PREPARING A MARK II ZEPHYR FOR RACING PART 1 OF A CONTINUING SERIES
It all started with my boss. He is a petrol-head from way back, ex-British
Leyland-Rover and member of the Historic Sports & Racing Association (HSRCA).
Knowing I was an ex-petrol head (it never really goes away, just gets
suppressed by having children), he convinced me that buying a cheap
old sedan for Historical (or hysterical) racing was just the best way to get
back into racing at "reasonable cost". Famous last words!!
He had prepared a spreadsheet of data of all old British cars up to 1960.
The proposed cutoff for sedans is December 1957 with model run-ons allowed.
Note that the regulations are still being decided, but looks like it will
allow pre-Dec '57, 4 door sedans, with limited mods such as one extra carby,
exhaust system, head etc, but gearbox, suspension, wheels and tyres
basically as sold. Wheels and tyres cause a great amount of discussion in
all classes of historic racing.
Anyway, looking at the data - taking into account power/weight ratio, overall
weight, guesses at handling ability etc, I decided that a Mk II Zephyr was
the way to go - better than a Morris Oxford or Austin A95. I had never owned
one, but did drive a friend's about 30 years ago! So I started looking through
the 'Trading Post' each Thursday in the 'Vintage and Collector' section
looking for my race car. After many weeks with nothing advertised, I decided
to see what I could flush out by advertising myself.
This brought one phone call, from a young guy whose father had a Mk II for
sale. The next Saturday we went out to look at it. (By the way - a lot of
talking was needed to convince the better half that this was a good idea).
Well, to say it looked sad is an understatement. It had been sitting in
this guy's shed for the past 12 years that he had owned it without him having
done anything to it. He is a panel beater/spray painter so it was covered
in paint dust. The main thing I was after was a straight, rust-free body a
s I couldn't cope with trying to cure terminal cancer. It was quite origin
al, with the interior quite good - even had the plastic covers on the rear
bench seat. It wasn't running but he assured us it had a great engine etc
etc ... The colour is buckskin tan/cream.
We told him we'd think about it - wanting to see if any other phone calls came.
They didn't so we went back to haggle over the price. We probably
paid far too much knowing what I know now, but that's water under the bridge.
I guess I should restate the "Three Times Rule" quoted in a NZ newsletter -
The car is three times worse than you thought,
It takes three times longer than you thought,
And cost three times more than you thought!
My car satisfied all of these so far!
The brakes didn't work - "just needs a repair kit in the master cylinder
mate". Because it had been sitting for 12 years, the brake fluid had turned
to jelly in the lines. So hired Easi-Tow to get it home first for a bit of a
cleanup then up to B**** (!?) Brakes. Their quote almost blew me out of the
chair when they rang - $1750!! Hmmmm. By this time I had joined ZZOC so got a
few ideas about brake parts and mechanics, etc. As the car was at BB and
they could
fit a new master cylinder at about the same as quoted elsewhere, I had them
do that, clean out the lines and reline the shoes. They wanted an exorbitant
amount for new wheel cylinders and hoses so passed on that.
So back with the Easi-Tow to take it Joe, a mechanic with many years of Zephyr
experience and recommended by a member. He tried to get the cylinders
apart but they were frozen. The hoses weren't too hot either so I
ordered a set from YesterFord. The total cost including BB, all parts, Joe's
time etc probably wasn't much short of $1750 by the end of that lot.
While it was with Joe, we noticed water was leaking from the water pump.
More ordering of parts from Melbourne - delays etc.
Finally it was mobile, so cleaned it up for the Pink Slip. It was blowing
a fair
amount of smoke so I took it for a couple of late night runs to try and blow
the cobwebs out, free up the rings and all that. Also tried Valvoline oil
with STP, all to no avail - still blowing smoke. Took it hoping the mechanic
would be kind. When he saw it he exclaimed 'I learnt to drive in one
of these! - they're great cars!'. This looked promising, but when he came
back from the run, he wasn't looking too impressed. While he would have l
iked to pass it, it was just not good enough. The blue smoke, oil leak from
the timing cover and
loose tie-rod end just couldn't be ignored. Back to the drawing board.
Obviously the engine was worn and there was nothing else to do but recondition
it. Joe knew a bloke who would do it, but not all that keen, and a bit
expensive too. Joe also tried Repco for parts - yes they could supply pistons
and rings - $860 the set or nearly $150 each!!
A member of the HSRCA recommended Philp Bothers of Thornleigh. They
had done up Stuart Schofield's racing Mk III engine some time ago. After Philps
pulled the engine down they found that the bores were worn .030", the
big-ends and mains were .010" down, the timing gears and chain, oil pump,
camshaft bearings all needed replacing. The problem with the job is locating
parts, and they clearly weren't too happy in having to make lots of phon
e calls to get them, so I undertook to find them. Lots of calls to Obsolete
Spares, Yesterford and Victor Pace in Melbourne trying (a) to see if they
had them and (b) how much they wanted for them. I finished up getting most of
the
parts from Obsolete and Victor Pace, including a racing set of timing gear
and chain and a spin-on oil-filter adaptor.
I had bought a worked Mk III head from Stuart so that the engine will be able
to breathe a lot better as the valves are much bigger than the Mk II's. When I
took it up to Philps to check it out, they discovered that the valve guides
were worn and one of the exhaust valves was bent, and a couple more had worn
stems. On the phone again, this time locating some with oversize stems through
Victor Pace.
Just after I put the phone down, Philps rang - the "main" bearings supplied
by Obsolete Spares were big-ends!! Rang Obsolete - the order had been filled
by someone who didn't know what they were doing while Tony was overseas
. Tony only had some which were -.010 (but not a complete set) and some -
.020. Back to Victor Pace; yes, he has some -.010". These are on their way
to Philps with the valves as I write this (I hope!!).
So at the time of writing (mid-November) I have owned the car for 4 months
and driven it about 50kms at night. Money has been going out at a rapid rate
and the sponsor (wife) is not impressed. The engine job will probably cost
more than $2500 by the time it's finished, and there is still the body to paint,
steering to check etc etc etc.
Lots of fun eh!! Anyway with some luck it will be ready to run in the Regularity
Trial at the HSRCA Amaroo Park meeting at the end of January. A Regularity
Trial is not to see how often you go to the toilet, but a test to see how
consistently you can lap a circuit. After practicing, you nominate the lap
time you can consistently hold. Penalties are 1 point per 1/10th second, so
you have to be really smooth - of course there is other traffic out there and
that can upset your plans. It is not a race, and anyone driving as if they
were racing will be black flagged.
This is the first stepping stone towards full racing, and does not require
full racing gear such as roll-cage and full harness - that will come later
in another heartbreaking episode.
|