Getting back on the road

Mostly the bulbs get a black coating on the outside. Usually they can just be cleaned and put back. There is easily enough light.
 
PeterZRH said:
Mostly the bulbs get a black coating on the outside. Usually they can just be cleaned and put back. There is easily enough light.
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This was silvering from the filament inside the bulb. No big deal to just replace with fresh bulbs. Fortunately the strip speedo is easier to pull out than the later style.
 
The revised front end has been great, however, I’d noticed if not feeling quite as tight after a while. Some investigation revealed the right hand camber angle was almost 0° while like left remained at -1.5°. Also the toe was now 5mm out (about 0.5° toe out). A bit of diving in showed the out bushes were eccentric already. With the outer bushes allowing the pivot to be a good 3mm closer to the bulkhead. On top of that the nut on that end of the arm was loose! I think that was my fault, if left it loose until weight was on the suspension, I wonder now if I’d not tightened it up when I’d fitted it.

I’ve fitted my last NOS rubber bush as the one in that had taken a set. But have ordered poly bushes for the future. I notice they now have some rexture inside to hold onto the silicon grease (plus possibly reduce ‘sticktion’) as caused of creaking on the first poly bushes. If the rubber does show signs of collapsing in the future I’ll try the polys.

Failing that I’ll try making up nylon solids bushes as per @cobraboy, although he does say they transmit more noise into the cockpit. We shall see…

Since replacing the failed bushes the car feels tight again, camber and toe are reset and Beryl feels pretty accurate again.
 
sdibbers said:
Little jobs are sometimes the most satisfying.

The instrument lights were very dim on Beryl. Also, the ribbon would bounce around when you lift off the accelerator pedal at speed.

So this morning I pulled the dash top rail and the instrument panel. Both of the original bulbs were almost a solid silver from age. I replaced them with new incandescent bulbs (I just don’t like the look of the LED bulbs).

On the speedo cable, I removed the angle drive from the speedo head and partially dismantled it so I could spray it with penetrating oil. That seemed to free it up quite a bit. It’s pouring with rain today so I’ll take the car out tomorrow to evaluate how the speedo performs. If it’s still playing up I guess I’ll have to pull the whole cable and try and lubricate it fully.

A photo below of the warm glow of success (and my very untidy garage!).
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Coincidentally, in a recent comparison drive between the Ford Zephyr, Vauxhall Cresta, and Austin Westminster A110 i Classic And Sportscar Magazine, the instrument panel of the Austin looked very familiar. Even pre-BL it appears BMC shared more than a few parts.

 
DavidWalker said:
the instrument panel of the Austin looked very familiar. Even pre-BL it appears BMC shared more than a few parts.
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That’s very odd the Austin cluster was made by Smiths, the Rover by Jaeger. Two rival manufacturers, maybe more of a coincidence in design similarities?
 
sdibbers said:
That’s very odd the Austin cluster was made by Smiths, the Rover by Jaeger. Two rival manufacturers, maybe more of a coincidence in design similarities?
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Not quite...
In 1927 Smiths Industries purchased Jaeger, so they are in fact the same company at the period we are looking at.
 
Haven't been doing much with Beryl recently due to snow ans salt everywhere. But one thing was the driver's set back was getting a little loose. Time to adjust the locking mechanism. Of course you need to remove the seat to gain access to to the adjuster nuts, seat out and one flat turn on the coarse adjuster nut worked out perfectly. Getting the seat back in is always a pain on our cars. The heads of the cross head screws used by Rover were a mess. I decided to invest in some 1.5" 1/4"-28 hex head screws. A quick touch with a grinder and the screw in an electric drill gave me a nice pointed tip to help align with the flat nut in the base unit. Some of them I had to remove and run a tap through as the threads were not in the best condition.

All back together, but putting the seats in are one of the less fun projects on the P6. At some point I think I'll put something a little more sporty in the driver's position. I find that I slide around in the corners now with the suspension upgrades I've performed. So, maybe time to look at a better, more secure solution to fixing the seat.
 
Us skinny runts don't slide around that much, I wonder if it is the seats fault, or the reason for the slippage is the fact that the driver is not as 'sporty' as he could be ?
Not casting Nasturtiums, just throwing it out there ;)

PS I personally thought you were cutting a fine figure when I met you at Goodwood.
 
In other news, the reprofiled camshaft has arrived from Piper Cams! Almost too pretty to fit.
 

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cobraboy said:
Us skinny runts don't slide around that much, I wonder if it is the seats fault, or the reason for the slippage is the fact that the driver is not as 'sporty' as he could be ?
Not casting Nasturtiums, just throwing it out there ;)
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No comment (but you may have a point…)
 
Indeed, havind to deal with the cross head screws while removing and refiting the seats can be a pain. Usually i prefer to undo the nuts that hold the seats to the runners, take out the seats and leave the runners themselves in place.
 
Demetris said:
Indeed, havind to deal with the cross head screws while removing and refiting the seats can be a pain. Usually i prefer to undo the nuts that hold the seats to the runners, take out the seats and leave the runners themselves in place.
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That’s never occurred to me! I’ll try that next time for my own sanity.
 
When I got my car the front pass seat wobbled on the runners, something not to be tolerated. Took the seat off, and found the philips head screw (holding down the slide) into the captive nut had been cross threaded very badly, and in the end I had to cut the screw with a pad handle. Probably done when the PO had all the carpets replaced, including the seat rail covers. GGGGRRRRR. With front seats I usually just unbolt them from the runners/slides.
 
jp928 said:
When I got my car the front pass seat wobbled on the runners, something not to be tolerated. Took the seat off, and found the philips head screw (holding down the slide) into the captive nut had been cross threaded very badly, and in the end I had to cut the screw with a pad handle. Probably done when the PO had all the carpets replaced, including the seat rail covers. GGGGRRRRR. With front seats I usually just unbolt them from the runners/slides.
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Sounds very familiar. I had a battle when I did the carpets because of damage to the threads and screw heads. So I’d already purchased 1/4”-28 hex head screws and a tap for that reason.
 
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