1950 Saloon project

[youngcamper]

It's been far to long with no update, work has restarted following a period of prolonged disillusion and I feel like I may be over the hill with the welding, over the last year I've replaced the front and rear n/s floor and also the inner, outer and boxing panel for both sills, I've also replaced the rear front inner wing panels on both sides too I only have the rear wing flanges, the rear quarter panels, lots of patches and all the bolt on panels left to do!

I'm currently on a gap year working a lot of overtime at Waitrose( lymington should you ever want to swing by ) to pay for a respray and also travelling


Anyway I'll let the pictures do the talking, although they all seem to look rathr samey :

[youngcamper]

Holy thread resurrection! I'm back!

With it being just under 3 years since I started this thread and 18 months since my last update, but fear not I have been steadily plugging away. Sadly the car has turned out to be significantly rustier than I had expected, and as a result panel replacement snowballed out of control. The Lowlight has had complete new sills, 3/4s of the floor, a half chassis leg, crossmember ends, front inner wings, rear inner wing flanges and new rear 1/4 panels! Added to that a large number of smaller patches all across the car.

Thankfully the welding is very nearly finished, Although I did just decide to cut out the rear boot floor and boot surround to replace some crash damage. In the meantime I've sandblasted the whole shell inside and out and painted it inside and out with Epoxy mastic primer.








In some of the pictures you may notice that there have been some crossmember mods, I was (to my shame) planning to go down the 1275 route. However I have recently sourced a USHM3 engine and a very tasty period upgrade, so these will be reversed. More on that later!

Anyway here are a few pictures of the recent work and current state of play. I'm now back home from Uni for the summer so expect much more updates on this.





Thanks for reading!

[panky]

Good grief Will it looks like you've dragged it off a beach
Splendid job, looking forward to the next instalment in 2017

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Super work, keep it up!!

[ManyMinors]

Glad to hear that you're still making good progress! It looks as if you have excellent workshop facilities

[busguy]

Hi Will
Given what other commitments you have had over the period I reckon you have done a really good job so far.
You don't seem to lack the tenacity and the ability to see this through either. This is to be applauded, as it is so easy to give up when the going gets tough.
These abilities will stand you in good stead as your working life progresses.
Good on yer!

[youngcamper]

Many thanks for the kind replies.
Getting to this stage has taken a huge amount of work, and as you can see from the beginning of this thread it's been a LOT more work than I had expected! Sadly I can't take credit for the workshop facilities, they are my Dad's which i am lucky to be able to use while I'm getting the car ready to respray.

Anyway the car is actually a little further on than this at the moment, so I will have to get out there and do another update.

[youngcamper]

Well This update should bring the project up to date, as the pictures were taken today.

Since the last pictures were taken I have fitted both the doors and door tops and getting the door alighment spot on, this is still on going and is taking a very long time .





The passenger door is the original one, but the drivers was a rusty replacement, luckily my Dad broke a 2 door in 1985, and he's kindly given me the door for the project( He's also given me a very nice and largely rust free early Series 2 bootlid thanks Dad!)








This will hopefully be the last bit of welding I'll have to do on the shell, the rear boot aperture and floor had been patched and sustained some crash damage, after sandblasting it became apparent that it was rather bodged, so I've chopped it out to replace

Another job I've been plugging away at is repainting the suspension components ready for refitting, hopefully in the next few weeks the car will back on 4 wheels.



Nasty bit of rust on the rear axle, that needs repair




The pile of bits I've got to sort though!



And here is my Side Valve upgrade....


The head itself looks in good condition, but I am missing many of the other ancillary parts, hopefully they won't be too hard to remake, but I'll save this for another thread.

Thanks for reading

[BLOWNMM]

G' day all
A tip for making tappet adjustment easier. From a piece of 3 mm. thick steel plate cut a piece about 40 mm. long by about 18.6 mm. wide. File this width so that it is a neat fit between the spanner flats on two adjacent cam followers. It then only requires two spanners one for the locknut and one fro the tappet screw. The metal plate stops the cam follower from rotating.
Cheers Bob

[Scott]

The passenger door is the original one, but the drivers was a rusty replacement, luckily my Dad broke a 2 door in 1985, and he's kindly given me the door for the project( He's also given me a very nice and largely rust free early Series 2 bootlid thanks Dad!)

A small point but if you miss it now, you'll be kicking yourself after painting the car - being a later door, the RH door has provision for an escutcheon around the outside handle whereas the LH door doesn't. Weld up the RH door so it looks like an original from the outside.

There's also a difference with the weatherstrip between the glass & door. You should find your LH door has one on the inside whereas the RH will have an inside + an outside one too.

[OHP 900]

Brilliant! Another young owner with a lowlight. Keep us posted on updates. I'm really just slowly gathering parts for my car and eventually work will begin on reconditioning the mechanics (although, the engine has been seized since the late sixties).

As the others say, keep up the great work.

[youngcamper]

The passenger door is the original one, but the drivers was a rusty replacement, luckily my Dad broke a 2 door in 1985, and he's kindly given me the door for the project( He's also given me a very nice and largely rust free early Series 2 bootlid thanks Dad!)

A small point but if you miss it now, you'll be kicking yourself after painting the car - being a later door, the RH door has provision for an escutcheon around the outside handle whereas the LH door doesn't. Weld up the RH door so it looks like an original from the outside.

There's also a difference with the weatherstrip between the glass & door. You should find your LH door has one on the inside whereas the RH will have an inside + an outside one too.

Hi Scott,

I was indeed aware of the visual differences between the early and later doors, knowing the difference and rectifying it are another though! It looks like a very awkward repair to have to do.

Anyway work is progressing nicely on the car, I've repaired the Rear spring hangers on the axle, and should have it back on 4 wheels by the end of the week.

The new boot floor is welded in too, I now just need to fit up the Aperture panel.

Pictures to follow!

Cheers,

Will