Life without Miz B

Miz B remains in the repair shop.  From the firewall forward, it is quite empty.  It feels as if she is undergoing open heart surgery.  The fenders have been removed, also her radiator, her lights and horn, her starter, and of course, her engine!  She looks pretty sad right now.  But, I am beginning to see some very good progress.  

She needed to have her front cross member replaced.  It had long cracks on both sides, where the horseshoe shaped front motor mount is attached to the frame.  We had known about one, but were surprised to find the other!  We found an NOS (new old stock) replacement and it is being installed.  Not too bad to have lasted 81 years.  Who knows what kind of conditions the roads in South Africa were in, the first 60 years of her life.  She has only been driving on the roads of the US since 1993, when she was imported and arrived in the state of Virginia.  

We also discovered that her engine had been rebuilt once and repaired one other time.  The engine is completely apart and definitely shows signs of wear.  The camshaft has a lot of play.  This explains the low thump we would hear when the car was running.  The center journal is the most worn, but both end journals also show a good bit of wear, as well.  Looks like it will be one fix - a new camshaft, or another fix - to bush and bore the block, to take out the slack between the journals and the block.  The gears show signs of wear and will be replaced, as will the flywheel.  The condition of the flywheel explains the reason that the starter would lock up periodically.  The valves are worn and will be replaced with stainless steel ones, along with new springs.  The pistons showed signs of wear, and the rings were not sealing the oil out of the head.  There were very large gaps, therefore another indication of a great deal of wear in the cylinders.  Another source of noise in the block.  The pistons were not gliding smoothly, they had enough side to side movement to make a clatter as the engine was running.

When all is said and done, this is going to be a very quiet running engine!  She aught to run and sound just like she did the day she rolled off the assembly line in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in April, 1931!