It hasn’t been a good couple of days in the workshop for various reasons, one of which is Friday the 13^th! Yesterday the bandsaw broke and a clamp on my only magnetic base for holding the DTI snapped today. I worked out that the blank I had cut for the Seal had the wrong end too long! Getting the face plate to fit my Turner lathe took 3 goes of removing studs, fitting the right ones eventually then working out how I could get sufficient travel to cut the various cams on the blank didn’t go well. The top slide doesn’t have enough travel (I prefer to have the cross slide power fed for accuracy) because the DRO fitted before the lathe was delivered to me new comes between the cross slide and the tailstock.

The only bright side to the couple of days was Mike coming down to pick up his stainless steel wing mirror brackets [photo] and with his help drilling the mounting holes in the correct position and then countersinking the right side (for a change) of the brackets. Before I had chance to give them a good polish Mike zoomed them away to see if they would fit, promising to bring the car back over the weekend sometime so I could take a photo for the websites. Well today Mike did arrive and was pleased with the results. They fitted the car and gave the required amount of adjustment. Since the stainless steel was quite substantial they were rock solid so no flapping will be encountered.

My only regret with the wing mirror brackets was the line sustained by the bending machine. I went to considerable trouble protecting the steel but to no avail. I thought they may polish out but are too deep and any grinding done to remove them would weaken the area requiring the most strength. Mike didn’t feel they were a problem and to be fair when they are on the car they don’t cheapen it.

I was pleased that the first attempt was rejected because I wasn’t happy either. The current solution is far more satisfactory and well worth the extra effort. Mike has given his permission to have the photo’s shown so here they are.

Unfortunately I have been a little under the weather today and whilst I did manage to get out into the workshop I didn’t trust myself to do any accurate work. After a cup of tea I decided to call it a day.

The only productive work done was to put a few tools away and clean up the stainless steel brackets for the MGA wing mirror project. I did manage to drill the ¼” hole in the end of both brackets whilst still clamped together, also rounding off the ends and corners to suit.

Hopefully tomorrow will see some improvement and I will then start on the Seal camshaft for certain (unless the Myford parts arrive, which I very much doubt).

Well today I completed the countershaft for the Myford refurbishment and am really pleased with the results (that makes a pleasant change!) and you can read all about it on either the main website or my Myford specific site www.myfordml7.co.uk

Yesterday i spent a little time on making up a template for the wing mirror brackets. Some time ago I was asked if I could make some extensions for wing mirrors mounted on the 'A' post of a classic MGA sports car. The end result was some short stainless steel rods machined to fit. However when placed on the car they didn't really suit the task so another solution was required. This time, rather than adapt an existing arrangement, a new bracket all together is being designed, and made.

The initial idea was to try and get some stainless steel sheet of sufficient thickness to form the brackets. Failing the sourcing of the stainless steel, then brass brackets would be made and chromed. Following a tip from the owner of the MGA, a small local engineering firm (not a usual sight in our fishing port of Brixham) sold some 'scrap' stainless steel to me. Beacuse of its shape a design was drawn in colabaration with the MGA owner, that would allow two brackets to be cut from the steel sheet (see photo below).

Since the material was just about enough I thought it would be best to 'practice' on some brass of the same thickness. So a paper template was the fisrt stage in setting out the shape of the proposed bracket which mirrored in some imensions the original brackets. After chain drilling, the shape was achived by sanding on the linisher working to the scribe lines.

The next stage was to bend the brackets to shape to see what allowance was needed in the bends themselves. So the metal roller/bender/guilotine tool was brought into use and the first bracket produced. The result was a bracket with nice 90 deg. bends but the marks may have to be adjusted to account for the final shape required. One good reason for 'practice'. The template bracket will be tested against the car itself to see what, if any, tolerance is available when bending.

Another lesson to note from the exercise was the 'mark' made by one of the bending jaws. The proper stainless steel brackets will need protection at this point when they are made. So until the bracket is tried, little esle can be done on this small project.

Well I have been busy ish, in the workshop with two unplanned for projects. This one involved making brackets for a lovely British classic car, an MGA. I hope that I will be able to post a picture of the mirrors fitted as soon as the weather and the mirrors have been fitted.

The problem was that the owner, my architect Michael, couldn't find suitable mirrors to fit the 'A' posts or windscreen uprights. He didn't want to drill holes in the wings (and I agree totally with that!) and as he tours to France and elsewhere he wanted the advantage that good wing mirrors give. All the sets of mirrors he saw all had the same shortcoming, literally! They all were too short and didn't secure easily.

At the recent car show in Exeter, Michael found an nice set of round mirrors. When trial fitting they also did not go away from the car enough. I should have explained that Mikes MGA is a soft top or convertible. Well Mike brought the car down and we looked to see what could be done by 'adapting' (that means sawing parts off!) the brackets. The extension was only two or three inches and we decided that some stainless steel of the right size, could be machined to suit. The photo's below show what was done. In the middle of making the extensions I decided it would be nice to have some flu (hence the delay in writing up the project) so yesterday I phoned Michael to say they were ready.

The fixings used will not be the final ones, as some nice stainless steel sealed nuts and bolts are being sourced by Mike. He really does look after his car and also uses it. Hopefully the extensions will help in the driving pleasure. Time will tell.

Constituent parts - cut down brackets and stainless steel blanks.

Milling one of the flats to match bracket.

One of the brackets completer prior to polishing.

The pieces made are the two stainless steel shafts. The bracket on the left hand side is bought. Needs stainless steel bolts and hopefully stainless steel capped nuts similiar to that used for the mirror itself.