Rebuilding Dorrie

[Patrick Buchfink]

Today I finally made it, fetching Dorrie from the container to the place where I can work on her. A full rebuild is planned as she is currently in bits, only partly restored. Progress will be rather slow, since it will mainly be evenings or weekends I can work on her for a couple of hours.

What did already happen?

Ade already helped me out with a complete Phaeton shell, which I was able to collect on the same weekend as the AGM and Stoneleigh were. So one day Dorrie will wear the Phaeton smile again. But before a lot of other things need to be occupied.

This blog is supposed to sum up the rebuild from start to the end.

[Adrian Southgate]

As yours is basically biased to the wrong side being LHD I'd centralise it.

As far as I know the carb mounting face is supposed to be level but thats just me applying logic not practical mechanics. If I'm wrong then someone with more technical knowledge will no doubt give us more info.

I didn't make a overbrace for the green one as my knowledge of chassis requirements was far lower then. Its one of the reasons i'm planning to lift the body off later in the year. A lot depends on how the white one turns out as its all sort of experimental. 

As to sump clearance, measure a speed bump and set it above that level (allow for two occupants.) As the sump is close to the front wheels then is should help with the ones that go all the way across the road, its those square humps they use in the UK that I get close to. You are more likely to hit the exhaust unless it goes down the side.

[Patrick Buchfink]

Nice explanation, Ade. Cheers! This is exactly what we were thinking about (separate section of chassis + box frame above gearbox). The pics helped a lot! Did you go for a box frame on the green Lagerra? Cant see it on the pic.

Two questions coming up at that point:

What ground clearance should the sump + gearbox have minimum? Looks quite low on mine. From what I remember there are too small tyres mounted. Might come from that.

Concerning the float level: What angle (pitch angle) should the engine have in the ideal case? Is it the horizontal alignment or is there some pitch needed?

Here are two pictures I took from the front. First one is just sticking together all drive train components. In the second one we pulled the gearbox mount to the center of the car (about 3cm) with a strap. The orange strap under the engine is loose in both pictures and doesn't influence the alignment.

[Steve Kerswell]

someone call ?? :-))

[Adrian Southgate]

Even if it's a crossflow that gearbox needs to go lower and the only way to make that happen is with a separate section of chassis which bolts in place. Patrick is going to need a welder...

[Adrian Southgate]

Stand at the nose of the car and take a photo looking backward.

Make sure you include the diff in the photo.

You WILL have to remove some metal from the centre of the chassis.

These are photo's of the green legerra during its first resto.

When I chopped this bit out I did so without calculating in the drop required on the tailshaft to level the carb which is why it appears to be sloping down at the front. This section needs more metal removing, enough to allow the gearbox to be moved back off the clutch and then be lowered out of the bottom. it also needs a stronger crossbrace fabricating about 3cm lower. The open ends could also do with being angled at 30 - 45 degrees and capping. (mine were capped like this = not enough room to lower the box properly..) I would also suggest a 20x40mm box frame over the top of the gearbox that will fit inside the tunnel.

[Brian (up north) Morris]

that engine has to move to d/s patric 

[Adrian Southgate]

Gearbox mount has been adapted but not lowered. If you run a pinto with a standard inlet this will cause the float levels to be incorrect. Take the carb off, put a spirit level on the top of the inlet and get that level by altering the height of the gearbox at the back, then make a new rear mount to fit.

As long as the angle of the front UJ on the prop matches the angle of the back one then it should run true.

All mine are offset to the passenger side (or drivers side in your case) It may be possible to swap the engine mounts form side to side to get it closer to central. (one pinto mount is bigger than the other)

[Steve Kerswell]

Looks like you need Ade's magic formula for crossmember on those chassis :-))

[Brian (up north) Morris]

that dont look good to me ....it will wear out the uj. experts needed ????

[Patrick Buchfink]

Mainly the reason why I asked is, that the whole drive train setup looks odd. Today, I mounted gearbox and prop shaft to look, if the parts are correct. Everything fit together, but the whole drive train is not centred in the car, but with some offset. Also, the gearbox sticks up. I guessed 2 things so far:

The mounting of the gearbox has not been changed to 5 speed (although the seller told me it was). The prop shaft mount of the gearbox is located higher than the mount of the rear axle. That's because there is a bar of the chassis that prevents the gearbox from coming down (first pic).

The engine is not centred in the chassis. There is about 7 cm offset to the left in direction of driving. I guess this is intended, such that there is more space for feet on the drivers side? Which component is supposed to compensate this offset? Since the mounting of the prop shaft on the rear axle is centred. (second pic).