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1951 Lanchester LD10 - Rear Wing Removal


vulgalour

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Immediate items are going to be removing the dashboard to redo the wood on that, and cutting out the new plywood we bought to redo the door cards.  We've ordered some cedar blocks to keep the moths out, the other day we noticed one in the car and we'd like there to be none.  After that probably the wiper motor since that's going to be easiest to get to with the dashboard removed, try and find out why it's gone from working to not working properly.  Then it's going to be radiator, dynamo, and starter motor all being refurbished and repaired if necessary, and measuring the heater core to see if that one Christine offered is the correct sort or if we'll have to repair the one that's fitted.  We need to get the heater out anyway to try and sort out the noisy fan.  Once we have all that done the new wiring loom should have arrived and be ready to fit, which is just as well since some of the wiring is literally falling apart.  We'll also flush out the block to get as much sediment as we can out and then adjust the brakes before we try and drive the car again since they're pretty dreadful, the book makes brake adjustment sound very easy.

There's lots of jobs and most of them are really cleaning, a bit of repainting, and servicing.  There's very little in the way of really big jobs.

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Today on the Lanchester, it's time to backwards engineer a door card.  There's a lot of different ways to redo door cards, and this is one of the more involved approaches since we're trying to save and reuse as much of it as possible.  The thing that makes this more difficult than it might be is that we're having to replace the board itself so that means stripping the whole thing into the component pieces to understand how to put it back together on a new board.  The first stage of the process is to take a lot of photographs so you have the best record you can of construction.  You'd be amazed how often something is confusing on assembly that a photograph will help explain, even if you weren't deliberately taking a photograph of the confusing item at the time.  We've opted to go for the least damaged of the door cards, they all follow the same basic construction and this will give us the most accurate reference point since it has the least amount of missing or damaged parts.  This approach can help if you're trying to rebuild a door card that's pretty far gone, it allows you to make educated guesses.  The damage on this door card is limited to water damage along the bottom edge, the glue coming unstuck on the top edge, and a couple of missing tacks.

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When you take your detail shots, pay special attention to where materials overlap and how they interact.  You'll find as you unpick each layer you'll need to take more images.  If you're reusing the original material, as we intend to do, it's easier to see where things go because generally they want to go back where they were.  Understanding the original construction means you're less likely to put undue stress on the fabric, and retain an original looking finish, especially when it comes to things like the way the end of the piping trim is closed, or the way it hooks around bracketry to keep a good clean line when the card is refitted.

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I also make a rough plan as I go along, marking all the details as I find them.  I don't worry about measurements every time I do it, and I didn't in this instance either.  I'll be transferring the measurements from the old card to the new pretty much by tracing, so the measurements aren't that vital at this stage.  If the door card was more badly damaged then a to-scale diagram would be the choice.  I also generally draw what I see to save on annotation and a confusing diagram, this used with the photographs gives me a very clear idea of what goes where and saves some time plotting everything out.

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The whole panel is held together with tacks and some glue and the cover is a layered construction.  It makes for a quick assembly and a smart finish without need of specialist tooling.  The only stitching is on the edge piping, the binding edge for the carpet panel, and the piping seam for the pocket elastic, that's a benefit of Rexine not fraying, you can save a lot of time by not having to finish raw edges.  The first task was pulling the tacks I could see, this removed the edge piping and revealed some more tacks underneath holding the main cover in place.  Once those tacks were removed the carpet panel could be carefully folded up so it lid face down on the rest of the door card and that revealed the three tacks holding it down.  To get a nice sharp edge, Barker opted to tack the panel and then fold it rather than sewing and pressing, and that makes the job of removal a lot easier.

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With the carpet panel tacks removed there were several more tacks holding the bottom of the pocket in place.

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With those removed, the pocket panel could be opened, again up so it's face down against the door card, and that revealed the doubled-over cotton wadding used to give the pocket shape and softness.202009-168.thumb.jpg.5b67d6a2e4953ae73ef52552f292ccbe.jpg

After that, fold the fabric upwards again until you get to the elastic cord.  The cord is held in place by both the knots in it that stop it pulling through the door card, and two half inch tacks that are driven through the board (through the pocket fabric rather than the cord itself) and then bent over.  This will be reduce strain on the corners of the pocket panel and prevent it tearing, also to prevent overstretching of the elastic cord that would result in saggy pockets.  All of that removed we could carefully lift the rest of the cover free and reveal what was underneath.  From the carpet panel up, the door card has a single layer of cotton wadding glued on.  This is to give a smoother finish and a 'soft touch' to the rexine.  It's understandably quite flat now and water damaged so will need replacing.  Fortunately, this is a readily available material both from automotive suppliers and craft stores, the latter selling it for use in quilting.

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We will be using the same material rather than a modern foam equivalent for a number of reasons.  The first is cost, there really isn't any saving to be had by using foam over the original cotton wadding.  The second is smell, the interior of this car is almost entirely natural materials and as a result has a complex combination of smells that give it that 'old car smell', as soon as you start introducing modern materials like foam, you start getting 'new car smells' and we don't want that.  The smell of a car is just as important as all the rest of the details.  That said, there was one other item underneath the wadding layer and that's a felt pad for the door handle.  There doesn't seem to be one for the window winder, it doesn't look like it's fallen off or worn out, there just isn't any evidence that one was there, so we shan't be fitting one unless the other door cards suggest there should be one there.

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Finally, we have all our pieces separated and ready for the next phase.

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In all, I removed 55 of the shorter 1/4" or 6mm tacks, and two of the bigger 1/2" or 12mm tacks.  We're undecided if we're using tacks or staples to put everything back together, tacks are more original and possibly easier to remove should we have to, but staples do the same job and are easier to install.  We'll figure it out when we try and acquire suitable hardware of either variety.

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After all that, the plan of the door card had evolved somewhat.  There's still a couple of items to remove from the backing board, we've opted to leave them in place for now so we don't loose them, we'll remove them when we cut the new card so they can be transferred straight over.

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Given how easily the carpet sections come off, and that these are the most badly damaged portion of all the doors, we're considering replacing all of them when we fit the new carpet.  That way it should blend in since the change between old and new is also a point where the materials change in type and texture so, in theory, it shouldn't be that noticable.  That does give us an element of Project Creep since it means to finish the door cards we've got to get the carpet, and to do that we've also got to replace the missing kick panels since the carpet goes onto those and if we're doing that we should really get the front speakers for the entertainment centre... so we'll probably just redo the old door cards and leave the carpetted section off for now and then do all the carpet and kick panels later when we have the materials for that and have completed some of the other jobs instead.

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Will you be able to get a direct match for the carpet? It may be that you could approach a carpet factor (somebody who sources specialist carpets) who may be able to scout about for an exact match. An expert may anyway be able to tell straightaway where it was woven. Fascinating stuff all these sub-components. Daimler/Barker probably procured all their carpets from the same source. Presumably all the trimming was done in house - possibly by women workers - thats how work tended to be divvied out in them days. Great work.

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Woolies are the go to for a lot of trimmings.  We'll be using them for the carpet, have already placed an order for cotton wadding from them today since they're pretty cheap and we know the quality should be good.  Woolies do two brown carpets, the one we'll probably go for is the more expensive one since it's likely to be a closer to match to what the car would have had. https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/2004/8020-wool-carpet-brown

We'll also need to get some matching edge binding (contrast binding isn't very Lanchester), some press studs to match or replace the ones in the floor (this is for keeping the carpet from sliding about), and possibly some underlay of some sort to make the carpet feel a little more plush, even if it's just felt glued to the floor boards or something.  The carpet does seem expensive until you realise just how little is needed, I doubt we'll be looking at more than £300 for all the materials for the carpet and we've the skills and tools needed to do it ourselves since it's all very simple small shapes and no hardship for the sewing machine.

 

 

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It is time for another update.  Our goal today was to remove the dashboard and starter motor so that they could be refurbished.  We started with the dashboard since it looked to be a more involved job and it was going to take a while to figure out how it was held in place.  As it happens, the main fascia of the dashboard is held in by three screws, on in each A pillar, and one in the centre, hidden from view.  I couldn't get the camera to focus on the hidden one because of all the other items it wanted to focus on instead.  Access to all the fixings is tricky and since it's all flathead screws that have gone a bit soft with rust, removal was a fraught endeavour.

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With that removed it was then time to figure out how to get the panel out.  We couldn't risk removign the steering wheel as we didn't have the screws needed to replace the one that was threatening to self destruct last time, and there were a lot of items attached the dashboard that needed to not be.  While we were under the dashboard we saw one possible reason for the wiper motor linkage rubbing against the back of the dashboard, there seems to be a missing screw in the plate that holds it.

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The other items we needed to disconnect were the heater switch, ignition switch, instrument binnacle, choke cable, starter cable, and fuel reserve cable.  All of the cables are held to the back of the dash with a large nut recessed into the wood of the dashboard.  All bar the fuel reserve cable nut came undone by hand, the fuel reserve required careful use of narrow pliers since none of the spanners could fit in the gap.  The choke cable was disconnected from the carburettor and on trying to pull it through the bulkhead, the cable came out of the sheath  and now doesn't want to go back in, judging by the state of the cable it's not the first time it's done that.  To disconnect the fuel reserve cable we had to remove the passenger side front floor board for access, the fixings were just too difficult to get to from underneath the car.  The starter cable proved the most difficult, the fixings for the cable on the starter motor are in such a place that it's really difficult to get to them, added to that the size of the bolt head that screws in to clamp the cable in place didn't seem to match any metric or imperial tool we owned, it was only after we finally got it out with pliers that we understood why.

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The capillary line for the temperature gauge was removed when we got the dashboard free, we unscrewed the temperature gauge from the instrument binnacle and then very carefully fed the capillary line through from the engine bay into the car.  We couldn't see any other way to do this at the time, there didn't seem to be any obvious way to disconnect the line from the gauge.  Our biggest obstacle to removing the dashboard now was the steering wheel, but I knew that on some cars if you unfasten the bracket that holds the column to the bulkhead, the column will drop down a bit, preventing the need to remove the steering wheel.  I can also tell you that undoing the three bolts that hold the column to the bracket is nigh on impossible with the dashboard in place because you can't actually see all the nuts and bolts you're trying to undo.  We did get there in the end.  The top rail of the dashboard is held in with four screws, one at the outer corners, and one near each wiper spindle, all of these screws are awkward to get to, we are not looking forward to trying to reassemble everything.

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There was one casualty along the way which was the driver's side cubby, there was signs of water damage on it and as we tried to wiggle everything out past the steering column it started to collapse.  It's intact enough that we can take a pattern and make a new one and since the glovebox is similarly tatty we'll redo both and reupholster them in something suitable, though perhaps not the original beige wool.

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With everything all out we could now get a look at the new wiring that had been let in.  The work has been done reasonably well except for the fact that none of it is tidied away, it's all just draped over the top of the heater.  Just as well we've ordered a brand new loom, this looks like it was just waiting to be an accident.

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The dashboard needed to come out both for refinishing and so we could more easily do the wiring loom, so as horrible a job as it's been, it was absolutely necessary.  Another thing it's allowed us to do is see that the wiper mechanism is very sloppy, the main linking arm wobbles around quite a lot and it's not exactly clear how we're going to tighten this up again at this point, we'll have to investigate more thoroughly when we have more time.  It was also quite clear someone has been behind the dashboard before as several screws were missing, including on of the two that holds the instrument binnacle in place, and there were a few newer screws here and there, all items we'll need to rectify on reassembly.  With it removed, we could now get our first proper look at the dashboard, the condition of which isn't too terrible aside from a little water damage on the corners and the wear from the loose wiper mechanism.  The radio blanking plate (we assume, it's about the right size) and controls are all in pretty good shape.

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On the speedometer there is a red line, it doesn't show up as red in photographs for some reason.  Is this some sort of visual reminder for which gear to be in?  Maybe instructing you to be in top gear by the time the needle gets to this point?

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The boot handle was screwed back on now we have a working key for it and that makes life a lot easier on that front.  I also put all the spanners into my old plywood toolbox which just happens to fit perfectly in the bottom portion of the Lanchester's boot.

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After a break we then spent some time scraping old varnish off before putting the first fresh coat of Danish Oil on the dashboard.  As with the other wood, it's come up beautifully.  There's a few tiny pieces of veneer missing that we're not worrying about since they're hidden by other bits of trim that overlap.  With another couple of coats of oil, this dashboard is going to look excellent and will be a real treat when it's back in the car.

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Are you doing the starter yourself or having it restored professionally?

If the latter, I can recommend a place which I've personally used and a lot of the car clubs use as well. They specialise in old Lucas dynamos, control boxes and starter motors.

Broadway Electrical Services

36 The Broadway, Grays, Essex RM17 6EW

01375 372782

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Don't be tempted to try separating the temperature gauge from the capillary line.  There's a pressurised gas (or liquid, can't remember) in there and if the tube gets punctured, that's it dead.  Rebuilding it then isn't a DIY job, though I imagine there are specialists who could do it.

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59 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Don't be tempted to try separating the temperature gauge from the capillary line.  There's a pressurised gas (or liquid, can't remember) in there and if the tube gets punctured, that's it dead.  Rebuilding it then isn't a DIY job, though I imagine there are specialists who could do it.

Could it be mercury? The expansion of which could move the gauge - or I suppose it could work on 'pressure' like traditional barometers? There was probably one Coventry company supplying this specialist component.

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We're hoping the beeswax is going to help reduce the drying out issue, though it's no hardship to just run a cloth with a little fresh oil over all the woodwork once a year or so.  @Christine and Spud stopped by randomly today, which was nice, and dropped off that spare heater coil (from a Triumph Renown) that looks like it should fit.  It's always a joy to meet new shiters and be on the receiving end of their generosity.

It's been a fairly laid back day here, no big Lanchester jobs we can do while we wait for materials to arrive.  Final coat of Danish Oil went on the dashboard and we won an auction for a Dansette Windsor transistor radio.  A classic case of this being an item on the watchlist that we weren't exactly looking for but that nobody else was bidding on.  It's the right sort of age and the wood is the right sort of colour.  It's got nice chunky controls which makes it easier to use in the car, and being a British made radio it should look right at home, especially given its complete but slightly worn appearance.  The plan is still to use this as a case donor and refit with modern internals, hopefully we can keep the functionality of the buttons, etc. so that it actually works the way it looks like it should.  There will be lots of space inside it to fit whatever we want, modern tech is so tiny these days.

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Work has been progressing steadily on the dashboard.  Drying times aside, this has been a very quick job.  One of the issues was that when you turned the heater knob, the whole assembly turned and we were concerned the controller might have seized.  Luckily, it was just that the nut holding the controller to the back of the dashboard was a bit loose.  Even so, we did take the heater controller apart, a case of prying back three metal tabs on the casing, so that we could get a better look inside it.  It's a very simple item and therefore very easy to sort out.  It was a bit corroded from sitting around, so we gave it a thoroughly clean to give it the best fighting change.  It all cleaned up very well and moves much more freely than before.

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This was then reassembled and attention turned to sorting out the dash control knobs.  Most of the original paint in the lettering on the knobs was missing, or discoloured to a degree that it was no longer legible.  A good scrub in plain water followed by picking out any stubborn bits of old paint with a pin was followed by some good quality acrylic paint.  You don't have to be at all tidy doing this, just load up the letters with as much paint as they'll take, wait for it to dry, and then polish the paint off on a piece of paper towel.  This gives a nice crisp finish for minimal effort and can be redone just as easily in the future if needed.  A good quality acrylic paint was chosen rather than enamel as it doesn't yellow with exposure to UV.  Some people use Tippex or nail varnish for this job, the former has a habit of flaking off, the latter can be more difficult to clean since you have to use a solvent and that can lift paint out of the lettering as you clean.

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All of the exposed plywood edges were originally painted a dark brown, this seems to be common practice with mid-century modern furniture too.  I used black, since I had some left over from the restoration of an antique sideboard that's made in the same way as this dashboard, and that works just fine.  It's a slightly translucent paint so it does allow some of the brown of the plywood to show through, the finish ends up closer to dyed wood than painted.

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I then reassembled all the bits of the dashboard I could that were finished.  The only item I'm having difficulty with is the choke cable which does not want to thread through from the front.  Because of the way the sheath is made, you have to thread the cable in from the engine end, the step of the sheath as it goes into the holder that screws into the dashboard is such that it always catches whatever cable or wire you try to thread through.  I'm considering getting some very skinny plastic pipe, threading that through from the engine end of the sheath, fitting the cable into it and then pulling the whole lot back through to get around the step.  Failing that, unsoldering the cable, threading it through from the engine end, and the re-soldering it into the brass tube ferrule might be the only way to do it.  It'll sort.  the other item that was tidied up on the dashboard was the flaking paint on the ignition/headlight switch.  You can get a black sticker with white lettering for this which is usually for Land Rovers.  We're either going to get a reproduction sticker to match the original cream paint with brown lettering, or we'll get the three positions stamped into the polished bezel and then put paint in the recesses as with the control knobs.  There was no saving the original paint, it had basically turned into confetti.

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Finally, we got the opportunity to see the dashboard all together since all the finishes on it were done that could be.  The collapsed cubby box might actually be salvagable, most of the damage is to the front edge so in theory we should be able to just cut the first inch or so off it, strengthen any weak spots with resin or similar, and recover it, both dashboard boxes need recovering anyway and this would be the most cost effective solution as things stand.  Obligatory before and after shots.

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On 9/21/2020 at 10:36 PM, vulgalour said:

We're hoping the beeswax is going to help reduce the drying out issue, though it's no hardship to just run a cloth with a little fresh oil over all the woodwork once a year or so.  @Christine and Spud stopped by randomly today, which was nice, and dropped off that spare heater coil (from a Triumph Renown) that looks like it should fit.  It's always a joy to meet new shiters and be on the receiving end of their generosity.

It's been a fairly laid back day here, no big Lanchester jobs we can do while we wait for materials to arrive.  Final coat of Danish Oil went on the dashboard and we won an auction for a Dansette Windsor transistor radio.  A classic case of this being an item on the watchlist that we weren't exactly looking for but that nobody else was bidding on.  It's the right sort of age and the wood is the right sort of colour.  It's got nice chunky controls which makes it easier to use in the car, and being a British made radio it should look right at home, especially given its complete but slightly worn appearance.  The plan is still to use this as a case donor and refit with modern internals, hopefully we can keep the functionality of the buttons, etc. so that it actually works the way it looks like it should.  There will be lots of space inside it to fit whatever we want, modern tech is so tiny these days.

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Your radio is from around 1970 I think.

By the late '70s the Windsor was just a badge engineered and imported Thorn product, think City Rover.

This is an early '60s version.

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On 9/21/2020 at 1:22 AM, Noel Tidybeard said:

yes as simple as that 30 in built up areas- i would imagine there were next to no speed limits on any open roads in its day

From 1934 to the late 1960's there were only two speed limits in the UK - 30mph in 'built-up areas' and as fast you want outside them. It wasn't until a series of accidents caused by excessive speed in foggy weather in 1964* that the Government took a serious look into road speed limits and later on in the decade, after extensive consultation, we got the limits we are familiar with now.

*and not people blasting along the M1 (which is a popular myth).

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12 minutes ago, martc said:

From 1934 to the late 1960's there were only two speed limits in the UK - 30mph in 'built-up areas' and as fast you want outside them. It wasn't until a series of accidents caused by excessive speed in foggy weather in 1964* that the Government took a serious look into road speed limits and later on in the decade, after extensive consultation, we got the limits we are familiar with now.

*and not people blasting along the M1 (which is a popular myth).

technically there was a 3rd speed limit, invalid carriages when used as such where limited to max speed of 20Mph, although obviously at some point this was lifted*, I sadly dont know when exactly, but you can see an example of this under the performance section of this Invacar Mk12c brochure 

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(it may actually still be in force for actual invalid carriages but I cant find anything in legal writing for it today, however I do know at some point the larger invalid vehicles where classified  as motor bikes or motor cars depending on the amount of wheels they have and their weight and had/have no speed limit, limited only by what the engine could provide)

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