Thomas
That engine installation is a huge undertaking and I am more than impressed by the way you have done it. Many congratulations.
As to the lathe, I am green with envy, not that I know how to use one; but never too old to learn..

 

That shiny Lathe!!
Husband bought one some years ago (B.E.-Before Elinor) from a retiring gunsmith. He set it up to suit himself and promptly went blind, maybe used it once. I'm not Even going to tell him about yours.

I'm SO impressed that you installed that engine/trans alone.
But then, you DO have the proper tools for any little task you choose to take on, and if not, you go Find One!
(';')

 

That lathe takes me back to metal shop class in the mid 60's.

 

I trimmed the inner fenders and removed the rear set of motor mounts. I put the engine/transmission back in and jacked up the car so I could start to visualize how all this would work.



Next up is removing the front seats and carpet from the interior. I need to start thinking about where the gear lever is going to come through and what trimming I need to do (if any) for the transmission.

 

And sadly, at least over in the UK, such skills are no longer widely taught.

 

We had a warm day in Chicago so I stopped work early to head out to the garage. I was able to pull both front seats and peel back the carpet.



I knew there was a small cover plate with Dzus fasteners to check the transmission fluid level, but I was unaware that there was a large cover that gives a large access opening to the transmission.


There was some surface rust on the floor boards but no rust through. I'll paint it with rust encapsulator to protect it for the future but it was nice to see that the foundation was solid.

I also need to reach out to Lseat.com. I had talked to them this summer about skinning the seats and shipping the covers to them so they could make a pattern. That's probably something for after the holidays.

 

I did that with lseat.com for my S-Type. They had patterns for the front seats already, but not the rears, so I sent them my old rear covers. The new covers appear to be really nice. I have not installed them yet because I've decided to replace the foams first, so I have not confirmed the fit.

After my first couple of emails with lseat, which were great, I could then only get email replies from folks whose English was ridiculously curt and sometimes indecipherable.

I sent my old rear seat covers to lseat in March, but did not receive the new covers until November. I hope your experience will be faster and easier.

Cheers,

Don

 

Oh no - that's kind of my nightmare scenario. I was told 5-6 weeks when I talked to them in August but it sounds like that might have been an unrealistic time frame. We will see how it goes.

 

If its any consolation, I am very surprised and pleased by the excellent quality of the leather and the construction of the covers for the exceptionally low prices.

 

With the holidays over I was able to spend some time in the garage. Today I was able to complete the front brake project.
I know painting the brake rotors are questionable. I used to mask off the swept are and only paint the edges and hats. Then I realized that the brake pads do an excellent job of removing paint where it does not need to be so I stopped masking them. This way the rotors don't rust on the edges and hats.



View from the rear looking forward.


View from the inside looking out. There are no concerns about the caliper hitting the shock absorber. I need to figure out brake lines but that should be easy.
After taking this picture I disassembled everything, welded the two-piece bracket to make it one piece, sand blasted it, and gave it a coat of paint to protect it from rusting.
I'll pick up some new bolts tomorrow and get it back together.


Feeling somewhat accomplished I moved to the rear. On the left is the brake bracket I designed and on the right is the bearing retainer plate. The retainer plate takes over the job of the drum brake backing plate and is necessary to keep everything together.


Trial fitting the two piece rear rotors.


Rear brake calipers from a 1980 Cadillac Eldorado include a parking brake mechanism.


There is a clearance issue between the brake caliper and leaf spring. I need to play around with this but I suspect I need a rotor with less back spacing - this one is 3".

 

Looks great, Thomas!

Are you using brake caliper paint on the rotors or some other high-temperature paint?

Do you not have any concern about the paint glazing the pads and preventing the transfer of pad friction material to the rotors during break-in?

 

Don,
I just use regular Rustoleum Professional. I know that brake rotors get hot but I've never had an issue with it burning or flaking off.

As far as bedding in the brakes - the paint is gone from the swept area of the rotor before I get to the end of my block. You can see in the picture where it's already scratched - that's just from me pressing the pads and turning the rotor by hand. If you put the mass of a 4,000 pound car behind the rotor is cleaned pretty quick. I go to the industrial park up the street and do a dozen stops from 50 mph to 20 to be in the rotors and they live happy ever after.

Thomas

 

I got a lot done today but for some reason I only got one picture and it's not in focus either.

Aside from the hoses, I finished up both sides of the front brakes today. I did some looking around and I think I might be able to re-use the existing brake hoses if I can find a banjo adapter of the correct size. If not I can have a set of Goodridge brake hoses made.



I also spent some time with the rear brakes. I tweaked the design for the rear brake bracket and I am printing a prototype now.

After that I spent some time checking engine measurements. I want the engine as far back as possible and that will entail cutting 2" out of the floor to make room for the shifter assembly. Before I do that I want to see if there is a shifter relocation kit to keep me from having to cut the sheet metal.

 

Man that's a great score on the lathe!!
Was it a standard electric motor? Icb you found one so quick.

 

The motor on the lathe was a 1/2 HP with a bad start capacitor. I opened it up to look for a part number on the cap and promptly closed it back up. A man has to know his limits.

After researching NEMA frame sizes I decided the 1 HP motor on the shelf at my local Harbor Freight would work. It was slightly longer than the original motor but there was room for it to fit. I was ready to splurge on the 2 HP or 3HP motors but they would not fit without buying a new pulley or making a serious modification to the cabinet.

 

Work continues on the rear brake caliper brackets. This is version 3 which shows the general arrangement of components.


It was about this time I realized that the 3" offset I had on the rear rotor was too much. I liked that it brought the rotor out of the narrow part of the wheel but it pushed the caliper too far towards the center of the car. I started testing what a 2" offset rotor hat would do.
Summit Racing has what I need and I'll pick up one to test shortly.


I also spent some time cleaning the garage today and forgot I have a large collection of Jaguar air cleaners. I might see if I can use one to help fill up the engine bay. The pushrod V8 is far more compact than the DOHC 6.


I also did some research on shifter relocation kits. There is a kit to move the lever forward but it requires opening the transmission and replacing the shift rails. I don't want to do that so I replaced the driver's seat, put the shift lever in, and decided the current location would work.



Finally, I heard back from Lseats.com. They are ready for my seat covers but I am waiting for them to confirm the production cycle before I send them in. I can't afford a long lead time.

Next up is pulling the engine/transmission to make the cut for the gear shift lever.

 

Yeah, that's always for the best.
Otherwise, you'll end up with an entire garage full of unfinished projects wherein you got to a hard spot and gave up.
I can't see you doing that though.

I just spent 18 months cleaning up such a mess, much of which went to the Dump.
What an Incredible Waste of money, materials and time.
(';')

 

I heard back from Lseats.com today and they reiterated the 4-6 week turn around time. Tonight I started stripping the old seat covers off. I got the front passenger seat stripped, the rear seat bottom stripped, and started working on the rear seat back.

I've never seen seats like this. Wood strips attached to the metal seat bucket and brad nails through the cover into the wood strips. I must have pulled a couple hundred brad nails and hog rings out of the passenger seat alone.

I'll finish the rear seat back tomorrow and get them heading towards Lseats.

 

That's great news from Lseat.

My '65 S-Type seats had some of the same thin wood strips to which the leather was affixed in places with tiny little tacks. Lots of hog rings and lacing too. Think of the work process back then. Virtually everything was done by skilled hands, probably even bending the seat frame wires into shape. There's an interesting video interview on YouTube of the then-current 5th-generation head of Connolly Leather. If I recall correctly, he said that at one time, Jaguar employed 70 leather trimmers in the trim shop. That's a staggering number for what has always been a small boutique automaker.

 

My first car at 14 years old, kept on a farm of a friend, was an Austin 1936 10/4. Bought for £10 which I earned from my Mum by chopping firewood. The seats were leather, still in good shape, with a set of real upholsterers coil springs supporting the horsehair layer under the leather. Incredible quality in a cheap mass produced "everymans's" car. And even the clock (wind-up of course) worked!