Happy holidays!!

My Christmas gifts were pretty cool this year! I got a few much needed car parts. Some were for Old Biddy and some were for “Joe”, my 1976 Midget (who I will be working on next week). I apologize in advance for the blurry pictures this week. My camera needs a new battery and gets moody when it is weak on power.

My brother-in-law gave me a chrome bezel for the vacuum gauge.

 

On “Boxing Day” (for our Australian, Bermudian, Canadian, and British readers), I operated on the gauge to replace it. I am glad I tore it apart because the glass was dirty and needed a good cleaning.

 

It was a relatively easy procedure that only took less than half an hour.

 

 

It looks nice now as it matches the others! Once it gets warmer, I will hook up the suction hose to the gauge to get it operating. That is the last thing that needs to be done on the instrument sub-panel.

 

 

 

And, my father gave me a Ron Francis SW-32 low pressure brake switch to replace the broken switch that I have. I figured to upgrade to this from the original because it is a safety concern. This will also get installed once the weather warms up.                                                                                                 

 

 

My mother and mother-in-law each gave me a gift certificate to Moss Motors. I need some bits and pieces for both Joe and Old Biddy, but nothing major. Next post will be another “odds and ends” post.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

horns and door panel installation

Our detached garage (where Old Biddy lives) is now as cold as a freezer. Work on the car has come to a slow crawl…if at all.

The horn circuit was traced and everything was working correctly…except the horns themselves. I sent them to be repaired as they are the original metal Lucas 9N horns not the plastic replacements.

 

My attention has been diverted to installing the door panels. Back in May 2011 (see posts) I restored them and they have been taking up space ever since. I attached the first panel to the left (driver’s) side door. All the clips line up nicely in their respective holes…and it looks nice, too!

 

But a problem arose when I went to install the plastic pull handle and the door pocket.

 

I found out that even though I drilled the holes from the original door pattern, the new holes…

 

…do not align with the holes in the door itself where the handle screws screw into.

 

So now the panel has to be removed so I can figure out a way to mark the correct placement for the holes on the panel. And, I also have to re-install a few door clip holders in the door where they are missing.

 

But….brrrrrrrrrr!!!! I think I may have to wait until the temperature gets above 40'F (4'C) before I work out there.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Horn issues

The past two weeks have been very busy so I only had a few short moments to work on the car. During these moments, I tried to figure out why the horns were not working.

I looked at the wiring and it looks correct.

 

John let me borrow one of the steering wheel horn push buttons from his Midget stock to experiment with.

 

I thought it was going to be a direct swap for mine in the 1100. When his would not fit into my steering wheel, I examined the back sides. They are different. His has a “point” that fits in a groove on his steering wheels. Mine does not. Notice the brass contact bar on his, whereas mine is a “button”.

 

So I dissected his to put the innards into mine.

 

Everything fit perfectly…although I will need to order new parts for mine. I popped it into place on my steering wheel, turned the ignition key, pushed the horn button…and nothing happened.

 

I think I need a totally different horn push due to this button inside the steering wheel. When this horn push unit is installed, the button stays depressed. I tried pushing the button without having the horn push unit in place. Nothing happened then either, which tells me that I may have to trace the wires to see if I connected something up wrong. More research is needed.

 

It is really getting cold outside now. Since “the shed” is unheated, it will be difficult to do any work on the car itself. Progress will continue but installing parts may have to wait until Christmas break when I can bring Old Biddy into the heated garage.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy