Nick Jones

I note you said you had braced the door gaps - absolutely essential in my view - but does your bracing allow you refit the doors to check the fit? Also very highly desirable in my view..... On the Spit we did go to some lengths to make sure the doors could be refitted and the brace design even incorporated a jack screw so we could move things about to improve the fit - necessary in our case because the rot was bad enough that the shape of the car had been lost - but hopefully not in yours!! Nick

🙃 how rude…. Though half of the deal doesn’t sound too awful…..

Epic. Brings me out in a cold sweat……

Picked cotton as a young teenager. Not for long though - that is a tough job! Part time “mechanic and welder” at a Triumph repairists in Kingston while I was a student. First “real” job in an experimental foundry trying to make metal matrix composites. Aluminium at 800 degrees C with 20+Bar injection pressures, with the dies heated to over 500C…… what could possibly go wrong?! That had its moments…… nobody died, but more luck than judgement at times. Then a short stint as a technical author at Haynes. Mis-timed as it turned out as I got made redundant after about 9 months (last in first out), when they noticed they weren’t making any money! This was inconvenient as we’d just bought our first house…. Then a few months odd-jobbing followed by 6 months as a welder-fabricator for a fruiting picking machine company (apples & black currants mostly). Not quite as bad as picking cotton, but close! Then managed to use the contacts and experience gained in my first job to get into technical sales with the controls company I’d worked along side then. Very useful experience, but not very exciting and not well paid. Then technical sales/estimator for a specialist butterfly valve company. That had its moments also, including a week in Baku representing them at an exhibition (no one else wanted to go!) and then an involuntary shift into project management (no one else wanted to!), looking after the biggest order the company had ever won…. Suddenly dealing with foundries, machine shops and actuator manufacturers. Very high stress…. Surprising how few choices there are when you are trying to get 82” bore valve bodies cast in aluminium bronze and then machined…. Had to go to France for that. Looking for a quieter life I then moved to an investment (lost wax) foundry as an estimator. That wasn’t my best idea and not long after that I got a technical sales job with a local specialist pump company and I’ve been involved in that technology and it’s application for more than 20 years now. Did a lot of service work in my first few years with them, most of that on sewage works. Not always fun but very “educational”. One of the more fun aspects of the job is that it gets you in to all sorts of interesting places. The list includes, many and varied sewage works of all sorts and sizes, anaerobic digestion plants (the food-waste eating ones tend to be much nastier than sewage works!), breweries, cider makers, abattoirs, industrial bakeries, jam factories, paint makers, plasterboard factories, paper mills, veg and fruit processors, industrial dairies, ready-meals makers, sewage pumping stations and even the occasional waterworks. Plus others I’ve forgotten no doubt…. Nick

I had something very similar on my PI and that was definitely the mechanical advance in the distributor sticking. To make it harder to find, it only did it when hot. It was actually the upper shaft (with the points cam on it) going tight on the lower shaft rather than the actual weights sticking. Nick

🙂 Yeah….. but the Spit has a chassis to use as a jig…… and ours was in good shape. Anyway, I think the Stag might be a bit rustier….. Respect! Nick

Blimey….. that’s brave! Some good work happening….. Nick

Problem is that the forum has actually been migrated twice since that thread was created and the first time was from the eblah platform, which makes things harder, especially regarding pics. I know Craig T had many challenges migrating the old Sideways forum from eblah, and that was just one hop. Photos were separated then too, though some have been reassembled since and I think the ability to do others remains if requested. Thought you had a thread on Sideways too Tim, but it turns out the one I was remembering was Gareth’s…… did find your fuel tank one though. I could use one of them now! Nick

Yes…. As explained above…. Nick

It’s the single rail (1500) box that is longer. The 4 synchro 3 rail is the same length as the Herald box but has a round output flange which takes the bigger UJ flange. So you need a Herald Propshaft and swap the front UJ flange. Nick

Touch it into first first to stop all the gears, the go for reverse. If you still get a crunch/clank the clutch is dragging. Nick

Jag V6 and manual box? Plenty of donors with rusty sills going cheap…..

Ok…… Messed up my suspension tune and geometry big time. Got most of the way back after much messing about but not as good as it was. Needs stronger springs now. Nick

Forged as OEM with rolled thread. Not sure whether those currently sold are forged or cast but the thread ms are definitely cut. Nick

What do you feel about the geometry changes and change in suspension leverage ratio that trunnionless brings? Nick

Not WD40, it’s a water dispersant not a penetrating oil. Something like PlusGas, GT85 or even automatic transmission fluid mixed with a bit of acetone. Diesel (gazole) is pretty good too. Good luck! Nick

^^^^ This! Though to be fair the smaller fiddly areas can almost be worse to deal with........ Just had a bit of a 'mare with a 25 year old Audi with a small hole in the strut tower. Repair involved considerable dismantling and having to chop out quite big chunk of sound steel to gain access. Nick

Colour underneath looks like Valencia Blue - should be code 66 on the commission plate? Might make identifying/matching the green colour difficult though! Engine doesn't look that bad. Wouldn't really expect the cylinders to hold diesel for a week - there is always a small leak-path past the rings. Have you tried a breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley bolt yet - doesn't look like it should be very stuck Nick?

Does this work have anything to do why I'm suddenly the biggest forum contributor according to the league table? Pretty damn sure I haven't earned the title recently and if my wife spots that I'll get my ass kicked for idling way on the computer when I should be doing something "useful"...... Nick

No worries. I wasn't even really sure what the thing I have is meant to fit and clearly it is wrong for your purpose - but I now know what it is for! Nick

I'd suggest that you try the front one along with some of Chris Witors dual rate front springs, his rear lowering springs and decent (Koni or KYB) dampers all around. I doubt you'll really want for more for road use. Nick

Presumably this is to use on a 2L engine with flat-top pistons? Otherwise you don't need to take anything like that much off......... I can tell you for sure that it can be done. I have a 219016 head on my Vitesse engine which is 2L with flat-top pistons. That has a CR of 10.25:1, though that is partly achieved with a 0.005" piston pop-up. I'm not sure what the final thickness is, but it's less than 3.30" for sure. However - it was HUGE skim (two in fact). It's razor thin under the plugs and I was lucky not to strike water in the squish areas of the combustion chambers, which seems to be the usual problem area. Blind luck really as I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. It's lasted well - done in 2008-ish and probably 45k miles since. It's been off and refitted once (bottom end swap) - I was concerned about bits breaking off under the plugs, but it survived. As mentioned above, it was Bruce who had problems with the squish/fire-ring area collapsing. Not on one head, but two. The story of the second is here. https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/706-cylinder-head-woes/ Eventually resolved by starting with a factory 3.30" head. Which is to be much preferred, if you can find a decent one. Not so easy these days. NIck

Nice car. Bodywork and interior look great - I'm jealous! Engine...... hmmm. Shame it's been left open like that. Certainly not completely hopeless though. Your choices, I think, are: 1. Quick and dirty (you probably need to do this as a first stage anyway, whatever else you do): get yourself some 400 grit wet and dry paper and use it to remove the worst of the rust from the bores. Use it dry and keep vacuuming out the dust. The rubbing action should be mainly around the bores, not up and down - you don't want to create vertical marks. Pretty soon you will know if the rust is just on the surface or if it has also formed pits. You will also discover whether the bores have any other wear marks and whether there is a wear-lip at the top. If there is significant pitting, wear lips or other damage you should probably just cut your losses and go directly to 3 below. Otherwise carry on with the clean-up until you have most of the rust off, right down to piston level. Hoover out the dust and spray some penetrating oil into the gaps between bore and piston. Leave to soak for a while then see if the engine will turn. Looking at your pics, I reckon it will without too much effort... This will hopefully allow you to see the rest of the cylinder walls and most importantly the areas where the rings have been sat - usually where to worst damage is. If still looking ok-ish, carry on cleaning up the remaining areas. The clean block surface, cylinder head etc and re-assemble. 2. Not so quick but still fairly dirty: Mainly as above but also drop the sump, remove the pistons, cover the crank and use a ball-hone to clean the bores. Also clean the pistons thoroughly + gap and fit new rings. Reassemble with new bearing shells. Probably worth checking the main bearings while you are there and definitely worth checking the thrust washers. 3. The proper way: Pull the engine, completely dismantle and rebuild as required...... Good luck! Nick

It’s a sign of wear, not a standard feature. The choices are, double de-clutch and live with it, or rebuild the gearbox. If it’s quiet and working well in other respects that shouldn’t be too ruinous. Nick

I like a Mk1 Scirocco too. Tin worm has eaten most of the British ones…. We visited La Tranche many years ago in my Vitesse and camped for a few days. Then the bad weather came and we went south…. All the way to the Pyrenees! Nick