boulogne racer build

[Tony Betts]

Hi all,

After asking for info on the boulogne car bodies, a hand full of people asked if I would show the build.

As you know I have a donor car,  I've sold most of the parts I dont need. Which gives me money to spend on the build. Just the body to sell.

At the moment as I dont have a build area available, all I can do is check the condition of what I have. And restore what's needed to build the car. So it can go together when I have the space in the new years.

So here we go.

As shown on stringing a steering wheel thread. The wheel is finished.

   

---

The draglink is now fully rebuilt.

   

---

Here is the engine I'm using for the build.

Bought from a German friend and customer a little time back.

It had alot of work done, new 1 1/2 crank. Hi lift cam. Etc etc.

But I need to go through it and do the changes I need to do.

   

---

I've been working on the engine over the last couple of weeks.

Everything is now stripped out, and cleaned. Ready to build what I want.

I can't start the build up until the new year, as I need to get the crank and flywheel ballanced.

So I've been working on the front timing cover, it was already drilled and tapped on the mag drive bearing. But I dont know what for. The thread was to small for a rev counter. So I've centred the thread and tapped it to take a rev counter drive.

See below.

   

---

The engine had an early coil engine camshaft. Ground for road and trials. So it can take a fan pully on the front.

That's very handy for me, as I want to fit a bottle on the front of the crank. But keep it splash fed.

[Ivor Hawkins]

Well that’s a good start, with some good quality parts, but then you have the advantage over most of us!

Keep us posted. This, the top hat and the highland coupe should keep us all fascinated while most of us are locked in.

[Zetomagneto]

Tony, those holes in the crankpins look massive, what’s going on there?
Don’t forget to drill an oil hole for the magneto intermediate bearing.

[Tony Betts]

hi gene,

the crankcase is not perfect, several repaires, but they all look good repaires. there are also a couple more to be made.

i dont know about the hole for the idle gear, do you mean drilling through to the engine for oil supply.

hi ivor,

i guess i do have an advantage, but its not as big as you might think. i still have to pay well for good parts.   (or at least it felt like alot when i bought them). i just invested more than most in parts i thought i might need in the future.

merry christmas tony

[Tony Betts]

Two days work, and we now have a build area.

Dont ask were it all went? I know were itll end up though.

   

---

This morning I've been mainly cleaning engine parts and checking what I've got to build with

These were the gears.

The cam gear is usuable. But I have better one. Were the teeth haven't had the chips ground off.

   

---

although this engine had already been rebuilt by someone else, it goes the show why you should check things. And do your own build.the pump has been over sized.

But the springs on the left, are the ones I've removed.

The new springs on the right are ones I've had made a bit longer for oversized pumps. So it should now have good pressure and volume.

   

---

In the same pump, the base plate holes were oversized.

So I'm using the one with the bolts in.

   

---

Not sure if the picture will show it.

But here is the relief valve ball, removed from the engine. There is a huge wear step you can catch your nail in.

So for £1.50 a new ball and spring has been fitted.

Always always do your own checks.

   

[Tony Betts]

Had the chance to remove the body today, and start stripping down to check the condition of individual parts.

   

It's good and bad from what I remember.

There is a good area of corrosion on the chassis behind the column. Although I should be able to fill this with weld.

It's good to see the hole in the rear damper mount that shows it had Hartfords originally. As I'd like to copy the original front Hartford on the boulogne car as well.

---

   

---

   

[Tony Betts]

Things move along at a slow place.

We looked at doing leather gathers for the springs.

But being new material, especially the belts. I'm just not happy with it.

   

---

So over the last week were I had an hour or two. I stepped the front spring.

Ground, or I should say with the belt linisher. I took the wear patches out of the springs were they rub together.

   

---

And once the paint was dry, I bound the front spring in the evenings.

Just a gater to round the middle now.

   

[Howard Wright]

Hi Tony

Nice work.  I’ve been a bit worried in the past at removing spring wear and eventually opted for new springs. But I don’t think your spring was as worn as the ones I’ve tried it on.

Cheers

Howard

[Ivor Hawkins]

Yes, great work Tony, with you string Binding everything in sight at the moment I bet Tracey’s got a worried look on her face!

[Tony Betts]

Hi howard,

The spring wear is a hard call. When I stripped the spring, there was alot more tha expected. The worst was the third one on top of number two. The bottom number one wasnt so bad. ( the bottom spring is usually the worst ).

The only thing to do is take the wear out, then make your best judgement call. NEVER convince yourself they are ok just because you've done the work.

I used a belt sander, because it doesn't dig in. It sands the surface evenly, very slowly. Around 4 hours constant work.

Once done this spring was still nice and thick and strong, so my judgement is it's fine to use.

These 5 leaf springs are thicker leaves, than the aftermarket 8 leaves.

It saved me the money for a new spring, but cost time. Especially if the spring had to be scrapped, and I look for a better one. That's the only way I can keep the build cost down, and get a good quality car at the end of it.

Hi ivor,

Practise makes perfect?

Although the dog gives me that worried look.

Tony.