Lagoonblue's MK2 1600 deluxe

[LagoonBlue 146]

Brr, I hate winter Too cold to work in the garage but I that will not stop me tinkering with some little stuff indoors.

 

A good while ago I had bought a boot lock with keys in near mint condition and wanted to make those keys work on my door lock, especially since I had no keys to begin with for the doors. To kill two birds with one stone I set out to clean and rekey my door lock.

 

First task was to take all my spares to bits, wash everything in ultrasonic cleaner and see what I had to work with. To get barrel out from the push button I had to lift the lock plates with a pick one by one as it came forwards.

These lock plates and springs were either damaged, worn or surplus to needs. I chose the right plates by dangling them in the grooves and seeing that the ends were level.

 

Got it right on the first try! Either I was very lucky or more likely there are not that many different lock plates in these..

 

All my locks (manufactured by CEM) were a little different than pictured in the workshop manual so here is how these go back together. Square cut seal goes to thin groove on the push button. Adjusting bolt has a sliver of plastic on it but one might want to use some Loctite when setting it up.

Since I do not live on an island this one is for the left side but should otherwise be same as the UK models.

Not pictured; two mounting screws, 0.8mm gaskets between door and handle.

 

I used VERY little amount of thin oil for the barrel and grease for other moving parts.

 

And the completed handle with lock. Works as good as it ever did, I actually have to use a key with this

Was way easier job than I had thought!

[SusanButcher 33]

A job that's worth doing. My first Corsair could be started with a lolly stick in the ignition lock. But who would want THREE Lotus Elans, even if they only cost thrupence?

Edited December 2, 2022 by SusanButcher

[LagoonBlue 146]

On 12/2/2022 at 3:52 AM, SusanButcher said:

A job that's worth doing. My first Corsair could be started with a lolly stick in the ignition lock. But who would want THREE Lotus Elans, even if they only cost thrupence?

 

Well, I think we can at least deduce that Cortina is a much better car since mine cost 11.360FIM when new

 

Burtons were having a Black Friday sale so bought some bits and bobs;

 

Still not the cheapest but savings in postage compared to buying them separately elsewhere more than made it up. Quality wise I have never had any issues with their parts.

[GhiaMk4/5 207]

Excellent attention to detail as per usual, brilliant.

[LagoonBlue 146]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:12 PM, GhiaMk4/5 said:

Excellent attention to detail as per usual, brilliant.

Thank you!

 

Happy days! Seems that I finally found correct pistons for my worn out standard bore 2737E 1.6 HC block.

This was my previous set of oversize pistons that I had bought with a bunch of other parts;

I guess these are not great but merely O.K.

 

Note the valve relief cuts and lack of oil channels for the bottom ring. Might be for 711M block? Also these have split skirts, that would be an old hat trick to prevent heat seizure. Weird to see in automotive application.

Fine pistons for someone else but not for me.

 

After a fair bit of research I came to the conclusion that I needed a set of these;

 

That should do it. These have become a bit thin on the ground so cost about the same as a set of pistons from Burton but those start from +.030" and I would rather leave as much meat in the bores as possible.

 

Of course I do not know 100% sure until the block has been machined but for now I will call this piece of the puzzle sorted.

[LagoonBlue 146]

Something I have wanted to try my hand at for ages has been resin casting. Since good interior light lenses are so hard to find I chose that as my first subject.

 

I selected the best lens that I had and gave it a good wash and polish. Certainly nice enough to use as is but the plastic in these tends to turn into dust with age. I also carefully removed the brass grounding eyelet.

 

For making the mold I had some fancy pants Smooth-On Dragon Skin 10 platinum cure silicone. Though to stay true to character it was manufactured in 2014 (recommended shelf-life is 6 months), worked just fine regardless.

I used a high tech modular molding box system of Danish origin as a base to get registration dimples for the first part. Since these blocks are prone to seeping from the cracks I chose to use paint sticks for the sides. Luckily sticks happened to fit perfectly between the studs.

 

Blue tack keeps the part off from the bottom and prevents silicone seeping underneath the part. Mold release was applied to all surfaces within the box.

 

After mixing the silicone I degassed it with my smaller DIY vacuum pump. This is just a fridge compressor and a suitably sized pot. Clear plastic lid with a rubber gasket goes on top. Ugly but does the job.

 

Next up was the other half of the mold. I flipped the previous side, removed blue tack from it and again applied mold release.

 

After cutting a pouring sprue and riser to let air escape the completed mold was ready;

 

I was quite impressed with the level of detail;

Very nice, clean and crisp and fit together like.. Legos?

 

For testing the mold I used polyester resin since it was locally available and cheap. Absolutely toxic smelling stuff so had to do pouring in the boiler room while wearing a full face respirator.

I made a small stand to keep the mold upright. Since the stand is made of clear plastic I can backlit it and (just about) see where the resin is at. For mixing the resin I used a precision scale (±0.01g) and degassed the resin in vacuum before pouring.

 

At first I had difficulties with air bubbles and voids but after couple test pulls I had my technique sorted and a fairly good copy of the lens;

 

Polyester resin was too brittle for my liking so I have ordered proper clear epoxy casting resin. I will also try to use less pigment (was two drops for 20g, maybe try one) and install the grounding eyelet.

I might also try curing in a pressure pot to avoid bubbles.

 

But that will have to wait until I have the epoxy in stock. To be continued..

[D-FENS 80]

1 hour ago, LagoonBlue said:

Something I have wanted to try my hand at for ages has been resin casting. Since good interior light lenses are so hard to find I chose that as my first subject.

 

I selected the best lens that I had and gave it a good wash and polish. Certainly nice enough to use as is but the plastic in these tends to turn into dust with age. I also carefully removed the brass grounding eyelet.

 

For making the mold I had some fancy pants Smooth-On Dragon Skin 10 platinum cure silicone. Though to stay true to character it was manufactured in 2014 (recommended shelf-life is 6 months), worked just fine regardless.

I used a high tech modular molding box system of Danish origin as a base to get registration dimples for the first part. Since these blocks are prone to seeping from the cracks I chose to use paint sticks for the sides. Luckily sticks happened to fit perfectly between the studs.

 

Blue tack keeps the part off from the bottom and prevents silicone seeping underneath the part. Mold release was applied to all surfaces within the box.

 

After mixing the silicone I degassed it with my smaller DIY vacuum pump. This is just a fridge compressor and a suitably sized pot. Clear plastic lid with a rubber gasket goes on top. Ugly but does the job.

 

Next up was the other half of the mold. I flipped the previous side, removed blue tack from it and again applied mold release.

 

After cutting a pouring sprue and riser to let air escape the completed mold was ready;

 

I was quite impressed with the level of detail;

Very nice, clean and crisp and fit together like.. Legos?

 

For testing the mold I used polyester resin since it was locally available and cheap. Absolutely toxic smelling stuff so had to do pouring in the boiler room while wearing a full face respirator.

I made a small stand to keep the mold upright. Since the stand is made of clear plastic I can backlit it and (just about) see where the resin is at. For mixing the resin I used a precision scale (±0.01g) and degassed the resin in vacuum before pouring.

 

At first I had difficulties with air bubbles and voids but after couple test pulls I had my technique sorted and a fairly good copy of the lens;

 

Polyester resin was too brittle for my liking so I have ordered proper clear epoxy casting resin. I will also try to use less pigment (was two drops for 20g, maybe try one) and install the grounding eyelet.

I might also try curing in a pressure pot to avoid bubbles.

 

But that will have to wait until I have the epoxy in stock. To be continued..

Great work going on there . Would you be interested in making some for sale ?

[LagoonBlue 146]

1 hour ago, D-FENS said:

Great work going on there . Would you be interested in making some for sale ?

Thanks! It has crossed my mind and the mold should last for at least 200pcs. or so but the export logistics and (after a certain total value) tax issues might be too much of a hassle. So much unnecessary red tape these days Regardless, first I will need to be happy on the quality and materials.

[GhiaMk4/5 207]

You are one very clever/talented person, well done on a great result.

[LagoonBlue 146]

On 3/17/2023 at 9:33 PM, GhiaMk4/5 said:

You are one very clever/talented person, well done on a great result.

Thank you!

I do love to tinker, especially fun challenges like this where it's ok to fail at first.

Like yesterday with my epoxy test piece;

Oopsie Next time I will remember to check that the mold is properly closed. Also this did not seem to cure properly, might have been too cold?

I will cobble together a heating box and try again.

[LagoonBlue 146]

Well this got complicated, luckily I like learning and on account of the bitter cold outside have nothing better to do

 

Made a heating box from whatever junk i had lying around ;

96W worth of heating elements made from NiChrome wire, adjustable DIN rail thermostat with added relay (to switch from NO to NC), temperature cut off switch and  some insulation.

It would of been easier to modify a toaster oven but those are not that common in these parts.

Worked really well for properly curing the epoxy resin in reasonable time.

 

First decent pour with epoxy, needs polishing since it's an almost exact copy of the old original below. Could have also used ever so little more tint.

Shame that I do not like it

 

A quick and dirty lesson on common casting resins;

Polyester: Cheap, easy to find and use, long pot life and curing time, polishes ok, stinks to high heaven, very brittle.

Epoxy: Affordable, can be found on arts and crafts type shops, fairly long pot life and curing time, safe(ish), tough, yellows with age (even if UV-protected), does not polish very well, goes bendy above 50°C.

Polyurethane: Costly, hard to find and use, very short pot life and curing time, somewhat hazardous, requires pressure chamber for best results, very tough and stable, polishes well.

 

In short, different resins for different uses and for this application the winner would be clear polyurethane resin.

I am the type of person that likes to learn by doing and feel the difference of materials in my own hands. Since these take only ~20g of resin per shot experimenting has not been a huge loss, I can use the remaining polyester and epoxy for other less demanding uses.

 

Anyways, I found good quality clear urethane resin for a reasonable price in Poland(!) and ordered some. Will likely take quite while to get here so in the mean time I can make a pressure pot. I am not brave (or stupid) enough to DIY a pressure vessel but found a good starting point for that little project.

[D-FENS 80]

37 minutes ago, LagoonBlue said:

Well this got complicated, luckily I like learning and on account of the bitter cold outside have nothing better to do

 

Made a heating box from whatever junk i had lying around ;

96W worth of heating elements made from NiChrome wire, adjustable DIN rail thermostat with added relay (to switch from NO to NC), temperature cut off switch and  some insulation.

It would of been easier to modify a toaster oven but those are not that common in these parts.

Worked really well for properly curing the epoxy resin in reasonable time.

 

First decent pour with epoxy, needs polishing since it's an almost exact copy of the old original below. Could have also used ever so little more tint.

Shame that I do not like it

 

A quick and dirty lesson on common casting resins;

Polyester: Cheap, easy to find and use, long pot life and curing time, polishes ok, stinks to high heaven, very brittle.

Epoxy: Affordable, can be found on arts and crafts type shops, fairly long pot life and curing time, safe(ish), tough, yellows with age (even if UV-protected), does not polish very well, goes bendy above 50°C.

Polyurethane: Costly, hard to find and use, very short pot life and curing time, somewhat hazardous, requires pressure chamber for best results, very tough and stable, polishes well.

 

In short, different resins for different uses and for this application the winner would be clear polyurethane resin.

I am the type of person that likes to learn by doing and feel the difference of materials in my own hands. Since these take only ~20g of resin per shot experimenting has not been a huge loss, I can use the remaining polyester and epoxy for other less demanding uses.

 

Anyways, I found good quality clear urethane resin for a reasonable price in Poland(!) and ordered some. Will likely take quite while to get here so in the mean time I can make a pressure pot. I am not brave (or stupid) enough to DIY a pressure vessel but found a good starting point for that little project.

Excellent result so far 👍 What country are you based in ?

[LagoonBlue 146]

Thank you! I live in Finland close to Oulu.

[LagoonBlue 146]

Got the polyurethane resin. Alumilite Water Clear, seems to be quality stuff. Came in nice bottles, very easy to pour small amounts. To be on the safe side I also bought Alumlite white pigment so that there will be no compatibility issues.

The downside of this resin is that it absolutely needs to be pressure cast.

 

So let's build a pressure pot.

 

I was extremely lucky to find an old paint pressure tank from skip. Seems that previous owner had the gasket fail on him as the pot was covered in paint (hence the skip). Wirebrush on an angle grinder sorted that out. After that I flipped the lid, made sure it was level and cast a new gasket with caulking silicone. Before the silicone set I scraped it to uniform level. Not the worlds greatest since i really need to crank on the wingnuts to get it to seal but certainly good enough. If I ever redo the gasket I might try a softer silicone

The pot needed minimal modifications, I cut off the paint pickup tube and changed plumbing to suit my needs. There were no ratings printed on the pot but pressure relief valve was set at ~3,5bar which works for me as the resin needs around 3bar.

In principle pressure vessels are not something that one wants to muck with but I feel Ok with this, even without hydrotesting. Manual on an identical looking pot stated max pressure of 4bars so there should be plenty of margin.

 

Thin walled castings like this really seem to need some additional heat to cure properly in reasonable time so I have preheated the molds to about 40°C and put an old pizza warmer plate under the pressure pot set at~30°C. After 3hours I can remove the heat, let it cool over night with the pressure on and demold the part.

 

Some experiments with the amount of pigment. Fairly tricky to get right on such small amounts (half a drop to 16 grams of resin seems to be the best so far). If making a bigger batch it would make sense to pre-mix pigment to part A of the resin and do small samples. These should fully cure to Shore 72D within week, after that I can test the best method for polishing and install the brass eyelet.

 

Small correction to my previous post. Had a silly brain fart with calculating the Watts on the hot box, even with the worlds easiest formulas

Just put your thumb over the unit you need to know and do the math. I know the resistance (R) and supply voltage (U), so 24 Volts divided by 4 Ohms gives me 6 Amperes (I) and to get the Watts (P) It's 24 Volts multiplied by 6 Amps = 144W. Congratulations  you're an EE now Of course this is the real world we live in so there would also be some losses on cables and contacts etc. but close enough.

Should of known better as 96W seemed a tad low.. Eh, keeps me humble I guess.

[LagoonBlue 146]

This should be the last chapter in the saga of interior light lens, I promise . And just in time as the outside temperatures are beginning to be tolerable.

 

Seems that I was being overly optimistic on the longevity of the silicone molds, apparently they will last only for ca.20 units. Whether or not that is the absolute limit I do not know, especially since this is not a high tolerance part. As far as I can tell my molds are still Ok. Luckily I have what I need already cast.

 

To polish the lens I started by very lightly wet sanding with 800 grit paper followed by 1000 grit. After that I used an headlight restoration kit since it included very nice sanding pads and spray lubricant. To reach the final shine I carefully buffed the lens with rag wheel on a bench grinder and Farecla G3 compound. The very last step was a quick wax with microfibre cloth. 

 

Did not have to buy anything for this step which was nice.

 

To check the opacity I dug up my spectrometer and a suitable LED light source. 

Now we are WAY past gilding the lily

 

Same results as with MK1 eyeball. Taking into account the yellowing of the original the closest match is the lens with light tinting.

 

And to finish the job I installed the brass grounding eyelet. Practice piece on top of the pic and final item on the bottom.

I had to slightly ground down the upper jaw of the pliers to make it fit in the slot but otherwise this part went swimmingly.

And that's it, ready for installation.

 

Now, was it all worth it? Yes and no. To make a one off lens, heck no, not even in the slightest but to learn a new skill and to have all the equipment ready to go when needed then yes. And maybe most importantly this was all in all a fun adventure.