26th July - Still painting the bulkhead

Well the steering relay has still not been reassembled. Ideally I need to borrow the correct LR tool or a makeshift equivalent for an hour or so. It is really a PITA without it. I could knock one up but this 2 week vacation has been taken up with decorating and a ton of other necessaries so the LR bits are having to take a back seat.

The big plus is the bulkhead has had it's last coat of Paddocks bronze green and has had a few days to harden off. Now comparing the final colour to the original it is a lot lighter. I have to expect some degradation of the paint finish and colour after 45 years or so but it would be good to know it is correct?

Pics below with a comparison of the old and crumbly b\h finish.




So to find some more info I have placed a few enquiries with both the guys on EMLRA and HVMF ;)

http://www.hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?p=151793#post151793
http://forum.emlra.org/viewtopic.php?t=5854

21st July - Richards ARE still in business

Well it seems Richard's are still in business after both an inquiry on the S2 forum .....and then an email from Richards I recieved on my Co. mail yesterday.

http://www.series2club.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=29321.0

A bit worrying for a while though and I still cannot see why on earth they didn't have someone manning the pumps so to speak even while they were at Billing et al?

Todays further challenge was to try and get the steering relay re-assembled. I have always heard the stories that the spring will 'take your head off!' and similar but to be honest when I split it apart a few weeks back sticking an old sock over the end and tapping the shaft assy through worked fine - for stripping down.

NOTE - Once sock is used then wash and give to the puppy to gnaw on ;)

So my issue now is how to compress the spring in such a way so the spring split collets can then be fitted and the whole shaft assy fitted into the relay body?

http://www.series2club.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=29321.new#new