Dicky’s Disastrous Debris - fleet update 20/11/24

[dozeydustman]

There is a pair of these languishing in a barn not far from where I live, which I spotted while covering a dust round (staff shortages).

I can pop over there and leave a note but TBH I doubt you'd get any kind of response.

[somewhatfoolish]

Phwoar. Hampshire shite bran fined motherlode.

[Angrydicky]

9 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

There is a pair of these languishing in a barn not far from where I live, which I spotted while covering a dust round (staff shortages).

I can pop over there and leave a note but TBH I doubt you'd get any kind of response.

What a find! They have the appearance of Ozzie or NZ imports possibly. Wonder what the story is there?

[Angrydicky]

9 hours ago, Jon said:

I have nothing much to say, except that I look forward to every update, love the preservation and definitely think this couldn't be in better hands. I really hope the Counties club welcome you with open arms and respect that you're likely their strongest candidate for keeping these things alive in The Future. 

And here's a ute conversion I spotted a few years ago at Horopito scrap yard.

Everything's for sale (at a price...), so if there's any bits you may see of use from what's left of the bodywork, I should be local to it later in the year, so let me know. Assuming it's still there, of course!

Hi Jon! Thank you for your kind words. I've been a member of the ACCC since I was 19 in 2011 and they have always been very friendly and supportive towards me. I have already had a lot of excellent advice from several people. Two people say they have decent secondhand steering wheels (awaiting pics and prices) but it's the body panels I'll struggle with.

I think pretty much the only thing I could use off that ute would be the drivers door, but I hate to think how much it would cost to get sent to the UK from NZ. It's a really kind offer though!

[Angrydicky]

@Mat.T's mate with the British car collection invaded by urbexers is also the proud owner of two Hampshires. All these cars are in better condition than mine so you can see why the club thought it made a bit more sense to break LOB up to get some more solid ones back on the road. 

[Angrydicky]

So currently, the spare parts required list stands thus:

Steering wheel. This is the same as GS2 Devons up to about 1950.

Bonnet release 'T' type handle - same as Atlantic and probably A40 Sports

Good drivers door - the other three doors are fairly easy repairs but the drivers door is totally shot

I also need one sill trim, and the pieces of trim that go on the bottom of the rear wings, either side of the rear wheel spats. 

If anyone on here does have leads on these parts or happen to know any other Hampshire owners they could get the word out with I'd be very grateful. I'm fortunate there's very little missing from this car, which makes it much more viable.

[Mat.T]

14 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

@Mat.T's mate with the British car collection invaded by urbexers is also the proud owner of two Hampshires. All these cars are in better condition than mine so you can see why the club thought it made a bit more sense to break LOB up to get some more solid ones back on the road. 

2 Hampshires and a Hereford that he some times turns up at work in!

Interesting thread and great save. I knew nothing about these cars until very recently..

[Angrydicky]

3 minutes ago, Mat.T said:

2 Hampshires and a Hereford the he some times turns up at work in!

Interesting thread and great save. I knew nothing about these cars until very recently..

Please feel free to show him the pictures of mine!

[Mat.T]

I have done, I emailed him the link to this thread.

This was the response: 

Thanks Matthew, what a great find and cooperative people along the way helped save the car. At least the old owner had carefully stored it.
I bought the green one off EBay, when it came up. I was told by the vendor the only other interested party had only wanted it to rob the rear axle off it for an Atlantic !
As soon as I made contact with the seller to arrange collection he announced he had another one, the white one ( slightly more complete) so I did a deal for the second one too !
I thought there might be more chance of success getting one or other of them going. As it is they are both much the same and pretty well complete.
The green one was missing its radiator fan and I tracked one of those down. Blooming expensive but given the story, they are in demand by the Austin Healey brigade ! They also buy up the A70 engine blocks as they can be bored out to the larger size for the Healeys. Reputedly ! The classic car racing scene means there is a demand for them, apparently.
Back a few years, even rusty old Atlantics might be at risk, as the Healey boys were just after the engines !
Hence the rarity.
I wouldn't agree they are lumbering old things. They are reasonable performers, gas guzzlers yes, but that's only by unfair comparison to modern engines.
Their presence on the road is amazing as they are as big as SUVs so you aren't intimidated by meeting stuff coming the other way ! Who wants to be hit by such an old tank !
Ha ha !

[Asimo]

https://www.gumtree.com/p/car-replacement-parts/bumper-for-austin-a90-atlantic/1402272663

”Many other Austin parts available”

 

 

[Angrydicky]

Gumtree's message format sucks balls. I inadvertently sent him the generic format "Hello I'm interested in your item" message before realising what had happened ffs. But I have succeeded in asking him what other bits he has, via a second message.

I've now got leads on three potential steering wheels for this old crock. All of whom have to find them, take pictures and decide on prices. So far, none have materialised!

 

[Angrydicky]

I’ve been mega busy lately so progress on the fleet has slowed somewhat, but here’s an update on the Rover.

Since purchasing it in November, it’s been pretty much* trouble free. I immediately pressed it into service and have managed to clock up 10,000 miles with relative ease. It had 98k when I got it and it’s now on 108k.

* Well it’s never FTPd, the issues have really just been due to age and neglect.

First thing I noticed was a severe wheel wobble when braking hard. It was pretty horrible and although the car had recent rear calipers, pads and discs, the front pads had also been changed but the discs had been left. That’s because it’s a big job to change them on these. I did look into doing it at the time and thought it looked a total ballache, the discs on these are held on with four bolts at the rear and they are completely inaccessible without dismantling most of the front suspension.

I bought genuine Rover parts on eBay for not very much ££, and gave them and the car to my excellent local garage. Not the cheapest, but they did the job swiftly and carefully, despite having to contend with many rusted bolts etc, and the job taking most of the day.

I then had a long period where nothing much happened. I had the remote key fob repaired as that didn’t work, and then just used it. All the time looking out for a 600 breaking in the same colour (White Gold Metallic) that I could get a half decent bonnet and bootlid from. The paint on them was FUCKED, the roof was no better. I think someone had used a Brillo pad to remove the peeled lacquer, shame really as it’s a straight original car.

I noticed the power steering oil cooler pipes were in poor condition when I got the car. They are mild steel, and run along the bottom of the radiator support panel, with predictable results. I remember looking at 600s in scrapyards 10 years ago and the pipes were all rotten then. They basically loop around and go back to the pump, with a couple of short lengths of flexi hose which connect the oil cooler pipes to the rest of the system. It does seem a bit over-engineered to me, and I did wonder if you could just bypass the pipes with longer piece of rubber hose. But Honda deemed it necessary, and I like my cars to be as original as possible.

On one of my regular checks under the bonnet I noticed the pipes were damp in the middle, a closer inspection revealed a drip forming on the bottom of the pipe. Although it didn’t appear to be leaking very quickly,  I seem to remember dollywobber lost his PAS due to the rotten pipes on his one, so I started looking for a set. There was someone on eBay with some secondhand ones for £50. Seemed very steep. As a temporary measure, I wrapped some tape around it, but it didn’t really work.

 

I was browsing the Rover 600 group on Facebook when I saw this post from Rover enthusiast/breaker Jared Whiting, showing a White Gold 620 he’d just purchased.
 

The passenger wing was clearly dented like mine was, but I excitedly messaged him to ask if he was breaking it and if so, what were the bonnet and boot like. He confirmed he was, and sent me some pictures which showed they looked ok. Few small scratches and stone chips, but nothing much. He gave me a good price for the bits, the only problem was today was Thursday, he already had it booked for car take back on Monday so I needed to get there sharpish. Where was he again? Market Drayton, other side of the country. Oh well, it’s a day out!

Arrived about 12 after getting hopelessly lost and failing to find his yard. The 620 had 170k miles on it and was very rough. It was filthy inside and out and was still full of the deceased previous owner’s possessions. I didn’t feel guilty about stripping it for mine, it had been sat for a few years too. It still started and ran ok with a battery, good old Honda engines.

That’s me while the job was going reasonably well!

I started with the bootlid, which I thought would be a battle. I was right, getting the actual bootlid fitted wasn’t too bad but threading the loom through was tricky and swapping over the lock and connecting up it and the internal boot release was a massive ball ache. Which culminated in me shutting the boot to test it latched, which it did. However, I had failed to fit the internal release cable correctly, meaning the boot remained resolutely shut and I’d thrown the keys down in the boot while swearing at the mechanism! 
The back seats do fold forwards but you have to pull straps inside the boot to release them, meaning that was a non starter. Fortunately, the lock was worn enough that wiggling the donor car’s key in there popped the bootlid open!

Eventually got that all working properly, so then swapped the bonnet. That was easy enough, four bolts and the washer pipe.

I wanted to take the electric Ariel, as the one on my Rover is partially seized, but I couldn’t shift it, so I had to leave that along with the nice GSi spec door cards that I simply didn’t have time to remove. I did, however, manage to save a set of genuine mats in grey, which are quite rare. The drivers one has lost some of its colouring but the others have cleaned up really well. They fit much better than the old universal mats do and look much better.

Another bonus to this trip was that unexpectedly, the pas pipes on this Rover looked in remarkably good condition, with most of the paint remaining. Best secondhand ones I’ve seen, not sure why as the rest of the car was rough and it was quite high mileage. Anyway, Jared cut through the pipes higher up with his power saw so I could salvage the clips, which were totally seized.

With its ‘new’ panels the Rover looked much better. The roof still looks shit but I haven’t got much choice with that apart from to have it resprayed.

Then it was time to tackle the pas pipes. I blasted and painted them, and they came out really nicely. Managed to free the donor hose clips with heat and copper greased them to prevent them seizing in the future. 
Actually fitting them was a right old war, I had to use a dremel to cut through the old clips them wrestle the pipes out, they were obviously fitted before the engine at the factory and not really designed to be replaced! I took the bumper off and the headlight out but it didn’t really help that much, in fact taking the undertray off was probably the best thing I did.

Eventually got it all back together and bled up successfully. No leaks either, and the pas fluid hasn’t moved from the full mark since, which I’m very pleased about.

A service was long overdue, so I carried that out using Castrol GTX as requested by the tag on the dipstick! That was fairly straightforward. I did notice the front tyres which were advised at the mot now needed replacing. They were worn on the inside edge. 
As the car had matching Goodyear’s all round, I had two new Goodyear’s fitted on the front to keep them matching. Also had the tracking done. Car felt much better, no longer wandering to the left.

Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed the occasional crunch when changing gear. I thought it was me not pushing the clutch down properly, but then the gears started getting very sticky and reluctant to engage. I checked the clutch fluid reservoir, which was empty apart from a load of black sludge at the bottom. Oh dear. It was ok when I last checked it but that was a few months ago. I did think the fluid looked dirty, but I didn’t want to go looking for trouble!
The question was, where had it leaked out from? The slave cylinder looked dry, but a quick look up at the top of the clutch pedal revealed a telltale line of brake fluid running down the bulkhead from the master. 

After a battle (I hate ‘standing upside down in the footwell’ jobs on cars) I managed to remove the old master cylinder. It’s a 5/8” Nisin centre valve type unit, this particular one also used in the comtemporary Honda Accord, which the Rover 600 is of course. It’s a very typical 80s/90s Japanese clutch master cylinder. New pattern ones are available on eBay, but they’re about £90 so I thought it was worth seeing if the old one could be salvaged.

I didn’t take a picture of the inside of the cylinder, but it was full of rust and old black brake fluid. The piston put up a fight to remove it from the bore, the old seals were obviously toast with no flare left, and the valve stem was seized into the back of the piston (done a few of these, never seen one that bad on a working car). I’m convinced the clutch fluid had never been changed.

The piston was quite badly pitted and corroded, but it was fine with a new seal kit fitted. Piston cleaned and new seals fitted in this photo.

Surprisingly, the bore was in good condition and just needed a light clean.

I then fitted it back in the car, which was a shit job and my elbow is still hurting after I trapped my arm behind the pedals while trying to tighten the master back onto the bulkhead. Hopefully I never have to touch it again!

I managed to bleed it up ok, and it feels much nicer than it did before, a lot smoother with the occasional snatch when moving off in first gear now gone. Inevitably, the slave will need doing at some point but it’s not currently leaking, and that’s nice and easy to get to on this car. So not too worried about that.

Lastly I made it to one of Trigger’s Shotley meets last week for the first time this year. There was someone on the gate photographing all the cars and this one also got its picture taken.  Looks ok but I must get that roof sorted. Good event, got to catch up with Trigger, Wuvvum and Cortinaboy. Roll on the next one!

[Angrydicky]

I can’t remember where I got up to with the Hampshire. It’s been ages, but I’ve finally got a little bit of an update for you.

So I popped the rebuilt Zenith carb back on, and tried for a spark. Nothing at all. I cleaned every electrical connection in sight (and got pretty much all electrical equipment working in the process) but still no spark. I cleaned the points, no luck. They still didn’t look very good, so I decided to remove the points for closer inspection. They were badly burnt and had obviously stuck together at some point. I spent about 20 minutes cleaning up both sides with a small file, as the usual wet and dry wouldn’t touch the damage on there. I knew the points needed replacing, but I was eager to see if the engine would run. I was rewarded with a fat spark!

The petrol tank was full of gunge so I rigged up a lawnmower petrol tank in the back of the car, with hose straight to the rusty original fuel pipe, which I pulled off the tank. I primed the fuel pump and after a few pumps the horrible yellow petrol cleared and nice fresh stuff came through! 

I knew from my churning the engine was delivering the nice clean oil to the top end well, but I had no oil pressure showing. I suspected the oil pressure gauge was seized as it never moved off 20 psi. I had a rummage through my spares and found a spare Somerset one which had the right connection. I connected it up and it showed good oil pressure when cranking. 

Original stuck gauge:

Temporary one, while cranking:

 

The stuck valve had resisted all my efforts to free it. I managed to get it moving but it was still too tight in the guide to move without assistance from a couple of crowbars. In a moment of frustration I fired up the blowlamp and tried to get some heat into the guide, although all I managed to do was melt the stem seals and ruin and distort the valve spring and slightly damage the one next to it. 
 

I just wanted to hear the engine run at this point, even though I knew it would only be on three. No.1 exhaust valve is stuck open.

After a bit of churning and spluttering it fired up, threw loads of soot out of the exhaust but sounded ok, and the throttle responded. Obviously I only ran it for a few seconds as I still had a stuck valve and no cooling system, but I was very pleased. 

I eagerly hopped into the drivers seat and attempted to engage a gear,  but predictably, the clutch is seized to the flywheel, as all I got were grinding noises.

I decided the head would have to come off, so after procrastinating about it for most of the BH weekend, I got the spanners out and had it off in an hour.

 

I took the water pump off, primarily to get access to the block waterways, which I imagined would be clogged to high heaven. Surprisingly, they looked pretty good.

 

The pump itself feels perfect, there’s no play in the two bearings and I’m going to take a chance that the seal is ok. One thing I do intend to do before refitting it is to remove the blanking nut and screw a grease nipple in so I can prolong its life a bit! I  suspect it’s been replaced at some point as it’s painted in BMC green (Hampshire engines, being pre BMC, were painted blue from the factory). This engine is a Gold Seal replacement fitted in 1962. The bores looked perfect with no wear lip at all, which fits as it’s only done 10,000 miles in 59 years!

I took the head into work and used the press to push out that stuck valve. The guide on that one was full of rust, I’ve honed it smooth but didn’t  want to overdo it and take metal off the guide. The other guides are all in perfect condition.

I cleaned everything up in the parts washer, and made a start lapping in the valves, the old fashioned way with a stick and paste! It’s nice working on an engine that isn’t totally clapped out, I decoked the combustion chambers and polished the mating surface with some very fine w&d. The heater valve was full of crud as was the thermostat housing, and needed several goes in the ultrasonic cleaner to get it half decent.

Look at how well that Gold Seal paint has come up!
The thermostat used on these old A70s is a very tall ‘bellows’ type which has been unavailable for many years. They’re also pressed into the housing. I watched a video by ‘Marty T’ on YouTube where he replaced the thermostat on his A70-engined Bristol bulldozer! With a modern type one as the original was fucked. It looked a right old war, he had to use all sorts of tools to chisel out the remains and then turn up a spacer on his lathe so the modern one would fit.

I couldn’t really be arsed with that, so I decided to test the ‘stat, and see if it worked.

 

It did! The spring extended then compressed back down as it cooled down. You’ll have to take my word for it as I only took the one photo. Anyway, that could be left alone. Fantastic. It also blocked the water flow off then released it, as it should.

I flushed out the radiator a while ago, so that’s ready to go back in. I have all new hoses and clips ready to go on, and a new fanbelt, ordered from the excellent Austin Counties Car Club. I need to place another order now, for a head gasket and a couple of valve springs. Annoyingly, the car came with a head gasket set but where the damp has got to it, the composite (copper and asbestos) head gasket has started to delaminate so I’ll have to buy a new one.

Its coming together anyway. I need to finish lapping in the valves, refit the head, build the cooling system back up and then I can get it warmed up properly and attempt to free the clutch.

I went to a small local autojumble a couple of weeks ago and there was a chap there with an impressive display of old British auto electrical equipment. My partner spent ages there with the stall holder as he went through his catalogues to find the right points and condenser for her P6. Having sorted those out, I asked if he had a set of points for an A70 Hampshire. Rather than the usual blank look, he said “quite possibly” and pulled out a much older and more dog-eared catalogue and after a while selected a set from the table and handed them to me. Cost me a tenner which I don’t think is too bad. They’re in a proper Lucas red and black box and it almost seems a shame to take them out of the box, so I’ve installed them in the glovebox for the time being.

[Parky]

Found a potential parts car for you.  Might be a little small.  It’s about £28 in real money

 

There are also manuals available here if you can’t find any there

[wuvvum]

Sounds like good news.  Will look forward to seeing it at Shotley on the 19th...

[brownnova]

Great to see progress on this! 🙂

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Excellent! Great to see an update on this grumpy old bird. I love the fact that the recon engine was fitted around sixty years ago and is still basically in good order! 

I reckon the stars aligned for the Hampshire insomuch that if you hadn't come along after specifically trying to track it down, it may well have continued to turn to dust on the family member's driveway. Saved in the nick of time!

[SiC]

Not sure what measurements you wanted on these rear arch panels but here are a few arbitrary ones I've just done. Most of these are high res images, so you should be able to zoom in on them.







This is the measurement across the circumference of the lip. (Add a metre to it)

[Angrydicky]

Thank you very much sir!

[vulgalour]

Super news on the engine front.  Be great to see a new vid when it's running on four when you've put it all back together.

[Noel Tidybeard]

nice to see Simon had help with the measuring! 🤣

[LightBulbFun]

very awesome to see work continuing on this fine old girl  

and very happy to hear/see that she does run, I look forward to seeing her go on all 4  

[Minimad5]

Any further progress on this ? 😊

[Angrydicky]

I finished rebuilding the head and refitted it.
When fitting the pushrods, two of the cam followers dislodged and I then dropped a pushrod inside the engine. Balls. So I had to then remove the inlet manifold and push away the exhaust manifold and downpipe (because I couldn’t get the downpipe bolts undone) to access the cover for the cam followers.
The pushrod had dropped deeper into the engine. I could see it laying on top of the camshaft but attempts to retrieve it made it drop into the sump. Ffs!
I took the sump off and took the opportunity to check everything over. The oil strainer looked very clean and there were no issues. I scraped the congealed old oil out of the bottom of the sump, then refitted the sump with a new gasket.
I removed all the cam followers and pushrods, cleaned the surface rust off the pushrods and oiled everything up before fitting them back in and fitting the cover with a new gasket. It had been pissing oil out for years by the look of it.
Put 6.6 litres of finest 20w50 in, and fitted a new filter, which came with the car. The bottom of the filter canister was full of congealed oil, so I took that into work to clean in the parts washer.
Refitted the engine mount, horn, manifolds etc. It proceeded to turn over very slowly and then the starter just went “clunk”.
I took the starter off (which looked very rusty) and took it to the local guy I used. He said it felt ok, but would give it a going over.
When I went to refit it, I noticed there are three holes on the bellhousing and not two. I was convinced he’d given me someone else’s starter motor but he said he hadn’t done any early three bolt flange ones for ages. The penny dropped as you can see a witness mark where it had been fitted with the surplus third lug covered in dirt where it’s been exposed. Just to confuse things, whoever changed the starter for the later type one refitted the surplus bolt in the bellhousing, and as it’s so dark and oily down there, I didn’t realise it wasn’t actually securing the starter.
Anyway, it was no better. So I swapped the solenoid for one I found in the boot which looked suspiciously nos.
That got it turning over, albeit slowly, and all I could get out of it was popping back through the carb.
By this point I was getting increasingly frustrated, it was very cold and I was working in a car port. Dad said “get it transported to me and we’ll sort it out in the workshop” so I did. 

With the heaters on in the workshop it wasn’t too bad to work. We started with the HT leads and found two were fitted the wrong way around in the distributor cap. Also the valve clearances were (with the exception of one) all far too small. With those things rectified, it fired up easily.
It was a bit rough though, and was leaking petrol. Turned out I hadn’t tightened the carb down properly, and there was an air leak from the vac advance which was loose. We sorted these, and it was much better. A bit of carb adjustment and it now starts on the button. The video below is with it already warm but it starts well on choke as well. And no more petrol leaks from the Zenith!
It’s also turning over much faster than it was. Dad reckons the piston rings were stuck and have now freed off. I did put some penetrating oil down there which might have helped.
 

A couple of things still need attention. It’s not charging. Cleaned the contacts in the control box, and freed off the stuck brushes in the dynamo (which is the original, datestamped 12/50 incidentally) but still no charge, so I’m going to get it tested.
And the radiator, which has already been recored many moons ago, must still be clogged, despite my attempts to back flush it, as it boils up after a few minutes of idling. Anyone got any suggestions of products that can be used to flush it out? The block waterways looked clear so I don’t think it can be anything else.

I’ve managed to buy a lot of spares for this car from the Austin Counties Car Club. They’re losing their storage and stuff is available for £cheap at the moment. In addition to the drivers door already mentioned, I now have a bonnet (good secondhand) and two nos wings, the two I needed to go with the nos one that came with the car, and the nos one already fitted some years ago that is still good, it just needs fitting properly because the alignment is miles out.

Having got it running properly, we decided to have a go at freeing the clutch. I’ve never had to attempt this before, but reading up on it, the procedure looked straightforward enough. With the engine off, press the clutch down, engage either first or reverse, then press the starter button briefly so the car “lurches”. Keep going until it frees off, mine took about six attempts then it suddenly freed and I had clutch control. I drove it forwards and backwards in the barn, slipping the clutch to try and clear the rust. Anyway it feels great, no clutch judder that I noticed which is amazing for one of these old crocks

[vulgalour]

Excellent news, on the body parts acquisition and the mechanical progress.  It sounds lovely.

[phil_lihp]

Top work, great to hear it running, it sounds great.

[LightBulbFun]

Woo! happy to see another update on the old girl  and very happy to hear (literally LOL) that she runs again and you managed to free off the clutch  

keep up the awesome work  

MOT exempt and £NIL rate tax so first outing for it is tomorrow yah?

[RoadworkUK]

Reading this has just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not sure what that says about me, really, but please, please keep up the excellent work.

[3VOM]

Dishwasher tablet in cooling system is one approach but I don't know if you want to take that option on such an old car.

[beko1987]

Nice!