fine, next up is to remove the rear axle, paint it replace the leaking seals and re-build the brakes.

[kevin s]

I have made some further progress,

I started on the back axle, stripped it down, diff seemed fine

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the axle case had one rusty spring seat

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which was cut out and repaired

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[kevin s]

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then painted everything and pt it back together with all new bushes and seals.

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springs were cleaned up and greased then a pair of leather gaiters made.

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it was all then re-fitted to the car.

[kevin s]

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Next up I started on the brakes, went to fit the new pedal bushes and found a number of cracks in the chassis leg around the old bush,

after being cut out (looking from the inside)

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I cut the top hat bush housing off, welded to new thicker steel then welded it all back in