'75 TVR M Ford 331ci V8

Slow_M said:

In reply to oppositelocksmith :

Thanks for those tips. Especially the 60 grit. I feel like that's the kind of place I might self-sabotage. 

I'm 90% leaning toward epoxy and 10% Gorilla Glue. What do you use? 

I use steel inserts that come with a kind of teeth on them (an industrial product from McMaster Carr). Holes are drilled for a light interference fit, but not tight enough to split the wood. I use a slow cure epoxy for bonding. 
 

oppositelocksmith said:

Slow_M said:

In reply to oppositelocksmith :

Thanks for those tips. Especially the 60 grit. I feel like that's the kind of place I might self-sabotage. 

I'm 90% leaning toward epoxy and 10% Gorilla Glue. What do you use? 

I use steel inserts that come with a kind of teeth on them (an industrial product from McMaster Carr). Holes are drilled for a light interference fit, but not tight enough to split the wood. I use a slow cure epoxy for bonding. 
 

 

Awesome!!! Thanks!!! 

This boy broke my heart to pieces, yesterday morning. 

He made everything in my life better for seven and a half years. For the last five and a half, we were at each other's side 24/7. 

He is, in every way, the most beautiful being I have ever known. 

In reply to Slow_M :

Aw man, I'm so sorry.  I had to put down my very best friend three weeks ago today.

He was 16, and had lived with us for 11 years.  My heart is still raw and I still walk around the house talking to him.  We can only appreciate them for all the love they bring.

Time to go grab a tissue.

I see toe grips. 

I get it. 

Scott, I'm so sorry. 

I'm leaning heavily on the love and joy Samir brought into my life and into the lives of all those who met him over these seven and a half years. 

Well, no window winders. 

I ordered them from Mini Mania, because they showed as having them in stock. When I dealt with them back in the '90s and '00s, they were amazing. Apparently they have been under new ownership for the past couple of years, and like so many other things, they've turned to E36 M3.

I'd love to report that they have the worst customer service on the planet, but it's not even up to that level. A couple of emails and more calls than I care to count, ZERO response. Stupid filthy rat berkeleying piece of E36 M3 shiny happy person fatherberkeleyers. Bad enough that I have to deal with that kind of unprofessional garbage (yes, I mean the people) day after day in my professional life, mostly with government agencies. I have absolutely no headspace left to tolerate that from anyone in the private sector. 

And by the way, I appear to be in the second stage of grief. Powerful stuff. I don't recommend it. 

Thanks for the heads up. I just brought my customer's Austin Cooper S in for service. It has been at least seven years since I;ve needed anything Mini specific. Must keep this in mind.

This is on its way to me. The idea behind this car was always to have something that I could deal with every aspect of, if/when pressed, and that includes tuning. 

It's going to be my first time dipping my toe into the deep end that is EFI. Hope I don't blow it. Take that any way you want. 

Sympathies on your loss.

I would also echo frustration in dealing with Mini Mania. Nothing I've ordered has been in stock, and trying to follow up with them becomes just begging for them to sell me something where I'm doing all the work in the conversation. 100% should be the other way around.

ViperT4 said:

Sympathies on your loss.

 

I would also echo frustration in dealing with Mini Mania. Nothing I've ordered has been in stock, and trying to follow up with them becomes just begging for them to sell me something where I'm doing all the work in the conversation. 100% should be the other way around.

Thank you. 

Close to 100°F. Aluminum and stainless steel parts were getting so hot from laying in the sun, that we were throwing them in pool, to cool them enough to touch barehanded. 

Nevertheless, we made quite good progress.

Lubrication plumbing: close to 100% 
Coolant plumbing: close to 100% 
Fuel plumbing: most supply/return lines made, still need to be installed. Still have to find/make fuel inlet pipes. 
Induction system 100% (to be able to run) but I still need to make an air cleaner box. 

Since we moved the pre-oiler lower in the chassis, there's going to be lots of space for the ECU.  Other than that, we're quickly running out of real estate. 

No progress for nine days, but this is my locked screen and it makes me happy every time I look at it.

Meanwhile, the new aluminum radiator and fuel filler neck arrived today. And I dug out new door rubber, a blue throttle cable, and the back footwells in my captious daily wagon are filled with all of the fluids except for fuel.

It's taken a lot to get to this point, but I'm finally happy with the level of almost 100% of everything that's been worked on.

I've been making, installing, and procuring hardware for brackets, and looking for missing fasteners and replacing them. Throttle linkages and cabling are getting closer. Fuel system is needs clamps and the tank side filler neck swapped out. 

Also spent the past week going through the oil tank, making a little improvement at a time. It started with a good scrub inside and out. Then I used a C clamp to push the cratered bolt holes against a soft piece of wood wrapped in cloth. When the indent went the other way a bit, I backed off. Flat enough for a good seal, I think. 

It also seems apparent that whoever overtightened the flange bolts in the first place did so in an effort to cure a leaky seal. I'm going to double the number of fasteners along the flange and use large diameter (1"), thick washers as load spreaders.  

Along the way I also attracted a project helper. My neighbors have the privilege of housing and feeding her.

Made a new gasket out of oil and heat resistant rubber and trial assembled. Tomorrow I stuff the baffle back in and reinstall it.