My 1964 mk1 austin. "Dianna"

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Got my tank liner kit in today, awaiting brake hoses yet. Hope to have a productive weekend... fingers crossed for a test drive soon!

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

New front brake hoses fit...
That was a pain!
I had to cut through one of the hoses with an angle grinder and take the retainer bolt to the bench vice with a torch to get it apart... but done.

Brakes bled, and up to snuff.

Front windshield seal replaced, fuel tank repairs started!

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Working on the tank today.

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

So before those pictures and work were completed-

There were some attempts.
I tried to weld shut some of the the larger holes with my mig welder. But, even on my lowest settings... it kept blowing out the edges of the metal as it was so thin from the years of rust.

I got filled where I'd tried... and called it good.

I then tried to "braze" the holes shut.
Without the use of my empty oxy acetylene tanks, i was relegated to using a MAAP torch.

No joy.

No luck with a silver soldering attempt either.
Both process- i could get the metals to melt to liquid, but they wanted to ball up and puddle on top of the steel. I couldnt get the steel hot enough in a pin pointed area for it to work.

So i was left with epoxy and fiberglass.
Fingers crossed it works!

Today- the interior of the tank got lined with POR-15 fuel tank liner. It's currently curing.

I've got a 96 hour cure time before reassembling and testing!

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Minor update time...

Recieved my quarter window from Mr Lebel some time back.
Prior to that- I'd acquired a lower original brass door hinge for the old girl from a fellow in dayton ohio here in the US.

A few days ago i recieved a package I'd been awaiting for over a month... six new screws for the door latches to replace the currently thread-worn ones in her. Alongside those, the tool for the windscreen lock trim.

Apparently the new door handle was on back order or unavailable. As its not in stock.

Been really busy with life and work, so as well as waiting on parts- theres been little to no progress on my car lately.

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

A few more completions...

Got my broken door hinge replaced, and the doors adjusted up to relieve the sagging and harsh closing.
Worked on the latches and handles as well to tighten them up and get them more useable.

Swapped over to a single webber progressive carb and intake. It's a little easier and more forgiving for an American like me to tune than the dual SU's.

And I have no benefit of a dyno shop here- aka a rolling road, to tune them on.

Have my fuel system all sorted out, and went to fire her up and get her running right... to no avail.

Kept sputtering, firing here and there, backfiring...
Couldn't figure it out.

Days of checking firing order, points, plug gaps, valve lash, everything I could think of... but spark- because it was firing....

I reach down to check the main lead on the ignition coil- and it's soaking wet. OIL.... hmm....

Perhaps six months old- I never gave it a thought.
Smh...

Yup, the ol girl is running strong ish right now.

I have to fine tune the timing now, and tune the carb to the motor... but, she runs.

[Peter Laidler]

Hey, Joel. You could try doing what the old motorbike fuel tank repairers do and what my friend did when he had a line of pin-holes along that part of his tank (caused by a bubba seating it on a length of soft wood!).

Bead blast the steel, flux along the holed area and tin it with lead solder. Cut out a suitably sized sheet of thin copper or brass, tin that piece. Then beat to the shape of the tank. Then go over it with a blow-torch until the steel tank bonds to the brass/copper patch.

Worked a treat and still goin' strong after 25 years.

He used a length of copper heating pipe, opened up flat. Easy to tin and dolly to shape too.

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Peter-
I actually tried welding first, with some success... then moved onto brazing and lead work.

I've brazed and leaded many, many lawn mower & generator fuel tanks during my time as a range control mechanic on ft hood. The generators especially- would get hit by stray bullets down range as they powered pop up target systems.

But for some reason- nothing would stick to this tank! the brass and the lead just balled up and not spread into the ground down areas I'd cleaned and sanded for repair. I've never seen the like!

So this is what lead me to the fiberglass repair. Sigh.

[MiNiKiN]

Peter-
I actually tried welding first, with some success... then moved onto brazing and lead work.

I've brazed and leaded many, many lawn mower & generator fuel tanks during my time as a range control mechanic on ft hood. The generators especially- would get hit by stray bullets down range as they powered pop up target systems.

But for some reason- nothing would stick to this tank! the brass and the lead just balled up and not spread into the ground down areas I'd cleaned and sanded for repair. I've never seen the like!

So this is what lead me to the fiberglass repair. Sigh.

Did you apply tinning paste prior to applying the bodywork tin?
https://eshop.wuerth.de/Lead-free-body ... rm=+098290

I cut out a large section of the pin holed bottom section of my Innocenti tank, then welded in a piece of new metal. For piece of mind (because welding the partially still very thinned out metal was not 100% successful) I applied tinning paste, heated until it melted and worked it in with a stainless wire brush. On top I then went over with the body tin rods. Traditional lead loading - worked a treat.

There are photos of the work in my Innocenti cooper B39/6 topic in this section...

See photos here: page 2 http://mk1-forum.net/viewtopic.php?p=268808#p268808

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Minikin-
Yessir! Which is why I was so perplexed that it balled up instead of spreading out or pooling (in the case of the brass brazing rod, or even silver solder.)

The only thing I can think of is my flux as we call it here... might have gotten contaminated?

[MiNiKiN]

Minikin-
Yessir! Which is why I was so perplexed that it balled up instead of spreading out or pooling (in the case of the brass brazing rod, or even silver solder.)

The only thing I can think of is my flux as we call it here... might have gotten contaminated?

Re brazing: I experience this sort of behaviour when the temperature of the material to be brazed is too low. The tank sucks up quite a lot of heat, so a blow torch (rather than a oxy-acetylen or oxy-propan) may be a bit overwhelmed with the job. Or the flux is dead as a parrot, like you suspect.

[Peter Laidler]

Or what about using a roll of ready-fluxed solder. Clean the surface, lay a string of fluxed solder around the damage and heat with a blow torch until it melts and forms a ring of melted solder. A blow torch gives a wide area of heat, needed for this sort of job.

When soldering thin material, I was always taught that once the material turns blue, it's time to stop! Clean down and start again

[miniminor]

Beautiful looking car in that first image! Hope you get it going and on the road soon.