great updates. keep up the good work. I

 

I know there is a bit of orange peel there, but I will sand that out later on, no time to do it today, and I think it is too fresh to do anything today anyway.

 

Okay the first thing I wanted to get done really soon is the roof, this is a rubberised substance that is already extremely sticky and a foil covering, it is suppose to take away the drumming sound in the bodywork, it is recomended for the use in the roofs of cars, and in my case it is stage 1 sound deadener.

Now for the black stuff this is called the insulation layer for roof linings and it is very light, and is refered to as stage 2 insulation layer, I dare say it will hopefully be a very quiet car inside.

I am tring to get every part of this interior done in this layer, they call this their stage 1 layer. This the same stuff I put into the roof, now I need to cover everything I can while everything is removed from the car. There is a second layer to go in here as well but I haven't ordered it yet.
Too much of a chance of rain today, so I decided to start the insulation of the car. The foil backed stuff is a sound deadener, I will be giving as close as I can to the entire car being covered with it. The black stuff on the roof is also a sound deadener, but it was formulated for the inside of roof skins, so it got a double layer. There is a second layer and it is a second level of accoustic barrier.

 

Hi everyone, I have just taken on the idea that we can make up a sunroof seal for our XJ40’s. The only way to make sure it would fit was to buy one and try it, here is what I found.There is a S3 seal available to us in Australia, I am sure other coutries would have the same. I found the seal itself is a bit too big, which is good news. We need 2 of these seals to make this. A really sharp knife or shears. A really good rubber glue, don’t get the cheap stuff on the glue, and make sure it glues the seal we are working on. The flange around most of the seal fit nicely to the retainers, remembering the flat side up for the retainers, so time for the layout. You can use your screws in the retainers to hold the seal in place when you start the cutting and glueing., or some light claps will do as well. Place your outer sunroof on the floor, on carpet if your paint is good. then place the 1st seal around the sunroof. Now we cut the seal, in the same place on both peices.

The groove you see in this pic shows you where your retainer will hold the seal to the outer part of your sunroof. This is the top of the seal, we will be discarding the section with no flange. Now remove the ramp block from the sunroof and make note of how it came off using the front retainer to hold it all in place as you work your way around the sunroof.

This what I am calling the front retainer, this is the bottom and you will notice a fairly wide groove all the way around both retainers. This is a little more explained.

By the time you get to the end of your rubber, you should have a little bit to spare and then you will have the second elbow. We won’t be using that piece. Now take the second piece and place the elbow into the rear end of the sunroof.

Placing this elbow in the rear corner the cut section should be facing forward. Gently set it in place and cut and glue the front section to this elbow. Now the tail will be plenty long enough to cut and join into the first elbow.

Now with the flat sides of your retainers facing upwards, if everything looks like it is where you want it, screw or clamp the retainers down pretty tight. This should allow you to check the fit of the rubber you will see on the outside of the sunroof, push them into place and making sure the seal is almost perfectly flat. Allow it to set then apply a second amout of glue, this can be sanded later to give a much better finish. I am sorry this is a long drawn out thread today.

 

Well I have the clear ordered, so I decided to start removing the wiring from the gold car, these pictures are mainly for me, so I know where they go when I put them all into the other car.
These relays are for the drivers side in my car, in the boot, although one of them has a few wires missing from there, I will need to track those little buggers down. pretty sure they will be for something.

These little buggers go in the boot on the passenger side.

I got to remember about all these earth wires, I have seen how some cars react to not enough earth wires. These ones are in the boot, so not much I can stuff up just yet.

Right! All thewiring from the boot is now in the passenger compartment, and this is the front of the cab area the window is the windscreen, and I would say this is the main harness, I figured this will be where I really need them pictures, can't be stuffing things up all the time.

Some more earth leads, at the top of the dash area. Then time to remove the mounting plate , giving me a little more room to play with.

May as well make sure I know where this little bugger goes. Then continue to the next step.

Well I got rid of the fan on this side and gues what I found, Yep! more earth leads. also found quite a bit more rust as well, making me kind of glad I decided to stop this project here and go back to the green car.

Unplug the wiring for the passenger side front door, I have also been putting masking tape on almost all of the connectors, just so I have a vague idea about where they are suppose to go, I also found a few wires had been cut, not sure why just yet.

Also have to remember about those vaccuum lines and where they came from. That has kept me in mischief for long enough today, and it looks a little bit like rain is coming so I had better pack it all up for today, the front seats are already in the shed out of the weather.

 

Hello everyone, it has been a while so I had better do something again. I had a bit of a change of materials, and I am not sure it was a good idea, but I am now committed and so I must push on forward, no other way to go really. I was using a product called car builders for a few sond deadening on the floors of the car, and the roof, and I used the whole box to do a little more than I thought it would cover. I ran out and funds being a little tight right now I tried a different company, each of the tiles were similar in dimention, and these were almost triple in thickness, nowhere near the weight, and not such a good product but I am not going to waste it, after all I bought 36 sheets of it. Anyway I did start to put some paint down, and the first coats were looking pretty good, but when I tried to lay the second coat of clear things went South on the right rear quarter panel, I sanded it all down to get rid of some of the orange peel, gave the whole car a good going over with the prepwash, then hit it with a tack coth, gave it a good blow dry with the airhose. But for some reason the left panel repelled the clear like I was trying to paint an oily surface, so I stopped waited for a couple of daus then sanded it all back, and today had another go.

Being a nice sunny day the clear went on pretty good. I really needed to get the roof done so I can put the sunroof back in place, and get the antenna on top, then I can put the hood lining in and then get ready for the glass. Maybe it will start to look like a car again soon.

I am really liking the colour. Hopefully I can do a bit more sanding tomorrow and get rid of a bit more orange peel, and then lay down the last coat of clear, and if all goes well I can start assembling the parts to make it look like a car again.

It will be great to see it all back together again, the sooner I can get the body and the roof painted the sooner I can get the rest of the interior put back, probably be thinking about the carpet in the very near future, and then the seats I suppose. I will post it when it gets done. That will be all for today at least, hopefully things will go as well as they did today, the pics will probably look very much like the ones we have here, so I won't be doubling up on things that don't need to be.

 

Clive,

Thank you for the continuing updates! I really like the color too. Looking forward to your future updates!

Cheers,

Don

 

Hello everyone, I do have a question for the electronically minded people, as many are aware, I am going to use a Ford 302 Windsor engine in my car, and I may not be on the right path here. I have looked over the schematics of the ECM, and the way the injectors are wired, it almost seems as easy as just adding 2 more injector wires, and the distributor will run the spark, then doing a bit more reading I have some mention a reflash to run the V8 engine. I am not interested in why would I do it? It would be cheaper to do? and all the other comments, I have chosen to take this path, and I am sticking to it. If you haven’t worked it out by now, This is certainly not a subject for the purists, this is my project and I am looking for geniune answers please.

 

Check out the "lumps" forum there may be some answers there.

 

Hi Clive,

Some of the issues you will have to deal with if you want to use the stock Engine Control Module is that it relies on the signals from the original sensors: mass air flow, intake air temperature, coolant temperature, crankshaft position, oxygen, etc. I don't remember if, on the 3.6L cars, the vehicle speed signal comes from the ABS system or a sensor on the transmission or differential.

On the AJ6 engine, there is no vacuum or mechanical timing advance - that is all controlled by the ECM. I think the 302 Windsor usually has a mechanically-advanced distributor.

Isn't the Windsor carburetted? If yours is fuel injected, the flow rate and pulse duration of the injectors will have to be matched to your engine.

You are definitely keeping things interesting!

Cheers,

Don

 

The Windsor I have right now is a 1968 engine block, however I am looking to bring it up to 1990's specs to make it a little more interesting. It was a case of looking through the wiring diagram and saw the injectors were on what appears to be a simple circuit. I am not electronically minded so it may not be anyting near as simple as it appears to me, so if it is not possible then so be it, I will go back to the idea of using the Ford engine and transmission modules used in 1991 I believe, they were not bogged down with all the security codes as were the newer models. I have reason to believe that the speed sensor is in one of the wheels. (I could be wrong) I am going to use 18 inch wheels, however the tyre sizes I am looking at will give me the O/D of the OEM tyres. I am on the re instalation phase of things now, so I figure this is when I find out things I didn't even imagine before. hehehe I am trying to keep it interesting.

 

Stick with a carby on the V8. I would for simplicities sake

 

I would like nothing better, I was raised on carbies and distributors, I would feel very much at home. Unfortunately for me I am told by my engineer it needs to remain a fuel injected engine with cats, and everything has to be from the same vehicle. If I take the EFI from a Windsor powered Falcon then all the control modules need to be from the same model of vehicle. because the engine block is from 1968, and my xj40 is 1988, I need to bring the engine ADR's I think they are called up to a minimum of 1988 simply because the XJ40 is the youngest part.

 

Well I have finally got the body painted, and most of the orange peel removed, the sunroof is re installed, and the boot lid is back on with the wing, and the skirts are in place, a lot of visitors today so a lot of the work I had intended was kind of put on the back burner.

It won't be removed now, all the things I put back on now are permanently there.

I am very happy to see it all going back together.

 

I have been too busy to do much the last couple of weeks, but I did manage to get a couple of things started.
These came all the way from UK, but they were both red, so I changed that.

The other thing I was contemplating was changing the rubber covers over the bumpers, and replacing them with fibreglass.
I found that the reflectors are a bit of a challenge as well so I decided to do away with them completely. This one of the front bumper ends, hopefully it will be matching up to the centre part some time this week, then the same thing with the rear. I am not sure if I will be painting them a satin black, or a bed liner for a textured finish. I will probably try the satin look first, if that doesn't work then I will simply paint the bed liner over the top of it all.

 

Things are moving really slow right now, the rain has set in for the day, and looks the same for tomorrow at leastThe overhead console was almost ready to re install, when I remembered that I was not a fan of those big round wiring connectors, so I brough the console inside and fitted something considerably smaller.
Smaller plugs will mean I can tuck the wiring away a little bit easier.

I will put the other end of the connector on so I will remember what way around I have them wired. Too cold and wet to be doing very much. No fibreglassing going to get done for a little while.

 

Well today the rain eased up and I managed to get the bumper mold made, and the first bumper is in and spending the night in the mold, and got a bit more of the roof lining done.

I changed all the plugs inside, made things a lot easier to push into place.

Almost ready to get the glass re fitted into the car, the windscreen will be new though.

The clamps are holding the roof liner shell up while the contact glue sets, should be good to release after spending the night in clamps.

 

Hello again, I have been doing some more thinking about lights and reflectors, First of all I have decided to do away with the reflectors on the front and rear bumpers, so when I made up the molds for the ends of the bumpers I actually filled them in and shaped them so they were no more. These ideas were not just something I went and did without any idea about what they would look like, I played with a paint program and tried it on the old gold car I have.

The front indicators and parking lights are not very visable here, but you can see a rough idea of the reflectors being removed. However the rear fog lamps were something I was not sure about, so I turned the vehicle around and did the same thing again.

I did remove the reflectors as I did with the front, and I also got rid of the rear fog lights, the jury is still out with those for now, but you get the idea.

This masonite was in really bad shape so I decided to make it again from marine ply, first part done now I have a couple of hurdles to get through because I will be putting the battry in the boot of this car, and a compressor for tyres, not putting air suspension on this one. I will be maybe lowering it 2 inches with the springs, other than that the suspension will not change to much.

Finally put the gutter strip back in place, starting to resemble a car again.

Inside is starting to look like it belongs to something.

 

Hi everyone not a lot done for the moment, finding redundency has slowed things down a bit for now, I did finish putting the sides up to the roof lining,

The interior will not change much from here on, I will be trying to keep the iterior as stock as I can for the most part.

I did notice these on the sovereign, and I thought it wouldn't hurt putting them on this car so I removed them from the sovereign and bolted them here.

They were on both sides of the car so likewise they are in this car now. The only thing really different were they had been spot welded into place on the other car, and they are bolted on this car.

Put this on today, just to give me an idea of what it would feel like, I liked the look of it, with the gear knob done also in timber, I figured a sneak look at it before it all gets put back in its bag until the interior has been given a bit more of a freshen up.

 

Hello everyone, I didn't think I would be doing anything much today. I guess I got that all wrong. I started out this morning thinking about the diff in the gold Sovereign, and I was curious about it having a slippery diff, so I thought about it for a while over a coffee with my wife and I decided I will start getting the subframe out and get it all ready for sand blasting and giving it all a fresh dose of powder coating, so I grabbed my tools, (Shifter and a hammer) and off I went.

With no floor in the boot, a lot of things were very easy to get to, never had a good look under here until now. I even chopped a hole in the floor under the seat, but I didn't need to go inside the car at all.

The first thing I discovered as I ventured into pulling the rear end out of the car, no wonder these things are heavy. Anyway when I got it out the first thing was a really wet spot on the yoke and a fair bit of clean oil came out when I undid the drive shaft.

Fortunately I was contemplating rebuilding this as a whole assembly, still hoping this is a limited slip diff, the other 2 cars were not so it would be a bit of a plus for me if this what I am hoping for. A few of the nuts were done up pretty tight and required the use a breaker bar to convince them to move, the rattlegun made things so much easier than using a spanner.

Only this spacer on this side, I have decided it would probably be a good idea to leave it there in the orientation I had discovered it in. By now things are in full steam ahead mode as I continued through the nuts and bolts and a lot of other things I am not too sure about just yet.

I am kind of guessing that this is the speedo drive, I am very use to seeing this coming out of the rear of the gearbox/ transmission, but I have been told these did things in a different way to everyone else.

Now that is a pleasant sight for me, I was hoping it was going to be a slippery diff, and there it is, happy days for sure. It will be given a total inspection and rebuild as needed. Considering pulling the guts out and getting the diff housing powder coated while it is all pulled down. That is me for today, got a lot more done than I thought.