Once you get most of the varnish and crud out of the tanks and sending units using whatever mechanical scraping you can conjure up, this is what I use to clean all of my fuel system parts.

I don’t know if you can get it in the nanny state but it is available everywhere else. It comes in a variety of sizes, up to 5 gallons, I think.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1606564693.jpg

I think I can safely say that this is the first time I have heard anyone talk about using a router on a fuel tank repair!

You can still get the carb dip tanks of Berryman in CA.

WELL worth it as a cleaner. Just did an well varnished IDF the other day.

I just looked this up for OReillys and they apparently still have it here in CA. Also on Amazon, although everyone seems to agree, even though it smells just as bad, it doesn't work as well as the benzene-style stuff from the 1970s...

-Wayne

That's some weird looking stuff in that one tank Wayne.

Smells terrible. Had to change clothes, and then the new clothes I put on smelled like it too because I still had residue. I'm not sure why the stuff seems to have gathered right below the gas tank sender? Something to do with the reaction to the metal in the sender? Maybe the electricity flowing through it (not likely, as the battery was surely dead and not "on")? Maybe there was an air leak around the seal?

Probably the first - a reaction to the metal.

-Wayne

That looks like pot metal corrosion. Does the sender have a drain hole? I wonder if it fills up when the tank is full, but never drains properly? I would think the fuel in there should drain out as the tank drops and then get exchanged with new fuel when you fill up.

Or the drain became plugged?

Not really - no real drain hole, but the cover is not air tight, and there is a gap in there from some corrosion. So, it's obviously not supposed to be "fuel proof". It does look just like the corrosion that builds up on battery terminals, and the housing for the fuel sender looks like the same type of pot metal as the battery materials. I'm planning on vacuuming this out today.

The overall plan is to fix the brakes (and perhaps suspension), and then put the wheels back on, put it in the trailer, and then take it back to work to place in our HUGE carport in the back parking lot. Then I will fill up the tanks with some type of volume of carburetor cleaner, and pump it through using a spare low pressure fuel pump (that I use for emptying tanks - I have a pre-made rig for this stuff) through a few filters (that reminds me, I need to order about 10-20 of these). Then re-evaluate the condition of the tanks. We'll do this outside under the carport - it's 30' x 20' so even if it happens to rain, it should be well protected from the elements.

That's the plan at least. I'm sure it's likely to change...

-Wayne

Check out the green here!

-Wayne

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1606687776.jpg

That’s a lot of progress, congrats.

Thanks for the encouragement. The more I dig, the more I find, so it doesn't really seem like progress at times!

-Wayne

This is why I spend more time lately restoring motorcycles than cars. Much smaller, simpler systems, you can usually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Currently I am working on a motorcycle that hasn’t moved since 1991, it’s not as crusty as your car but just about everything on it needs some attention.

Went to the hardware store today to pick up some replacement hardware. I'm going to replace as much stuff with stainless steel as I can, as the bolts and screws (wood screws, as this car is made of wood) have all rusted over the years. Some of them have this weird "wood deck screw" square head on them - I'm going to be swapping those out for normal screws. I think that those may have been added later on by a later owner. What's slightly irritating is that nearly none of the screws match, which shows a bit of a lack of attention to detail - both in not bagging the screws properly when they came out, and also in not getting them all to match when putting it back together. We'll fix this right when it goes back together.

Another issue is what to do with the tires. I believe it has the original tires on it. The car was imported into the US in 1972, and the tires are old Goodyear G800 tires (common on smaller performance cars of this era). Except for one that has been rubbing against a bolt on the bodywork who who knows how long, they actually all look very, very good. No cracking, treads are good, and they hold pressure very well. I can't decode the date code / serial number printed on them - I think they may actually pre-date date codes.

A brief search of the Internet reveals that I'm not the only one looking for a good replacement, and all of the "modern" tires look, well, modern by comparison. There's a part of me that would love to find another set of wheels (or 1/2 set, since I already have a front and rear spare) and keep a set of the "vintage tired wheels", but then again, how important is that? I won't know how it will look until the new tires are on it (it may look better!).

It's funny because it has 12" wheels in the front, and 15" wheels in the back. We all know that 15" wheels look a little small on the 911 sometimes - these look absolutely huge compared to the 12s on the front!

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-Wayne

Although I just measured them, and the wheels are 16" on the rear, and 13" on the front. Weird, the tires say 175-12 on the front, and 185 SR 15 on the rear. Not sure what they convert into exactly, I'll have to do more research.

-Wayne

When you measure the wheels, make sure you’re measuring the diameter of the wheel where the bottom of the tire bead is seated, not the maximum diameter of the outside face of the rim. There’s generally around a 1 inch difference between the two measurements.

Did you check Coker Tire?

Look up tires for a Hillman Imp. There should be something available new that will work.

My UK car guru friend suggested these guys for classic style.

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/

Updated info from him.

He's using Yokohama A539 165/60r12 on his car. Says they should fit on rims up to 6.5" width.

https://www.minisport.com/165-60-r12-yokohama-a539-sports-tyre.html

Roger Kraus Racing can get you some Goodyear or Avon that would have tread patterns and be close to that period.

https://rogerkrausracing.com/

https://www.vintagetyres.com/shop/me...z1857015_1.png

Cool, thanks for the tips everyone. This one is going to be difficult because the clearances are pretty thin. Any tires I get might not actually fit when we're done. I think I'll have to find a local tire shop who will work with me to figure this out - if we put them on there and they don't fit, then I need to be able to send them back. Good "ole" tire shops like in the "good ole" days don't tend to exist any more...

-Wayne

Just do some careful measuring of what you have now then check out the specifications for whatever tire you’re considering. The specs are usually pretty detailed, you can probably get real close on paper before you actually have to buy something and try it.

With the electrical pretty much all sorted (just need to put the center console back together after I replace the damaged tachometer gauge ring), it's time to move onto the brakes. Arguably the most important part of the car, these haven't been touched in 37 years, so that means every component needs to be looked at:

- Brake master cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Hard brake lines cleaned
- Rubber brake hoses replaced
- Wheel cylinders rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch master cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch slave cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch hose replaced
- Rear brake light pressure switch replaced (or removed and tested)
- Brake shoes measured and checked.

So, in order to find / order parts for the car, I took off (so far what I needed) in order to hunt them down. I'm happy to report the following:

- Found NOS front wheel cylinders in the UK and ordered four of them. Two on the left and two on the right. They make cheap Chinese knockoffs of the Triumph ones, but these are the wrong sized bore (.75" for the knockoffs, versus .70" for what's on the car right now). These should hopefully be here next week.

- I found a replacement NOS cylinder for the clutch master cylinder. It's not a very common one - I had to match up the part numbers on the cylinder to one I found on eBay. That took some time, but it should be here next week.

- I found a clutch slave cylinder that is made by Girling (same manufacturer as the original one), and nearly identical, but a slightly newer one that is used with scratch-built race cars. It will look the same, it's the same manufacturer, but it's new stock.

- Same with the brake master cylinder - I ordered a new Girling master cylinder from Pegasus Racing. This should work very well. I spent a long time cleaning the old one only to discover some pitting in the cylinder walls. I'm not sure if it would make a difference in leakage, but the master cylinder needs to be 100% foolproof, so the brand new one, in the right size bore, will work well.

- The brake shoes look like they should on a car that only has about 3,000 miles on it - brand new. I didn't anticipate seeing any oddness there, so I will just reuse them. They basically look brand new.

- Brake lines - I found a good, new replacement for the clutch slave, but I haven't started looking for the front or rear lines together because they will probably sold as a set (and I haven't taken off the rear quite yet). I also haven't taken off the rear wheel cylinder yet, but I think I know what's on there. But I will see later on tonight or tomorrow.

When I was taking all of this stuff off, I made sure to use a respirator, and some wet towels to wipe down the brake dust. On old cars like these, it's almost a 100% certainty that the dust contains asbestos particles, so you want to be 100% careful. I used a P100 mask (similar to what one uses for painting cars - VOC blocker).

Working to remove everything off of one corner per night is a good way to get it done while waiting for the parts. Once the parts arrive, reassembling everything should be very quick and easy!

-Wayne


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Working on my own workshop manual / notebook too!

-Wayne

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1607047918.JPG

Is that just Microsoft Word that you’re using to write up your manual? Looks real nice, is it also how you wrote your other books to send them to a graphics person or did you use different software?

Enjoying reading about this project.

Thanks,
Rutager

Yes, it's MS Word. All I do is create headings and sub-headings, and then you can click through them on the left-hand side to jump to the various areas. I don't insert photos, but instead I use a program called "Greenshot" that takes really easy screenshots. So, if I see something on a webpage - screenshot it, and then control-v (paste) into word. Literally faster than typing this sentence. Making it easy to gather and store information makes this process of restoration easier. I also have a big folder I put all the receipts and handwritten notes into - I will scan all of those from time-to-time. Then, I stuff everything into a OneDrive folder on the computer, and it's automatically sync'ed to the cloud. So, I can refer to a photo in the folder on my phone, again, in less time than it takes to write this sentence.

The books were all written in word, and then passed off to the designers to lay it out. Lots of fights about photo sizes and word count cuts and stuff. I wrote the books in what I believed to be "final form" - I.E. don't change a thing without expecting a fight from me. The best editors left me alone. The worst one literally made about 100 changes per 101 projects. Silly, ridiculous stuff like they would take my sentence:

Be careful when you remove the throw-out bearing to mark its original position so that you can place it back in the correct spot upon reassembly.

and make it something like:

When you remove the throw-out bearing, be careful to mark its original position for correct reassembly in the proper place.

Basically the same exact thing, but just changing the style to be more annoying and less "conversational". I fought back hard.

I was a bit difficult back then - I remember having a big hissy fit over the font they used for the engine book - I wanted them to use the same font as they had for the 101 Porsche 911 book because I thought the 101 book was near perfect in design. I lost that fight. Now, I realize I should have just said "okay". I did win some other important fights - like putting all of the technical and parts info in the back of the engine book. The compromise was the microscopic font size we had to use. I now need reading glasses to read my own book! But it was worth it - that engine book was the most comprehensive and best one I did, I think.

Ahh, the good ole' days!

-Wayne

Boy, you guys are spoiled. When I ran Pelican, stuff that was in stock shipped the same day. With other parts suppliers, the ship times are terrible! Seriously, why would it take a week to ship something out that they have in stock? There are only two answers - either they *don't* have it in stock or they just have one pothead in the warehouse who's playing solitaire and surfing Facebook all day long instead of shipping packages. At Pelican, we had an end-of-day report and if stuff could ship, we didn't go home until it shipped! 99.99% of the time, Pelican shipping delays were caused by our vendors (sometimes also potheads playing solitaire and surfing Facebook all day long). Trying to get parts delivered for these English cars is terrible. The only place that seems to be great is eBay, because Sellers are actually held accountable by customers with the feedback forum. I think I'm just going to use eBay vendors from now on.

*rant off*.

-Wayne

Wayne, if you are not happy with the hydraulic parts you ordered, have you considered sending the parts off the car to Eric at PMB?

Welcome to the wonderful world of 70's British automobiles.

Are you familiar with Moss Motors? Always had good experiences with them.

https://mossmotors.com/


"The Durango '95 purred away real horrowshow. A nice warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts."

Yup. Ordered Thanksgiving day, Thursday Nov 26. Didn't ship until the following Thursday, more than a week later. Had to send them a nasty note through their chat system in order to get the order "kick started" or something like that (they don't even accept or have a public email address). Two parts, a coil wire and a nut for the wire - both showing in stock. Definitely not Pelican, that's for sure.

-Wayne

So, now that you own something classically British, you get to learn a whole slew of new phrases!

Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Lucas refrigerators
Q: What is Lord Lucas’ real name? A: The Prince of Darkness
Q: What were Lord Lucas’ deaths bed words? A: Don’t drive at night

There are more, but that’s all I remember at this point...

Wow, thats surprising.

I've been working on old Jags, Minis and Lotus over the last year. They have been on top of it for me. Had some trouble finding brake stuff as well.

Who invented the intermittent wiper? Lucas.

Well, they are not here yet. They are supposedly NOS stuff, so I'm hoping that all will be okay...

-Wayne

A trick that I know about, but others may not, is to go directly to www.ebay.co.uk and search there. There's a lot of stuff that is set to "not ship to the United States", but if you find something there that you need, you an usually convince the seller to do that. Or, I have a colleague in the UK who can receive stuff too...

-Wayne

Greetings Wayne;
You are progressing quite well.
As for the tires, in the 37 years I owned the car, I never had to add air to the tires.
Is there a need to get new tires at all?
When I went looking for tires for the second Probe that I had, I found some in Austrailia.
I never bought them since we sold the car to Mark in England.
Phil

I'm curious about the wheels. Picture shows holes for lugs, but other pictures show a center lock type design?

The tires are worn on the back where they were rubbing against the body. Plus, after nearly 50 years, they are not very soft and are a bit hard, which means that they will not have good traction. The existing tires would look good for show tires, and I will have them save the old ones, but in order to be safe, new ones will need to be fitted for sure...

-Wayne

Yes, these wheels have an adapter that uses the lugs to change it to a center-lock design. The center lock hub bolts to the wheel using the existing lug holes. A bit odd if you ask me - I hadn't seen that before...

-Wayne

Working on getting the brakes done. Some photos:

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