Driver’s Diaries
Scott gets stuck into his E-type project; Gez finally welds new metal into the Landy; Ivan goes classic racing in Denmark; Will finds more parts for his sidevalve Minor’s Alta head; Mike’s Jaguar suffers from head problems and Matt buys an early R50 MINI.
Over the last few weeks I’ve continued working on the Minor Lowlight to improve its usability. The primary focus has been to eliminate the source of the vibration resonating through the car’s bodywork at certain speeds. I thought the problem was either down to the exhaust or the prop shaft but having completed some more test running, I concluded the noise was most likely to be coming from the prop-shaft, despite having it recently re-balanced.
I did wonder if one of the balance weights had come off, so took it back to the balancer who had a more detailed look. Despite being shortened by a precision welder, the joint in the propshaft had a tenth of an inch misalignment along its length and this was almost certainly the cause of the vibration.
This meant there wasn’t really any point trying to do any more to this prop shaft, so instead I searched for someone to make up a replacement. After a hunt, I’ve now found a good supplier who will knock-up the rear part of a two-piece propshaft in the same style as the one I currently have. This will fit into the existing Marina middle propshaft bearing I’ve got on the car.
Before taking the propshaft off and rendering the car unserviceable, I decided to take the Minor back to the paint shop to get the bonnet touched up. It had a couple of runs that I’d tried to buff out but had gone through to primer. Having sorted out the alignment of the bonnet trims, I then took the car over to the painters to get a new topcoat sprayed on bonnet.
The sprayer did a wonderful job and after leaving the paint to harden for a few days, I bolted the bonnet back on.
Despite using the same batch of paint from the same tin as I’d used on the rest of the car, there’s a fairly noticeable colour mismatch between the newly sprayed bonnet and the body. To say this is a bit annoying is an understatement and I’m left where I am not sure quite what to do. Even though the car has only been out in the open for a few months, I’ve spoken to some experts in the classic car scene who say that two-pack paint initially fades fairly quickly. I’m hoping that leaving the car outside and cutting the rest of the paint back should help to address this, but any other ideas on how to speed this up are welcome!
Meanwhile, I’ve got a bit of an update on the long-term tourer project. As regular readers may remember, a few years ago I picked up an incomplete Alta overhead valve conversion for the Minor’s side valve engine. Since then I’ve been speaking to a number of people using Alta heads with the view to getting some of the missing parts made. On that note, a special thanks must go to Rob Thomas, fellow Alta owner and parts fabricator. He was kind enough to make me an Alta head rocker cover out of solid pieces of aluminium folded and TIG welded together. This is quite an item and means that one of the most difficult items to source can be crossed off the list, Rob also made a batch of water pump elbows for the Alta head, so I’ve got one and he also sourced a set of suitable valves springs from Australia!
Rob was also kind enough to lend me two original and unique Alta valves to use as patterns so I can get a batch re- made, I’ve managed to locate a specialist company to do this, so if you need a set of Alta valves, please get in touch via usual channels!
Despite being shortened by a precision welder, the joint in the propshaft had a tenth of an inch misalignment along its length