Jackington
New Member
Hi all,
A few weeks ago I posted on the welcome page a photo of my '73 3500S which I bought in late December last year, and after having it kept in the warm and dry since January I have finally got back home from university so I can get stuck into classic car ownership.
My dad had kindly been looking after it while I was away and taking it out for weekly drives to keep her alive and well, obviously being him he found something wrong, and so when I got home the car was in the local garage waiting for a clutch slave cylinder to arrive. Luckily the car wasn't in pieces so I went round there and picked it up so I could have a bit of V8 powered fun while waiting for the cylinder to arrive. Embarrassing myself with the 13mpg I managed to average :roll: That right hand pedal is so unbearably tempting!
First on the list of things to do was get out the polish and give that lovely Tobacco Leaf a good old shine, looks like a new car now, I'm even starting to stop complaining about that awful 70's colour choice!
Then after hitting the ebay, I found a left hand wing mirror to fit on the door, its not a match for the right hand side, but at least its a mirror, and the car is hardly concours quality so I'm not so bothered, and in the name of backyard bodgery, the rubber gasket between the door and the mirror is made from a bit of old rubber floor mat.
I also experienced some of the legendary BL build quality when I started to polish up and clean the sidelights where all the filler holding the lightbulbs in had disintegrated leaving just mud to stop the bulb housing from dangling down in the wheelwell, so I cleared out all the mud that was lurking in the indicators and duct-taped it all up nice and safe
.
So far so good, until I went out for a drive, to find that the indicators were all dead as dodos, after hours of electrical jiggery-pokery and gorping at wiring diagrams I just happened to give the emergency flasher knob a jiggle and hey presto the indicators are back, such is life.
At the moment the car is back at the garage to get the new clutch slave cylinder fitted, even though I never noticed a problem with the clutch, but I guess I just ain't as experienced hah!
After the weekend I am hoping to fit a new set of air filters and replace HT leads dizzy cap etc, I have been thinking about the SimonBBC Powerspark ignition kit with all the related HT leads etc, I'm hoping it might 'spark' a bit more life into the car on cold starts.
Quick question, does anybody have any experience with heated rear windows? Mine does a spectacular job of leaving the windows just as foggy when turned on as when it is turned off. I have checked the voltages on the filaments on the window and there is 12v-ish at the ends, and then very limited to 0v about 6 inches into the window, obviously this is why it isn't heating up and clearing the window, but is there any way to service this, or is it just a case of its been there for 40 years and its had enough of foggy windows?
And another, I noticed yesterday that the radiator was not actually bolted onto the car on the driver's side, is that a problem? :wink: We tried to get the radiator lined up with the bolt hole, but it just wasn't having it.
Thanks for looking, as soon as I get the car back I will get some photos on here, I know how pictures are always the most important part of any post!
A few weeks ago I posted on the welcome page a photo of my '73 3500S which I bought in late December last year, and after having it kept in the warm and dry since January I have finally got back home from university so I can get stuck into classic car ownership.
My dad had kindly been looking after it while I was away and taking it out for weekly drives to keep her alive and well, obviously being him he found something wrong, and so when I got home the car was in the local garage waiting for a clutch slave cylinder to arrive. Luckily the car wasn't in pieces so I went round there and picked it up so I could have a bit of V8 powered fun while waiting for the cylinder to arrive. Embarrassing myself with the 13mpg I managed to average :roll: That right hand pedal is so unbearably tempting!
First on the list of things to do was get out the polish and give that lovely Tobacco Leaf a good old shine, looks like a new car now, I'm even starting to stop complaining about that awful 70's colour choice!
Then after hitting the ebay, I found a left hand wing mirror to fit on the door, its not a match for the right hand side, but at least its a mirror, and the car is hardly concours quality so I'm not so bothered, and in the name of backyard bodgery, the rubber gasket between the door and the mirror is made from a bit of old rubber floor mat.
I also experienced some of the legendary BL build quality when I started to polish up and clean the sidelights where all the filler holding the lightbulbs in had disintegrated leaving just mud to stop the bulb housing from dangling down in the wheelwell, so I cleared out all the mud that was lurking in the indicators and duct-taped it all up nice and safe
.So far so good, until I went out for a drive, to find that the indicators were all dead as dodos, after hours of electrical jiggery-pokery and gorping at wiring diagrams I just happened to give the emergency flasher knob a jiggle and hey presto the indicators are back, such is life.
At the moment the car is back at the garage to get the new clutch slave cylinder fitted, even though I never noticed a problem with the clutch, but I guess I just ain't as experienced hah!
After the weekend I am hoping to fit a new set of air filters and replace HT leads dizzy cap etc, I have been thinking about the SimonBBC Powerspark ignition kit with all the related HT leads etc, I'm hoping it might 'spark' a bit more life into the car on cold starts.
Quick question, does anybody have any experience with heated rear windows? Mine does a spectacular job of leaving the windows just as foggy when turned on as when it is turned off. I have checked the voltages on the filaments on the window and there is 12v-ish at the ends, and then very limited to 0v about 6 inches into the window, obviously this is why it isn't heating up and clearing the window, but is there any way to service this, or is it just a case of its been there for 40 years and its had enough of foggy windows?
And another, I noticed yesterday that the radiator was not actually bolted onto the car on the driver's side, is that a problem? :wink: We tried to get the radiator lined up with the bolt hole, but it just wasn't having it.
Thanks for looking, as soon as I get the car back I will get some photos on here, I know how pictures are always the most important part of any post!
