Bolting on the bonnet

The bonnet (hood) was bolted back in place.  It still needs a little adjustment to sit down correctly, but it’s back on and the original latch and release are working.

The custom air dam went on next.  This was set up to be (somewhat) easily removable, but it’s still a two-person job.  A small piece of rubber hose was put over the sheet metal at the back (this is where the air dam folds around the front wheel well), each side was spread just a bit, and the whole thing pushed back into place.  With the 4 nuts in place (these are the same 4 mounting points the factory bumper uses), the air dam was screwed into place around the front wheel well and riveted to the sheet metal along the sides.  Why rivets one place and screws in another?  The rivets don’t stick up as much and will allow the headlight buckets to sit flush.  The screws should be easier to remove if the need arises.

A few adjustments and the headlight buckets went on.

With the car back on the wheels, I could bolt the roll bar back onto the lower control arms (the center section that bolts to the chassis was put in place last weekend).

I also had Earl’s Indy make up a new line for the oil pressure gauge and lines for the oil cooler and Accusump.  These included a check valve so the oil will be pushed from the Accusump into the oil passages and to the bearings, cam, etc. rather than back down into the oil pan where it’ll do no good.  I, of course, cracked one of the fittings tightening it, so it’ll be another trip to get one of the lines remade.  Fortunately, it is long enough I can just have it cut and a new fitting installed on one end rather than having them remake the entire thing.

Accusump and Wheels

Since the Jensen-Healey isn’t using the big factory air box (the one that looks like a muffler), there was a great space for the Accusump.  It was bolted through the inner fender using stainless hardware, big washers, and rubber isolators (big rubber washers).  It’ll be piped into the oil line from the oil cooler back to the engine with a check valve so the oil goes to the engine and not back to the oil pan.  The electric valve will be wired to the ignition so if the oil pressure drops while the ignition is on, it’ll push oil into the engine.  I’ll need to pick up some new fittings and hoses to make it all work.

I also picked up a new ground cable from the engine to the chassis (visible just below the Accusump), some new fuel line, and started to get the clutch cable in place.  The black can just in front of the radiator is the new radiator overflow that will go just to the left of the radiator (passenger side).

I cleaned up the wheels and painted them last week (Summit’s magnesium color with a clearcoat).  One of the local tire shops found some Sumitomos in the 185/70 R13 size that look good, have good temperature and wear ratings, and are rated faster than I should ever go in this car.  Price worked out to about $70 each for five tires, mounted and balanced.  The “upgrade” for these cars is a 205/60 R13 (the car had a set of 1980s Pirellis when I got it), but the Pirellis are no longer available.  In fact, all I could find in that size were Vredesteins from Coker Tire that ran about $200 each.  With the original size tire, I get a smaller contact patch but a bigger diameter (a little lower RPM for a given speed).

Searching through the old paperwork that came with the car a while back, I found a set of wheel cap stickers from Delta from the early 1980s that were never installed (no idea if these are still available).  The old stickers were scraped off, the new ones installed, and the caps were installed in the wheels.

 

Roll bar installation

The carpet over the wheel wells and behind the seats was installed, along with the vinyl trim piece against the back of the passenger compartment.  The package tray carpeting was straightforward, but needed to be cut for the installation of the roll bar.  I decided to just cut holes for the screws, then crush the carpet between the bar and the chassis.  I didn’t have to be exact with the holes, and I’ll be able to easily get to the bolts in case I need to remove the roll bar.

I’d previously purchased some grade 8 bolts for this, but with the thickness of the carpet and the plates I fabricated for the underside, they were too short.  Off to the hardware store again.

I also installed the speedometer cable, a few new hoses (vacuum to the brake booster, non-pressurized vent lines from the filler to the intake) and got the oil cooler reinstalled and the re-cored radiator temporarily back in place.

 

Engine installation & carpeting

First item of the weekend was to start installing the carpeting.  If this were an American car, there would be two big pieces of formed carpet that you’d lay in place and cover with weights for a week or so, then trim the edges.  When you got done, the carpet would be more or less in the right place.  This being a British car, the carpet is made up of 18 separate pieces, all of which need glued down.  It’s definitely more time consuming, but will be much cleaner at the end with fewer compromises.

I pretty much followed the instructions in the Delta kit; sometimes doing a few pieces on one side then going to the other rather than bouncing from side to side.  I cut out the necessary holes (seatbelt mounts, seat mounts, etc.) while doing the initial fit of each piece (before glue).  That way, I didn’t have to go searching for the holes with an awl later.  I did have to be a bit more careful this way when gluing, however, just to make sure everything lined up.  For glue, I used 3M 8088 in a spray can.  Good stuff that you spray to both pieces, then takes just a minute or two before it becomes tacky.  As the carpet would cause the glue to get tacky quickly and the padding would cause the glue to get tacky really quickly, I sprayed the metal first, then sprayed whatever was getting attached to the metal.  If I were gluing carpet to padding, I’d spray the carpet back first, then the padding.  Also, I used lots of newspaper to keep the overspray from getting on finished parts and kept the garage doors open (the spray glue is powerful stuff; I’d recommend doing one part, doing something else for a while, then going back and doing another part).

The formed pieces of carpet that go over the rear wheel wells were the only pieces that were a little tricky.  Not only getting them cut to fit correctly, but also making sure I had the correct one on each side.  The carpet piece for the package tray area (behind the seats where the roll bar will bolt) was a little smaller than the area, so I painted the corners black to hide any metal that may show up between pieces of carpet.

With the carpet well on its way, it was time to put the engine and transmission back in.  The engine was tied to a load leveler with straps around the intake manifold, with the leveler attached to an engine hoist.  The hoist went up and the leveler was cranked until the transmission tail was pointed down through the engine bay.  Then, little by little, the hoist was lowered and the engine was pushed back while the leveler was cranked to put the engine and transmission back to horizontal.  It gets pretty close in a couple of areas, but it isn’t impossible*.  With the engine mostly in place but still hanging from the hoist, the engine mount rubbers were put in place as well as the transmission crossmember.  The driveshaft was bolted in along with the plate under the front u-joint.

* I’ve read that another way to do this is bolt the engine to the k-member  with the whole thing out of the car, lift the front of the car way up, then roll the whole thing under.  As the engine and transmission had come out through the engine bay and I knew how to do it, I figured that was the way to put them back in.  Also, I had a pit under the car so the tail of the transmission could be lower than the floor when everything was at a steep angle.

Also, somewhere over the weekend I got the glove box and most of the center console installed.  The trick with the center console is figuring out the correct order for all the parts & pieces, or else you’ll get stuck with a piece and no way to get it installed.

Heater box and windshield frame

The heater core was pressure checked at Indianapolis Radiator Works and came back just fine.  The radiator itself was another story.  The radiator in factory new condition was barely adequate for the job, and combined with a factory belt driven fan and bad airflow over the radiator meant Jensen-Healeys were prone to overheating.  Delta remedied the airflow issue with a front spoiler, the previous owner replaced the mechanical fan with a thermostat driven electric fan, and I’m having the radiator core replaced.  The 2 row 1/2″ tube core was filled up with 40 years of scale and debris.  It’ll be replaced with a better setup:  also 2 row, but with 5/8″ tubes, spaced closer together along with more cooling fins.

With the heater core back, I installed it in the heater box using new foam cut to the proper size, then bolted the whole thing back in place under the dash.  Where the coolant pipes go through the firewall, I cut a small aluminum cover plate to replace the rusty original steel one.  I put a couple rubber grommets between the aluminum and the pipes to prevent them wearing through.

The windshield assembly finally came down from storage (sitting the top of the cabinet).  I began cleaning up the old sealant, de-rusted and repainted the black metal trim pieces at the sides of the frame, and started to work on getting the broken bolts out of the captive nuts at the top of the frame.

I’d been thinking about pedal pads for the clutch and brake for awhile (the originals are NLA), and finally figured some modern manual transmission car may have something close if it has rectangular pedals.  Figuring it was as good a place to start as any, I pulled one of the pads off my 2008 Ford Ranger and tried to fit it on the Jensen.   Nearly a perfect fit.  The pattern is completely different, but that’s not a deal killer.  This week it’ll be off to the Ford dealer for some parts.

The return of the engine

The engine was finished and came back to the shop, where it was bolted up to the flywheel, clutch, and transmission.  The intake manifold and carburetors were bolted back on, along with the short radiator hose that runs to the intake manifold.  Yes, one cam cover is upside-down.  No, I didn’t do it.  No, I’m probably not going to fix it.

The tires were taken off the wheels.  Even with a proper tire machine, 13″ wheels that have been in place for about 30 years aren’t exactly easy to break loose (almost 40 in the case of the original spare).  They’ll get cleaned up and coated with some clear sealer, possibly also some magnesium color just to give them a clean look.

An order from Summit came in this week as well, which included a 2 quart Accusump and electric valve.  The Lotus engine tended to have the oil drain out of the passages and into the pan when shut off.  That, combined with a car that wasn’t driven often, meant that the car would run for a few seconds without oil pressure when first starting up.  The Accusump holds pressurized oil and will be wired to an ignition powered switch.  When the ignition is turned on, it’ll release the oil into the engine’s oil passages and lubricate everything until the oil pump takes over, hopefully protecting the engine (and the brand new main bearings).  Since the engine doesn’t use the original air box air filter, that should be a good spot to locate the Accusump, but I’ll have to get the engine in first to make sure.

Just a quick thank you

I’ve been looking at the stats, and discovered I recently passed 5,000 page views.  Not an earth-shattering total (Google probably does that many in under a millisecond), but it’s good to know there are a few people out there interested in seeing a little-known, slightly notorious old British roadster on its (slow) trip to get back on the road.

Thanks.

Interior & engine

The valve covers were painted with semi-gloss black engine paint, then the fins and lettering were sanded off with 220 grit on the DA sander, then a few minutes with a block sander going with the grain to get rid of any remaining swirls.

The nuts holding the top of the dashboard were finally tightened down, now that I’m pretty sure I can get the heater core in with the dash in place.  The steering column, lower dash, and signal stalks went in, and I plugged in all their wiring connectors.  The steering column cowl cap that the previous owner purchased but never installed was fitted and screwed to the lower dash.  It fit pretty well, but did require some trimming around the windshield wiper stalk and to fit the steering wheel adapter.  The passenger side door panel and hardware also went in without any issues.  I threw the carpet in place to get an idea of what went where, then headed over to work on the engine.

The 2nd cam carrier was ready to be installed when I got there, and it was a simple matter of spreading Loctite 518 on the surface and bolting it down to the head.  518 is the replacement for Loctite 504, which has a ‘grit’ to it.  One item of note, the washers originally used to bolt the cam carriers to the head were weak and squished on one, and completely missing on the other.  These were replaced with some stainless pieces.

  

The rubber cam cover gaskets were sealed in place with Right Stuff gasket maker, then put on the cam carriers.

Back at the car, I got the trunk lid trim installed.  The 3 fasteners on each end were the same ones I used on the quarter trim, while the center 3 were push-ins from Delta.  They were bigger than the existing holes so, instead of drilling out the holes, I ground them to fit.  The trunk latch and key cylinder went in as well.

Last week I installed the mirrors, but wasn’t really happy with the passenger side.  The driver side was originally pop-riveted in place with 2 really big rivets (really big compared to the rest of the car).  I modified a few hardware store fasteners so they’d fit the existing holes, and screwed the mirror base in place.  The fasteners are plastic pieces you push into place, then when you tighten a screw into it, the screw pushes the sides of the fastener out and holds it in place.  The passenger side was an aftermarket add-on, so it was already had this setup.  Unfortunately, 30+ years of wear meant the plastic was worn down and wouldn’t hold the mirror base in place.  So two more new fasteners were modified and now I don’t have to worry about the mirror becoming one with the pavement.

I’ll be taking the radiator and heater core to get cleaned and checked out this week.

Also, It’s beginning to look like a real car!

Door panels & engine parts

I cut out new moisture barriers for the doors out of some thick plastic sheet (goes between the door body and the interior trim panel) and attached the driver side with some 3M strip-calk.  The fasteners that hold the door panels on need to be bigger than for the kick panels, since the holes are bigger in the door (it’s a British thing, I guess).  I found some larger trim fasteners at the hardware store, but had to cut down the heads to get them to fit into the panel.  Once everything was in, however, it was just a matter of lining everything up and bumping the panel into place.

The driver door panel was rubbing on the striker (the panel sits just a tiny bit back from the indent in the door), so I made a spacer for the striker out of a piece of thick steel and got everything to line up.  The dash was also finally bolted down at the top.

Over at the “engine shop,” I cleaned up the main bearing girdle and oil pan.  New bearings went in, everything was sealed up and torqued down on the bottom end, and the cam covers were pulled.

I stripped the old paint off of the cam covers, and will be painting them then sanding the top to highlight the “Jensen-Healey” lettering and the raised fins.

I knew I bought that second engine for a reason

No, the Jensen-Healey engine isn’t dead.  I am, however, pilfering the two-piece cam belt cover from the “junkyard find” Lotus Elite engine.  The early cam belt cover (like mine) is a one-piece unit that requires removal of the upper radiator hose to get to the cam belt.  The later, two-piece unit simply unbolts in the middle and the top half comes off in one direction and the bottom half in another.  The cover has a little damage, but fortunately, I’m getting halfway decent with fiberglass.  I also got the throttle cable bracket (which I may or may not be using).

Regarding actual work to the car, I got the door panel vinyl from last week finished up, along with installing the inner window seals and door locks.

I also pulled off the doors in order to install the door stops.  With most cars of the same vintage, there’s a spring loaded roller and a couple of dimples along the roller’s path to stop the door partway or fully open.  With the Jensen, there is just a big rubber bumper glued to a bent piece of metal, which is bolted just outside the hinges.  when the door opens, the hinge hits the bumper and won’t open any more.  Simple.  While the doors were off, I installed the interior light switches (they also use the hinges) and the seal at the back of the front fender.  The originals were just a few inches long at the top curve of the fender.  Delta sent me two really long seals.  Even running all the way from the top of the fender to near the bottom (where the metal gets short and a seal won’t stick), I had enough left over for a second car.

I cleaned up and installed the outside door lock.  Yes, I said lock, not locks.  The early Jensen-Healeys only had an outside lock on the driver side.  Since the gaskets are no longer available, I cut one from EPDM  sheet.  The doors went back on and they were finally aligned, along with the door strikes.

Parts came in for the engine, as well:

• A new cam belt and tensioner bearings, along with a seal and gasket set from Dave Bean
• A set of main bearings from JAE

The seal and gasket set ended up having the old style “paper” cam cover gaskets, so a set of rubber gaskets was ordered from Delta.