Page Forty-Two - Alphie's Soon-to-Be Beating Heart

 

Alphie’s mighty fire-breathing 87 horse four banging monster motor, all 592cc’s of it, is on the operating stand.  A new chapter of Alphie’s story!

Four years after I yanked Alphie’s lifeless heart out of his chest (two hearts actually, one from Alphie and one from the Organ Donor), I rolled it into the garage, propped it up on an engine stand and tore it to pieces, lots of pieces.

Alphie’s Heart Health

For the record, Alphie’s is getting the ’64 engine from the Organ Donor, the overdrive one with the “OD” stamped on its block.  And the Organ Donor’s heart is in pretty decent shape.  I measured the crankshaft’s main and rod journals, and they were all in spec.  No cracks in the block or head, nothing missing, no broken things or excessive wear.  Just what happens from sitting under a tree in Kentucky for somewhere between 20 and 30 years, and that ain’t bad!

I'm not sure if it was the engine that led Clint to park it, but I suspect it had some blow-by, was burning oil, and Alphie may had been feeling a bit anemic.  From the state of the piston rings, I'm guessing that the compression had dropped off a bit.

Before shots - the other engine has a
6 blade fan that will pull more air

The rust is mostly superficial

The exhaust manifold is toast, but the other engine has a solid one

I’ve already had the cylinders walls and crankshaft main journals honed, and the head reworked, and the machine shop saw nothing that caused concern.  BUT that doesn’t mean there is nothing wrong.

Half of the valve lifters, tappets to the Brits, showed rust pitting, so I’ll be tearing into the other engine for four unpitted ones. 

The piston rings fell out in pieces when I tapped them from the cylinders, not sure what that means, but I’m taking a close look at the pistons.  They appear to be in good shape, but I haven’t measured them yet.  More later…

A few blurry (sorry) shots during dissassembly

At a glance, everything looks OK

Grease and rust, but what did you expect?

The fuel pump is rebuildable, but years of sitting in soggy soil has rusted a few parts, especially the hand primer pump.  I’ve never seen an American engine with a hand primer on a fuel pump, seems a good idea to me.  Fortunately, I have two fuel pumps.

Alphie sports the Solex carb, and the one on the Organ Donor is significantly rusty but not beyond repair.  I found one hard stop though.  One of the little tube doohickies in the carb’s throats sheared off at the jet as I removed it.  The parts manual says the tubes contain the “correction jet” and “emulsion tube.”  I’ll explain what they do if I ever figure out what they do. So, the other engine will give up its carb in a two-to-make-one kind of arrangement.  I’m betting that the carb on the other engine is in better shape since it spent most of it’s time under a roof.  Interestingly, “dirt daubers” (dobbers in Alabama) (aka mud daubers, mud wasps, potter wasps), anyway those little wasp critters that build dirt tubes, built a few inside the Organ Donor’s carb.  Not sure how they got in there, but they did.

A blurry close-up of the crankshaft

Pieces, pieces everywhere and plenty of rust and grease
(appologies to The Ancient Mariner)

The water pump on both engines sounds like they are grinding rocks when I turn them, but who wouldn’t replace the water pump as a matter of course?

Those are the problems I’ve found so far, more later, I have no doubt.  But many new parts are on their way from Sunbeam Specialties and Classic Sunbeam, and my air compressor gasps for breath as I bead blast all the little parts that make an engine chug.  I’ll add a pic of cleaned, blasted, and painted parts I’ve finished so far. 

Clean and shiny (for the most part) and some sport paint

Thanks to Southern Cylinder Heads in Huntsville for the machine work.
They sparyed some gray primer on it to stop rust, but
I'll shoot it with black as the factory did.

You may notice a gap in the honing at the top of the cylinders -
it concerns me, so I'll do some measuring and thinking.
It might need another trip to Southern Cylinder Heads.

I’m enjoying getting beyond the bodywork!  Less dust but dirtier hands – black grease!  So satisfying to see old stuff look new again.

Oh, I’m talking to a couple of shops to coat Alphie’s bod.  Alphie will be getting a respray when the humidity drops to somewhere below 300%, aka “death sweat” (actual National Weather Service humidity designation for the southern US or, at least, should be) here in Alabama.

Many oils in days of yore contained parafin
that would leave sludge in the oil pan.
If you need to know why you should change your oil, here's why!

The before pic - not that bad but still...

Bead blasting is a miracle!

Powder coating is the next miracl - shiny and really tough!
(Turns out, the four blade fan were stock on Series IV Alpines.)

The machine shop resurfaced the flywheel.  I cleaned up the pressure plate.
The p plate doesn't appear to have many miles on it.

The pressure plate had some surface rust - couldn't leave that there.
New clutch disc, of course.

Cast aluminum powder coat - thought about polishing it...
I have another one, may polish it later.

Installed, new cam bearings and a cleaned oil pump.

Page Forty-One - Body Colored Bits

 

Here’s how close I am to respraying this motor – I’m collecting all the bits that will have to be body colored.  (For the Yanks:  The Brits call repainting a car, a “respray” and they call a car, a “motor” sometimes, anyway.)

Sounds easy doesn’t it, not so much.  I’ve been digging through boxes of parts looking for anything either blue (from the Organ Donor) or black (from Alphie).  Of course, just because it’s black, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “body colored.”  Even harder, this task requires some thinking, whew!  Yeah, tiring.

Stuff I’ve found so far: scuttle (remember this term? the area in front of the windshield to us Americans) vent grills, hood release pan, boot hinges and springs, firewall supports (see pic), the soft top covers behind the rear seat, hood support rod and petrol tank supports – so far.

Top Row (r to l): hood support rod, firewal support (pass side), boot hinges, hood release tray, soft-top side covers (r & l): Center Row: boot springs, firewall support (driv side, Bottom Row (r to l): scuttle vent covers (fresh air vent covers), petrol tank supports

Soft-top rear cover - behind the rear seat back

If you think of something I’m forgetting, PLEASE leave me a comment!

It’s taking longer than I expected to get all the bits to bare metal.  The bead blaster works best once most of the old paint is off.  To remove old paint, I’m grinding with all manner of abrasives and tools: random orbital, wire wheels, air powered die grander, 40 and 50 grit paper, razor blades and LOTS of elbow grease.

The worst thing that can happen is to find something that should be body colored after Alphie comes back from the paint shop.  (I’m going to ask the painter for some extra paint because I have forgotten stuff before.)

Some finished bits in fetching self-etching primer

Passenger's side firewall support with original Rootes bolts

Driver's side firewall support also with original fasteners

The rear soft-top cover with 1+ hours of elbow grease applied

More elbow grease - the least awesome part of the restoration game,
but the key to awesome paint jobs!

Page Forty - Alphie's Brodie

 

Did you have to look it up?  Try “battle bowler,” “dishpan hat” or “doughboy hat.”

What else must be painted body color?  The hard top, and don’t you prefer the fit and feel of the hard top over the soft top?  Alpines just look better sporting a hard hat.

Fortunately, and unlike most things belonging to Alphie, the hard top is in grand nick.  A small ding where something fell and hit him in the eyebrow and a couple of other small dings, but the rust is minimal.  I again upset some rodent housing inside the C pillars, where the building material and pee rusted through in two spots on the inside.

The before shots - rear window is a bit hazy

The interior isn't bad for 60 years, even if a bit mousy

First the teardown.  The rubber seals had petrified (per always) and a couple of the screws holding the B pillar clamps to the top where rusted and had to be drilled out, but teardown was fairly easy.

C Pillar, driver's side view of the rodent home.
BTW, all the black will be blue and visible when it's done.

I dulled a few razor blades scraping off the old paint.  Sounds harsh, but the paint flakes off easily when you hold the blade at the correct angle, saves tons of sandpaper, elbow grease and dust.  Next, a quick sand down with the random orbital, and we have clean metal to mend.

Maybe the paint came off too easily.  I'll take it

I pulled the eyebrow ding with the stud welder, but managed to pull out a plug-o-metal when I gave it a hefty tug with the slide-hammer.  Had to weld that up.

As for the rodent residences, I cut out the flimsy rusty stuff with the grinder and made file-folder templates of the holes.  Traced the templates onto Lowes sheet metal, cut them out on the bandsaw, and got out the MIG machine.  These were both small patches and only required a few trips to the belt sander to get the fit.

After eviction - driver's side

Passenger's side - I also etch primed the other side.

NOTE: And this seems overly obvious, but don’t try to push down an unruly side of the patch after just welding three of the four sides with a bare finger.  I know, but it burns like a mother and leaves an embarrassing blister on the tip of your pointer.  Small lessons that dumb people must learn.

Patched!

Ditto, passenger's side

Holding your pointer out so that it doesn’t touch anything, grind down the welds and smear some JB Weld as filler and presto, clean repair.  Interestingly, I looked through many Googled pics of Alpine rear seats with hard tops installed, which turned out to be about four, to see what part of the hard top’s metal is visible.  Turns out, the bottom quarter of the C pillar where the rear quarter window’s toggle clamp (yep, called “toggle clamps,” looked it up) attaches to the C pillar is exposed, so my patches will show when all is done.

Welds ground, JB Weld filled, but still
have some pin holes to fix

Not my best pick but passenger's side done.

There were a couple of cracks in the hard top at the rear base where it mates with the body that needed some MIGging too.

Some more pics

See the little clips holding the headliner at the edge? 
They shoot off - don't lose them

Alphie took a shot to the eyebrow at some point.
(Push the rain gutter trim off from the underside. 
Be careful not to bend it.)

Eyebrow and assorted dings, sorted!

Hold it - not fnished yet!

What else will need to be body color?  When I head to the painter, it will matter.

Page Thirty-Nine - Bonehead Bondo

Today's post is an exercise in bad photography, so an apology up front!

BONDO - In southern America, it's a generic term like band aids, kleenex or Coke (well, anywhere near Atlanta anyway)...  A Bondo Buggy brings a specific vintage vehicle to mind down here.  In the larger world Bondo is known as Plastic Body Filler, Polyester Filler, Mud, Body Butter, Wreck Concealer - it's a catalyzed polyester putty used to fill in dents.  The process involves mixing and glopping the stuff on body panels and then sanding for days, weeks, months.  It’s conducive to neither interesting posts nor photos, especially bad photos.

I've been doing A LOT of it lately.  So here's the Bonehead method of “reading” bondo.  We’ll use the passenger door as our canvass; it has wobbles along the lower edge.  And per everyone's instructions for applying mud, we’re applying it to clean unpainted, rust-free metal.  All the welding and such is finished.  Plastic filler is great when used correctly, but it won’t make rust disappear.

Looking and feeling will tell you a lot about a panel, but mud can give you solid information too - if you listen to what it's telling you.  I know that in the days of yore, body dudes used lead (now days a tin alloy) to fill in “imperfections”, but the stuff is dangerous, AND as one interwebber says, “they only used lead because they didn’t have bondo”.

PREP:  Do not put filler on dirty metal - it won't stick!  Also rough up the area with some 80 grit sandpaper so that the filler has something to physically grab.  DO NOT SKIMP ON THE PREP!

THE GOOP: You’ll need a high-quality filler, one that has had the air bubble vacuumed out and applies smoothly.  Don’t skimp on the stuff - not the place to save buckage!

First application of filler with a few passes with the 16" board.
The low spots are already revealing themselves.

FLAT SANDING BOARDS:  I’m using 16 and 11-inch boards and the 16-inch most of the time.  Sanding with a small block, or worse sandpaper in hand, leads to wavy, uneven surfaces.

Sweat and achy muscles:  Ain’t no way around the sanding and power sanding takes the stuff off too fast.  You gotta earn the sleek, smooth body, so git at it!

NOT THICK:  First, clean the surface – I use lacquer thinner.  Mix up the mud according to instructions and smooth it on.  Don’t glop a thick clumpy layer on!  The more you slap on, the more you must sand off.  The goal isn’t to get it done in one filler application.

SANDING:  The magic is the sanding.  Pay attention to what areas sand first, which sand last and which areas resist “feathering.”  Read the sand down.  (BTW I loaded 80 grit sandpaper to the boards.)

STROKES:  Keep the sanding board oriented perpendicular to the curve of the panel.  Most of the time that means horizontal to the panel.  For our door, I kept the board horizontal because orienting the board vertically would create flat areas on the curve of the door.

Use diagonal strokes while maintaining the orientation of the board.  I would make downward diagonal strokes for a while, then switch to upward diagonal strokes.  If I had kept strictly horizontal strokes, the board would not follow the vertical curve of the door, although it would keep the horizontal line straight.

Some graphics to show the board orientation and stroke directions

“Feathering” happens at the edges.  As you reduce the mud to fit the panel, the edges will begin to disappear and feather into the surrounding metal.  If an edge resists feathering, it’s probably low.  Forcing it to feather will create a larger low spot in the filler, so stop sanding!  Over sanding is a more common mistake than under sanding.

Finished sanding of the first application.
Low spots and unfeathered edges are giving me info

READ THE SCRATCHES:  Not feathering can mean a low spot, but it can also mean the other areas of filler are too high.  Slow down and read the scratches.  If you’re leaving scratches across the entire filled area, then it most likely means the filler is still high, but if the scratches are hitting only areas at the edges of the filler, you’re probably forcing the edge to feather and creating a low area.  A forced feathered edge will show the outline of the filler when painted.

SHINY METAL: An area of shiny metal probably indicates a high spot, especially if the edges are clearly defined.  Apply hand.  Close your eyes and run your palm along the area many times.  If it feels high, it will show.  The filler may be too low, or you may need to hammer down the area a bit and get it on the next application of mud.  I hammered the high spots down a bit before the next application of mud.

Second Application:  The shiny spots were sanded shiny and are high spots.
Low Spots are fewer but not gone.

CLEAN VS. FEATHERED EDGES:  Filler with clearly defined, clean edges indicates a sharp change in surface height and will probably show when painted.  Feathered, or fuzzy edges indicate that the filler has gradually come to the height of the surrounding metal.  Feathered Edges – GOOD, Clean Edges – BAD.

PRIMER:  Shoot some primer over the panel and wet sand it with 400 grit sandpaper.  Look for visible edges, high metal or other lumps or valleys that mean the filler isn’t flat.  Sanding scratches aren’t a big concern at this point; a catalyzed thick coat primer will get most of them when you’re closer to shooting paint.

A truly bad pic - it's looking horizontally down the door.
I'm trying to show that the door is smooth even if a lot of the scratches  show

APPLICATIONS:  It took four applications to get everything filled.  I prefer to put on thin coats instead of thick ones.  My theory is (and I don’t know if the professionals back me on this) that multiple layers of thin filler are stronger and hold up better than thick layers.  Remember, I did a lot of hammer and dolly work to keep the total filler layer as thin as possible.

MISTAKES!

OVER-SANDING:  Sanding off too much filler is easier to do than it sounds.  If you find yourself sanding to force a low spot to disappear or and edge to feather, you’re probably over-sanding.  Let the filler instruct you.  Don’t try to force it to do what you want.  Stop, close your eyes and feel.

SMALL BLOCKS:  Small sanding blocks or handheld sandpaper leads to waves.  It may cut through the filler quickly, but you’ll just have to do it again.

IMPATIENCE:  Body work takes time!  Trying to get things done and out of the way is the wrong mindset.  Assume it will suck and take forever, 'cause it will.

PLASTIC FILLER IS NOT BODY WORK:  Filler will not stick to rust!  Let me repeat, filler will not stick to rust. Oh, it will for a while, probably until you have spent the money on paint, but it will fall off sooner than you think.  Plastic filler DOES NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR BODY WORK. Weld in new metal and hammer and dolly first.  Filler covers small imperfections, not gaping wounds

Page Thirty-Eight - Frame Up

 

RUST, Alphie’s middle name.  What rusts the most?  Hard to say, the nominees are numerous, but a top contender is the windshield (uh, make that wind screen) frame.  I have three, one from Alphie and one from the Organ Donor, both of which,  if not unrepairable, are damn close.  Fortunately, my Sunbeam benefactor, Bob, gave me a reasonably rusty one he amputated from a parts car somewhere.

Rusty, but there. The threads are too far gone to hold the frame in place

Bob’s frame, although rusty, at least has all the parts with only a few rust-throughs. So, where do we start?

The “bolts” that secure it to the dash (there are seven) are often rusted beyond repair as they are on the frames from Alphie and the Organ Donor.  They are still there on Bob’s frame, but the threads are so rusted on four of them, they probably wouldn’t secure the wind screen to the body.  At first glance they look to be the same size, but that would be too easy. 

The rearward two are 5/16” 24, fine thread, of course.  Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and any place not online have never heard of 5/16 fine thread, so I had to scavenge two from my pile of Sunbeam spares.  I found exactly two that were long enough.  At some point, I will discover where these two went and will have to order them from Bolt Depot.com, but that’s a problem for future me.

The forward two bolts are ¼” 32 fine thread, which are plentiful on Alpines so they were easy to find.  Okay, two problems: First, the threads don’t run far enough up the shoulder and will need some more cut.  Second, the hex heads are too big to fit into the hole on Alphie’s body, so they will have to be trimmed down.  And third, (there’s always at least one more problem), if I just weld them into the spots where I ground off the rusted ones, they will inevitably not line up.

Problem One:  Easy, dig out the 5/16” and ¼” fine thread dies and go to town.

Die cut extra threads plus the Sunbeam Specialties gizmos

Problem Two:  Sinch up the bolts in the drill press (pillar drill for those in the Commonwealth) and file down the lobes of the hex head.  Nice, rounded heads.  Next, check to see if they will now fit into the holes in Alphie’s dash (or scuttle, I supposed is more accurate).

Extra threads, Sunbeam Specialties gizmos and rounded heads

Problem Three:  There are always more.  Place the newly threaded and filed bolts into the holes in Alphie’s scuttle and secure the frame using the other three mounting bolts along the frame’s lower leading edge.  This way the frame is in the correct place on Alphie and the frame seats where the new bolts will need to be welded to the frame.  News flash, and you were expecting this right? They don’t line up exactly where the factory bolts were.  Why?  The new bolts are probably slightly thicker than the originals, thus the centerline of the new bolts is slightly off from the centerline of the old ones.  At any rate, I was expecting it, which is why I didn’t just go straight to the welder.

Close up of new bolts with the Sunbeam Specialties gizmo in place

Stacking a couple of washers on bolts, I had raised the new bolts above the scuttle enough so that I could get the welder tip in and spot weld the new bolts in their exact positions on the frame.  With them tacked in place, I removed the frame and finished welding them to the frame.  I gave myself a pat on the back for seeing that coming, imagine my smug little self-satisfied grin.

The rounded heads have to fit into these holes in the scuttle

By the way, don’t drop the frame, the newly welded bolts will jump right off.  How do I know that, you ask…

Problem Four:  Yeah, they just keep coming!  On the top rail of the frame, there are three threaded inserts that hold the soft and hard top roofs in place and one in the middle that anchors the rearview and sun visors.  They have a few millimeters of play providing some adjustment, meaning the threaded inserts are free inside the frame, held in place by a thin piece of sheet metal that prevents them from falling down the innards of the frame.  AND they are made of untreated steel.

Top rail of the frame with the three inserts removed,
rethreaded and ready to go back in

Three guesses and the first two don’t count…  Yep, the #8 screws sheared off inside the threaded inserts, meaning I would have to cut open the frame to remove them, carefully remove the stubs of the sheared screws, rethread them and return them to their places in the frame.  To be fair, three of the six screws came out without incident, but because at least one screw sheared in each insert, I had to remove all three inserts.

Three more guesses – one of the inserts steadfastly refused to give up its sheared stubs.  I had to find a piece of metal to reproduce that insert.  The others came out cleanly, but I rethreaded all of them to #10 so that I had solid threads in each insert.

Next, I returned them to the frame, held them in place with screws and got down to welding up the cuts and rust-through in the frame.  I had to make one new gizmo that holds the insert in place inside the frame, see the pic above (left side).

The rest is sanding to metal and JB Welding a couple of places to cover welds and pin holes.

Back in place, like new!

Problem Five:  Since Bob’s frame came from a different car (a Tiger, I believe), will the slant of the wind screen frame match the quarter window glass of the doors?  I rehabbed the best of the four quarter glass frames from Alphie and the Organ Donor, quickly installed them in the doors.  As it turns out, it all matched the first time.  Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.

The slant of the frame matches the slant of the
quarter window, without adjustment

I had some cute little frame adjusters that Sunbeam Specialties sells (a gift from Bob – Thanks again Bob!) that allow the rearward bolts to raise the frame to give that bit of adjustment that is often needed.  They are the little gizmos in the pic of the rethreaded, rounded off bolts.  The gizmos are internally threaded so you can raise the 5/16” bolts by turning the gizmos from below the scuttle – see the pic.

The inside of the windscreen frame is body color and visible inside the finished interior, so it gets the detail finishing that the rest of the body gets.