Still Making Progress

 Wow, its been over a month since I posted, I can't believe its been that long.  I guess time does fly when your having fun.  When I last left you, I was sorting out some of the engine bits before taking them off to the machine shop.  Well, still waiting for them to return but according to the machinist, all will be well.  I will end up with a 3.577L engine in the end.  With the motor out, I turned my attention back to the body.  Having procrastinated long enough, its time to actually tie the front and back together so I can get the body off the frame.

I have been at a point for quite a while where I could have welded the body together but it is such finality.  I guess the thing that has been holding me back is the alignment of the doors.  Not front to back or top to bottom but in/ out.  I believe the problem is the door itself but with all the brackets and such out for chroming, I can't be sure.  I think I can ultimately solve this with the alignment of the rear fender.  Just to be sure, I'll just tack them for now.

So, here it is.  In the light for the first time in 6 months.  It actually looks like an XK120.  How exciting

To facilitate the lift without folding the car in half, I fastened braces between the top pillars and dash.  These made great rigging points, too

I know not everyone has one but you should.  A lift is so very handy.  Here is the body off the frame (and still in one piece)

Thanks to Jaglovers.org, I have a well fashioned cart for the body.

With that task finally done, I can start making progress again.  Next project is the frame.  At this point, I must admit I was hopeful the frame would require very little repair.  I was very wrong.

First step, strip down the frame.  For the most part this wasn't too bad.  An impact wrench and some WD40 work wonders.  All except the leaf spring front mounts.  Those were painful.

Woe is me.  As you can see, large rust holes on both sides of the frame.  See that pile of dirt in the photo, that was just the beginning.  Ultimately, I remove 50lbs of dirt and rust out of the frame.

And more rust at the back where the frame arcs up over the wheels.

So, I decided the best place to start is at one end and work my way around.  Here is front left bottom side with all the rust removed.

I didn't show all the steps but I repaired 4 individual pieces to try and mimic the original assembly.

Working my way around, the next repair is the front leaf spring mount.  This is probably the worst spot on the car.  Like the previous spot, several pieces had to be repaired to get to the final repair.

Overall, I am very pleased.  I think once its painted, it will be hard to distinguish my work from the factory.

Different view of the same location

Now, moving to the passenger side.  The bottom side was badly rusted and I ended up cutting more from the sides.

This is one of the rear shock mounts.  I thought I could just tack up the holes but it was just too far gone.  As you can see, the original had an indented bolt mount that I would have to reproduce.

As I don't do this for a living, I don't have a dimple die set or press large enough to handle this task so I have to improvise.  First, find something with the correct OD (Lower suspension arm)

Next find something with the correct ID, a socket, I don't remember exactly what size.

Using a piece of 3/8 all thread, I pull the metal into the arm to create the indention.

While it is clamped under pressure, I hammer around the outside to flatten the metal.  I also follow this up on an anvil to make sure its flat.

Tada, indention duplicated

And welded in place.

Top view of repaired area

Side view of repaired area

Next stop, the front leaf spring mount on the passenger side.  Not quite the same damage as the driver side.  This one required the leaf spring casing to be cut out and replaced.

Spring mount passenger side complete.

View from inside frame

The passenger side required a little repair between the spring mount and the front.

And finally, I've made my way around the frame to the front passenger side.  Essentially the same damage as the driver side.

As with the other side, it took several pieces to get to the final look.

And now, after sand blasting and more repair, the final frame.  This is not the final finish, this is 2 coats of self etching primer and epoxy primer.  I want to wait until everything fits.  body on, body off, body on, body off.

I've made this comment before but think it worthy of mentioning again.  Each of the before and after photos above span a period of 3-4 hours of cutting, grinding, cutting, welding and grinding.  You must have patience to do the job right.  In the end, I am very pleased with the finish product.  Since I knew I would be painting (or priming as it were), I wanted to make the most of it.

Here a pile of suspension parts just out of the sandblast cabinet

And tada, same parts painted.  Similar to the frame, I am only priming the parts until I decide whether I will paint or powder coat.  I want to test fit everything before adding the top coat.

Its been 7 months since I started this project and while I feel I'm making great progress, I don't believe I will hit my 1 year target.  The holidays are upon me and I find myself waiting for parts, choming and the machine shop.  I believe I will soon come to a stand still but do still have a few projects to bide my time.

• Finish body work on the boot.  While I was able to get the boot lid to fit, there still isn't quite enough spacing. 
• Rebuild the transmission - I haven't even touched it yet.  Not super high on my list but still something to be done
• Repair the rust holes in the front.  With all the damage in the boot area, I have spent very little time on the front.  
• Tear down rear axle and rebuild

I'm Still Here

Even though I don't have a lot of pictures to post, I wanted anyone following this to know I'm still making progress.

For anyone who hasn't taken on a project like this, the devil is in the details.  Especially when, at the end of the day, the car can be worth upwards of $100K.  I am trying to be as meticulous as possible and not go so fast I overlook anything.  Since my last post almost a month ago, I have been doing a lot of little things.  Here are a few of the things:

Engine:

A few posts ago, I talked about the pistons I found and how the weight was almost perfect.  Well....  

Knowing the head needed work, I wanted to get the block checked out too.  Having 2 blocks (a 'W' and 'V'), neither the original, I was going to use the 'W' block which actually came from an XK150 because it seemed to be in better shape and was matched with the cylinder head.  Even after discovering the block has some slight differences from the 120, it seemed the right decision. 

Since acquiring the car, this was the first time I removed the pan to see exactly what it looked like inside.  I didn't take any pictures but you aren't missing anything because there was nothing inside.  It was literally just a block with the oil pan bolted to it.  Makes it easier to take to the machine shop that way.  Before loading everything up to take it to the machine shop, something told me I should check the bores again so I can tell the machine shop what to do.  I have a set of bore gauges but I like to insert a new piston ring in the cylinder, ensure its level by pushing it down with a piston and then measure the gap at the end of the ring.  If I measure at the widest point in the cylinder, I can see whether the block needs machined.  Oddly enough, one of the things that came with the car was a brand new set of piston rings.  I grabbed one of those and one of the pistons and 'what the heck!!!'  The piston is not a 3.4L piston, its a 3.?? something.  I really don't care if I can't use them.

That changes everything.  I can't use the pistons, I don't really have any other parts for the 'W' block and the head will work on the 'V' block, I changed my mind and decided to go ahead and use the period correct block instead of the head matching block.  What this does mean is I have to find a timing chain cover for the 'V' block because its slightly different than the 'W' block.

Having solved that riddle, the next thing I needed to do was find a set of main bearing caps.  This is a bit tricky because caps are matched to the block.  The block and caps are stamped with a code (I'm sure the code means something, day of the week, builder, something).

The 'V' block is stamped with P00 or POO and the cap number.

Bearing Cap is JOR, not POO

If you don't have the matching caps. it is almost impossible to use another set of caps without align boring the block.  Its not easy finding a set of main caps for a 70 year old car but I was able to find a set.  In the end, I think I might be able to get away with using them and NOT machining the block.

The first thing I did was install the bearings and crankshaft.  I then installed the front, rear and middle cap and check to see if the crank would turn.  At first it wouldn't spin but with just a slight amount of leverage, it did.  Once I got it to spin, I could spin it by hand.  For 1 final check, I used some plastigage to determine the clearance.

If you're not familiar with plastigage, its plastic that is a specific diameter.  If you take pieces of the plastic and place it on the bearing or crank and torque down the caps, it will smash and spread out.  You can then use the provided gauge to measure the internal clearance.  I placed some material on each of the main caps, each side and top.  All measured at .015", which is the minimum acceptable clearance.  Just to be safe, I'm going to have the machine shop check them anyway but hopefully I can save a few bucks.

If you look closely, you can see the width of the plastic is the same as the .015 gauge

One other thing I discovered is that an XK120 oil pump is hard to find.  Buying new caps worked to my advantage because the caps are from a newer block and uses the more readily available pump.

With the newer type pump, all I need is the coupling.  From first glance, looks like the pump is slightly out of alignment with the drive.  Good thing I have access to a machine shop, if it needs some adjustment.

Now, the engine is off at the machine shop:

• New valve guides (that allows for seals) 
• Replace damaged tapped guide
• Check and bore cylinders (.030", I think)
• Clean and check for cracks
• Check and align bore main journals

With that taken care of, its back to the tedious stuff, sand blast, repair, prime.  I think I have almost all the brackets, levers and mounts prepped.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to paint or powdercoat.  With it blasted and a coat of primer, I can still go either way.  Its easy enough to blast back to bare metal for powder.

Oh yeah, and I finally attached the boot and bonnet sections to the side rails.  Again, no pictures but soon it will be off the frame so I can finish the frame work and actually start building a car,

One last thing I'm working on.  This started with my E-type but not wanting to disassemble and test on my working car, Snow White (fka XK120) will be easier and expand my commercialization possibilities.

Design is complete, will verify dimensions before making in metal.  I might end up with the only FI XK120 in the world.

Odds and Ends

Last week I bought the floor pans and other parts so while I'm waiting, I can take care of some of the little things.

Starting to sort through the many boxes and bags of parts, with the help of Viart, I'm finding out where some go.

I found most of the parts for the clutch.  Missing the bits on the transmission side.

Brakes not so good.  I have the bracket and.... nothing else.  I might have the pedal but not sure since I don't have anything else.

Having found quite a few things I know I'll be using, time to clean some of parts.

After 4-5 hours with the sand blaster, I've cleaned the driveshaft cover, fuel filler and misc brackets and lever.

I'm working diligently to get to the end of all the fabrication and with the cost of vent boxes being $200+ and the assembly being fairly straight forward, I decided to make my own.

Here is the old box, actually not too bad and I could probably salvage them if I really wanted.  The design is from a single piece of sheet metal.

First step, bend the sheetmetal

Next, mark each of the bends and cut the lip so I can fold it.

Folded box

Here are all the bits that go into the boxes.  Decided to cut all of them at once to make assembly faster.

The almost finished box.  I still need to sandblast the hinge.

And a view from the inside.  

With the vent boxes made, quite a few parts cleaned and the floor panels having arrived, I want to put the car back together so trying to ensure everything underneath is done.

On my last post, I used the contour guides to check the arch.  Unfortunately,  I was checking against the OTS boot I have, not the fender that actually goes with the boot.  As a final check, I mounted the fender and found the angle was not right.  Spent a few hours slicing, bending and welding to get it right.

And the mating fender

Not having a pattern or measurements, I wasn't going to try and make the fuel tank panel.  Since I drilled all the holes using the OTS boot as a pattern, I needed to make sure they were right.  Yes they were.  Time to prime & begin the process of assembling all the parts into a single car.

As I write this and look at how quickly I can go from an upside down boot on sawhorses to a car, it dawns on me how much time actually goes between the pictures.  It takes about 1 hour of grinding for every 15 minutes of welding.  20-30 minute of sandblasting for each bracket.  Those are the things you don't get to see on the restoration shows.  There is a lot of non-glamorous, tedious work that goes into car restoration.  It takes a lot of time and patience to do it right.  

Boot is back on the frame and next time it comes off, it will be one body.

Before I paint anything, I'm going to make sure all mechanical pieces fit.  I don't want any surprises.

It is really starting to look like its supposed to.  The only rust left on the body is at the nose.  Still not sure on the frame.  I've repaired the rear of the frame but know one of the anti-roll bar mounts needs repaired on the front.  Soon it will be off to the blaster.