Berlinetta restoration

[cameronfurnival]

I am now the new owner of a Berlinetta! The good news is I can get out of the car without resorting to an impression of a hermit crab moving shells. The car has been well built and apart from the paint work (which is dreadful - a professional respray was undertaken several years ago and its lifting and peeling!) and a bit of fiddling I'm hoping to get it motd fairly quickly.

I have filled the leaks in the exhaust with putty but intend to have a nice new exhaust pretty soon. I cured the fallen passenger door with a bit of spannering and derusted and hammerited some water damage at the B posts. So I reckon its time to put her in for a test and see what transpires. I have noticed a split in the gaiter of the steering rack and giving the wheels a hard jiggle shows up some play - probably in the rack itself I fear. Its not much but I bet it will be enough to fail - at least they will tell me which bit needs work. So there's my first question, how difficult is it to rebuild a cortina rack - or is it not worth the effort? I searched my old Haynes manuals and dont have anything suitable to compare with so if anyone has the relavant bit that I can photocopy I would be most grateful - a purchase is already underway but I can never wait that long!

PS Nice to meet so may of you at stoneleigh
PPS heres a pic of it from several years ago

silver-berly.jpg

[scott h]

Re: Steering rack overahul

A quick search came up with this at £35 http://www.livingstonautoparts.co.uk...981/Parts.aspx

So I would say it's not worth the hassle. Try your local motor factor.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Steering rack overahul

Thats insanely cheap! I will get on to them - many thanks.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Steering rack overahul

MOT today, she failed on:

• slight blow between the down pipe and first box
  
• Brake switch faulty (turned out to be snapped)
  
• osf tie bar nut not tightened
  
• os track rod end
  
• both front wheel bearings need adjustment
  
• rear brakes dragging
  

The tester told me he thought there was some 'lift' in the steering rack but wouldn't be able to tell how bad it was until the other jobs were done, he suspects it is well within limits.

Overall very happy indeed, new switch ordered for under £6.00. Have ordered a pair of track rod ends (£15) will adjust bearings and repack with fresh grease over the weekend. the tie bar nut was very loose - the poly bush could be turned by hand so I have whacked it up nice but will replace the nylock nuts on both sides in due course. My intention is to fit a new exhaust but for the mot I will disassemble, apply joint paste and bang it back together.

Driving it today for the first real time showed that the steering was a bit wayward (resulting from the above mot points) and that when pulling away there is a hell of a clonking from the back - possibly a gearbox mount or similar. Will get it up in the air and have a look.

As I said in the last post, the car is very well built but one bit that puzzles me is the boot lid - it stands a good 1/2" proud. I looked at the hinges (and viewed Tony Green's car at Stoneleigh - thanks Tony) and can see the hinges haven't been bent far enough away from the pin. New hinges arrived today - 2 sets so I can butcher one to get the best fit. The boot seal is standard door seal and I think there may be something better out there? Ideas?

Jobs to do:

• mot
  
• new exhaust
  
• fix boot alignment
  
• new paint job.

[dcunn]

Re: Steering rack overahul

FWIW there is a lot in the old Tech Tips/Pitstops ref Berli clonking - I can't remember details, but it'll make some bedtime reading for you !
Rgds DC

[cameronfurnival]

further berli exploits

Thanks DC will have a look!
I have now dismantled the front suspension. the wheel bearings looked fine so they are all re-greased and set up accurately - feel much better. Managed to get the faulty track rod end off easily but the other one was a bit of a bugger. Its not worth replacing one and not the other when its all stripped down that far. To get the hubs off to repack the bearings I had to remove the brakes; not much material left on the pads so I ordered some new ones complete with fixing kit etc. Unfortunately the pistons appear completely seized - well they cant be completely or it wouldn't have had enough squeeze to pass an mot but trust me - the pistons don't want to move! So the calipers have been sent off to Bigg Red for reconditioning - not worth taking risks with brakes.
The car seems to have a nice upgrade in the brakes with vented discs and what I guess are Capri 2.8i calipers, so when its back together it will stop on a sixpence.

I'm just thinking about the exhaust now - it only needs a bit of gungum to pass the test but I saw a lovely Berli at Stonelighwith a side exit one. I'm thinking....

PS I now have Autobooks and Haynes manuals so if anyone needs a page copying just let me know?

[danny_nelson]

Re: further berli exploits

Hi Cameron,
It is worth checking the front wheel bearings at intervals ( begining of season/ end) as they are able to be adjusted. The clonking is nothing that is on tech tips, ie prop and rear flange clearance. Could be the rubber on the gearbox mount perished. The side mount exhaust gives best ground clearance, but can be a bit of a (drone) on motorway journeys. Your Berly has reasonable clearance ( better than a lot) Try passing the test and then see how you get on with it on your local roads. Sounds like you will be on the road for the end of the week
Danny.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

I like your confidence Danny, I have checked the gearbox mount and all looks well so its just a matter of going through it all. I will attack it with a lever see if its split but it appears sound.
I havent started refurbishing the back brakes yet but did notice some real dragging from spinning the osr wheel (half a turn, catch, half a turn catch). I wonder if its something simple like a broken brake catching... time will tell. I have just started going through the exhaust and its actually not bad, i think it just needs the joints remaking and a nicer back box fitting. I just catch the centre section on my rubber threshold strip - but that's due to the steep ramp up to the door (another job in the summer) - so thought I might take that out, but actually think I will leave it as is.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

It turns out the exhaust had been clamped so tight on the front joint that the pipe had actually worn through under the clamp. Angle grinder, reseat pipes, job done. I intend to have a new system made in due course but that should see me through to doing a bit of driving first.

The front brake callipers have been sent off to Bigg Red for a £90 refurbishment and should be back early next week, new pads and pins have been ordered and then the work for the MOT should have been completed. Rear brakes all cleaned up and seem lovely and sharp now.
the new track rod ends are fitted so I guess I should get the tracking checked at some time.

I looked closely at the drive train and can find no sign of clonking damage, the rubber mountings all seem fine but I did notice that the exhaust clamps had gouged a bit into the floor, leading me to suspect that the vibrations from the engine might be to blame - I will look closely at the engine mounts next but suspect it may be oil on the clutch that's causing the juddering (its very minor) - a new clutch was always on the cards with this car anyway (along with all serviceable items) so I'm glad it has had the mods done to the chassis to enable easy gearbox removal.

So, hopefully this time next week it will have a nice new MOT.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

After a week of being pretty ill I am back in rood health and just in time my reconditioned calipers turned up from Bigg Red. I originally arranged for UPS to courier them as I was in a rush - UPS failed to turn up...twice!. Then the next courier DX tried to deliver them to the factory but no-one was in (apparently) Twice!! I decided that I would ring Bigg Red to see how they were getting on only to find out they hadn't been delivered. aaargh. Anyway they are back now and Im very pleased. They have new seals and pistons etc and look lovely. Just under £90 is a good price in my opinion and the peace of mind that comes with a good piece of work too. I could have bought new chinese copies - Im sure they are really excellent and up to the job but I decided to stick with the originals.

rsz_dsc_0085.jpg

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

MOT passed now and a lovely ride back with the top down. The clonk has disappeared with a good fettle of the exhaust and the old girl drives really nicely - wafts along very regally.

After re greasing and setting the wheel bearings and replacing the track rod ends there is no play whatsoever in the front suspension so my fears about steering rack play were unfounded.

I have raised the drivers seat by 1 3/4" but think that's a bit excessive and will probably settle on 1/2" less for comfort.
next job is to give it a full service and swap out the cam belt - I used to have a set of Ford Splined bits somewhere - I bet they aren't the same as my modern splined torx bits are they?
Tonight I made some new hinges for the boot so it now sits flush and will look at installing a gas ram rather than the bit of string which supports the weight of the spare wheel when its open. If anyone has pics of that upgrade please share them!
The plan is to refurbish the wheels and respray the whole car. Then have a new exhaust made. First though I need to make the ramp into the garage a little less steep.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

Lovely sunshine today so I took an hour off from building the MOC databases and auto sign up systems, ignored my son's plea for more help with his new restaurant, ignored the wife wanting me to do a shed load of work for her too and went out to the garage. I stripped off all the lighting - most came off quite straightforward and I even remembered to label the wires. I hope to replace all the junctions with waterproof multiplugs when the time comes. One rear light needed its mounting screw drilling out but everything else came off ok. The respray is worse than I thought and in some places is over 1mm thick and has formed strange shapes around the edges of the light pods - hollow underneath though! I cleared all the electrics off the outside of the car quite quickly, removed the hood and frame and rear bench seats. I am also going to take off the seat belts so as to remove the side panels and repaint the top of the rear tub under the hood fixings.
I couldnt undo the seat belt bolts - would have thought they would have been captive but no. So I need a longer arm with an extra elbow to get a spanner on the back nuts. Had to give up at that point.

I found some Wipac S.169 lenses in my boxes of bits so will fit them instead of the trailer light units but need to source new bulb holders and reflectors for them first. I also fancy fitting some infill plates to cover the rear bumper irons, if anyone has a photo or template of one they prepared earlier I would be most grateful.

Right - onwards.

[dcunn]

Re: further berli exploits

You're obviously enjoying yourself too much ! Look forward to some pics
B Rgds DC

[cameronfurnival]

Re: further berli exploits

I have begun the strip down as I said and the seatbelt bolts really tested me. Still, a little patience and all things come to those... etc...
I thought I had cured the passenger door droop but no, tightening up the bolt in the door frame was a temporary fix and so today I decided to have a proper look.

door-hinge.jpg

As you can see, the ally door edge has broken, stress on the area around the hinge has weakened it and metal fatigue has set in and the whole thing snapped. But wait - can you see that it has already been repaired? On taking off the hinge completely you can see that a piece of steel has been coaxed into service to strengthen the panel - perfectly good solution but...it's not thick enough and actually bends if you press it in. I'm guessing the rivets may not be set tight enough or play has developed over the years - it was probably a good fix when done originally.

door-hinge2.jpg

My solution is to take a piece of stainless roofing strap and brace the door along its whole length and hopefully that should do it for the foreseeable future.

[danny_nelson]

Re: further berli exploits

Hi Cameron, You will find that forming a good length of channel to fit inside will do the job very well. If the hinges are not kept greased the hinge pin bolt and washer can pull through the ally very easily. So back further than I care to remember we came up with several mods at build stage to sort this one. The channel inside the door was the one I favoured, rather than a flat.