FNC - The Restoration

[smithymc]

Very smart Neil.....and the sun has come out. Enjoy.

Mark

[Nigel]

Looking forward to seeing it soon!

N

[Neil-yaj396]

Hi Neil

Did you have it back in time for the LMC weekend or is that from this last week?

Peter

No, just back yesterday.

[Clifford3051]

Looking really good!

[Neil-yaj396]

Working on the inevitable snags this morning.

After filling the car on the way back from the body shop the running fell off a cliff with a return of FNC's classic rough running. A combination of aged petrol getting a good stir up plus dust from lots of spraying and rubbing down seemed the prime suspects, though funny it ran fine for the 15 minutes to the station.

The jets had a good soak in solvent, the carburetor got a big spray of cleaner then everything back together with new plugs and fuel filter element. Started up fine and ran without lumps until the choke dropped out and I had no idle. 10 minutes juggling the mixture and idle screws seems to have sorted things, but it's bizarre how fixed points like this could fall out of adjustment.

The other more prosaic job was to fit the OS door lock button. The trim was broken and as I thought I had a decent one in my stash I declined having the broken one glued in. In the end though my stash trim was also missing a prong so not much better. Anyway, the button is fitted now and I left the garage in a much better mood.

I'm helping my friend with her Fulvia tomorrow, so might do the 30+ mile round trip in the Beta as a test run for Saturday.....

[Neil-yaj396]

After returning from my 300+ mile jaunt to Betameeta the running was still off, with quite a bit of hunting at slow speeds. Another go on the idle mixture screw has properly sorted things now though, with pretty smooth running even through the warm up stage.

I adjusted the screw all the way in then wound it out half a turn at a time. About two turns out I hit a real sweet spot and was then able to drop the idle speed down by a good 400 rpm. The weird thing is that I had done all this a few weeks before and that sweet spot just didn't appear, so Betameeta must have been something of an Italian tune up.

The motorway drive to Auto Italia at Carlton Towers last weekend was through lashing rain with all the electrics on, which the Coupe took in its stride, so that was reassuring too.

Thanks for all the positive comments from those who have seen the car.

[Neil-yaj396]

The alloys have come back from the refurb company I found in Bradford looking totally transformed! Thanks so much again Tim W 

Now the question of tyres? I'm wanting to keep a degree of that classic skinny 155 look of the stock 1300 Coupe. The wheels came with 175x70x14 that I am currently looking to stick with; Vredstein or Firestone Firehawk offer to keep a classic look at a reasonable price.

[mangocrazy]

The refurb company have done a lovely job with those wheels. Top marks!

[WestonE]

Looking great Neil

[SanRemo78]

What a fantastic result. We're not going to recognise the car next time out! I'd look at Camskill Tyres for whichever size you want and do a comparison of performance. I generally look at wet grip first, dry grip then noise and ignore the price unless the performance is identical. Al runs Continentals, Panda Falkens and the Beta will also run Continentals.

Guy

[Neil-yaj396]

Tyres now fitted. I looked through Camskill Tyres website with some interest. They really do have a great selection of tyres at very competitive prices. However, by chance I checked the site of one of my local discount MOT/Tyre fitters (Formula 1) and came up with a deal cheaper than Camskill on a set of Falken Sincros and all just round the corner from my garage. Pleased with the result although they couldn't balance one wheel without a big strip of weights on the outside. I'll have to see how that goes on the back.

[Neil-yaj396]

I went to fit the wheels today but the stainless bolts I bought are too short (25mm of thread). Neither could I use the steel bolts from my current wheels which are pretty much the same length. The new alloys seem quite thick around the centre plate. Any idea what length bolts I need? A recommended supplier would be nice too.

[WestonE]

Hi Neil Demon Tweeks actually for this so you have no risk of Chinese chocolate bolts. Make sure you get 10.9 grade steel bolts. you want 1.5 times bolt diameter in the hub thread for safety and do not grease the threads. I am to far from the garage to give you the actual metric fine size.

Eric
NB stainless A2 is not strong enough. 

[Neil-yaj396]

Thanks Eric. Demon Tweaks do these and I think 40mm would do the job. I'm just confused regarding the 'seat type';

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/grayston-wheel-bolt-243671/

[peteracs]

Hi Neil

The bolts I have are original alloy wheel ones, they are 35mm from the base of the cone to the end of the threaded section.

The angle of 60 degrees looks to be flat.

The locking wheel nuts I use are shorter than this which is not ideal at just over 30mm, but as there is only one per wheel I am happy to accept it. The limiting factor are the spacers on the front wheels, the rears are not a problem.

Peter