And So It Begins....

[SanRemo78]

Oh, and a deal has been done with Nigel for the remains of an airconditioning system from a Beta to see if I can retrofit something to the car. Watch this space as they say!

[Nigel]

There's a bracket in the underside of the car, next to the big bung where the gear-lever is and there's a cutout in the heat shield there. Since the car didn't have an exhaust system on it when I got it can anyone enlighten me on what the bracket is for? My memories from 34-40 years ago don't extend to seeing this before...

I replaced the two rear-most sections last week and also found that bracket. There's a heat shield mounted
on my downpipe at that point but no visible means to use the bracket. I ignored it.

N.

[SanRemo78]

Lots going on in the last week but little on the Beta! Realising I was away for a week at the end of the month and that that co-incided with the expiry of the Panda's MOT it was time to give it a little attention. It's not had much in the last year but also hasn't seen much use but I hate taking a car for the test unprepared. That includes making sure it's clean inside and out and underneath. The plastic trim around the car was showing it's age and was fading to grey gradually so part of the tidy up was restoring it. I've used Autoglym for a few years but this leaves streaks on the paintwork after rain so this time I decided to use a new to me product, Owatrol Polytrol and apply it with a toothbrush... It took a while but was worth it. Time will tell how long it's going to last. Advisory free MOT duly obtained on Monday!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

And so today has been spent on housework in preparation for visitors but once that was done it was time to try something new! After the success of treating plastics on the Panda I decided to drag the centre console out and give it a clean. I actually have a spare one so started on that as it looked worse than the original as an experiment. I washed both with a stiff brush and washing up liquid before hosing them off and then applied the Owarol Polytrol with a toothbrush, working it into the surface and buffing it off before it became sticky. It's worked beautifully on the spare one but not so well on the original, I might give that a second treatment but if it doesn't work it looks like the spare one is going in the car! Really happy with how it turned out. Photo below shows the finished one and the original before i had a go at it. The original didn't change colour much...

Next practice piece will be a spare door mirror body. It should work just as well on them!

Guy

[WestonE]

Way better in black than that weird grey green they become over time. I think I painted mine in specialist plastic paint, but of course I have forgotten what I used!

[Nigel]

There's a bracket in the underside of the car, next to the big bung where the gear-lever is and there's a cutout in the heat shield there. Since the car didn't have an exhaust system on it when I got it can anyone enlighten me on what the bracket is for? My memories from 34-40 years ago don't extend to seeing this before...

I replaced the two rear-most sections last week and also found that bracket. There's a heat shield mounted
on my downpipe at that point but no visible means to use the bracket. I ignored it.

N.

Further thought: I think that bracket is used where a flex coupling is present, giving
support to the section after the flexy bit.

N

[SanRemo78]

Not sure Nigel, the bracket is offset and outside the run for the heat shield. I'll have to look at some of the manuals I've got and see if I can work it out, I was thinking it looked like it ought to have a spring attached? The mystery will be solved eventually.

There' not going to be a lot to report for the next couple of weeks, some Beta Aircon parts are going to be collected from Nigel to see if it's possible to retrofit something to the car, the bits will give me a routing clue for pipework I hope.

In the meantime, in preparation for a rough dash install so I can work out how I'm going to fit a double din head unit I've been working on the gauge cluster. I acquired a couple of spare sets, one orange needled like my original set and another white set. I prefer the white needles, 140mph Speedo and different warning light graphics. It took a bit of work to dismantle them, clean the set up, reset the mileage to zero and reassemble them but I'm happy with the results. Original gauges on top show 70,500 miles but I think I can justify resetting them..... It'll be practically a new car once it's done. won't it?

Guy

[Ferrit]

Thanks to Peter there’s a top mount on the way. Hero!
Head scratching today, so much to do and I didn’t fancy more drill work so I thought I’d have a go at the rubber steering rack inner arm shrouds. One down one to go. Scraped the worst of the crud off, washed with a scrubbing brush then a mixture of solvents (petrol and WD40) and some rubber treatment.
I’ll do the other one tomorrow. It’s come up quite soft after all that work and should last a while!
Guy

I have a pair from Mark and need cleaning.  If you dont mind me asking what rubber treatment did you use?

[SanRemo78]

Rubber cleaning has been a mixture of solvents (petrol and/or white spirit) to remove any contaminants followed by treatment  with Autoglym rubber and vinyl gel and also something called Gummi Pflege which is a German product for door seal cleaning and treating to stop rubber squeaks, not sure this is recommended for rubber top mounts though. If you're getting some new ones from Mark they'll be fine!
Guy

[Ferrit]

Misunderstanding..  this was in relationship for a pair of rubber steering rack inner arm shrouds

MF

[SanRemo78]

Okay Mark, the same applies for those rubber inner arch steering arm protectors or whatever they are called!
Guy

[SanRemo78]

It happened..

Pulling a box off the top shelf in the garage and a small tin of paint landed on the bonnet and bounced onto the passenger wing.

Gutted. Pissed with myself. Needs a repair at the paint shop. Idiot. That was avoidable.

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

I feel for you, I had the end of an exhaust manifold fall against the Spider door and swore quite a lot......

Still to have an event on the HPE, but it will come!

All the best, beer helps!

Peter

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Peter, it will get fixed....

I collected a Beta aircon kit from Nigel last week comprising the compressor & brackets, condenser, evaporator in the heater box, dryer, controls and pipework to see if I could retrofit it to the Coupe. A quick look today isn't looking promising. The compressor won't fit the mounts I have and the condensers mounting feet don't match the odd brackets on the lower crossmember. They are too close together. Hey ho.

So, if I'm going to retrofit aircon to the car I'm going to need some alternatives. An electric compressor is looking the most likely way to go if I can make a model of it and find a place it can live in the engine bay, most likely spot is the inner wing where the horn compressor lives or the other side where the coil lives which will entail moving something.

I've identified an alternative evaporator that looks like it'll fit with an integral dryer from a Lancia Delta/Fiat Punto/etc etc so sort of keeping it in the family! I suspect the pipework will be straight forward to have made and route but the controls I'm not yet sure about. The original Beta ones are all vacuum operated and whilst they can probably be sorted I think it's probably simpler to motorise everything?

The heater box is, unsurprisingly, different from the non aircon car and this will require some further investigation. It has separate heater cores and aircon evaporators with the aircon pipes coming in on the passenger side. This might dictate installation of the compressor on the left side of the car!

Looking at Nigel's car also identified another probable issue! The Guy Croft motor I'm installing has a pair of twin 40 Dellorto's on it and clearance to the standard radiator with it's shrouding is going to be too tight I think. Especially with the standard fan and it's cowling. I think I'll have to resort to finding  one from an IE or VX which I think sits further forward in the engine bay... I'm sure I'll get the chance to look at other engine bays in a couple of weeks to get some more ideas.

Guy

[WestonE]

Use a Belt driven Compressor if you possibly can. They just deliver more powerful AC. Also the water drain in the OE Heater/Evaporator box will be far too small. I found this out with a soggy left foot and in car cold shower on my last trip to Turin with the AC newly installed. This is now fixed thank fully. Making the speed switch lever match the original involved a lot of custom electrical work. Avoid this.

Eric

[rossocorsa]

Regarding the radiator, I ,very briefly, years ago had a HPE VX with a single dcoe (very rough only fit for scrap) and the modifier had simply found a more modern slimmer alloy cored radiator that would fit offset further to the left thereby leaving more breathing room for the carb. I can't remember much more about it unfortunately.

[SanRemo78]

Thanks for the advice Eric, I'm looking at this compressor from T7 designs and I'm confident it will fit between the battery and the slam panel. It won't fit behind the headlights on either side unfortunately.
https://www.t7design.co.uk/18cc-electric-a-c-scroll-compressor-12v-2-15kw-3-speed-2-5k-3-5k-4-5k-048-d6e-edb.html

This is the condensing radiator that will fit between the slam panel and the lower crossmember and has an integral dryer.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/317217951903?_skw=universal+air+conditioning+condenser&itmmeta=01K4GCQVD788HYHRCBXKEQYW8K&hash=item49dba9d09f:g:CgMAAeSwS7por-0z&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA4FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1frdF6tGYLVA%2BezQHET26lW77ZQkwdZTUKw07HzFEmCm6BIUXNdpiLI7oTeXJSbWjzaMkTCbLuPIG7D9t03KNFIcqBX5ifL2VXxd3HLQG1K30qi49k04IVYibLAvzIWflzYTNZM9l8JORS4xYOISuAAtH7xnWEzUnGx5j5GCCR3MwLHQWWXgl7eMkocnkCmqRdcrkJ1IMuASRCcjj22dVtUznHo%2Bqx6iSY9vNernAb%2BZi%2FhUNMzzCEW8RbaC1LRF5NZWIOsn4M%2BC8fptcNWcM0A%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4a334ykZg&pfm=0

As I'll be having a custom wiring loom for the car I'm not too worried at this point about electrics and will go for a 4 position rotary switch if I can resolve flap controls on the heater boxes and heater valve.

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Hi Ian, I think I might have more room than that.. The Guy Croft manifold is shorter than a standard manifold and shorter than the VX one with a supercharger and a twin 40 nailed to the front. Depending on air filter choice obviously. But yes, any slimline radiator that fits will be considered provided it's got enough cooling capacity! In an ideal world I'd find a radiator pack with a shrouded fan that would fit neatly between the underside of the slam panel and the top of the lower crossmember. And maybe have enough space for an oil cooler radiator. I think I can possibly go for a pusher type fan in front of the radiator pack too. But I need to sort one part at a time.

Visitors this week so nothing more to see in this space for a while...

Guy

[SanRemo78]

This has been bugging me for a while now. Boot lid isn't shutting neatly. Right side okay, left, not so much.

[SanRemo78]

I had a look at it before I went to Gerrys last week and decided that the locknut on the catch was the issue. It was too thick, so I "borrowed" a half nut from Gerry's stores and tried that. No difference. The it dawned on me that the locknut could also be fitted from below. This allowed a couple more turns on the catch and an improvement but I'm still not entirely happy with it, it's still slightly proud. I may resort to another catch to see if that plays any better. I don't think the seal is the issue but I'm going to leave it a few days before I revisit this in case it settles with a little more pressure on it.