MIDGIE'S WEB SITE

Reassembly Pictures

Easter Weekend 2007-Memorial Day Weekend 2007

*Warning* Long Post...a lot of progress!

I've had more progress in this time frame than I have over the last year or so. Winter was quite depressing and I lost motivation. Even wrote up an ad to sell her. Then I read an article about restorations that kicked me in the behind. Also with warmer weather I got the bug again.

Easter weekend was a long weekend. With some other projects I thought it'd be a good time to at least try and get a few of the electrical systems working. At that point that was as far as my ambition was going to take me. I worked on the lighting system and had all but the front side markers and brake lights working. Brake lights wouldn't work because the front of the brake switch was damaged. It's one of the new brass type switches. Replacing it and not threading it in too far got the brake lights working. Side marker lights had too short of pig tails. I had to fit new ones to get them to stop popping out of the socket.

Things were moving along pretty well. I connected the fuel pump and then got the wild idea that I wanted to see if this motor I'd rebuild would run. I connected the the electrics to the motor, plummed the fuel line/filter and attached the throttle and choke cables. New plug wires, rotor, and cap were fitted. Everything looked to be in place. I turned the key and it did turn over, but wouldn't fire.

I set about checking for the things to make an engine run. Fuel, check...spark...check...compression...uh-oh. Barely registering compression for any of the cylinders with my thumb pressed over the spark plug hole. This wasn't looking too good. Started checking the forum and someone suggested valves may be stuck open. Went back to adjust them and couldn't...they were locked down tight. I took the cylinder head off and brought it down stairs. The valve adjusting nuts wouldn't budge. Somehow I'd gotten them too tight during reassembly. Wound up taking the air ratchet to them to get them loose. With the head back on the engine, manifolds back on I checked compression...180psi across all 4 cylinders.

More adjustments and I turned the key on. She actually fired up and it startled me so much I turned it right back off! Tried it again and it ran, but very rough. I couldn't get it to do much of anything above idle, and that was really lumpy. Back to the forum I went and came back searching for air leaks. The big port where the PCV valve attaches was wide open. Took a 5/8" hose and plugged it to the can on the timing cover. I also had some pretty big oil leaks going on. With the hose attached that smoothed out the idle for a few moments. Grayish/white smoke started coming from the exhaust.

My wife was out of town that weekend and I thought I'd surprise her when she came home showing her the lights worked, and even better the motor ran. When she came home I connected the battery, flipped the light switch and she started smiling. "Oh, just wait." and I turned the ignition key to start the motor. She fired right up. After a minute her eyes got really big. I thought she was really excited to see the motor run after all this time. Then she asked if the car was suppose to be making that much smoke. I looked behind me and saw a huge cloud of smoke that would've killed the neighborhood's mosquito population in about 5 minutes had they hatched out.

The next day I spent trying to figure out why the engine had turned into a bug fogger. Turned out it was that pipe directly connected from the timing cover can to the port on the intake without a PCV valve. I took the hose off, plugged the hose end, and that cured the smoking, and helped the car run a bit better. Guess so as it wasn't sucking all that oil in and burning it.

A couple more weeks passed and I was able to bleed the clutch system. Not very well, but enough to function. That's when Midgie moved for the first time on her own, just back and forth in the driveway. The brake system hadn't been installed, so I was using the hand brake to stop. Good thing it worked!

Another weekend I enlisted my wife to help put the windshield back on the car. As anyone who has tackled this project before knows, it's a really pain! We were finally able to get it bolted in. I had a small thin piece of oak strip to push under the windshield and get that bottom seal to push out as it should. Now she was looking more like a car.

My time to work on Midgie was diverted due to a trade show trip to California. Great show, and I was really feeling good about Midgie. Here in the Atlanta area we're priviledged with two major events close together. The latter part of April is Walter Mitty Historic Racing at Road Atlanta. Then a couple of weeks later is British Car Day, now hosted at Berry College, in Rome. I knew I didn't have enough time to get Midgie on the road by Walter Mitty, but really wanted to drive her to British Car Day.

I worked on the front brake system and got the new rotors, and calipers on. I'd ordered the front and rear brake kits from VB to install. Front assembly went on fairly well. Rear brake system was a pain. There was no way I was going to get the car safely on the road before the show, and I was OK with that. I was making a lot of progress, and would rather have it on the road safely. My wife and I attended the show, caught up with some old friends and made some new ones too. It gave me another rush of energy to make some pushes to get this really going.

The rear brake system came together and I started bleeding the brake system. A couple of small leaks were easily repaired. I realized that something wasn't right with the master cylinder reservoir as it was too difficult to fill with flud. Looking at some picutres I'd taken at the show I realized I had the reservoir on backward! My trusty Mityvac unit helped me suck out the fluid and get the reservoir turned around. I tried the Mityvac to bleed the system, but it just wasn't working as I wanted it to. I used the same old clear plastic tube and a glass jar with some fluid to bleed them. It worked out OK.

As I had the brake system bled I couldn't resist the urge to take her out for a spin. So Sunday, May 27th at 10PM Midgie left the driveway and headed for the front entrance to our neighborhood. It was quite an exciting ride! I had no way of testing the transmission before, and that was probably my biggest concern. First gear is really loud and rough, but that's because it's a straight cut gear. Second through fourth seem to be OK. I kept reaching too far to the upper right for third. I turned around at the entrance, pointed her back home and back in the driveway without mishap. The clutch system needs to be bled again, and the brake system could stand with another bleed too.

The next day I installed a PCV valve sourced from Autozone, new horns, rerouted the clutch line behind the heater and bolted the heater down too. I bolted the passenger seat in and convinced my wife to take a ride in the neighborhood. She was surprised at how low the seating position is, and how smooth the car felt on the ride. Honestly I was surprised too. For a car that's been off the road for about 7 years, and brought back from a rolling shell, it did alright.

The next parts order which arrives next week should allow me to put her back on the road legally. Here's some pics of how she's looking now.

July 19, 2007

With all the progress came some major setbacks for June/July, and they all seemed to happen at once. After bleeding the clutch and brake systems I wanted to go for a test drive. The key would not crank the motor over. It was intermittent, and when the motor did run it ran like crap. Then the key broke off in the ignition switch. There are only two types of ignition switches: one with 4 wires with separate bullet connectors, and a seven port plastic connector. I had to modify the latter to go with my five port plug on my wiring harness. That still wouldn't crank the car. The problem turned out to be the starter relay, which I replaced with a new unit.

The second issue was oil leaks...big ones! First one was on the engine side of the braided oil pressure line. Only replacing it with another braided line resolved that one. The second leak was a big seep around the bolt head where the supply line comes out of the block to the oil filter. Replacing the copper washer with a smaller diameter and thicker washer resolved that one, but only after it spewed a couple of quarts on my garage floor and driveway.

I next worked on getting the timing correct. It was really off because I'd inserted the distibutor drive dog wrong. Once that was corrected it started to run again. I've still got a lot of tweaking with timing and carb settings to get it running right. I've considered getting a Pertronix Flame Thrower distributor.

Other projects I've worked is the grill surround trim, and the side mirrors. The new surround pieces don't have the holes lining up like the original pieces. I suggest using stainless steel screws rather than rivets to install them.

The right side mirror installation went well. With the left side I had to redrill the holes to get the plinith to install.

The right side vent window rubber was coming apart in various areas. Digging the old out took a great deal of effort with screwdrivers and pliers. Fitting it back in required some dish washing detergent as a lubricant and a small plastic putty knife to push the seal an inch at a time back into the vent frame channel.

I also put the hood on. That was a challenge as a one man operation. I suggest having someone help, and to apply some blue painter's masking tape along the back edge and the inner fender edges of the bay to prevent nicks and paint damage.

Here's some updated pics I took this morning. Doesn't look like much progress.