Lagoonblue's MK2 1600 deluxe

[LagoonBlue 145]

Still alive! Haven't got the energy to do anything in the garage after work and the freezing weather has not helped either.

Though I did muster some strength to wiggle a mouse and click a few buttons;

This is definitely going to hurt my wallet..

 

Plus whatever the customs will charge.. Had to get 'em bits anyways, hopefully I will have these before the holidays.

[LagoonBlue 145]

Parts, glorious parts!

Received my package from Burtons;

Not a huge heap laid out like this but many of these I had to buy sooner or later.

 

Water pump is a given and this looks like it's of decent quality. I also bought the straight hose barb as mine was quite corroded.

Upper radiator hose that actually fits (RH759) was a good find.

My set of NOS pistons did not come with circlips so I was happy to see that FP548;s that I bought were an exact fit.

Valve cotters are supposed to be replaced when changing the valves, though hardly anyone does but considering their cost I bought a set as an cheap insurance.

Cast iron valve guides should do the job, no need to get anything fancy for my purposes.

Set of ignition leads have proven to be surprisingly difficult to find, these seem to be made rather well. Though I will remove those white Burton labels (heat shrink tubing so easy to do).

Oil pump I got as my original is very likely shot, cartridge style pumps are not available anymore so I also had to also buy a filter to suit. Though I do understand why the screw on filter type is better l would of preferred the looks of of the earlier style.

Key ring, well that was a present for myself :)

 

Interior door handles I bought mostly out of sheer curiosity. Not that expensive either. These were not marketed to suit MK2;s but remember that mine is Series 1 and seeing that on the parts book early type handle is listed as 105E-7022614-B (Anglia part number) these ought to fit. Compared side by side (repro on top in both pics);

Round parts circumference ~2mm smaller on the repro, otherwise spot on. Mine were not that bad to begin with but I think I will use the repros.

 

Not easy on the old wallet this bundle but feels good to cross at least few parts off the list.

[consul315 180]

not that i d need some, but the repro handles look quite good!

[LagoonBlue 145]

Waking up for work is getting easier but weather I can not control;

Brr.. Way too cold for my liking

 

So it's the usual parts hunting and dealing with little stuff.

One of those small jobs I had was to repair a cable end that had been messed with.  Since FoMoCo bullet connectors are not readily available (though a standard crimp connector is fairly close and could be made to work) I salvaged one from a spare harness. After carefully removing overmolded plastic and wire insulation I heated the crimped part to relieve work hardening. Next step was to carefully open up the crimp with small picks and pliers, very fiddly stuff.

 

New wire crimped in to the recycled connector. Had to buy new jaws for my crimping pliers from the far east, cost bugger all but took forever to arrive. Couple strands did not fit as the wire was little bit larger but it passed the "tug" test.

 

3D printed mold to overmold the connector end for insulation.

4mm fill port on top for a 10ml syringe. As my printer is not the worlds greatest I had to cheat a little and make the diameter 0.5mm larger than the original 5.5mm.

Links to .STL files. First one is smaller.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zJF37kKsgncwa-8CoiGYaSig-5dXCTs6/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Byd67Ybgtc3AcetrmJlpESdC0xSSpUJx/view?usp=sharing

 

After applying mold release (I have the proper stuff but something like wax might also work?) I filled the mold with my favourite 6 years out of date 2 part polyurethane.

As i was pushing in the polyurethane in I momentarily blocked the vent to get some pressure for properly filling the mold. There should be no trapped air as the mold line is not a perfect seal.

 

Demolded part. Should be light grey but black is what I had.

 

And the finished piece after cleaning, fairly close to original. Silly stuff really but could be a neat trick for many other uses as well.

[John Mack 329]

-27     Do you have some sort of pre-heater that works off mains electricity ?

[68 Cortina 17]

My cortina when imported from Finland,came with studded tires and a heating element inserted into a core plug hole with long extension lead connected and kept under bonnet.So could be plugged into mains to stop from freezing 

[LagoonBlue 145]

2 hours ago, John Mack said:

-27     Do you have some sort of pre-heater that works off mains electricity ?

 

2 hours ago, 68 Cortina said:

My cortina when imported from Finland,came with studded tires and a heating element inserted into a core plug hole with long extension lead connected and kept under bonnet.So could be plugged into mains to stop from freezing 

 

Yes, block heater is a must for winter driving around here. My poor old T25 Avensis barely starts whenever I forgot to plug in.

My Cortina also came with a block heater, though it will not be going back in 

[LagoonBlue 145]

Not much but something is always better than nothing.

 

I gathered all the pieces I had prepared for the rear license plate lamp;

 

Polished stainless cover, cleaned lens, no idea what part? was cardboard but that seemed silly so I made another from thin black plastic, gasket, 3D printed housing, bulb, wire harness with socket and connectors (taped with proper loom tape and electrical tape at the ends) and a label (though probably did not come with one originally). Rubber plug for the bulb was omitted as the new socket will seal just fine.

 

Assembled;

 

Picture from the parts book;

Note that in the book connector ends are both shown as being the bullet type but this is not correct.

Rubber bung is wrong way around on mine (oopsie, but trivial to fix) and I need to dig from the "archives"  a correct rubber grommet for the boot floor pass through.

 

Other than that ready to go.

[68 Cortina 17]

Amazing job as always,better than new

[LagoonBlue 145]

There is a decent chance that the winter might finally be over! Wednesday was a public holiday here in Finland and as the weather was quite nice people turned up in droves to a meet/cruise near me.

 

 

Even I was there with my bike;

 

Lots of very nice cars too.

I briefly chatted with owner of the '70 MK2, nice guy.

 

Someone recorded the arrival to YouTube, linked below if you have ~16 minutes to burn.

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming Some new acquisitions.

Base spec front brake discs were tricky to find. EBC makes these (EBC D032) but the prices are more akin to highway robbery and I will have no part in that. Luckily I managed to locate a set of new old stock discs in Italy(!) for a reasonable price;

 

Wipers and wing mirror from TEX automotive were also fairly priced but took a while to get here..

 

Tex is what my car originally had, though only the stem remained when I got it. I suspect that the mirrors were installed by the dealer since period pictures show a bewildering array of different stem/head combinations. In the end I went with the head that I liked the most.

 

It's a good thing I was not in a hurry as it took from pressing the order button to arrival about 5 months To be fair this was caused by supply issues beyond the control of TEX, who were really good to deal with. I do like that these are still made in England. What I do not like was that I had to RMA the first stem due to chrome issues and the replacement was not perfect either. But taking into account the price point and considering how difficult it is to chrome pot metal this will have to do. Still heaps better than what I had.

 

In other news I now have access to a lathe at my job after hours;

Not the worlds greatest and quite worn out but still a real big boy lathe. Though I need a bit more practice under my belt, been a while since I last used one.

[John Mack 329]

3 hours ago, LagoonBlue said:

Someone recorded the arrival to YouTube, linked below if you have ~16 minutes to burn.

 

 

Some turnout !!  What variety?!

 

Got a liking for Volvo Estates recently, liked the ones at 1:37 and 4:10       Was that a Mazda 626 Coupe at 6:35 ?

Edited May 5, 2024 by John Mack

[LagoonBlue 145]

2 hours ago, John Mack said:

 

Some turnout !!  What variety?!

 

Got a liking for Volvo Estates recently, liked the ones at 1:37 and 4:10       Was that a Mazda 626 Coupe at 6:35 ?

That would be a Toyota Carina Coupe 

[John Mack 329]

9 minutes ago, LagoonBlue said:

That would be a Toyota Carina Coupe 

 

 'tis a nice looking car..... I'll bet it's never broken down !?

[LagoonBlue 145]

I finished couple casting jobs from winter now that it is again warm enough to work outside.

 

Rear view mirror needed a lot of sanding to get the shape right as my mold was not made from a perfect example. For polishing I used one of those cheap headlight restoration kits that come with sanding pads and polishing compound. After that I used a finer paint polishing compound and liquid wax on a wool pad.

Rubber bung that stabilises the mirror against windscreen is not original but not too far off.

 

I even had a decent original mirror glass that I had forgotten about. That popped in without too much trouble.

 

Another loose end was the interior light;

I cleaned and tested a good base for my new lens. I had also somehow misplaced the mounting screws. In the parts book these were shown as part No. 52724-S13. This did not help too much but by googling the part number I found a 1955 Mercury book with a good description: Screw, pan head, cross recessed, No.6-18 x 1/2". Adding into that what I already knew (Phillips No.2, zinc plated) I raided my not insubstantial collection of loose screws and found a decent looking pair.

 

Boxed, tagged and stored for now

[D-FENS 80]

8 hours ago, LagoonBlue said:

I finished couple casting jobs from winter now that it is again warm enough to work outside.

 

Rear view mirror needed a lot of sanding to get the shape right as my mold was not made from a perfect example. For polishing I used one of those cheap headlight restoration kits that come with sanding pads and polishing compound. After that I used a finer paint polishing compound and liquid wax on a wool pad.

Rubber bung that stabilises the mirror against windscreen is not original but not too far off.

 

I even had a decent original mirror glass that I had forgotten about. That popped in without too much trouble.

 

Another loose end was the interior light;

I cleaned and tested a good base for my new lens. I had also somehow misplaced the mounting screws. In the parts book these were shown as part No. 52724-S13. This did not help too much but by googling the part number I found a 1955 Mercury book with a good description: Screw, pan head, cross recessed, No.6-18 x 1/2". Adding into that what I already knew (Phillips No.2, zinc plated) I raided my not insubstantial collection of loose screws and found a decent looking pair.

 

Boxed, tagged and stored for now

Fantastic workmanship they look better than the originals  👍