The brake master cylinder is in. There is a little trick I figured out
(or reinvented, most likely). The four mounting bolts for the master
cylinder bellcrank housing pass through the flange on the housing, through
the front face of the frame, and into a tapped plate that is loose in the
frame till the bolts are installed. When you go to install the
housing/cylinder assembly to the frame, there is no easy way to hold the
plate. Since the top bolts are a bear to reach, this can be doubly
frustrating.
When the housing is not in place, you can stick your finger through the
clearance hole for the push rod, move the tapping plate into position and
hold it while you insert all four bolts. Make sure they are each easy to
turn without binding on the frame, then tighten them. Drill a hole
through the frame and the tapping plate. Install a pop rivet. Remove the
mounting screws and the tapping plate stays put. Install housing. The
rivet head winds up inside the housing where the concours judges won't see
it (as if any concours judge will ever see this car!). The bonus is that
the plate will stay put next time you take the housing off.
Then the final two steel brake lines were bent, flared, and installed.
The radiator is back from a flush and check. The guy said it was very
full of crud, but cleaned up well, had no leaks and full flow in all the
tubes.
In my other running around yesterday, I got some hole saws for the
dashboard and took the tach (you recall it reads 8000 RPM all the time)
out to the instrument place.
APT Speedometer Specialists
9632 Humboldt Avenue So
Bloomington, MN 55431
(612) 881-7095
This place is amazing. A house and garage in an area that is generally
generic industrial park. The garage is really a shop. There are
disassembled instruments everywhere. The owner is a young guy who (all my
friends will find this hard to believe) can out-talk me by a ratio of
about five to one. I have a habit, when showing the Lotus project to
anyone, of giving them the five dollar tour. This guy surpassed my finest
efforts. He showed me dozens of projects. The two most unusual: A 191?
Studebaker speedometer that works on air pressure from a tiny fan run by
the speedometer cable. It was completely unlike anything I had ever seen
in a car. Looked like old submarine instruments. It appeared brand new.
The other was a faceplate for a Harley upon which he had reproduced the
biker's scorpion tattoo in full color. The shop was full of fifties
speedometers that had been recalibrated for higher speeds, but in the
original typefaces, and instruments from antique cars that had been
totally restored right down to repainting the numbers on the odo dials.
He opened up the Smiths tach. He found a coil that had expired from heat.
It had jammed the movement so it could not move. How it got to 8000 is a
matter for conjecture. He told me that he could fix it, but it would cost
a large amount of money. I should either try to find another one, or let
him put in different guts.
He told me that there were several disadvantages to the original induction
tach: They are often inaccurate (the one in my Midget was wildly
optimistic). Since they depend on the ignition components of the car,
they can change. There is no way to calibrate them in the shop, it has to
be done in the car. If the coil opens up in the tach, your car stops running.
He said he could modernize the tach and it would look exactly the same as
original and be accurate. The new method uses electronic circuitry to
count the ignition pulses. He would: Clean everything. Repaint the
inside on the can white and the outside of the can gray. Refinish trim
parts as needed. Build a new movement using S-W or other parts. Install
the electronics. Calibrate with a square-wave generator. Guarantee the
lot for one year. Cost: $135.
The cheapest I have seen a new one is $200. I could probably find a
cheaper modern one to fit, but then it would not look right. Have to have
that Smiths orange and red pie look. So I told him to go ahead. Trouble
is, if he gets it that beautiful, the speedo will look dingy...
I asked about Smith's voltmeters, but the only Smiths pendant gauge he had
in the shop was a fuel gauge he had rebuilt and the jerk never came back
for it. I don't think I need one, but if anyone else does, he can sell it
by now.
I stopped off a GT Cars and talked to the owner, John Natole, and to see
how he is coming on his own Plus 2. I noticed that he had a voltmeter
like I want in his dash on the bench. There was a TVR in the shop that
carried one, too. I told John that I had just missed on at Bean this
spring. John told me that Ray Psulkowski had some.
When I got home, I called R D Enterprises, but Ray was on vacation until
after labor day. I left a message on his machine. I had to call Bean to
ask why they never send me the catalogs. While I had Mike on the phone, I
asked if they had gotten in any more of the volt meters. I figured it was
a shot in the dark, because when I missed the last one, they had told me
that they did not expect to be getting any more. Mike says they have one.
New. He had found another cache, and although they have not come to
terms on a buyout of the whole lot, he has this one from the guy and I can
have it. OK, I say, send it out.
So now I'm spending more coin on instruments! But they should look good,
work fine, and I won't have to run that big cable all the way up to the
dash and all the way back.
Last night I cut a chunk of 1/2" waffleboard in to the shape of the dash
to do some fitting before cut into my Baltic Birch 9-ply. I had trouble
figuring how high it mounts. Then I remembered that in original cars, the
mounting bolts go through the dash, so I can measure Terry's. He is
coming over tonight.
The top panel of the dash continues to mystify. I can't get it far enough
forward. It is obvious to me now that someone bought this vacuum-formed
piece and did not realize that you have to trim it. After I get the
waffleboard drilled, I will see where I am with that.
Wiring is the big thing keeping the car off the road now, so I have to get
going on the dash. When the waffleboard fits right, I can cut the Baltic
Birch and have my cabinetmaker acquaintance glue the koa to it. I want
him to get out the warp that was caused by a PO who finished the front
side and not the back. Then I can install the instruments and start wiring.
Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans Street, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676
h (612) 224-3105 w (612) 298-5324 phile@stpaul.gov USA
"A Lotus is a kit car bolted together for ease of shipping." - unknown author
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