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Post Info TOPIC: Restoration of Dutch Peerless Phase2


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Restoration of Dutch Peerless Phase2


I used to work in the print industry when MEK and Toluene were regularly used as thinners. I well remember my boss in the design studio keeling over during an air brushing session using print inks thinned with MEK. Such fun.

And the print inks were used on........

Biscuit wrappers! Those were the days.

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Wednesday i finally got the call from the engine shop that my parts were ready.

So just back from holyday, i went to pick up the stuff this afternoon.

Fully ground and balanced crankshaft, flywheel and pressure plate.

Skimmed head, with new seats, guides and custom made valves. 

Complete gasket set.

High torque camshaft from Kent and new followers.

I will also get an upgraded crank seal, but i'm going to modify the crank myself to save a little money

because financially these parts hurt a bit.

Anyways, happyhappyjoyjoy

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-- Edited by Erik V on Friday 31st of July 2020 08:04:48 PM

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oooooowh shiny shiny Erik!

Do your cam followers have a drilling in the side to allow oil out? 

I had a very bad experience (well with a Peerless to be onest I had more than a few!) with cam followers from a well known supplier. They were so badly machined they wouldn't even go down the bore in the block, one got stuck!

I complained and he said "I dont use those, there crap...use these" they were coated black, came in from the states and they had a very thin line down the side. He said that was where each one had been tested for size.

He also let slip they were standard issue for MGC engines, so off the shelf item.

they fitted a treat and I kind of get the idea about allowing the oil out as they dont need to be full to the top all the time.



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Thanks for the warning on the cam followers Nigel!

I have measured all of them, and the bores in the block.

All well for these, the followers I bought are somewhat more expensive but high quality items.

Last weeks I've been busy putting the block together, measuring en checking everything.

 

Used Plastigauge to check crank shaft clearances, all well.

I made a tool from an M16 threaded rod to pull out the old, and pull in the new camshaft bearings.

This was somewhat of a nervous job, to get the oil holes to line up with the oil bores.

Turned down the old style rear crankshaft seal area on my lathe to put a modern split seal set in.

Also completely reworked the oil pump and the new rotors to have 0.0012 inch axial play.

Then I put a groove in the body for an O-ring, to fully seal the pump cover.

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While waiting for engine parts, I started work on the Stromberg carbs that came with the car.

Throttle shafts and their bores were badly worn so I Reworked the carb bodies to have new Teflon lined bearing bushes and shaft seals that came with the overhaul set.

Then I had them waterblasted and test fitted all parts.

Now I've sent all metal parts away for replating.

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Are you going to work the combustion area of the head for better gas flow?

Greg

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Yes i am.

Also the intake manifold, which is really rough on the inside.

 



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Nice work, Erik. Up to your usual high standard. I wish my workshop was as well equipped as yours. I have lathe envy.

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Here's some information I found I David Vizards book "Tuning Standard Triumphs"

Don't know if i'm going this extreme.

Not looking for max power but driveability.

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Yes I've got a pdf copy of the Vizard book.

I have the utmost respect for Mr V, I still have a well used copy of his mini tuning bible.

However, if you read the intro carefully, these mods are suggestions, based on best practice, but not proven, this will get you an extra 30bhp mods.

Unless you are going to fit oversize valves, or massively increase the compression, I can't see the value for a road car.

A general clean up and smoothing of the casting is all that I did, and I'm happy with that.

F



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Frank, that's what I was thinking to.

I'm going for smooth low rpm torque, don't want a nervous engine. 

My engine has standard size valves, 87mm pistons, high torque camshaft and a 4-2-1 exhaust manifold. 

But everything reworked, port matched and balanced.

And eventually it will be fuel injected, using the Strombergs as throttle bodies.



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Well not much progress on the car the last weeks due to other work.

Last Saturday I put the radiator supports and radiator back in the car first time since I repaired the bonnet hinges.

The radiator and bonnet inside were showing significant rubbing signs, in fact the bonnet had been rubbed through at the front edge.

Therefore I made the new bonnet hinge bracket arched to provide more space to the radiator.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the result giving some 8mm clearance overall.

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-- Edited by Erik V on Monday 12th of October 2020 11:34:50 AM

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really nice work there Erik, might be giving Dean a run for his money!



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Been quite busy last week.

The right lower inner wing was badly damaged, so I repaired that.

I built some wooden mold bits to build up the missing parts and support the broken part.

When this was finished I could finally remove the wooden support beam that held the nose section in the correct position for the last half year.

Now the nose is back on it's new metal support plate.

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-- Edited by Erik V on Monday 26th of October 2020 03:42:32 PM

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Looking good, Erik. You're racing ahead of me. I've been tied up with personal stuff recently so absolutely no progress.

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Well, excellent news from the Netherlands!!

Yesterday i had an appointment with the RDW (Dutch DVLA) to have the P2 registered.
As you all might know i bought this car back in January this year without any paperwork, it didn't even have license plates.
But the price was right, so i took the chance.

June last year i got a phone call from the previous registrar of the Dutch Triumph Club, asking me if i still owned a Peerless.
The answer was yes, my P1 and he asked me if i knew of any more Peerless cars in the Netherlands because someone (Rob) contacted him saying he still had some Peerless stuff lying around.
I remembered this and contacted Rob and made an appointment for a visit.
He was the person who bought my P2 back in 1985 and took it from the UK to the Netherlands.
He didn't keep the car very long but told me it was still a runner then as he did drive it up some country lanes.
He remembered that it was a really fast car.

He sold the car in 1987 and it appeared that he still had the original licence plates, the invoice and some original pictures of loading up the car in the UK and some of the car at his house.
This was a great find as now some numbers of the car appeared to match!

In February, Nigel found a page in the club archives of my P2, with again all matching numbers, date of first admission and the names of some previous owners.
You can all imagine how amazed and happy i was with this great find.

At the start of September i made an appointment for the 30th of October, yesterday with the RDW.

Only two weeks ago Nigel let me know that he had found one of the previous UK owners Nick and that he still had some Peerless stuff.
Hmm, heard that before.
It appeared that Nick still had the original logbooks of my car!!
He also had some MOT certificates, original folder, Peerless owners manual and some other stuff.
Again all numbers matching, the original colour of the car was red, previous owners etc etc.

I cannot explain how chuffed i was with this, again thanks to our great registrar!!

Nick was so kind to take some photos of this paperwork which i took with me yesterday.

I put the engine together and back in the car (not running), put some mirrors on and put some LHD headlights in.
I gave it a very good clean and of i went yesterday, with a borrowed van and trailer.

All went very well at the RDW, no problems at all.
The car is now in my name and registered in the Netherlands.

Needless to say that this is a great relief to me, as i was quite nervous.

Please give Nigel a very big applause for helping me out so much.
Also Nick did a great job providing me the needed pictures.

Without this, the registration would have been more troublesome, no doubt!

Nigel, Nick thank you sooo much!!!!

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-- Edited by Erik V on Saturday 31st of October 2020 01:49:42 PM

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If you look at the old pictures i got from Rob, you'll see the car hasn't changed much.

The only difference are the carbs, SU in the picture, but Strombergs came with the car when i bought it.

Strange that this car has been in the Netherlands for 35 years and nothing has been done do it.

Apart from someone bravely pulling the engine out, taking it apart and leave it to rust.    



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Great news Eric. The car is coming on a real great as well.

And many thanks to Nigel for coming up with the history, which made the legal bits easier.

Does this give you a "historic" number plate as well?

And will you stay with Corsica blue, or go back to red?

Frank



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Yes, fortunately i will get classic blue plates with white letters.

The story goes that these registrations come from cars scrapped in the past.

As for the colour, it will stay like this for the coming years.

If all goes well and i stay healthy, the plan is to make a good jig and take off the body this year.

then fully restore the chassis and running gear.

Completely repair/restore the body on the inside and then put them back together.

I'm not making any planning, as it's a strange world at this moment.

We'll see.



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whilst the phase 1 collects dust?



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Hmm, yes you're right.

Never thought i would ever own two of these.

I bought my P1 back in 1998, and it is still far from being finished.

Fact is, the P2 is less work to get on the road and as soon as i can go out driving it i want to restart the P1 restoration.



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Jeez, Erik! You've had your P1 almost as long as I've had mine.

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Ah Mike thanks, there is still hope for me then (blink)



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nada, you'll drive the Phase 2 and that will get it out of your system and you'll go but something different! 



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In preparation for taking off the body I found that the rear panels next to the rear seat have rubbed through and cracked on both left and right sides.
Also the GRP floor had broken loose from these panels.
I think this has all been caused by the chassis flex and the minimal amount of bodywork fixings.

The chassis members that support the floor section need replacement because of moisture and mud getting trapped between.
The right side door had to be lifted an inch to be able to shut it.
And the front of the right side sill had been damaged and badly repaired.

So change of plan.

Ive decided Im going to finish the complete bodywork and doors before taking it off the chassis.
Going through the left-over bodywork parts of my Ph1 I found a piece of right side sill that I could use to repair the damaged sill.
(last year I was about to throw all of this away, not knowing Id ever own a second Peerless)

The rear panel was easy to repair.

Then I cut the vertical inner sill flange off leaving some 38mm to pop rivet to the lower chassis rail. (now temporary screwed in place).
Only this makes the body feel soo much more solid.

Removing the door made me feel nervous, will I ever get it back in place?
On the other hand, the fitment now is so bad, it can only get better.

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The floor will be replaced by a steel one.

I took out the hinge plate finding the lower part badly rusted as suspected, but the top was still like new after almost 60 years.
So i replaced the rusted piece.

Originally the hinge is fixed to the hinge plate by four bolts going through adjusting slots.
These slotted holes had been badly deformed by the bolts pulling almost through. (in the picture i had already flattened these holes but i think it's clear)

I replaced these bolts by a 6mm plate with tapped holes, this way the hinge plate gets sandwiched between this plate and the hinge base and makes it much more ridged.

The hinge is in like new condition, it looks a bit over-engineered for only hinging a door.
Must have come from some agricultural or public transport parts bin?
Or is this another Rolls-Royce part used on the Peerless?

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These hinges look like they came off railway carriage, and have very little adjustment, so the bonding of the hinge plate is critical to get a good door fit.

I know because I got it wrong, and spent weeks trying to compensate for the misalignment.  If I was to do it again I'd leave bonding these, and the ones in the front face of the door until I had the whole door assembly in place.  I understand that phase 1 hinges are even worse, Warwicks are a walk in the park by comparison.

Good luck Eric!



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Thanks Frank,

I was really nervous to chisel out the hinge plate tbh.

Therefore i left as much grp bonding material behind the hinge plate as i could.

This left me a very nice stubble on the topside of the bodywork that now acts as a kind of dowel pin.

On the bottom side there is also a clear mark of where the plate was.

The new piece of metal that i welded in the hingeplate is exactly the same as the old piece.

So normally the plate should "slot" back into the original position before bonding it back in.

For extra adjustment i have lengthened the slots in the hingeplate.

   



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A couple of thoughts.....

You are assuming that the plate was in the right place to start with.  When it was first bonded in, there are no points of reference or straight edges to register to.  By all accounts the door fit was never good, even when new.  The eventual solution (aka Warwick) is a bonded in 3mm plate that bolts direct to the chassis upright.

These hinges, and even Warwick hinges have no radial adjustment.  In both my Ph2 and the Warwick I ended up taking some material off the back of the hinge, and using tapered spacers to get an acceptable fit.

The welded floor, and the plate on the outside of the footwell will help, but any twist or flex in the chassis will undo all the good work you do here.

Merry Xmas!



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The hinge plate is back into position, thanks Frank for your remarks.

It made think and decide to make a support frame that has exactly the same holes as the D plate.

This way the hinge plate is in exactly the same position as before the re-bonding.

I also made a wooden template of the curvature from the left side wing, that i clamped to the bodywork.

The curvature of the right side was quite a bit off, so now corrected.

 

Then i started work at the door by taking out the metal plate in the front face of the door.

This face is built up from the outer layer of 2mm GRP, then the 1mm thin metal plate followed by the bondnig layer of GRP which was at most 1.5mm thick.

After 60 years the metal plate has rusted and the bonding let go, resulting in a very flexible and deformed front face of the door.

I thickened the front face with GRP to about 6mm which is already a world of difference.

The new reinforcement plates for the hinges inside the door are made of 1,5mm stainless, with 15 mm bent edges, these will be glued in with Sikaflex.

 

The outer door panel also had a wrong curvature at the front of the door so i cut it loose and glassed it back together with the door back in the car.

To get it all into the correct shape i used a couple of strings to see if the lines where all ok.

 

The front of the door now nicely alignes with the rest, but due to the torsional weakness in the door the back didn't.

Therefore i made an aluminum construction to eliminate this.

The tube is fixed to the rear face and can pivot at the front face.

With the front reaction arm i can now adjust the rear of the door to the bodywork.

This door is now very stiff compared to before, even if i place some weight in the door to simulate the windowframe and glass.

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-- Edited by Erik V on Sunday 31st of January 2021 08:29:34 PM

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