OUR SHED
GT EXPERIENCES HIGHS AND LOWS WHILE MORLEY’S STRIKING JOBS OFF A NEVER-ENDING LIST
THE LITTLE JOBS
keep piling up on Project Hillclimber, but I’m doing the smart thing; k nocking them over one at a time as time permits. I’d hesitate to ca ll t he last month or so a f lurr y of activ it y, but I am still making headway.
That started wit h disabling t he lock ing steering column. A lot of people throw away the ignition barrel in favour of a couple of switches for t he electric f uel pump and ignition and a big red sta rter button. Looks cool, but I’ve a feeling it’s a bit of a J. Art hur Rank. I want to stick wit h t he standard ignition key. That’s assuming I can still reach it when belted in by a four-point harness, and I haven’t a-c-t-u-a-l-l-y t ried t hat yet so, who k nows, I may be joining t he big-redbutton brigade any way.
Point is, no matter what I do, I have to disable t he steering column lock (for obv ious reasons). In t he case of an old Commodore, the column locks v ia a big old metal pin t hat lives in the column and f ires into a notch in t he back of t he steering boss. Simple but effective. So was my method of removing it: Brute strengt h. Eventually, I bent the pin and snapped it, ta k ing half out from t he front, t he rest from behind. Sorted.
Then t here’s t he matter of a ta il-shaft loop. The t wo-piece tailshaft on a VC Commo is a bit of a known weak point on these cars, but t hey’ll usually wobble and v ibrate for a long time before t hey actua lly fa ll apart. There’s a factor y cross-member that acts as a loop to catch t he front half of t he ta ilshaft should it f ind itself f la i ling away under t he car, but t he front of t he rear half needed something fabricated to catch it.
I a lready had a hole in t he f loor t hat forms one of the four mounting points for t he new batter y location and it turned out to be in t he perfect position to double as an anchor point
“HECK, I EVEN MANAGED TO SNAP THE STAINLESS STEEL TRIMS BACK INTO PLACE AND ONLY BROKE ONE PLASTIC CLIP”
for one side of my tailshaft loop. So it then became a simple matter of cutting a st rip of steel to leng t h, bolting it to t he f loor on one side and t hen drilling a hole on t he opposite side of t he tunnel and slipping a bolt t hrough t he f loor t here wit h a big washer on t he inside. Almost seemed too easy.
I a lso f ig ured it was time to reassemble t he rear bumper and tail-lights t hat I pulled apart to remove the tow-bar and paint the panel bet ween t he lights black. It’s a look I’ve a lways liked on t hese cars, but don’t look too closely at t he qualit y of t he actua l paint job. They ca ll me Clancy. ‘Clancy of the Overspray’. Somehow, I managed to f ind a ll t he relevant nuts, bolts and washers and replaced the lights and the bumper. Heck, I even managed to snap t he stainless trims back into place and only broke one plastic clip. Result.
I keep t hinking I’m gett ing closer until I look at t he list I made and discover t hat I’m only about a quarter of the way through it. Part of t he problem is t hat ever y time I look at that damn list I wind up adding a couple of things to it t hat I hadn’t t hought of yet. On t he plus side, t here’s nothing on t he list t hat I don’t have at least some idea of how to tack le, so maybe t here is hope. Just gotta keep t he fa it h.