"Met"amorphosis

[phunkie hiboy]

Well, here we are on the verge of another project. This belongs to Sue, my partner, who some of you know. She's aways wanted one and the chance came about a month ago when I found this one being advertised on the RodsnSods website. It was actually being sold for a friend by the guy who did the pinstriping on the portafold. Anyway, we left Surrey at 6 this morning and wound our way down to St Austell in Cornwall to collect it.

"Met"amorphosis

"Met"amorphosis

And now safely back at the shop in Hook.

"Met"amorphosis

"Met"amorphosis

I'm not starting this project right away, I need to finish the "hot rod" speed boat that's in the works, first. I'll start a thread on that soon.
Mean while we can be collecting bits for the Met, so we're ready to start when the time comes.

[BikerGran]

So, for ignoramuses like me - what is it exactly?

[kevsky]

on one side it's got two wheels ontother its got three
both sides seem to have  wheels missing
it's no a unicycle (too many wheels)
it' not a motorcycle (too many wheels)
it's not a trike (too many wheels)
it's not a car (too many wheels)
it's not a bus / truck /artic etc (not enough wheels)
I give in

[cunningplan]

So, for ignoramuses like me - what is it exactly?

its a Nash Metroplitan (The same as Andy took photos of the other week in brock's shed)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Metropolitan


the other thing is called "A trailer" 

[Manky Monkey]

As I wrote in the Wheels Day show thread back in the Spring:

A Nash Metropolitan. Very funky little cars. The doors are interchangeable & they were originally designed so that the front left wing could be swapped with the rear right one & vice versa, to cut down on factory pressings. My brother Brock & Scottie the hotrod haulier own one between them.

Here's 2 from that show.

[Manky Monkey]

.

[Manky Monkey]

And Scottie & Steve's.

[Manky Monkey]

Like road going bumper cars 
Looking forward to following the progress on this one Chris. Bet Sue's chuffed to bits with it!

[poprodder]

liking that a lot.
talking about road going bumper cars, at the nats one of the bumper car escaped into the car park below the ride, no one was hurt though!!!! sorry off topic.

[phunkie hiboy]

OK, so I thought I’d do a bit of an update on this project. The boat’s been put on the back burner for the moment.
Since Sue got the car in September, we’ve been buying parts that we know will be needed later on. Most of them have been sourced from The States, which we have sent to R&R in New Jersey, then shipped to the UK.
We have had a bit of a change of direction with the top end of the engine. Originally I was planned to use a big valve cylinder head and a pair of new Stromberg 97s, but whilst buying some other stuff, in his country, I got offered a Derrington/HRG cylinder head. This is a seven port, aluminium, cross flow head for BMC “B” series engines. There were approx 1000 of these heads made between 1958 and 1974, so reasonably rare. This one is number 78, made in July 1958, so right in the period for this car.
So in Oct/Nov I gave myself up and bought it (quite a few beer tokens). I did come with an inlet manifold though.

"Met"amorphosis

"Met"amorphosis

"Met"amorphosis

Once I’d got it home, I discovered what I though to be a crack in the top. If it was, I was in the s***. It was bought as seen, and I couldn’t afford for it to be a very expensive door stop!!
I had it pressure tested, and sure enough it was cracked (frost damaged probably). Now this head had been through the works about 7 years ago, new valves, valve guide, leaded valve seats, springs and fixing studs. I had never been bolted to a car since. So what to do?
Here’s the crack ……………….

"Met"amorphosis

This crack needed to be ground out for welding …….

"Met"amorphosis

Then took it to a buddy of mine to be TIG welded up ……….

"Met"amorphosis

It now required machining across the rocker post mounting platforms ……….

"Met"amorphosis

Now to make sure it wasn’t going to leak, I took it to a company in Slough (they specialise in impregnation sealing castings) … http://www.ultraseal-slough.co.uk/

So we now have a very expensive, but serviceable cylinder head rather than an expensive door stop.
I have also managed to purchase, off eBay, a pair of right in the period SU carbs to fit. Once I’ve cleaned an rebuilt these (I have the kits already) I’ll put some pictures up.

[spanners]

what head gasket do,es it use or what are you goung to use ,,only up at ,,wonderland,, ther,s a workshop pack,(i think  6 or 8 in it) of bmc head gaskets, bought for something special by my late father ,, if you give me some idea what the part number should be i,ll see if they are anything like next time i go up there ,,

[phunkie hiboy]

I'll see what I can find re part numbers, but if the ones you have begin with the letter "C"  as in C-AEH 768 it's a good sign. If you could let me have the part numbers you have, to cross reference, it'd be cool. Thanks.

[Manky Monkey]

What does impregnation sealing involve Chris? -for the benefit of those of us that've never heard of it.

[phunkie hiboy]

Non ferrrous castings (alli, magnesium, ec.) are very often porous. Ultraseal deal with all sorts of old things like classic and vintage heads and blocks, and also with brand new things like formula 1 gearbox casings etc.
So the item to be sealed has to be bare, as example this cyl head, no valves, studs, sender units, etc. If These items are left in the sealing medium acts like a superior version of loctite. All I left in were the brand new valve guides, if they ever need doing again whilst we have the car, we'll have them machined out or thin brass sleeves added.
So bare head, it gets put in a "vat", lid closed and vacuumed down. Once left for a while, an epoxy sealer is introduced and the vacuum colapsed. The last places that "hold onto" the vacuum are normally the porous parts and his helps pull the sealer into the porous parts. Quite simple really and not too bad a cost ( £85 to seal and thats twice and £25 to pressure test afterwards)
Ultraseals machines were installed in the land rover factory to seal the 3.9 blocks, some of which were porous. Think they were in other manufacurers factories as well.
Good company to know, been using them for years.

[Manky Monkey]

Never heard of that. Interesting.