Engine in AK

Got an email from Terry, who is building an AK, asking if I would help install his engine. So a quick trip over to Pateley Bridge in the pouring rain.

His workshop is so tidy, made mine look positively bomb like!

So after a bit of prep, he shifted the engine hoist round to the front of the chassis.

Me stood with hands in pocket. Easy life!

After a few huffs and puffs and a few hours of pushing, pulling and lowering, the engine went in to place. Brilliant stuff!

Engine in place, just to tighten up mountings.

Terry thanked me for my help, but I seemed to be the king of standing around (see first photo for proof!).

Engine in place without the hoist.

Hood (part 2)

OK so I have fitted the bows to the screen in part1. So now it is time to move to the back of the car.

The GRP skirt moulding was in two parts (not one as stated in the instructions).

Mouldings may be one part or cut in two as mine was

 I applied plenty of masking tape where the moulding would fit to avoid any scratching of the body.

Masking tape applied to the body

Next I drilled 8 pilot holes where indicated on the mouldings. I sanded the mouldings to remove any sharp edges and the hole marking 'pimples'.  Then the mouldings were lined up on the rear deck, so that the overhangs were tight up against each door reveal and the centre rear trailing edge was 60-65mm from the boot shut line. The mouldings were taped in place. Once in place, the pilot holes in the skirt moulding were used as a guide to drill through the body. These were then opened out to 8mm using a step drill bit. 

Mouldings held in place with masking tape prior to drilling

Holes drilled in body

The M8 thread inserts were fitted in to each hole in the body and secured from inside the boot and wheel arches with penny washers, shake proof washers and nuts.

Inserts fitted

The pilot holes in the mouldings were opened out to 6mm (allows clearance for the thumb screws). The mouldings were trial fitted using the thumb screws and the holes adjusted a little to fit. Once I knew they fitted, the skirt mouldings were removed and trimmed back 6mm from the door shut line and the rear was cut to the marks provided by GD (This is where you cut it in two if it is in one piece).

t was 

Rear of moulding cut to allow hood to fold

Then I fitted the two pivot brackets to the mouldings using the countersunk screws provided. The pin ends of the bracket face towards the inside of the car. The centre line of the bracket should be 30mm back from the door shut line and approx 30mm in from the cockpit roll edge. 

Pivot bracket in place

The hood frame was put together (it needed the inside of one of the frame legs reeming out a little) before fitting in place (note that the frame main legs are cranked so that the hood can lay back over the body).

Hood frame fitted

The next job is to start fitting the hood fabric.

Hood (part 1)

I removed the existing ‘wind wings’ from the screen stanchions to get them out of the way, keeping the hinges and fixings for later use on the side screens.

The two over-centre catch ‘keepers’ were fitted to each side of the screen (with the short countersunk screws supplied) using the two pre-tapped holes just above the top hole position of the wind wing hinge (don’t use longer screws or you may damage the screen). The keepers, and not the catches as stated in the instructions, fit to the screen stanchions.

Keeper fitted to stachion.

Make sure that the sun visor mountings are pointing down (I had put mine on facing up to gain height), if you want the bows to fit!

The sun visor bracket now points down (the correct way)

The two hood bows were trial fitted along the top of the screen, with the locating pegs towards the centre (they will only go on one way). The driver’s side bow was a very poor fit at the end, so needed quite a lot of time spent fettling and repainting to make it acceptable.

Bow side was poorly bent, so had to be reshaped for a better fit

Once this was done, the holes for the over-centre catches were then marked on to the ends of the bows, whilst the catches were in the closed position (not easy as the holes get covered by part of the catch!). The bows were removed and drilled with 2.3mm holes. The over-centre catch holes needed opening out a little to take the rivets. These were then fixed with the pop rivets supplied. The pop rivets were fixed from the outside of each bow. The backs protruded towards the screen surround, so were peened on the inside to reduce their height and any sharp edges removed.

Catch in place

Next I applied masking tape to the top of the glass and the front face of the chrome screen surround. This should help protect it from glue at a later stage. I marked the centre of the screen for later use too.

Screen taped and centre marked

On each bow I marked a line 4” (100 mm) from the bottom edge of the bow outside edge (the bit that goes down to the new keeper). The front face of each bow was then lightly sanded from the centre to the marked line. The un-sanded section will be seen when the hood is fitted, so this was not rubbed down. If you sand beyond this point, then you will need to re-paint this section of the bow.

Now for a cup of tea and a rest, before I tackle the next stage. Needed at my age!