Swivles, Horn and Grill, and we're done!

This entry actually covers a couple of work days.
I had the wheels off last week to paint them, and while I had them off, decided to check the oil in the "swivels", better known as "king pins" in North America. Yes, you might notice, I said "oil", not grease. Most cars have grease in the king pins; older cars would have grease nipples while newer ones are permanently sealed. But the Rover P4 has king pins that require fluid oil rather than grease. So, I opened them up by removing the filler plug on top and the drain plug at the bottom. Sure enough, someone had filled them with grease!
Referring to my newly purchased "Rover P4 Technical Tips" book, I cleaned out the grease by using baby bottle brushes that I bought at London Drugs, along with Kerosene, and then filled them with 140 weight oil. That took most of a day.

Here's the swivel with the fill plug open.

Here's my new Technical Tips book.

 

 Today's job was to see if I could fix the non-functioning horns (yes, there are two). I used a deep cycle 12 volt battery that I had and connected the horns to that. Neither worked. These horns are pretty big and complicated gizmos. I managed to get the casing off, and investigated the mechanism, which is a clever little setup involving an electromagnet and a set of points which are to be set at almost the open position. When power is applied, the electromagnet opens the points, cutting the circuit which causes immediately closing of the points which engages the circuit again, and so on, very rapidly. Each closing of the circuit also draws in the sound diaphram, so the rapid on and off vibrates the diaphram, making the sound.

All I had to do to get them working was fine tune the "points" to get them to just the correct amount of tension to operate properly. Kind of fun because I never knew how a horn operated before. I suspect modern horns use a different system.

When that was done, I decided to clean up some more of the chrome, particularly around the windows. As I got to the chrome around the front grill, I decided to remove the grill so that I could paint the visible rust spots inside it. That was very worthwhile, as I was able to polish up the chrome on the grill as well as paint behind it. Lucky I still have the parts car though, because I lost a couple of the mounting nuts, and being Whitworth standard thread, I would have been up a creek.

With this, I am going to pretty well declare the car done for this year, and ready to hit the road! I am just awaiting ICBC's response to my application for Collector's status before I get it on the road.

Meanwhile, I have another project lined up and ready to go. My Westfalia van needs a new clutch, so it is now in the garage and ready to begin.

I may start a new blog for that project.

Bumper Crop

Finished the bumper reinstall this afternoon.

Before

 

After

Before

After

   

Paint and Chrome

Spent the day sanding and painting the bubble spots and repainting the earlier brushed on paint. It looks much better with spray-on. I also dismantled the rear license plate unit for painting.
I reinstalled the rear bumper and began installing the front bumper, but dinner called, so will complete it tomorrow.

On the Road!

Rather a momentous step today as I purchased one day insurance and actually got the car out on the road for the very first time! I wanted to get it out and road test it to determine if there were any issues to be dealt with before getting proper monthly insurance for the Spring/Summer season. By the way, I have applied for British Columbia "Collector Car" status, which allows me to insure the car at about 50% of regular cost, yet with all of the same driving privileges. I already have that status with my '84 VW Westfalia campervan and my '82 Honda CB450 motorcycle.
I wanted to do the road trial today, despite the heavy rain, because my brother in law was visiting, and he has some professional experience with old British cars.
So... any issues? Not a lot.
The engine fires up on first crank and purrs like a kitten. It was a terribly rainy afternoon, so I was pleased to see that the wipers and the defrost (demist) work well, though the wipers will need new springs to get sufficient pressure on the windscreen for a proper wipe.
I was concerned that I could not get the headlights to work at first, but eventually discovered that the switch is a little fiddly. Once I learned the correct positioning of the switch, no problem.
There are two primary issues needing to be addressed.
First, the "ignition" light stays on, indicating possible generator problems. A voltmeter on the battery showed only 8 volts of storage, and when the engine was running, still only 8 volts. That said, it started fine... probably a dozen starts over the afternoon, and it ran for about 30 minutes with lights, fan and wipers all working, which puts battery discharge in doubt. I will have to pursue this to see what is actually happening.
The second issue is the transmission linkage. It is a bit difficult to find reverse, and even more difficult to find the way out of reverse. It also seems a bit too difficult to get the shifter over to third gear, and the reciprocal difficulty getting back to second rather than fourth. I don't now if this is just a matter of me getting used to it, or if there are adjustment that can be made.
If those are the only two issues needing to address, then I am in pretty good shape to get the car more permanently on the road.

Patching and painting

More work on the undercarriage today. I have tried patching the rusted out spots on the frame members just behind the front wheels with fibreglass. This is the typical vulnerability of Rover P4s. Mine is not too bad, patching and keeping it off of winter roads should keep it manageable. I am not sure the fibreglass resin is going to set though, as I had to use some substitute hardener, and it is perhaps the wrong dilusion... will see by tomorrow.
I then spent the day painting the most conspicuous portions of the wheel wells and frame member with black magic paint. It is looking good.
This done, I am close to reassembling the car and getting it onto the road. One decision I am having a hard time with is the tires. They have whitewalls, but they are the narrower type, not of the 1950s. I could have them remounted with the black side out, but I rather like the look of the whitewalls. I am leaning toward leaving the whitewalls on at this point, but still have a bit of time to decide.
I also spent some more time buffing up the tools in the tool tray. Fiddly, but important.