My Car Restoration Project

[andytork]

Having been motivated by Chappo's recent post about his dear "Bertie" thought it was time to get off my fat arse and waste what little time and money brewing leaves behind, not to mention things have been going way too well with SWMBO recently.

So I bought myself a 1977 Daimler Double Six which I intend to ground up restore.

I have setup a blog site http://www.andysjag.com/ where I will post the whole project (for anyone remotely interested)

p.s. if anyone is any good at doing banners, I wouldn't mind one for my site. The chances of me doing a good banner are about the same as me passing a liver function test

 

[raven19]

Rock on! Look forward to seeing the pics of progress.

 

[Cocko]

Something until you get more pix if you like!

View attachment 37429

 

[andytork]

Something until you get more pix if you like!

View attachment 37429

that's pretty good, will upload that tomorrow (bit fiddly from iPhone)

thanks

 

[white.grant]

Looks like fun.

A few years back my fil restored a 76 V12 XJS. It was a big job, those engines are complicated and the body panels are thin.

cheers

grant

 

[petesbrew]

Thats awesome dude. My first car was a '77 triumph 2500S. Being a car mad teenager, my plans were to neaten it up into a nice ride, but soon after realised car restoration wasn't my thing... plus mine was a lemon (but still cool).

 

[andytork]

Looks like fun.

A few years back my fil restored a 76 V12 XJS. It was a big job, those engines are complicated and the body panels are thin.

cheers

grant

I have worked on these before, the engines are not really as complicated as they first appear, its just that any small fault is easily noticeable as they run so smooth normally. A V12 running on 11.9 feels like a bag of spanners. Access to parts of the motor in situ is awkward to say the least, so they can sometimes suffer from service neglect in these areas front injectors and rear plugs being two standard "never serviced parts", I pulled two what I believe to be original plugs from a UK V12 that had 150,000 miles on it. Was running like crap until I changed all the plugs and removed / cleaned and refitted the injectors and replaced all fuel lines, flushed tank etc. Some old boy was obsessed with fuel system cleaner and clogged the lot.

From memory (and purchasing repair steel / panels) the panels are around standard auto gauges (18 & 20 gauge depending on load in area). Pretty sure thats the same gauge used in most cars (probably excluding volvos from the same era as we all know were made entirely out of rock)

 

[white.grant]

I have worked on these before, the engines are not really as complicated as they first appear, its just that any small fault is easily noticeable as they run so smooth normally. A V12 running on 11.9 feels like a bag of spanners. Access to parts of the motor in situ is awkward to say the least, so they can sometimes suffer from service neglect in these areas front injectors and rear plugs being two standard "never serviced parts", I pulled two what I believe to be original plugs from a UK V12 that had 150,000 miles on it. Was running like crap until I changed all the plugs and removed / cleaned and refitted the injectors and replaced all fuel lines, flushed tank etc. Some old boy was obsessed with fuel system cleaner and clogged the lot.

From memory (and purchasing repair steel / panels) the panels are around standard auto gauges (18 & 20 gauge depending on load in area). Pretty sure thats the same gauge used in most cars (probably excluding volvos from the same era as we all know were made entirely out of rock)

He'd bought his back from the UK and it had seen lot of road salt, doors and floors were replaced, had some crash damage too which caused some drivetrain alignment problems when he rebuilt it. He had a lot of fun with it though, he made up and borrowed lots of "special" tools.

I had never seen a water jacketed cylinder block before he'd pulled the engine apart, some very clever engineering in Jags for sure. I will enjoy following your progress.

cheers

grant

 

[andytork]

He'd bought his back from the UK and it had seen lot of road salt, doors and floors were replaced, had some crash damage too which caused some drivetrain alignment problems when he rebuilt it. He had a lot of fun with it though, he made up and borrowed lots of "special" tools.

I had never seen a water jacketed cylinder block before he'd pulled the engine apart, some very clever engineering in Jags for sure. I will enjoy following your progress.

cheers

grant

The engineering is great, thats one of the reasons I love the cars so much. I am lucky that the double six has not suffered the UK road salt, so *should* be solid. I will no doubt find a few areas that will need attention.

British Leyland were not known for their rust protection. probably due to that fact most of their contraptions would self destruct before they dissolved. The opposite was the fete of the Jaguars. I will of course where possible be taking measures to prevent future corrosion during the build.

Its going to take me a long time, as I don't have a great deal of spare time, but should be fun.

I owned quite a few of the special tools (and had constructed some custom ones too) back in the UK, but I don't have them anymore. I feel a v12 head puller will be the first on the list ($300 here to buy) and its just a plate full of bolts !

 

[MarkBastard]

I love that shed you have there mate. May as well get a four bay one and have some room for home brew though!

 

[andytork]

I love that shed you have there mate. May as well get a four bay one and have some room for home brew though!

Not built shed yet, may be going 16x7 now. I have room under house and double garage for brew, which will be empty when shed built !

 

[Leigh]

All you guys building cars at the moment is making me jealous...gonna have to find meself a project car too