vulgalour

In the most recent Maestro video, I fixed a couple of issues. The first was the bonnet. This corner is the worst bit. After I'd been driving the car for a while, rust started to appear and a few bits of filler dropped off. The alignment is pretty poor on this corner too. I know it's had a minor bump on this corner and it looks like the edge of the bonnet got shoved in. Panel beating on the wing this corner suggests that got damaged, and a home made bracket on the headlight certainly reinforces the suspicion. Damage doesn't run too deep, seems to be entirely superficial, so it doesn't really worry me. You can see from the side that it's also pushed the bonnet back along its length so it has an odd shape, being a bit too short and much to curved. The wing is also distorted along its length, curving away from the bonnet. The metal on the Maestro is very thin so it deforms really easily, it doesn't take a lot to put damage like this into a panel. Not to worry, it's just four bolts to undo and unplugging the hose from the washer jets. Don't forget to put a couple of squares of cardboard under the rear corners of the bonnet when you're doing this on your own, it'll save your paint. Incredibly light panel considering it's all steel, and lifts away easily. Just small enough to not be cumbersome, and quick enough to remove that if I ever did need full access to the engine it's easily got. The washer jets need a little press from a screwdriver on one side of the stalk on the underside of the bonnet and they come out. The ones on my old bonnet are in good shape, the new one not so much, so a swap was deemed suitable. To fit, simply push them into the hole. They're not brilliant, being just single jet types, and I could upgrade to Citroen misters, but they'll do just fine for the foreseeable. New bonnet drops in the hole well enough. It's got its own problems, namely a really shallow dent right in the middle from storage (before Peter or I got it) but is overall in much better condition. It also has a better curve on the front edge, something I didn't notice had been flattened out a bit on the old bonnet until it was removed. It's a slightly different red which is much more apparent on camera, in person it's close enough you don't notice it. This Maestro is Targa Red, the spare panels are off a car that was one of the two Flame Reds. It does highlight how wrong the shape of the drivers side wing is with a straight bonnet fitted. That done, attention could turn to the rear washer jet. The front still worked just fine, a little fine adjustment to get them squirting to the right spot and nothing else required. The rear jet hadn't worked when I got the car, the motor would run and you could see fluid in the line, but nothing at the back. Removed the one-way valve to check for flow and promptly broke it. Also found that there was no flow in either direction through the one-way valve, so that was our main culprit. Ordered a replacement and just plugged the washer line back onto the motor until it arrived. I wasn't getting any washer fluid in the car or the headlining, which is good. The washer line for the rear goes through the bulkhead and up into the roof, presumably up the driver's side A pillar, and then pops out at the back near the tailgate hinge. It then goes into the tailgate, down the driver's side, and connects to the wiper motor mechanism to get to the washer jet on the tailgate. I'm not sure my rear washer jet is proper, it's made of brass and looks decidedly home made. Now I had a clear line, I was only getting the barest dribble out of the washer jet so I decided to remove it to see if it was blocked. Unscrew the jet portion, and then the square bit that's screwed into the wiper arm boss. I don't remember what the other Maestros I had were equipped with, I'm sure it wasn't this. Anyway, it was pretty obvious the jet was blocked once it was removed. Since I was getting fluid all the way to the back of the car I thought rather than pulling the hose out and all the work that entailed, I'd see if the motor was strong enough to just clear whatever blockages might be in the line. Happily, after an initial splutter, it did just that and I now had excellent flow. I also had a whole lot of black gunky stuff on the floor that had been spat out of the line. and more that came out of the brass jet parts in the ultrasonic cleaner. Reassembled everything with just a hint of WD40 which I've found useful for preventing cross threading of brass pieces, and we now had a fully functioning rear wash wipe set up. A little while later, the new non-return valve arrived, much slimmer than the old one, and I fitted that too. Now the line stays primed and I don't have the wiper sweeping the rear screen without water so I shouldn't prematurely destroy blades or scratch the rear screen. Nice easy wins.

Another in favour of the three spokes here, partly because I love a three spoke but mainly because this is a car they just look right on. They're my favourites of the ones you tried on this. Good on you for cracking on with the little bits of welding it needs too. Nice job on that front bumper.

Another video and I've not done the write up for the last one. Oops. I'm hoping to sit down this weekend and do all the write ups on the projects I need to so folks can get caught up. In the meantime, here's the mirrors going on the Princess.

It might, but I'm concerned that if I perforate the rubber I'll introduce a weak point and it may tear.

Well, the seat diaphragm replacement is going well. Hadn't even got the new one fully fitted and the glued seams are failing already. Followed the instructions on the bottle and bought a glue that should be suitable for rubber and fabric. Test samples were okay too. But apparently the tension it's under when fitted overcomes the bond of the glue and it lets go. Recommendations for a very strong glue or some way of bonding the fabric and rubber together (because you can't sew it as then it'll just tear) welcome. The originals are done in a way that the fabric looks embedded in the rubber through either heat or an extra layer of rubber to bond everything together, but I've no idea how you'd do that at home.

I took a risk and flatted back the reacted third coat of paint on the filler flap. It went well, didn't bother going all the way to perfectly smooth since the paint I'm using is on the thicker side and I didn't want to waste bags of time if it was just going to react again. Results were promising. Wasn't clogging the paper, hadn't gone through to primer or had any visible thin spots so risked a fourth and hopefully final coat. Happily, no reaction on this round! I'll let this harden for a few days and then I can cut and polish it. It's fresh off the brush there so it's a bit wibblywobbly. Now it's had a bit of time to settle out, it's much better and you can see yourself in it so I'm happy enough with that. On the larger areas I'm going to use a roller so I can get the paint down more evenly and quicker, there's not a lot of working time with this one and I don't want to be messing about with flow improvers and retarders and whatever. Even though I slapped a load of pink on the car because I was impatient, this is the real test sample and I've a better idea of how this paint behaves and what finish to expect of it now. End result won't be a deep gloss and that's okay. As long as the car is tidy and shiny at the end of it, I don't really mind that it's going to look less shiny than a modern paint. I'm determined to get this job done this year, when weather allows I'll be cracking on with the pink since that part of the car needs the least amount of prep work and only a couple of trim holes welding up.

My old British car has a starting issue, surprising nobody.

Another update on this - there will be pictures and videos and stuff in the future, for now I just want to keep you abreast of progress - since Pat and I spent some time figuring some stuff out. Ignoring the Lanchester wiring diagrams and focusing instead on the RF95 regulator box wiring diagram and the PLC6 ignition switch wiring diagram, we managed to get quite a few systems operational and eliminate the weird light gremlin. This is very good. However, the starter motor doesn't want to engage properly now, it seems to be stuck so I'll have to pull that off and bench test it. I'd also got the field and main wires on the dynamo the wrong way around and when trying to remove said wires to correct this, the eyelet sheared off the wire and instead of the nut coming undone, the post is now loose and spinning. Additionally, there is literally no space to get at the stud to tighten it up and hold it while undoing the nut so the dynamo is going to have to be removed from the car to sort that out. The good thing is I now have all of these systems working: Headlight dip Headlight main Rear sidelights (no brake lights, the switch seems to be the culprit here) Rear number plate light Oil light Instrument panel lights I probably have the interior light circuit working but didn't test it with a bulb because I forgot. It was working, so it should still be working. Horns and semaphores aren't wired up yet, nor are the front sidelights, so I don't know if they work or not. The Ignition light does work, but I'm not sure yet if it works exactly properly because as with the above, I haven't tested it properly yet so I'm ignoring it for now. I do need to get a new pair of headlight bulbs, one of the dipped filaments has burned out (you can see it sat in the bottom of the bulb) but that's hardly surprising since they're the lights the car came to us with. The key to getting this working was to have Pat read out what circuit should be going where and then do that one bit at a time. The previous work labelling and checking continuity helped enormously and while there was nothing massively amiss with what I'd done, it did help identify issues like the dynamo being wired incorrectly. We also no longer have the issue of the headlights turning the rear lights off, I don't know what was causing that, but something we did today resolved it.

Neighbour was continuing with his clear out so I ended up with a whole host of light bulbs, electrical connectors, metal drip trays, more tools (including a really neat old-fashioned torque wrench with the swing arm indicator on it), and a good sized bottle of welding gas that he no longer needs. Even if the gas is only a little sniff in the bottom of the bottle that's fine by me, I've only got the tiniest bit to do on the Maestro and haven't been able to get a refill sorted due to other expenses lately. He's warned me that there might be more stuff up for grabs as he continues the clear out and I have zero complaints, so much of the stuff has been genuinely useful odds and sods, some of which has been used quite regularly.

Had another attempt at this today. I followed what seems to be the correct instructions for the RF95 regulator box and the PLC6 ignition switch. However, something is still wrong. As soon as I turned the ignition on, the wiper motor was running. It seems the switch (the knobs on the dashboard) is reluctant to disengage, so I just unwired the wiper motor for testing purposes. Headlights work normally and don't turn off the rear lights now. Rear side and brake lights don't work at all. Bulbs are good, wiring seems correct and good, but I can't get anything out of them at all. Number plate light glows dimly when ignition is turned on, which is shouldn't do. It otherwise operates normally when side/head lights are turned on. What's weird about this is the number plate wiring piggybacks off the rear lights so if it's coming on with sidelights the rear lights should be too. Couldn't find any connections or earth points amiss on this. Haven't tested anything else, I was just trying to get the lights working today. I think I'm going to have to get someone else in to sort this out because I feel like I'm just going around in circles at this point. It's likely I've wired something incorrectly. It's also likely there's a faulty component, intermittent or otherwise, that's manifesting problems that aren't actually of my making. I haven't the experience to know what's causing the problems that are happening. I do have information, but again my lack of experience is making it difficult for me to understand the information. If it hadn't been for the wiring, the car would probably be driving by now, it's really held everything up. If you are, or know of, someone in the Maidstone area that would be interested in trying to help me figure out what on earth is wrong with this job, please let me know. I'm a bit skint as I type this unfortunately, which is why I'm not bothering a business with the request for help. I suspect someone with experience will take one look at it, move two wires, and it'll all be sorted.

Just got back from the opticians, many pennies lighter, and have new specs on the way. I'm a bit overdue because of *waves hands at world*. Prescription hasn't changed much, but just enough to push me into needing varifocals. Hope I get on okay with them, it'll be nice to not do the specs shuffle when I'm working on the car with instructions, or when I'm checking stuff in the supermarket.

Funny you should say that about the primer because that's exactly what happened with me when I was priming this. Switched brand part way through as the can I was using didn't quite have enough, didn't think it would matter (even though I know you shouldn't do it, I've got away with it before) so I bet that's what it is. At least the paint doesn't clog the paper when sanded, it actually sands pretty nicely. Here's hoping it is just a primer issue since that's a lot easier to resolve.

Back in the paint stripper with this one. Third coat didn't level out properly and reacted all over. Didn't do this coat any differently to the second coat, same flatting back, same paint, etc. so I can only assume there's something on this panel that the paint doesn't like. Bit of a bugger. I've never had this much trouble with brush-on paint before. Can't afford to replace it all with the premium stuff and I've got so much of this stuff that I'm just going to persist until it behaves. I'm going to do a sample on the car to see if I get a different result. The pink I've already done didn't react, even when thinned with the same thinner. The one known difference is that I primed this fuel flap with different paint to what's on the car and I suspect it's that which is causing the reactions. Sometimes with paint you just have to start again. I know, I should just spray the car. Thing is, the neighbours are too close, I have no clean and covered space I can use to paint in, and I haven't got anywhere to keep even a small compressor. So brush painting it is. I've never had this much trouble with it before, the only reason I'm persisting is I know I'm capable of getting really good results with a brush and some time.

Painting this one little fuel flap has been a bit tiresome. The brush paint requires three coats to get to a thickness you can flat and polish it nicely. I'd already got the second coat on the outside face before the whole piece reacted for some reason and I had to flat it back almost all the way to primer. What you see here is the second coat of brush-applied paint, before its finished settling out, which is why it looks a bit wibbly. Happily, no reaction this time. Providing the third and final coat goes on without trouble, this can then be flatted back and polished and I should be able to get a reasonable finish on the rest of the car.

That's the most Scottish thing I've seen in quite some time.

Seat base collapsed on the Princess recently, I wasn't sure why but what I could see without removing the seat was potentially torn rubber webbing. Wasn't sure how the seat base came apart, and was delighted to discover the diaphragm can be removed without dismantling the seat. The new webbing I got is a good match for the original, and the fabric looks to be the same hessian as used on the Lanchester, of which we have some left over that was looking for a project. All wins. Only thing I'm not sure of is the best product to bond the webbing and the hessian together so I can make two new diaphragms. The metal rods and hooks are re-usable except for one that has been cut for reasons unknown. Failure seems to just be degraded rubber, the old webbing comes off on your hands like soot so even if I just put the passenger one (which is intact, but saggy) on the driver's seat I'm pretty sure it too would collapse and then I'd not have a good pattern to work from.

When I called the estimate was 10 minutes, they answered in about 7.

I see it popped up in the recent LMM video at 30:12 (video should go to that timestamp)

Cooperative. I've been with them for years, never had a problem with them.

Card fraud. My suspicion is the payment thingy in the multistorey, the device for paying seemed a bit off but since I was unfamiliar with it (I've used the multistorey twice in about three years) I just thought it was my unfamiliarity with it. Anyway, someone tried to spend a grand of my money as a result, first I knew about it was the bank stopping my card and sending a warning text. Happily, the bank stopped any money leaving my account that shouldn't, unhappily it's 3-8 days for a new card because reasons. I hope whoever it was trying to spend my money had a really disappointing time.

They don't photograph well, that's the trouble. Get the right colour - black, chocolate brown, bright yellow, white - and lowered back to pre-rubber height they actually look pretty good in person. The new wheels on the A40 look really good, matches the rest of the car very nicely. The seat upgrade is a great choice too, for when that happens.

This time, I replace the bonnet and find out why the rear washer jet doesn't work.

Yeah, I missed that mistake on the big diagram, it should be shown as per the separate switch diagram, I just managed to not see the lack of update there. Happens when you've been looking at a thing for long enough. Last night fresh eyes managed to point out a couple of items: I hadn't updated the whole big diagram so the ignition switch wiring is shown as incorrect. I'll update this and repost. (exactly as @Jikovron points out) The 46-7 wiring diagram has an RF91 regulator. The hand drawn wiring diagram has an RF95 regulator. So part of my confusion is that the wiring diagrams I have access to for this car are all wrong in one way or another. I should have started by trying to find diagrams for the RF95 regulator and the PLC6 ignition switch and ignored the wiring diagrams completely. That way I would have stood a better chance of actually getting this all plugged in correctly. My concern now is that I've definitely wired things incorrectly and that may have damaged the regulator and the ignition switch. Or the regulator and ignition switch may have already been damaged or faulty when we got the car which has led to the initial confusion. All is not lost, regulator and switch are both available new amazingly, I suspect because of the American love of British sports cars from this period which share the same components. The plan is for on Thursday (weather permitting), Pat and I are going to attempt to go through every system as though we've only just installed the wiring and ignore everything that's 'correct'. Once we've done that we can start working out what plugs in where and hopefully start doing some fault finding. Worst case, we'll get someone else in to go through it and sort out whatever it is that I've done wrong, though we dread to think what the labour cost on that might be.

They're rare and nobody cares.

I tested the switch off the car for this to eliminate the car's wiring as being part of the problem. This is how the switch behaves on the bench.