Engine compression test

 Just about ready to pull the engine, drivetrain, and suspension in preparation for doing the under body and engine bay restoration. But before doing this it occurred to me that I should do a compression check. It would be a good idea to know ahead of time whether the engine is tired, and it's easier to do this check with the engine in place. I knew that the oil pressure was very good, 70lbs, from the previous brief minutes I had run it.

Well, I just completed the compression check and was surprised by the results: 175, 175, 172, 173. This was totally unexpected, since the engine would have had low compression pistons originally. Further, this was a cold test and the engine hasn't been run in 9 months, so the cylinders should be a little dry. It tells me that the engine has recently been gone through and someone changed out the pistons for higher compression ones. A peek though the spark plug holes confirms that the pistons don't have any significant dish to them, and there's not much carbon buildup. I'll do some disassembly and fit new gaskets and paint, but it looks like I may not have to do any major engine work!

 I was curious about the components on my engine after discovering the high compression readings. The engine number on the block was correct for the year, but what about the head? So I removed the valve cover, and the first thing to grab my attention was these oddball valve spring shields. Looks like something off a vintage Chevy. I've never heard of them being used on a B engine. Pretty sure I'll be getting rid of them.

So anyway, the casting number on the head is the 12H2923, which is the big valve 38cc chamber head, and also correct for the year. With this head and the high compression pistons the compression ratio should be a bit above 9:1. The head has clearly been reworked as there are bronze valve guides in it. So probably also skimmed, which would also give a bump to the compression. 

FL Repro wing fitting

 Thought I'd try out the aftermarket left-side wing for fit. It actually isn't terrible! Better fit than the right-side aftermarket wing was. But it's still going to need some fettling to get good panel gaps. Now I'm also restoring the original left wing which will need a new lower section, which I have. The rest of the wing is not in bad shape, with just a few minor dings and a little filler. In the end I'll use the wings that turn out the best, but I'm biased towards the originals.

Cutting offthe nose

Drilled out slam panel welds.

Sometimes finesse doesn't do and you gotta just get brutal with it. Cutting out the big chunks makes removal of the remaining narrow strips easier.

Using the spot weld cutter you don't always have to cut all the way through when there's just these strips to remove. Peeling up the strip will easily tear through spots where the cutter didn't go all the way. Kind of like a beer can pull tab.

 


All the old panels are out now. But I found that the left side frame rail extension is in far worse shape than I expected.



Not sure if I'll be able to straighten this to a satisfactory state. Will probably have to cut it off to work on it. May end up having to graft on a good replacement section. 

Front end damage

Time to begin with the front sheet metal.

All of the sheet metal ahead of the radiator has some degree of badly repaired collision damage. Things were just bent back into place enough to give the car back its external appearance.
So the lower radiator duct panel, the duct panel support, the bonnet latch upright support, and the bonnet slam panel will be replaced with new sheet metal parts. The inner wings will get some hammer and dolly work.

First thing was to remove the LH side wing. Right away several pounds of dirt fell out when the lower screws were released. The accumulation of dirt in the lower part of the wing is the main cause of rust there and to the forward outer sill. No rust-through was visible from the outside, but looking inside revealed heavy rust pitting and some pinholes. So this entire lower section will be replaced with new. This is why one should periodically remove the baffle plates (splash panels) from inside the wings to inspect and clean out any dirt accumulation.

 

Fortunately that was the full extent of the rust. The forward outer sill and the inner wing structural areas are all sound. As bad as my luck has been for hidden collision damage, I've gotten lucky with very little rust to offset that. 

FR Wing lower panel replacement

 Right side lower wing panel replaced with the new BMH part. Fit was generally very good. I'm glad I changed this out.

The paint on the door was so thick that I had to strip it before I could be sure of the panel alignment. In doing so I discovered that the door is not original. It appears to possibly be a Heritage replacement because of the black epoxy coat I found underneath. But there were at least three paint jobs done on it since it was installed. Yay, a body body panel that didn't need repair! 

More new sheet metal

This arrived today from Moss UK. Took about 1 week after order.

Packaging. Everything arrived without shipping damage.

 

With new wing lowers costing only £58.92, I decided to get both sides. All Heritage parts except the radiator duct panel which is Steelcraft (Heritage panel not available.) Total for all the parts here was £373.84 plus £88.00 for Fedex shipping to North Carolina. Still way less than buying stateside. No duty is charged as they are classified as parts for antique cars, below the duty threshold amount, and Fedex doesn't charge import brokerage fees like carriers used by some other vendors (e.g. UPS, and DHL).

 

Unfortunately the front valance will need little work. It seems that the same press dies are used for the valance with vent holes, and to make the ones without vent holes they use something to block the holes in the tooling. This has left a shallow 'ghost' impression of the vent holes, which will need a little dolly work and possibly filler to be perfect.  

Beating out original FR wing

 So I decided to have a go at repairing the original fender. As I had feared, stripping the paint and thick bondo revealed crude repair of collision damage. Most of the damage was at the nose of the fender, but there was a substantial bulge in the lower rear panel just aft of the wheel arch.

Forgot to mention, the inner structure was remarkably free of rust, with the original primer mostly intact.

After a few hours of hammer work I got the nose section approximately back to where it belonged. Some cracks and holes from the old body repairs would then need welding.

The radio antenna hole was bent up in the area, and while straightening it, I just decided to close it off completely.

 After many hours (days) of hammer and dolly, heat shrinking, and welding, I got most of the bulge worked out of the lower panel and the wheel arch mostly corrected.

Got some Dyna-Glass filler on the fender. But still not satisfied with the lower panel. It still curves outward a tiny bit more than it should. No amount of shrinking seems to be able to draw that excess outward curve back in. And with all the shrinking work that I've already done, there's still a wave in the panel that's taking more filler than I'd prefer. The nose section I think I could live with.  

But then there are other issues. All the under-bonnet front sheet metal ahead of the radiator is damaged to a degree. It was crudely hammered out in the old repairs. Besides looking ugly when you open the bonnet, it's interfering with getting the correct alignment of the body panels that I'm repairing. In addition to the lower fender panel being misshapen, it has also been attacked by the tin worm at its lower extremity. From the outside it looks good, but there were a couple of rust pinholes that I welded up, and a larger deeply pitted area where the chance of ongoing rust-through is a concern.

Replacement wings disappointment

 Fitting of the new aftermarket RH side front fender was disappointing. It had several issues that would be considerable work to mitigate.

First, the door gap was huge and uneven, even with the door moved forward as far as possible. The door-edge of the fender is malformed as it doesn't have the nearly 90 degree step bend at the edge of the original, but instead, a very shallow bend which exaggerates the gap. Also, the bead that runs above the side trim strip is too shallow. This could be filled with body filler to simulate the correct geometry, but there was another problem... 

The inner structure of the fender causes it to stick out too far. It would be necessary in this case to cut and re-weld the inner support member to be able to draw the fender in closer. Another problem was that the alignment along the hood line was bad, with the hood (bonnet) arched up considerably higher.  

Rear hatch shut lines

 Getting close to finished with the back, I got the hatch panel gap tuned pretty well. Had to run a weld bead along one edge to build it up a little, then approached from the other side by raising the opening with a bit of the DynaGlass filler. The glass reinforced filler is preferable on corner edges like this where standard filler could easily get chipped off.

On the other hand, the DynaGlass doesn't spread smoothly as a finish filler. It's best used for bulk filling where high strength is needed. It will be necessary to do the fine levelling with a finish filler.

  

Dyna-Glass filler

 Removed a lot of the trim today and began bagging and tagging in earnest for this project. Was pleased to find no rust hidden under any trim.

I also applied a first skim coat of Dyna-glass on the RR wing. This is how 3M describes this filler: "Dynatron™ Dyna-Glass Short Strand reinforced body filler creates waterproof repairs that are twice the strength of ordinary body fillers"

 
This can go directly on the sheet metal without fear of harboring rust since it won't absorb and hold water, unlike ordinary talc-based filler. It also strengthens the metal a little, which a good thing after doing so much hammering and sanding. 

The skim coat is evenly applied over most of the surface and in some known low areas a couple mm thick.

 

Most of it gets sanded back off, stopping when the high spots in the metal are revealed. It's nearly transparently thin at this point. One more thin skim coat will be applied and rough-blocked after which it will get sealed with epoxy primer. I'm happy with how this is turning out.

Rear wing panel beating

If I'd known it was so bad before doing the dogleg and the rear panels I'd have just gone for the full replacement wing. It aint pretty, but I think it will do. Got everything within a mm or two of where it belongs. This will mostly fill with just a skim coat. 

Rear wing bondo horror

 Moving over to the right rear, there was some bondo that needed stripping. I didn't know what I would find, but I figured if I kept digging deeper I'd eventually hit metal.

Here's why old filler can't be trusted: Loose patches with rust underneath. It all has to come off.

I used a heat gun to soften the filler and a wood chisel to scrape it away. Works for removing multiple layers of paint too.


Did I mention that the former body man was very fond of bondo? He was also not fond of straightening sheet metal.