Since it’s hot as Alabama asphalt in
July, the humidity is around 120% (probably not possible, but it feels like
it!), and I can’t paint anything, I’m doing some bits.
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| Before pic |
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| Other side - note the loose support and the many bent fins |
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| Down to the brass and resoldered The core looked pretty good for 60ish years of work. |
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| Look at all those straight fins! |
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| All the bits and baubles (or as they say in Alabama, it's all blowed up!) |
Master Cylinders and Pedals: I had one brake line to bend and install, the one from the master cylinder to the power brake servo (brake booster for those on this side of the Atlantic). Of course, I had to rebuild the master cylinders (clutch and brake) first, but I’ve done that many times before, so it was only a matter of getting the kits.
I bead blasted and powder coated the bracket too, smashing!
Radiator: I don’t need it yet but may as well get at
it. Step one: disassemble. You can see from the before pics that one of
the supports was unattached. I removed it,
the other one, and the mere suggestion of a fan guard just under the radiator
cap as well. I needed to bead blast and
paint them, of course.
Step four: Painstakingly straighten all the cooling fins
on both sides, not hard but TEDIOUS!
Step five: Reassemble - resolder the radiator supports
and fan guard. Of course, I painted the
inside of the rad supports before gluing them back on. What did you think I would do? I’m allergic to rust, remember. My grandfather owned a radiator shop, and I’ve
seen my grandfather, father and uncles repair myriads of radiators so this was
old hat for me.
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| Shiny black but lumpy tanks |
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| The engine bay side |
Something Kinda Way Cool: I love these little tidbits! As I was taking the rad tanks back to brass, I found a repair shop’s hand engraved (with an electric engraving pencil, see pic) repair notice on the top tank. It’s a six-line engraving, reading (as best as old eyes, a magnifying glass and photographic software can decern). I added a pic so my small but dedicated group of readers can take a stab at translation.
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| Electric engraving pencil |
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| Take your stab at tranlation! So-so pic hard to get the right angle |
Line 3 – “F f & Rep”
(possibly P f & Rep) Maybe the shop’s
abbreviated name
Line 4 – “9-28-73” (the coolest part, this radiator was repaired two months shy of 51 years ago as of today (7/5/2024))
Line 5 – “Midwest” (this is
quite clear)
Line 6 – “Mazda” (also quite
clear)
My interpretation: One of Alphie’s previous owners had the
radiator serviced at the Midwest Mazda dealership by a dude either named Dully and/or
with the initials “JWD” on September 28, 1973.
Maybe the dealership’s repair shop name is FF & Repair. Alphie had an Illinois license plate in the
boot when I dragged him home, so maybe the dealership was there. Of course, I went-a-googling, but it was 51
years ago, and the dealership has surely closed or changed names and the repair
shop is long closed. Googling “Midwest
Mazda” gets you all the Mazda dealerships in the Midwest. But who knows, we may punch in the magic search
string into google and find more information.
If I do, I’ll put it in the blog.
What’s your translation of radiator hieroglyphics?
Heater Valve Refurbish: I’ve decided to repaint Alphie with the
little dish where the bonnet latch lives in place. Which means I need to clean and fit the
heater core, which means I need to run the heater hoses, which means I need to
refurbish all the bits that go with the hoses, like the Adel clamps (not the
singer – those little loop clamps that route hoses and wires), hose clamps and the
heater valve.
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| Crusty and Rusty! |
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| Brilliant Bling! |
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| The last brake line! |
With the brake master cylinder
mounted the bulkhead (aka firewall for the yanks), I used the old brake line as
a pattern for the new. I had to mash
some bubble flares to the ends, but after running all the other brake lines, I’ve
learned some tricks about making them fit.
Classic Sunbeam sells a spanking stainless steel clutch downpipe, bent
to factory specs, and I could never hand build that! It looks brilliant!
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| Clutch master cylinder with Classic Sunbeam's stainless downpipe |
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| Strange angle, but the stainless downpipe from the slave cylinder's point of view |
So, if you mount the master
cylinders, then you may as well clean up the pedals. I had four to choose from so I laid them on
the bench and chose the best two. They
are all the same, I was surprised to see.
Bead blast and powder coated them because powder coating holds up scuffs
and such better than paint. The only
thing left is to contort myself under the dash to install everything. Under dash work sucks, even without the dash
or doors. All new stainless bits for the
pedals too on account of my rust allergy.
Sorted!
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| Accelerator linkage, before pic |
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| Cleaned and painted! |
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| Powder coated and shiney! |
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| Pedals in situ (vocab word for the day) The accelerator will need to be anchored to the floor, and I have new pedal covers for the brakd and clutch |
Windscreen Washer Bottle: Again, I have two, so I cleaned up both. The cleaner is sulfamic acid (NOT sulfuric
acid, mind you!) mixed with water. It
dissolves rust and removes the rust stains. I had hoped it would remove the yellowing and
it did reduce it, but the yellow shows its age and these have “Rootes Genuine
Parts Special Accessories” embossed on the side, so that’s cool.
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| Bottles before cleaning Rust! makes a body break out! |
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| Still a bit yellow, but a big difference! The bracket got some cleaning too. |
