"Hazel" - a series 1 V8 daily driver

Phil Robson

Well-Known Member
Hazel spent some time on a 2 post lift a while ago & I noticed when she returned that the driver's floor edge had been pushed up. Naughty garage, I thought :evil: , but then I looked at the state of the floor.... Now Hazel is a pretty solid car, but has been used all year round for many years & she has inevitably got the usual rust issue:

After poking about I got to this stage, which I'm surprised at for Hazel, but it's not too bad I suppose for P6s in general:

I cut out the worst & came to this:

A section of the stepped overlapping outer box section will need to be put in, then an angled strip for the floor edge. Hopefully not too much more.
 

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Not wanting to do a major strip down, I was pleased that the rot didn't spread too far. I removed & replaced the worst of the lip under the floor edge:


I then made up a section for the floor edge & drilled it to plug weld to the lower lip I had just replaced. This meant no upside down welding :D
 

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Welded in place:

The view from underneath the car looking at the edge of the lower lip & the welding of the inner floor piece. Not that pretty I admit, but at least the weld has penetrated! It will look a bit nicer when it's ground flat...

As can be seen, some of the underneath is very dry & not very well protected, hence the work just done. Some serious scraping underneath, rust killer, primer & shutz to do then; prevention is better than cure!
 

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If it were my car I would still give the garage a bollocking! :evil:
Jacking any car on a section of the floorpan is asking for trouble! :roll:
 
Hi, yes, but that's underneath the front jacking point so probably thought it was
safe/solid.

Colin
 
Now that I've done the floor edge, I have a little piece at the front to do:

Fortunately this piece was cut out of BOP on the same side, so I can cut out a section to fit complete with the correct pressing.

BOP was totally rebuilt on the driver's side, together with a replacement (not brilliant pattern) splash panel.
 

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I 'finished' the work on Hazel, but was niggled that I probably hadn't quite bottomed it, so I cut some more pieces out :| . These small sections are now completed & I'm much happier :D .

After looking at the rest of the sill, I'm very pleased; it is all in great condition apart from a bit of surface rust that I'm sorting:

So hopefully she'll be back on the road within a week... :D
 

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Well I've been doing bits on the 2000 recently so Hazel has got a bit left out :( . However, I have recently renovated the door bottoms on the driver's side & tidied up some rusty blebs on the lower parts of the wings. I got some cellulose paint mixed to match a while ago & have been using it to good effect; I'll post some pictures soon. The door bottoms were sprayed off the car, but the other blebs were touched in using a modeller's airbrush with an adapter for my compressor hose. Local member Dave had done it on his TC & despite it being a bit of faff to get a useful spray, the results are well worth it! The spray can be feathered at the edges of the job as normal but the control is so good that you could spray your watch face without overspraying your wrist!

The real progress though has been in the heater department. I know there have been other threads on this subject, but I got my daughter to run the engine whilst I topped up the radiator last night. From looking full at idle, the coolant almost disappeared from view when the engine was revved a bit :oops: but now I have filled it completely. To say that the heater has improved is somewhat of an understatement :D

I've had the car well up to temperature since & the heater is great, with no major release past the radiator cap. Again, try the simple stuff first! I've had a poor heater for at least 3 years....
 
I've been tied up with other projects recently, but have finally come back to doing a bit on Hazel. A blowing exhaust was the catalyst to getting her over the pit (& moving BOP & the 2000 out of the way!). I bought a stainless steel centre section & fitted it relatively easily.

One thing that has been getting worse recently is a pulling to the left particularly when braking. Once underneath it was easy to see why. The O/S front brake caliper was leaking fluid onto the disc, so contaminated pads were grabbing a slippery disc on that side, as against a good braking action on the other.

I bought a seal kit & refurbished the good one first; the pistons were pretty good, so all was OK. I then set about doing the driver's side which was much worse & so I bought some new pistons as well. Getting the old ones out was difficult as was removing the very stuck pipe connection on the caliper. This had to be drilled out & re-tapped, but all has gone back together well & I just need to bleed them now & test...

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Not quite what I'd hoped. Whilst bleeding the N/S front, the O/S started leaking. I tightened the union up, but then it started slipping.... I guess my drilling & re-tapping was not the best, or the threads were too rusted to hold the union.

Presumably my only real option is to get another caliper?

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Thanks Richard - I've now got a different rebuilt caliper & all appears well. The system bled properly last night, so I will hopefully have a drive out tomorrow...

Hazel was to be sold shortly, due to too much going on, but when I had her out recently I realised just how 'honest' a car she is - not perfect, but great to enjoy. She's also got a rather good base unit. My decision has certainly been put on hold......
 
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From the front brakes to the rears.... Hazel has had a problem with sticky back brakes recently. I was asked by a good friend & P6 guru who had put the pads in last, & came to the conclusion that my local MOT station had, because they had the lifts & I was probably too grumpy to do them at the time. Anyway, enough said really because they hadn't been put in correctly.

Not only was the locating bar upside down (causing the pad to foul the disc edge very slightly), but also the anti rattle springs were not exactly doing their jobs - see photos.

All is now sorted (by me) & there is no sticking. However, the problem also made the handbrake ineffective, which despite much trying, I have not been able to reset properly.:(
 

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Latest on Hazel was a blowing exhaust. I knew one connection I'd done needed 'nipping up' properly, but was surprised to find that most of the noise was coming from the centre box / back box connection, where the olive had rusted through.... I've never seen that before!

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I thought I'd better give the car a wash as well, given the amount of cr*p it's collected. It almost looked like it had been resprayed a different colour:

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I gave the underneath a good flushing of course including the underside of the wings to remove the salt. Of course it begs that age old question
- Should you use a 47 year old P6 in winter??o_O
 
However, the problem also made the handbrake ineffective, which despite much trying, I have not been able to reset properly.:(
Just an update on this also; the rear flexi-hose was actually bunged up which was the real problem here. Worth checking if you have similar issues trying to reset the handbrake.
 
Just an update on this also; the rear flexi-hose was actually bunged up which was the real problem here. Worth checking if you have similar issues trying to reset the handbrake.

The faulty flexi hose won't have any effect on setting up the handbrake unless the footbrake is being held on, and I would think you'd notice that.
 
After a short period of the brakes working properly, the front o/s started to stick. On loosening the bleed screw, the disc freed up, so again it looked like the flexi hose was at fault.

I replaced the said hose & whilst doing so I immediately fractured the steel pipe from the union :(. This was obviously corroded & could have been unsafe. The other side was the same but more of a faff as it goes under the engine.

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Both have now been replaced with copper pipe & all flexi hoses on the car have now been replaced so hopefully things will be alright for a while now...

I cut through the first flexi hose to see how bad it was - & boy, was it bad!!

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I would recommend that anyone with a car on original steel brake pipes thoroughly checks them & replaces them if they are corroded like mine were. Well worth replacing even if you get a garage to do it for you. A tiny part of he overall car, but very safety-critical.
 
Nothing to report on Hazel recently. After 'BOP' has its new rear suspension fitted, Hazel will be retired for a few months to get her front wings tidied up & countless other jobs done. I've owned the car for nearly 11 years & haven't had the front wings off yet, so that'll be interesting :rolleyes:

In the meantime, just a gratuitous photo taken in the autumn:

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and proof that Hazel is a well-used classic:

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My only 'red line' is roads that are both wet & salty.
 
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