Friday 24 March 2017

1911 de Dion Bouton "Type de Course"

Avenue Garage, Early Spring " Sessions"

Porsche
Richard visits with a very nice 911 Carrera SC and greeted me in the most appropriate way..... Le Mans 1970! (look closely at the second picture :) )





Alvis Grey Lady, engine preparation. 




Dressing the oil pressure relief valve, this had been packed with multiple washers previously, perhaps to try and stop the leak from a fairly deep wear groove. We have dressed the valve in the lathe with an oilstone and lapped it into the block with fine paste before thoroughly cleaning the whole oil system. As a final check we blued the valve with Micrometer blue and then checked the witness of the valve contact on to the seat.


Test fitting of the con rods. Because of scarce crankshaft and bearing availability, we finally opted to grind the crank minimum clean and have the big ends direct white metalled in the place of thin wall shells.


The Rizla papers have been an important part of an engine builder's measuring equipment for many generations, they are the third stage of triple checking clearances and actual "feel" of each rod to journal clearance. Each Rizla is a nominal 0.001" (one thousands / inch).




Although items have been balanced previously, this is just a quick last precaution, end to end checks will also follow.



This "floating" oil pick up "hinges" where the pipe enters the pump, the bright section indicates some wear from the constant movement on the oil surface. To help to reduce the air gap into the system we will heat and "wash" this with a coating of silver solder, followed by a light dress to maintain a free fit within the oil pump.



1911 de Dion Bouton
This wonderful car called in today. Tim Harrison's 1911 de Dion Bouton "Type de Course" belonged to his great grandfather, it is a lovely shortened chassis, rakish looking, 955cc single cylinder beauty with lots of adventurous history, shadowed only by the adventures of Tim's great grandfather!















A Series production line.... Turner and Mini 998 A+







Matching and mixing the "Armstrong Components" salmon pink paint colour for the Turner front shock dampers.


Turner rear axle assembly.