Quite a schedule you've set yourself there! ^^^^^ Good luck with it! :thumbs_up:

April 1 and April 30 are both 'in April'. April 1 could make for a busy March!

Coming from the former colonies, I am curious about Englandshire. Since it does not appear to be an actual place, I am assuming it is a colloquialism based upon a contraction of England and Shire, Shire being
a) a county or administrative district,
b) a big horse or
c) a stronghold of rural culture?

England big horse would be my personal favorite.

Years ago I worked for a couple of weeks with a field engineer from a manufacturer on the start up up some mega sized air compressors. He was a Geordie. What he was speaking might nominally have been classified as English; but, not to this colonial ear. Communication was a challenge.

I'd agree with your analysis of Englandshire but also add another possibility that it's a general term for England by those north of the border in Scotland.

"Geordieland" as we southerners call it is just south of the Scottish border and for want of a better description (any Geordies reading this, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong) is generally the area around the River Tyne and is home to the Native Geordie. Almost all of those i've encountered have been a friendly bunch despite the linguistic difficulties i've encountered understanding them.

There is a big horse called a Shire Horse : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_horse

A shire is also a county (although not all our counties end in "shire" for example Devon, Cornwall and Somerset among a few more) and is also often an administrative district. For example, Hampshire County Council would be the administrative organisation for municipal matters in the county of Hampshire. However, just as confusingly, the county i live in has a similar administrative organisation known as Suffolk County Council.

Then there is (or at least was) what is known as the "County Set". Generally upper-class, sometimes landed gentry often with connections to Royalty although sometimes those connections are fairly loose. This might be viewed as a stronghold of rural culture.

This little explanation will either confuse or enlighten you, possibly both - either way, enjoy! :thumbs_up:

I am from the colonies also, the big one in the south Pacific. Englandshire, it's just my dry sense of humour and yes a shire of Scotland. I don't think they would get it if I called England Mexico or English Mexicans. Aussies from the north would get it. Most English have a good sense of humour and I work with them every day. I will be down for work, probably mid to late April sometime but that may all change due to a gas compressor and some seals. Playing by ear at the moment.

Insulation finished just got the front seat to put back in. Some new rear lights to go in and need to finish fitting the new exterior trim. Productive week got a bunch of wee jobs done as well.

Progressing nicely.

The grey seat belts are unusual. Did the car come with grey belts?

Yeah they came with the car. A mate has a set of retractable ones for me which I’ll fitting.

The GT wheels and spare fuel tank finally arrived from Sweden, now to decide on how to refurb them.

Finished the interior last night and started on the new rear lights but a few issues needed resolving; different mounting screws needed, missing bulb and the new number plate light housing has two wires where the old one has one and it didn’t come with instructions to say what wire was the earth. Love the interior, so retro.

Looking good! With the number plate lights, get your multimeter on continuity and test both wires to see if there's any continuity to the metal lamp housing. If there's any continuity on one wire, that will be your earth, if none then take your pick. :thumbs_up:

Yeah that was the plan but Skandix do instructions so the red wire is earth and black power but will double check as I don’t want any smoke being released from the wiring.

Got a bit done this weekend but didn’t take pics apart from the rear. Went for a good drive on Saturday, car is noticeably a good bit quieter. Fitting the overdrive should help a bit more too. Replaced the rubber bushes in the new upper wishbone and it was a struggle, the bush flange is bigger so you can’t really push directly on the sleeve and the sleeve OD was 0.6mm larger than the old rubber sleeve so ended up using a couple of the sleeves from the rubber bushes after spending too much time with the new ones.

Coat of paint for the new upper wishbones, modified a 240 retractable seat belt base for the 140 one and gave it a coat of paint. Retractable belts now fitted both sides, new side mirrors, new old grill although I have a NOS which I may fit at a later date. All ready for the engine and suspension work now. Speaking to a guy who has the same cam as mine and he said it made a significant improvement to the torque from the engine so that put a smile on my face as that is what I’m after.

The 142 at the cottage.

That’s the 142 off to the classic car mechanic for a couple of weeks. Will be back welding the Amazon for a bit now. 👍

A wee side project which might get fitted in winter.

GT wheels are getting blasted and powder coated and in the meantime I have a new set of centres for the wheels. A nice bit of bling.

Pics from the surgery, good timing on changing the clutch.

More progress by the mechanics, head back and crossmember going in.

And the crossmember and suspension in.

You need to clean up those dust shields and hubs to go with your spiffy crossmember and A arms!

If the heater hoses are of unknown age, give consideration to replacing them while the engine is out. Much easier to replace while the engine is out (or at least the head is off).

They’ve moved onto the engine, she was pretty manky so a good clean needed and a broken tooth on the timing gear. Cam is in also.

Front panel came up fantastic, just two wee areas of rust.

The powder coaters have almost finished the GT wheels, they look good all silver so the question now is do I go ahead and paint the centres black?

Invest in a roll of self-adhesive black vinyl (like Fablon but i'm not sure if that brand is around these days), cut out circles and fix to the centre of the wheels. That way if you don't like it, you can (fairly) easily remove them - paint is a bit more tricky! :thumbs_up:

Painting over powder coating is not without problems. Even the satin powder coated parts that I have on my car probably have a finish that is too slick for paint to reliably adhere to it. You probably need to media blast the centers with walnut shells or some mild abrasive to put some tooth on the powder coat. Scuffing with a 3M scuff pad might work; but, the centers have a lot of contours so it might be difficult to get an even scuff. The other thing to take into consideration is whether the chemistry of the paint will be compatible with the powder coat. You don't want a solvent that is going to attack the powder coat.

You can do clear powder coat over a base powder coat finish so you might be able to do a black powder coat over your silver centers. However, I don't know whether the base has to be matte or has to be media blaster prior to the clear being put on

Yeah the plan is to prep for 2k or epoxy then 2k but I’ll check with the powdercoaters when I collect. I wouldn’t just paint over anything without proper prep.

If you want to do black in the center, I am curious as to why you would not ask the powder coaters if they can do a nice gloss black finish on the centers? If the powder coaters say "we can do that" you have the advantage of dealing with a single vendor. If you take the rims to a separate shop and have them spray 2K on the centers and you get a subsequent coating failure, neither vendor is likely to take responsibility for the failure.

Of course I asked, they only do a single colour. I will be spraying the black.

Please excuse my ignorance but I'm curious, do you mean epoxy primer then 2k colour(black)? As I understand it 2k means two component(colour or primer with hardener) and isn't that what epoxy is? I've never understood why it is referred to as epoxy primer as opposed to 2k primer, or is there a difference?

It's just the general terminology I've seen used to describe a 2 pack topcoat, as opposed to base and clear for example. The epoxy is a 2 pack primer/paint also. The good thing about epoxy is it will pretty much go over any old coating without a reaction and pretty much anything can go over it. The 2k topcoat is a polyurethane, I've sprayed it and the epoxy quite a bit and never had any issues with either.

Perhaps the distinction is that there is more than one 2K (two component) paint system. Epoxy is a 2K system; but, not all 2K paints are epoxy. I believe urethane paints require a hardener and some types of acrylic enamels use hardeners to eliminate the bake process in the cure. When you are saying epoxy, you are generally specifying the paint chemistry. When you say 2K you are not specifying the chemistry.

Just for a little confusion, there is also two part paint (clear and base) which some people seem to interchange with two component paint.

Thanks to both for the clarification, that all makes sense now. I was already aware of the difference between two part and two component. Just to add to the complication, you can of course have several combinations of basecoat and clear with either(or both) being two component or one. Thirty(ish) years ago hardly any paint shop(in the UK anyway) used 2K and all metallics were basecoat and clear in cellulose. I did a lot of work in cellulose at the time and never got to the point of having suitable facilities to safely use two pack(as we called it then) so my knowledge of it is limited.

The 142 is almost finished at the mechanics, bit lower stance and alignment sorted. Hopefully get her back tomorrow.

Did you stick with the service manual specifications for the alignment or did you apply a little more negative camber?

I seem to recall that you went for the Amazon Cars fast road springs (progressive in the front)? That is what I have on my 140. If so, have you measured the ride height? My car sits a little higher in the front than it does in the rear using the jack points as references. Not the best 'absolute' measurement points; but, the measurements were done with the previous springs and the Amazon springs so it provided a 'relative' measurement. The for and aft height measurements with the previous springs were relative consistent. The front measurement with the Amazon springs are slightly higher than the rears. I have removed weight from the front of my car (no bumper, battery in the trunk and some other items) which may be contributing to the problem. Curious as to how your ride heights turned out.

I specified.the following for the alignment and they got it pretty much spot on.
Toe in 1mm (0 to 2mm)
Camber -0.5 deg
Castor 0 to 1 deg

I don't have the car but I've not measured any ride heights. The springs are the -20mm progressive Amazon cars springs, I had tried 164 springs in the front but they made the car sit high and twitchy in windy conditions. I have 195 wheels still to go on as well.

Finished the GT wheels tonight.

They are stunning ! Can't wait to see them on the car :teeth_smile:

She’s ready for the drive home. 👍

Excellent news! :thumbs_up: