Restoring a Top Hat

[Howard Wright]

Hi Parazine

I wish I could find a Phoenix in my shed!!

I’m fitting a 1 1/2 into a 1930 case and have to “relieve” the cam bearing support.  How much clearance did you leave?  

Cheers

Howard

[Parazine]

As I haven't fitted the crank yet, I'm not sure what the exact clearance will be. I made the relief on the housing roughly the same dimension as on the later cases, I had a rubber mount two bearing case to compare with. In the past, I've been happy with 1/8" or a bit less (3/32"). I'll let you know when the crank is in 

For a 1 1/2" crank, I guess you'd have to remove more material but it starts to leave the cam bearing housing a bit weak.....

[Howard Wright]

Thanks Parazine

I’ve had a trial fit of the crank and taken as little off the cam bearing housing as I can but I do need to take off more as it’s probably less that 20 thou at the moment. I’ve put the outer race in so there will be no installation stresses to worry about.

Thanks again and keep us posted about the build.  Good to see another Top Hat on the road.

Cheers

Howard

[Parazine]

Lockdown Projects……
 
Time for an update, I think.
 
Had to take a break from restoration to make up chassis extensions for the Chummy as the body had movement at the back, plus I invested in an “Andes” second gear set from Andy Bird, which necessitated a gearbox rebuild (again!). I can recommend this mod, makes second gear much more useable.
The engine rebuild had to be put on hold; I managed to get the block back the day before the lockdown started but the crankshaft/rods/flywheel/clutch assembly is marooned at the balancing shop. I hope I can get it back if and when they re-open…..
 
I did a quick inspection on the gearbox, innards looked very, very good but the old oil had solidified into a sort of gunge. I filled the box with Diesel, worked it in and around with a small paint brush, left it for a week or so and then connected the box to the lathe chuck and spun it over for half an hour before draining the resultant goo out. Now looks perfectly clean inside, no appreciable wear. I’ll change the oil several times in quick succession when it finally goes on the road. 

   

Outside was cleaned appropriately but unfortunately, the comics who were involved with the “cosmetic” restoration in the ‘eighties had grit blasted the bottom of the box and then “painted” it. Took some cleaning and the box appearance is damaged from the grit in places….

   
 
Now I’m working on the body shell. The inner mounting points were all OK but the outer four were badly stress cracked and the rear ones had been amateurishly welded with a MiG. 

   

   

Fortunately, no rust to contend with; salt was not used on roads in pre-war days I believe, plus a lot of people didn’t drive in the winter. All four cracked areas of floor have been cut out and new steel welded in properly but the rear mounts had cracks that went underneath the seat box rear rails, which had to be removed from the floor so that I could get at the damage.

   

   

These patches have taken ages, it's very difficult to fold myself inside the body to do some work, only to find I've left something on the bench and I've got to get out again and fetch it.... It then takes several walks round the garden to straighten my back out before folding myself up again inside the bodyshell....
However, I’ve got the rivets, so the next job is to rivet the seat box rails back in over the repaired floor.
I’m hoping to be able to get some paint before too much longer and do some painting this summer on the body. The paint finish is quite good but a non-original colour so I’m intending to rub down hard and then put the car back to original Oxford Blue and Black.
In the meantime, there’s the engine and chassis to finish…….

[Parazine]

More lockdown work.....
 
Well, the floorpan is finished, apart from paint, that’s all the work that was needed on the body shell.

   
 
Back to the chassis, drag link rebuilt with ’36 onwards ends so that they can be greased. Also took the opportunity to build another draglink with greaseable ends for the Chummy.
 
Got the steering box down from the attic. I hadn’t noticed when I stripped the car down but the steering box is riddled with cracks and…..

   

   

   
 
….the bodger has been here!
 
The cracks probably came from the accident but the Chummy steering box casting was also cracked 10 years ago when I rebuilt that car. Are these early steering box castings particularly vulnerable??  I didn’t have a spare vintage one at that time so I rebuilt the innards and column into a Box saloon type casting. I think that the angle is slightly different, it was a struggle to fit the box into the Chummy but I wangled it in eventually.

This time, I have a spare vintage box that I was going to rebuild for the Chummy, so that will be tomorrows job, finding it and seeing if it’s any good….

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I seem to remember that a box saloon type has a different angle along the centre line of the car - it will sit the steering wheel to one side. Does that sound correct?

[Parazine]

Ha! That's probably why I couldn't line up the column with the mountings! I wondered about it at the time but the dashboard was a repro one so I blamed that! The column doesn't line up with the oil button either.

I do remember a lot of struggling to get the steering box in the car at all. Perhaps it had better stay there - it's been in a long time now and vintage ones seem to be very difficult to find.

Annoyingly, the Chummy has a restricted lock on the off-side due to the drag link fouling the brake pedal. I assume that this is something to do with the Box steering casting but can't fathom out exactly what's what....

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I could not possibly divulge how I know this information, needless to say I relate to your pain!

[Parazine]

Found the steering box, which has been duly rebuilt and trial fitted. Sadly that has used the spare intended to fix the Chummy problem, hence the "Wanted" advert......

   

[Parazine]

More Lockdown tasks:
 
Glad to say that the chassis (apart from the engine) is pretty much complete now. Finally fitted the handbrake bits this morning and pushed the rolling chassis outside for a photo call.
The radiator is just placed on to give me a sense of completion!

   

   
 
Engine is my spare mag engine, it ran in the chummy quite successfully for a few years until the definitive chummy engine was ready.

   

   
 
Showing the spindly speedo drive: someone wanted pictures of this device a few months ago?
Surely it’ll never work, will it?

   

 
The cross shaft had the remains of a brake coupling lever on it. I don’t know whether it’s a “Bodelo” or whether other devices were available. 

   
 
I made up the bits that were missing and coupled the front brakes with a separate cable. I think I mentioned this before and a couple of people said the device was not much good. I can’t see how it differs from an early coupled brake Austin 7 and I think with careful adjustment, it should work quite well. We’ll see when I get it on the road.
 
Next is a subframe to hang on the chassis extensions to support the back of the body, under the back seat. It will make the car useful for taking an emergency passenger, dog, grandchild or whatever.