September 2018, FHC build begins

I had already put in an entry for the Lombard Rally Bath 2018 to take place on 19th-20th October. A guy called Tim Nash had called me earlier in the year to ask about classic runs and told me about his new idea. This was to be a classic tour type event but using some of the iconic venues from the old Lombard RAC Rallies of the 1970s and 1980s. It would start from Pultney Street in Bath and visit Longleat House, Cricket St Thomas, Wiscombe Park Hillclimb, Porlock Toll Road and Cheddar Gorge with lots of nice countryside in between.  The FHC would be the perfect car to use so with it just back from the bodyshop it was time to start putting it all together.

Engine Bay:

The bodyshop  jobs had been to repair the bad places on the outside but there was still the engine bay to tidy up. The only way to do this properly was with the engine out so trusty mate Chris Riley was brought in as usual to assist lifting the engine and gearbox out.

The result was plenty of working space now.

So I proceded to remove the rest of the stuff in the engine bay and got to this

Few more hours work and it looked like this

First things to go back were the new uprated brake servo/master cylinder  and new brake pipes.

I always make a point of "priming" a new master cylinder before fitting as they can be difficult to bleed from dry, so I do it like this with a couple of pipes to recirculate the fluid until I am sure its cleared out all of the air:-

 Sometimes it helps to get closer to the job........

Driving the car back from the bodyshop I thought the gear change felt a bit stiff so rather than mess about we swapped the gearbox to a good spare I know is OK. Whilst doing this we noticed the clutch plate seemed wrong so whipped the cover off to find there was a broken section so a new one went in.  

Arrow shows a broken off section

Before putting the engine back I did a couple more little jobs. I replaced the bushes on the gearbox remote extension and fitted a Volvo gearbox mounting.  This is because the modern replacement mountings are of poor quality and much too hard so they transmit a lot noise and vibration. Helpfully there is a Volvo 740 one which is readily available and almost a direct swap!  These are still made with good rubber and work well.

You can read more about it on MyDrive here:-   TR7 Volvo 740 Gearbox Mount

Its only necessary to slightly elongate the two bolt holes but I also had some washers welded on mine to replace the strength, just to be sure.

Another little job was to repair the cap that hold the gearlever in place. These have a small tab that holds them onto the top of the gearbox extension but the tab frequently breaks off. Solution is to weld on a small washer to repair and strengthen it.

They often come with the mounting tab broken off.

Repaired with a washer welded on.

Fuel Tank:

When I put fuel in the car I had noticed a whiff of petrol fumes in the boot area. Investigations soon revealed that the small vent pipe from the top of the tank to the filler neck was perished and needed to be replaced.

That vent pipe certainly needs to be replaced ! 

According to the workshop manual this job can be done through the access panel in the boot but I found this to be pretty much impossible, so I decided it would be best to take the tank out. Then there was also the common problem of the small filler neck screws being seized so they had to be drilled out. I still had a good spare filler neck from breaking my old red DHC so would use that - more about that later.

The tank mountings all came undone quite easily and it was obvious that it had been replaced at some time because it still had the part number stickers on but needed tidying and painting before I put it back.

With the tank out I also found evidence of repairs to the rear wheel arches on both sides where someone had cut out rusty areas and patched over them. Fine but they never finished the job on the other side!

This wheel arch patch needs finishing on the inside as well.

I treated the tank and surrounding areas with Hydrate 80 Rust Converter and painted it with Tetrosyl sealer so that should be good for many more years. 

After putting it all back together I discovered that the DHC filler neck is NOT the same as a FHC one as you can see from this picture. Apparently the different rear deck of the FHC needs a slightly taller

Filler cap sits lower than usual.

filler neck so mine is now about 5mm too low but it works fine so will stay like that until I have a reason to have the tank out again.

Rear Suspension:

The rebuilt axle went in with a couple of replacement lower arms because the old ones were rotten. They seemed OK at first glance with polybushes and having been powder coated, but a closer look showed they were rotten near the bump stop pad at the rear end. I am guessing water got under the powder coating and worked its magic there.  I had a couple of replacements in stock but made a point of drilling a water drain hole before painting and fitting them.

Water drain hole drilled in lower link

 Next little issue was with the new springs. The top end had not been finished very well so the open end of the coil stuck out and made contact with the chassis rail. Not good.

The spring should not touch the chassis rail socket!

A little bit of work with the grinder took the corner off so it now clears OK.

........................................................................................................

I also took the opportunity to move the radiator header tank from the right to the left side of the engine bay. This was because I think it makes for less congestion on the right side which already has the carbs and allows better access to the alternator.  I also want to move the coil to the inner wing (as on the later cars) from its strange location inside the tunnel next to the gearbox but this could wait till later.

Why would they put the coil here?

So the engine went back in and I could get on with all those other little jobs that take a lot of time.

Almost ready to go.

One interesting little thing came up when I took the radiator to a local specialist to be rebuilt. His invoice gives the name of the car as "TR7 Bullet", how neat is that?