1970 Morris Oxford - 20/9/24 -

[nomad]

Always nice to see movement on projects that have gone quiet for a while - keep updates coming
Fans - I recently found a place doing new 'leccy fans for £9 delivered so put a couple on my car. Just saying 

ps. PM sent   

[conair]

Dude awesome, just read through this over the last week and its really awesome build and story of you and this car, bookmarked and looking forward to seeing it done.

[Seth]

Thank you chaps. A little bit more to report. Biggest thing is that for the first time ever I have wielded a spray gun rather than using aerosols. Only primer in the engine bay but it feels like quite a big leap in some respects and has made the whole painting thing a bit less daunting.



With that etch primer on I've gone round the various seems with sealer, as neatly as possible rather than slapping loads of it on. Also crawled about under the car doing some of the joins etc I''ve made/disturbed underneath but there's a bit more of that to do. Need to get the back of the car up on stands again really as access was getting tricky.



Also yesterday I took down the case of mystery.



Possibly the first time this manifold has been near an engine for over 50 years.



And with carbs and exhaust popped on all looks good clearance wise. I was going to fire the engine up initially with the old HS4s in place but, well, I've decided that would be a bit of a waste of time (and they've got loads of spindle play) so HS8s baby!



I'm going to have to make the back carb a mirror image of itself but the only actual 'handed' components are the throttle levers so the choke mechanism should swap around OK. I'll also have to arrange linkages between them but I'm hoping I can adapt parts from a basically scrap set of HS4s I've got. The handy SU parts book I have tells me that quite a bit should be interchangable-ish.

One problem I knew would need addressing is the difference in flange thickness between the manifolds so I'll make up some special stepped washers to suit.



It is highly unlikely I'm going to get the car together enough to fire it up in March as I was hoping to so I've gone back to not worrying about time and trying to do things well rather than rushing.

[adam73bgt]

Whoa HS8's! Nice Should be interesting to see how they work, I got enough naysayers when I said I planned to fit HIF6's to my B

Seeing your engine come together is really making me want to get into tearing mine down Great work!

[stealthstylz]

Excellent work as always dude. Engine is starting to look superb.

[vulgalour]

Lovely, lovely, smart and lovely. That grey next to the polished metal looks excellent, this is going to look even more excellent when you get the engine into that spotless engine bay.

[euroshark]

Well done shooting primer from a gun! It's an intimidating job but once you start you learn pretty quickly that painting mostly comes down to being methodical and patient.

[Seth]

Thanks guys. Its nice to see things coming together a bit. I was saying to a friend last night how I've longed to have an engine all built up on a stand since seeing them in hot rod magazines a long time ago so it is almost a side project to achieve that at the moment as well.

Feb 26, 2015 10:28:42 GMT adam73bgt said:

Whoa HS8's! Nice Should be interesting to see how they work, I got enough naysayers when I said I planned to fit HIF6's to my B

Yeah, well both carbs and manifold kinda landed in my lap so I'd really like to use them. There's a needle spec in the SU book for HD8s on a 'Competition MGB' so that's something to start with. This engine should be able to take it as it is pretty hot. The HS4s probably wouldn't suit it so I might as well spend my time and money sorting these ones out. Long term I have another plan for what would effectively be a pair of HS6s.

[Amazosan]

Feb 26, 2015 9:57:11 GMT Seth said:

Not going with the redcurrent colour on the block? Aw.

[Seth]

Deffo not Amazo! With the body colour not 100% determined I'm going for neutral in the engine bay.

I had a tinker with the HS8s to see if I can swap things around and make them a mirrored pair with float chambers on the outsides. Which it seems I can. The only handed components are the choke levers and I am missing one altogether on the back carb so I either need to find /make/modify one. I have a third HS8 which doesn't match these but has also supplied an unmodified throttle spindle and a couple of other bits. Once I've got these mostly together I'll have a shopping list for Burlens to make them into working carbs.



I've also pulled the HS4s off a 'spare' engine I had some years ago from RevDickDeluxe in a parts exchange.



I'm going to use these for the linkage bits that run between the two carbs. The also had a handy throttle cable end bracket, and return spring brackets I will probably make use of. Float chamber lids (with floats) too as both HS8s have been robbed of their floats!  I am very pleased that SU decided to make so much interchangeable across the carb sizes.



The shed is somewhat over carbed at the moment since I also picked up a pair of HIF6s (originally fitted to a Rover V8) at a bargain price at the NSRA swap meet last weekend. Looks like they will work out (after some re-engineering) for my other planned carb set up to follow the HS8s.

Today the engine bay got a good rubbing back and reapplication of primer, this time a high build celly that I bought also at the swap meet. Starting to look just about smooth enough.







Might even get to put some colour on in the next week or so! And then re-assembly can commence.

[alolympic]

Exciting progress Seth, engine bay looks great!

[vulgalour]

Wow, that looks fantastic. I'm liking the franken-carbs too, cant' beat a bit of ingenuity with parts binning.

[grifterkid]

That engine-bay is looking super-smooth!

Top work...!!!

[Seth]

Thanks guys.

Carb tinkerng has continued a bit. I spoke to a chap at Burlen and the levers I could really do with for the choke mechanism of the back carb are not available so I'm going to have to make my own, copying (but mirroring) the ones on the front carb. I've been getting a shopping list together, jets, needles etc and its not going to be cheap! I'm telling myself its a good investment though.

Bigger news in the paint dept though. I've spent some time making sure all the bits underneath are sealed and stonechipped anywhere near the trans tunnel and were the pipes/wires will be running so that it is ready under there to put things back on. Then today was finally colour day but time pressure was on as I only had a couple of hours and had to be home in time for dinner....

I bought a small 'job lot' of paint from Ebay ages ago (left overs from a restoration I think) and there was some in a large tin plus several spray cans. So I thought it sensible to use a can form underneath to do the least accessible areas.



Also used a can to put some paint in the corners and under the wing rails as I had found it tricky to get under there when using the gun for the primer.



Then I mixed up some paint from the tin with the better thinners. Not enough thinners as it transpired at first but adding a bit more made things go much quicker and easier. Clean! Shiny! This has been so long coming and I'm really chuffed.



Even got a reflection.



Is it time for a before photo. Amazingly this was taken exactly 6 years ago to the day. SIX YEARS! I couldn't have conceived how long this restoration was going to take me.



Its not perfect, there's probably loads of bits of dust etc in it but then I don't think that is going to bother me particularly. Will see what it looks like when I next go down there and have some more paint left so could do some more coats.



I'm really itching to start bolting things back in and start piecing all the mechanicals together for the last time....

[bstardchild]

I'd be chuffed to bits with that finish - great job

[vulgalour]

That's superb. Is that going to be the final colour on the outside too or is there something else planned?

[Seth]

Mar 18, 2015 9:58:52 GMT vulgalour said:

That's superb. Is that going to be the final colour on the outside too or is there something else planned?

Thanks BC, Vulga. No other things are planned for the outside but precise colour is not yet decided. Though having said that Mrs_Seth reckons I'm going to end up painting it blue/white/black flames in which case an Old English White base would still make sense.

[bazzateer]

Top work as always Seth!

[stealthstylz]

That colour is gonna be a perfect frame for the engine. Top work!

[Amazosan]

A white engine bay and underside leaves the way open for near-infinite colour possibilites; look at how many rods have a colour combo based on a white underside.