1958 MGA Coupe

hmmm, I need a just a bit more blocking for my press - and there's a 400 in my shop that the block absolutely toast... hmmmm :suspicious:

those main caps are sweet....nicely machined with a decent span, thick as shit, and have that nice radius open end. and you could bolt them together for a large hole

nice symmetry - about useful, large holes.

The 400 has a nice, large hole that runs front to back across the narrow part of the bores..... kind of kills compression, but symmetrical :)
 
now for the important stuff in life my first grand child ....a little girl


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Congratulation SIR.
Like you said, this is the most important in our lives.
I now have two of those beautifull grandkids.

When I looked at this picture, I recognised and remembered the feeling right away.

Theres nothing like it huh?
 
thks guys it is a special moment

well grandpa got the boot for alittle while so....
put the new rebound buffers on, rebuilt front shocks and painted the original rear shocks that are still good


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so they could dry out of the rain..

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while everybody is at Hospital getting read to come home, i am lucky the hospital is about 1 mile away so its a really quick trip.

so we put the rebound rubbers on which required two of us to sit on the frame to compress the springs

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and i had time to check the tie rod length against the original and its a perfect replacement and added one gator using the original hose clamps. last night i filled the steering rack with 90 wt oil and moved it several times so it could gurgle and leak out.

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I am not very good at waiting around and doing nothing so...I slipped out and did the other side. my timing was perfect and as soon as I finished I got the call to go help transport everybody home. so now i am going to go out and see what else I can takeout of boxes and put back on the chassis so I dont lose anything or forget where it goes.

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measured out the brake drums and we are good to go!!!! these were white these were red....and now they are a cast iron engine paint, theres just way too much black on this car for me.

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and we had our first part failure, I guess its time for the original style webbing

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Congrats Grandpa !!!

:yahoo:

Hey, that paint on the drums, is that the Rustoleum rattle can "cast iron grey" ?? That's a nice color for chassis and brake parts :thumbs:
 
i think it was the duplicolor 500* engine paint in cast iron grey. most of the car originally was black but that makes way too much black for my taste. i like the contrast of different colors. i think the drave shaft is going to get battle ship grey or is it gray?
 
i did check the paint it was the duplicolor engine paint

i had marked the flange on the axle housing so the drive shaft goes back like it came off but actually i am not sure why you need to do this on the drive shafts that have the yoke attached, since they are a balanced unit, but any way heres the easy mark to see. i actualy used a chisel and put ahash mark on it when they were assembled

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more fruit of the drying tree, again way too much black on this car for my preference

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heres the corresponding white paint covered with blue tape

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basically lets see how the swivel pin thread areas measure up for OD compared to each other. my RH side swivel pin one was just too worn for me to use and i sourced a really nice one with the bushings already done. and i confirmed the measurements today

lets measure everything and write it down to make sure its with in specs and lets get the old bushings taken out.

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time to play with the torch....lets remove the steering arm and the swivel pin....

lets get the steering knuckle nice and warm and hit the threaded end (with the nut on)with a hammer..

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now lets step it up a notch....see i am holding this assembly with a pipe since it is very warm, i could not get a good blocking set up on press, probably since my blocking plates are AWOL in the garage some where....so we are going to use a piece of pipe clamped in the vise and BFH, since the swivel pin is trash i dont need to worry about protecting the threads.....so let get everything really hot

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and i win

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THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO AT THIS MOMENT IS TO GO TAKE A SHOWER AND RESIST ALL TEMPTATION TO TOUCH THOSE PARTS
 
now that everything is cooled off i have cleaned them and polished the shafts. its also important in the assembly area to diagram exactly how it goes together so you dont have any oh crap moments.....
heres the diagram on the paper on the table and the photo proof....this is why i photograph everything it stops me from having to remember

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swivel pin goes in freezer..... steering knuckle goes in the hot sun on a black plastic bag. the pin gets a light coat of instrument oil


an hour later bingo......it went about half way in by itself then a light hammer tap and it went all the way home, then steering arm goes in while everything still has a temperature differential. if i hadnt painted it i could have put the steering knuckle inthe oven and them I bet it would have slipped right in

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i did check the paint it was the duplicolor engine paint

i had marked the flange on the axle housing so the drive shaft goes back like it came off but actually i am not sure why you need to do this on the drive shafts that have the yoke attached, since they are a balanced unit, but any way heres the easy mark to see. i actualy used a chisel and put ahash mark on it when they were assembled

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more fruit of the drying tree, again way too much black on this car for my preference

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heres the corresponding white paint covered with blue tape

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Mmmmm! Burgers!
 
they were particuarly tasty that day i might add

cleaned and examined the pivot arm and polished the shafts

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wire brushed the compression washers and painted them

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poly urethane bushings

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half of the spring pans get assembled with me standing

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the threads for the ones that i have to put on kneeling get the threads chased with a cleaning die. this is different then a cutting die it only chases (cleans) the threads and doesnt cut anything

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on a side note this was my grandfathers wrench the V was his initial i was given these last summer at a family reunion since the relatives knew i like working on cars, i have about 6 or 7 wrenches that were his. he had a large garage on long island in the 30s and passed away in the early 40s. these are my go to wrenches every chance i can use them.

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this is one way to measure to make sure the distance tube has the proper clearances so it will doesn bind on the trunnion bushing

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the mic slipped a little when i was juggling the camera but you get the idea

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and the lower A arms and spring pans are in

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busy day today....checked the steering arm and swivel pin for cracks and repainted it, if you ever need to get fresh paint off of something just spray brake clean on it....

heres the dye penetrant, developer and cleaner from magnaflux. basically clean the part, spray the dye wait 20 mins clean it off and then spray the developer and wait 20 mins and then look for any cracks.that was $57 from grainger no need for the kit just get the cans

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cleaned up the grease fitting and pumped new grease through them

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you can see the old brown grease then the new stuff, no sense in contaminating all new stuff with old grease

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I put the trunnions and distance tubes together following Barneys instructions. on these trunnions the bearings were just about brand new and had no measeurable wear on them, in fact I am not sure my hand reaming will be as tight as these are. and heres where i had to wait for some extra weight

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200 lbs didnt do it.....300 lbs did the trick

nothing is tightend yet so please eye ball these things and make sure i didnt put anything on back wards....the thrust washers are inside the flanged washer facing the distance tubes

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