Old Biddy goes to the hospital.

Yesterday morning was quite exciting. Careful readers of this web log know that I have been waiting for this event for a few months now. My son and I cleaned out the garage and Old Biddy to prep her for transport.

 

All the car parts were brought downstairs and stored neatly in the cellar.

 

John came with his trailer. We wrestled Old Biddy off the dollies and set her on the ground for the very first time!! Then she was rolled up onto the trailer.

 

We drove took the 12.2 mile trip down to Chris’s shop and rolled her off the trailer and straight into his “operating room”.

 

Updates will be made as things progress. His main objective is to disassemble the front end, drop the sub-frame, hook up the hydrolastic suspension system and pump it up, then reassemble everything. I may have him help me get her started, too. But, it is not a good thing when the first words out of Chris’s mouth were “Oh boy!!” followed by him pointing out all the things I did wrong.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

New (slightly used) exhaust system

Yes, it has been a month since my last post. I have been waiting for big news and events to happen rather than wasting bandwidth on piddly stuff. I finally have great news to share.

I found someone in the BMC 1100 Club that was selling a slightly used 1100 exhaust system. I jumped on it since getting “Old Biddy” down to the shop where I was going to take it would have been a nightmarish adventure. On Tuesday I received this!

 

The rear pipe matches almost perfectly. The length is an issue.

 

The front pipe matches nicely except that the front part with the flange is a bit long compared to the rusted one I have.

 

I figure that the muffler is a different size and the pipes were bent to match. It was on his 1100 and fit perfectly before he sold it to me. It may need tweaking to make it work. As long as I have a complete exhaust system now, I am happy.

Old Biddy is going down to Chris TODAY!! Post to follow tomorrow!!

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Still waiting for Chris

I am still waiting for word from Chris when Old Biddy can be taken to his shop for the operation. In the meantime, I am just doing some busy work. John and I are both on April Break from school but both of us had previous plans, so working on the car was put on the back burner once again.

I went back to the high school shop again last week to sandblast a few parts. The rear auxiliary springs, the spring bracket, and the other rear sub-frame end bracket. Somehow, the jack stand base was put in the box. I never got to work on it.

 

First, I let John attack the stubborn bolt with some fire to remove the scrap piece of metal.

 

Then, we had to remove the frozen spring adjusting bolts from the bracket. That went smoothly and quickly.

 

I sandblasted the parts, brought them home and primered and painted them.

 

I think they will go on the “to sell” shelf. The only thing they need is the new hardware. The screw is a 3/8”x 1 ¼” (Whitworth thread), the adjusting nut is a 3/8” nut (Whitworth thread), and the spring nut is part number 88G 275. I will let the new owners try to find those.

Once I hear from Chris, disassembly and preparation will take place before Old Biddy visits his shop.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

More parts news.

Time sure flies this time of year! This long winter has been prolonging any real progress on the car. Since I cannot move her, she stays put. But Mother Nature is finally starting to cooperate! I am still working on sorting parts so when I do work on the car, it will save time and aggravation later.

I got a present from John the other day! He dropped off this new old stock window frame chrome piece that he found while cleaning out a friend's barn.

 

That was great because the one I have has blemished over time.

 

A couple posts ago I put out a request for parts. John Elwood from the BMC1100 Google group I am a member of sent me this seal retainer plate. I cleaned it, painted it, primered it, and cut out the foam. This will nearly complete the hand brake assembly. Thank you so much, John!!

 

That auction site has not treated me so well. Nobody is even looking at the parts I put up at dirt cheap prices just to get rid of them.

 

I also sold the sway bar. It went out to Oregon to be installed on a 1968 Austin 1100. But, warmer weather is finally in the forecast. I am looking forward to getting out of the winter doldrums.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

A trip to the shop

After my post from last week, I was sent a message asking if I have been “working on any parts to refurbish them”. Since Old Biddy’s progress has stalled for the next couple weeks, the answer is YES. I like to keep busy so the momentum does not stop on this project even if I am not working directly on the car itself.

I got a chance to go to my friend Daryl’s high school Tech Ed shop and do some work. I brought the rear arm and a chunk of the rusted out sub-frame to which it was attached.

 

The nut on the inside was frozen and I had to hack away at the frame in order to get it separated.

 

I broke my own cardinal rule by not taking a picture of me using the right angle grinder with sparks flying. But after about an hour of hacking away, it finally separated.

 

The end cap has a frozen bolt also. I wanted to separate that, too, but the school’s torch ran out of acetylene gas to heat it up.

 

 

 

 

I snapped away what I could of the rusty sub-frame remnant. The rest will have to wait.

 

 

I then turned my attention to the “parts in the box”; the other end cap, and the hardware to attach the rear anti-sway anti-roll bar.

 

I got to use my favorite machine in the shop, the sandblaster! I love to sandblast. It is very satisfying and I can just zone out and think about other things while I am cleaning parts. It is therapeutic.

 

They came out nice.

 

So I brought them home and primered them. I kept the other rusty end cap in the picture for a before/after comparison. The locking tabs are very brittle so I left them "as is".

 

This week I have a couple other things I would like to do. Parts are going up for sale on eBay…but not selling, even at the rock bottom prices that I put them up for. I know I will not make a profit, I just want them gone!

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Parts I have, Parts I need.

The past two weeks have been dedicated to parts inventory. I wanted to know what I had and what I still needed. I cannot do much work on Old Biddy until the weather gets a bit warmer outside and I can roll her out of the corner of the garage. At that point, it will be back to work disassembling things to get her ready for Chris’s shop. First, here is what I have.

Part I, the rusty stuff that needs to be refurbished. Mostly rear end bits; a couple hydrolastic bags, an arm (the other one will be the topic of my next blog post), a trunk (boot) lid torsion spring, and a set of auxillary springs.

 

Part II, the mostly restored stuff. Mostly front end bits: both upper and lower control arms, trunk (boot) lid arms, an anti-sway anti-roll stabilizer bar, a front motor mount, and a fuel filler tube. All this stuff has been on eBay for real cheap just to get rid of it…but as you can see, even at listing them for $0.99…

 

This week I have a couple more things I am listing such as the Austin America headliner loop hangers.

 

And, I am going to try putting this anti-sway anti-roll stabilizer bar up again. Say prayers and cross your fingers that they go to a better home!!

 

In my last post I mentioned a couple parts that I desperately needed. Well, here is one more. This part is keeping me from installing the dashboard. Look at the bottom part of the dashboard under the speedometer. Follow the holes from left to right across the dashboard. There should be a long, black pad there. Once I get that pad and install it, the whole dash can be set in place for good.

 

This coming week I will be going back to my friend, Daryl’s high school Tech Ed shop to do some work on the rear suspension arm I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Door sill carpet strips

This week I started to put the door sill carpet strips in place today. It was not that hard, just another slow tedious procedure.

They will look good and finally complete the carpet installation.

 

But, as usual, problems popped their ugly head up. I am in need of another rare part, the metal door sill strip. The one I have is good and has been cleaned up and painted.

 

 

But the other one is rusted and snapped in half.

I laid the driver’s side padding strip followed by the carpet itself in place.

 

And, placed the strip on top to show where it fits.

 

I also have to find these three pieces for the handbrake assembly, #29, 30 and 31 on the diagram. They help the interior bolts secure the assembly to the body on the underside of the car. Mine were lost in the disassembly process.

 

Basically, not much was accomplished this week. I guess we will take this post as a plea to someone to see if they have these parts. Every now and then I come to a hurdle like this. I hope getting over it is easy this time.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy