My '72 P6 V8 is back in use on UK roads and once again wearing its silver on black 'K' plates!

At the weekend the drivers side carb started to piss fuel from the overflow pipe. Tapping the carb with the handle of a screwdriver didn't do any good. The car ran very poorly, presumably on only one carb. After much rumination, I have opted to remove both carbs and send them away for a total refurbishment. I will have to wait at least three weeks before I get them back. They'll be getting cleaned with ultrasound, the steel bits'n'bobs all re-plated, the dashpots polished, the butterflies re-bushed, and all new innards installed. I'll post pics when I get 'em back.
In the meantime I think I will refurbish my flaking valve covers, from which the paint is lifting and cracking away, probably 'cos the guy who painted 'em for me didn't use any primer of any sort. Has anybody on here used VHT wrinkle finish paint? Did it work? Does it look good? Surely red wrinkle finish a la Ferrari is worth a few more horsepowers!?!? Or is that too gaudy? How about black, like on the MGB V8s? I'll take a poll – send in your views!
Can anybody tell me what size are the nuts to hold the carbs to the studs on the intake manifold, and where i can get shiny stainless steel ones?
Typically, my workshop manual and parts handbook are nowhere to be found, without shifting lots of boxes and grubbing through them...
 
Tsssk. Harvey, I am ever so disappointed. It took you six entire minutes to provide the information I needed. Slacker.
No opinion to venture regarding wrinkle finish paint? Taciturn sage. Aloof, and above the fray.
 
True, "snoozers are losers!"

As for wrinkle finish paint, not sure I'd like it meself, but ISTR MGB dashboards were wrinkle finish and there are paints for that IIRC, whether they would be heat resistant enough is another matter.
 
VHT brand aerosols have been high quality whenever I’ve used them. I did a set of V8 valve covers with their smooth satin black. I’ve seen photos of their wrinkle finish and it can look very good in the right setting. I think it’s more hardwearing with the texture too
 
Tell me about fuel lines. I don't have the factory fitment fuel line any more. The plastic line from the electric pump, which is at the back below the tank, runs forward and up into the engine bay. It changes to a flexible fuel hose, which snakes across the top of the intake manifold under the right hand carb elbow, and curls round to the front of the left hand carb. It fits over the cut-off stub of the original line from the fuel filter. I was never happy about this, not least because I don't have a filter before the carbs.
What did the car come with from the factory? A formed metal pipe at the back of the engine bay, running up and over the bulkhead, then forward under the left hand exhaust manifold, to the mechanical pump? Then a flexible hose up to the fuel filter held on a bracket, then a short run to the left hand carb?
Has anybody got nice clear photos of the proper arrangement? Where does the bracket for the fuel filter attach exactly? What is the type of plastic fuel line that links the two carbs called, and where can I get some?
I was thinking about using a new, longer flexible fuel hose, routing it along the front anti roll bar. After drilling an appropriate hole, running the line into the 'tower' on the base unit in which the brake master for a LHD car would be fitted, curving 90 degrees, emerging through the blanking plate and running forwards along the top of the front 'chassis leg', then up and along the engine steady bar to a fuel filter where that is suppose to be fitted. I don't have the mechanical pump any more. Routing it like this would be as far as possible away from engine heat, and be tidier. Thoughts, fellows?
 
Here is a picture of my routing. I have the electric pump underneath the tank and a copper pipe going forward and turn over to a rubber hose and have a filter just beside the LH carb.
 

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I sent away my carbs for refurbishment in early October, and for various reasons didn't get them back until a few months had elapsed. My car ended up not being used over the winter. It didn't much like languishing outdoors for months on end either. The boot went mouldy and the millboard boot liner warped. In early February I was able to let one of the garages behind my home, so my car got shoved inside for a while longer. The carbs turned up, and I did my best to refit them. I was jolly pleased it started straight up, but confuddled that I couldn't get it to idle. It wouldn't go below about 1400rpm. I had been ever so careful not to change the length of any of the connecting rods. A helpful gentleman who was recommended on the facebook page of the P6 Club paid me a visit and talked me through a tune up. Somehow I had managed to shorten the throttle connecting lever, so the throttles were open more than necessary at idle. Doh! Stupid mistake. Pleased to have the car back in service now that the season is turning for the better. Runs very nicely now, lovely low idle, crisp throttle response, and most importantly no more fuel leak. Crinkle finish red valve covers must be worth a few extra horsepower, right? I didn't get around to re-routing the fuel line though.

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Finally fitted a freshly re-chromed rear bumper today. Straight, no kinks, unlike the one I replaced, which had been looking forlorn and mis-shapen for far too long. Only took me a year, from buying it to fitting it today. :rolleyes: Makes all the difference, I'm chuffed. No pics yet, 'cos it is raining...
 
In 2020 my car had needed the recently fitted LT77 manual gearbox rebuilding, after it turned out that the internal oil pump had never actually functioned. Fortunately the gearbox could be refurbished and returned to service. The water pump was also replaced during 2020. I had hoped those would be the last unexpected expenses my car would require for a while.
Alas, 2021 saw my pride and joy having to make repeat trips to Brooklands Motorcraft, who carried out a not inconsiderable amount of remedial work. My bank balance got well and truly clobbered, but the car once again behaves like it ought to. The hard to track down judder under braking was eventually traced to a failed balljoint in the offside front lower strut. Some of the jobs carried out included fitting new EBC front discs, a new upper ball joint on the offside swivel pillar, a new offside lower front strut, two new steering side arms and a new PAS tracking rod, refurbishing the leaky and noisy PAS pump with new seals and bearing, re-fitting the choke cable which had come adrift of the centre console, as well as removing the recently and expensively 'refurbished' carbs to remedy both throttle discs not having been properly centred in the bores, and their fiddly little split screws having been super-glued into the spindles (!!! cue much swearing, and drilling with teensy weensy little drill bits !!!). There was probably more, but that is what I can remember at the moment.
Anyway, RWT363K once again goes precisely where I point it, without awful groaning from the PAS pump, or any 'slop' in all the many steering ball joints. It stops without shuddering, starts without too much hesitation, picks up pace quickly enough to make me grin, and with a little luck won't need as much work doing as during the year just gone. Perhaps in 2022 I'll get around to fixing some of the other niggly things that always seem to get pre-empted by more major component failure. Like fixing the wiper delay that has never worked in my ownership. Maybe even the radio, which has only ever made crackling noises. Getting the knackered front seats re-upholstered. Replacing or repairing a few of the outer panels which are now conspicuously bubbling through, ten years on from the last back-to-metal respray. Hmm. The to-do list is long, my wallet isn't over stuffed, so we shall have to see what I manage.
Happy 2022 everybody, may your cars run smoothly without too many hiccups on your travels. Honk if you see me out and about in London and the surrounding counties in my blue meanie.

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For the last couple of weeks I've been looking forward to my Odometer reaching 30,000 miles (since it "rolled over" in November 2016) so that I could take a snapshot for posterity. Out and about motoring around town today in the sunshine, enjoying life, when I noticed I had already reached the 30,010 mark. Damn and blast! Guess I'll just have to keep on Rovering until I reach 40,000, and pay more attention when I get there! No pic 'cos I'd missed the moment.
 
As every P6 driver knows, it isn't possible to use one on an every day basis without receiving many remarks from passerby and other road users, mostly positive. Everybody's dad or uncle seems to have had one! This afternoon an enthusiastic fellow made complimentary remarks and explained that his dad was a former police officer who used to drive one on the job. He allegedly was involved in a very high speed pursuit of some villains "at 110mph" when he suffered a rear puncture, but "only noticed when he saw sparks in his mirror"!!! I appreciate that the DeDion rear suspension makes for good road holding, but I'm not sure I believe the chap!
 
Happy 50th birthday to my pride and joy, RWT363K, first registered 06/ß7/72. Ten years on from the extensive rebuild I completed in time for her 40th, when I changed the colour from Arctic White to Admiralty Blue. Shame there's a fair few bubbly bits on those panels now. I've enjoyed a decade of spirited motoring since the repaint. Still saving my pennies and collecting good panels to give her bodywork another refresh at some point...
Todays anniversary present is a replacement pair of new GAZ front shocks, some replacement standard bushes for the front swing arms from JRW, and some 'clown nose' red poly buffers for the push rods in the front road springs. Hopefully that lot will banish the cacophony of creaking and groaning noises from the front suspension!
Here's to another 50! :cool:

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That's looking proper nice!

Got to ask though: Did you move the centre badges on the wheels to make sure they were vertical before you took the photo? :)
 
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