“Here we go again” 1275GT project NOW FOR SALE

[rolesyboy]

A nicer box of goodies than I started with.

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With some plating and painting to come it feels like progress.

D

Looks great. Out of curiosity what did you use to clean the steel and also the ally trumpets?

[Peter Laidler]

Good thought about the PLUS 3 degrees of CASTOR but unless this marking was well known among the mini tuning fraternity, it'd be fraught with danger. How does your 3 degree marked tie rod measure up to a standard rod. Interesting.

On the other hand, as always. check what you're fitting especially if its used/2nd hand.

This is going to be another of those very readable threads

[Dearg1275]

A nicer box of goodies than I started with.

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With some plating and painting to come it feels like progress.

D

Looks great. Out of curiosity what did you use to clean the steel and also the ally trumpets?

I used a combination of a course wire wheel in my angle grinder (scary) to remove the worst but finished off with fine grit blasting. Investing in a reasonably large blast cabinet a couple of years ago was one of the better thing I’ve done. With the callipers I split them, masked off the mating surfaces but left the old pistons and dust seals in to protect the bores.

D

[rpb203]

Have the same 3degree stamp or whatever it is meant to say on the chopped down tie bars on my Unipower.
Also have the same markings on the tie rods on my marcos built from an early Cooper 50years ago, so think it’s probably a factory stamp that normally has a thick coat of paint on it?
May well be wrong though.

[Dearg1275]

Have the same 3degree stamp or whatever it is meant to say on the chopped down tie bars on my Unipower.
Also have the same markings on the tie rods on my marcos built from an early Cooper 50years ago, so think it’s probably a factory stamp that normally has a thick coat of paint on it?
May well be wrong though.

If that’s the case,( i.e. factory stamped) it suggests that there were other specification floating around. That said the cars you mention are away from standard stuff and may well fall into a group that carried “alternative kit” that needed to differentiate between sets. If these were factory or ST stampings you would expect some reference in the Special Tuning bumph. I can’t recall any.

It remains interesting.

D

[Costafortune]

When will we see them again?

[Dearg1275]

I have an even nicer box of bits now.

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But the servo is not so nice.

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This one is, I think, a scrapper. I do have the herring bone hose and brackets though.

D

[roger mcnab]

hi d
well it does look a bit manky but possibly could be saved with a lot of work but could be cheaper to replace that clubman looks nice and straight how is the body for the usual rust my clubman has quarter vents in the doors and round corners on the doors with external hinges
i am over the covid problems wish we could just get along with it also had enough rain for a while
i did not get covid but i am over it the restrictions etc
cheers roger

[Peter Laidler]

Agree with Roger David. I recon that servo could well be saveable - so long as the depression/vacuum shell isn't holed. As an engineer, there's something good about seeing things being resurrected from deaths door. Saw a couple of hydrolastic units that were visually at deaths door a month ago. Casings wire brushed and bead blasted to within an inch of their lives, pressure tested and no leaks, primed and painted in hard old fashioned enamel and now ready to fit

[Dearg1275]

The servo is on the back burner for the time being because the steel elbow to the air control valve is rusted through. Instead other rusty horrors were attacked. With a big hammer. It took the best part of an hour to drift this perisher out.

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The rest of the radius arm assembly was little better.

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Unlike my 997 project this one is putting up a fight.

D

[Peter Laidler]

Jeeees.... I'm enjoying this restoration David. Those rear rad arm axles are a good example of why you need to modify the replacements to double ended greasing.

[Dearg1275]

Now that the weather has ceased to blow, freeze or rain for a day or two (more like hour or two) it was time to get some photos of the shell to record what was in store. The light levels were not good so apologies.

Some one has been busy with the rivet gun (quite tidy really)

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But they were less good at welding these nasty over inner sills and floor pans in place.

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Needless to say oversills featured on the outside as well. Which is all a bit of a shame as the rear floors are in good shape.

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Continued.

[Dearg1275]

There were some interesting features of this ‘73 car. The cover plate for the rota dip rear hole was held in place by plastic studs. It was clearly fitted after painting at the factory unlike earlier cars.

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And the rear seat back had factory holes for central seat belt mounts but not the captive nuts and reinforcement plate on the boot side. There were other niceties with the trim but I’ll cover that later.

Under the bonnet is not too bad but some repairs are needed on the inner wing. You can see it has had replacement wings. I’m hoping I can recover these and refit them is necessary.

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I’m out of storage space so it’s wrapped up for the rest of the winter. There is zero chance of that tarp surviving until the spring but it might keep the worse off for a while.

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D

[Dearg1275]

I thought I would share my light bulb moment about removing old needle roller bearings from radius arms. The pictures tell the story.

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If you removed the bronze from the other bearing you could probably do something similar at that end. An old radius arm shaft is now definitely part of the tool kit.

D

[Jason1969]

In terms of colour I've gone for something slightly different and chose Bracken, a little deeper than Blaze and only produced for two years on the Clubman and GT I think:

[Peter Laidler]

Good thinking David. The rad shafts are generally a good quality (but case hardened) material. I've always kept one or two and turned one down in a lathe just to make tools and drifts etc.

[Dearg1275]

That’s looking tidy Jason. Again a bold colour. How much longer before you can enjoy it?

D

[Dearg1275]

My wife snapped this photo for me. It makes a great Christmas card.

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So seasons greeting from the north of Scotland

D

[Dearg1275]

I’ve just checked over the subframes and they will be fine. The rear one is stamped Firsat and has a sales sticker on it. A replacement then but odd to find a Firsat subframe on a British car. Firsat supplied to Innocenti I seem to recall. Did Firsat date their subframes?

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D

The Firsat mystery is solved.

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It would seem that the pattern parts supplier VENG were importing Firsat subframes and undercutting BMC/BL/UNIPART. cheeky!

D

[Dearg1275]

As I have said before, a blasting cabinet was a great buy.

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D