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Wagoneer's Blog

A blog by Wagoneer in General

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About this blog

Back on the road after 15 years

Entries in this blog

Water, water, everywhere

If it wasn't dark, I'd post a picture. The day started well, I took the car for a jaunt up to the fringes of the Big Smoke to visit my Mother. The return trip took me near the Dartford Tunnel of Love, or hate if you have to actually use it. Even at 2.45 on a Friday it was well and truly fubared, solid traffic on the coast bound A2 trying to get off for the tunnel and the M25 tailed back for miles. The idle speed rose to 2k for no apparent reason (a carb rebuild is happening soon) so I sat there
Wagoneer

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Distractions of reality

Distractions of reality - the things that keep you away from the things you like doing. Anyway, time was found to fix a few small things like fitting an air filter (kind of essential!) which entailed cutting the bonnet, fitting an abs Car Builder Solutions bulge and then a 3D printed grille to stop seagulls falling in. This is temporarily held with some old black sealant to see how it performs.     My son and I have recently shortened the sump as it had worn paper thin on all
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Picture!

It's been a day of dodging showers but my son and I wrestled the crossflow's sump off. Annoyingly the dust sheild between the engine and bellhousing was one piece so a little cutting was required to get the lower portion off. It'll be fine of course. The oil pick-up pipe got snagged on one of the baffles but a little wrestling and it soon came off. Tomorrow I'll clean it, screw it down to a stable surface and cut the bottom off! Full details and pictures as we go. Here's the car at the mome
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Just remembered, I own a Westfield!

It's true! After several dormant years of ignoring the car as I walked past each day, a furious amount of activity and a fist full of cash waved in the right direction has seen my car turn a wheel for the first time in 20 years. Having gotten fed up with a non-running car it came to the point where I sought help. The ever helpful chaps at Car Builder Solutions recommended Aeon Sportscars over in Marden, just a short blast away from me. Having explained my woes and citing that a car with an MOT w
Wagoneer

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Still wiring - getting bored now

Progress often seems to be one step forward, fifteen back. My own total lack of knowledge of vehicle wiring doesn't help here so I've appealed to an old friend to come and rescue me. He's a time served auto electrician (handy) and can probably help me finish the wiring with no more than a custard cream and a cup of tea. Mind you, the wipers are now working. Previously only one speed was connected. Following the installation of a new 2 speed switch and a little help from the Car Builder Solutio
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Wiring the dash - actual progress

Starting with a picture, here's the new dash sitting almost in place. In a pun free entry, I'm currently working out wire by wire what goes where. The engine start switch is working fine now, being connected via an ignition switch tucked away out of sight. Having achieved that with a celebratory dance around the garden I pressed on to get the horn working then the screen washers too. Having planned to get this all working so that an MOT can be acquired, I'm drawing a new wiring diagram as I go
Wagoneer

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An idle hour steers progress

I've got to stop making up daft titles as much for my own sanity as yours. Having said a quick thank you to Mother Nature for the warm and dry weather this afternoon, we cracked into a simple job, steering rack gaiters. Previously on other car projects I can remember mashing a forked tool into the track rod ends to separate them from the uprights. Fortunately, this evil tool has disappeared so the simple use of heat from a blow torch did the job of persuading the parts apart. The rack itself is
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Dashed if I know

It's almost done. The arcane art of working out how to wire it in comes next. None of the switches have wiring diagrams with them but I'm sure I can figure it out after all, I'm not doing much different to how it was to begin with. The small cut-out in the bottom middle takes care of providing more room for my knuckles when changing gear. When it's in I can fit the choke between the speedo and multi-dial. The ignition goes in the lower hole, or I fit a start button instead, hiding the ignition
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Wiring in a thunderstorm

Back again. Having actually bought a throw-away gazebo and even put it up over the car, I thought it rude not to do some work. My son helped move the car by pushing it down the garden a little so we could cut the grass under the car. I say grass, it wasn't really, more mud. Some donated slabs covered that nicely and we tried pushing the car back again. Oops, a combination of an under-inflated tyre and a slight uphill gradient made it too hard. Crossing fingers we connected the battery. Then it d
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Dash design

OK, so I've been slack. Well, slightly slack, like a Euro MP on full salary. Having left you all with tales of a wiring mess, within the last month I've finally set to and begun the process of making it right. Beginning with removing all the unknown wires and making what I could of the faded labels, there's a lot less in there! My colleague and friend then gave me a few boxes of cable and connectors as he used to be Durite dealer. Then I got on with redesigning the dash. The original had way to
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Where did the last year go? Back on track.

Hello, It's been nearly a year since my last post and indeed since I last tinkered with my Westfield. Life got in the way in a number of ways and I had to focus my attention elsewhere. Now though, my lovely car is safely relocated and visible through the window down in the depths of Kent. With easy and level access all around hopefully I can crack on and get it on the road soon. If I can remember where I'd got to then I'll let you all follow along through this blog. Thank goodness you're al
Wagoneer

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12v spaghetti fest

More progress. Having discovered that the original screen washer bottle had a hole in it I ordered a nice new kit: Bag, fittings and wiring all for a very reasonable sum. As far as the MOT tick list goes, this is near the end of the jobs. A quick fiddle and one broken replacement washer jet (very cheap!) I had it fitted. The broken jet responded well to super glue but will get replaced post MOT. Now, let's pop the dash off for a look behind that to see if I can identify the mystery switches.
Wagoneer

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Ah ha! A wheel turns at last

Success! I did a little dance of joy. Having bled the newly installed brakes, we tested them on the precipitous driveway that I own. They worked fine. So, a quick tweak with the carb and some help from my daily driver lowered Micra by way of a jump start and 'we gave it life!'. I drove the car gently down the drive, testing the brakes all the way, then out of the drive and up my road a little way. Wow! It pulls fine, ran well and stopped great! To say I'm slightly excited is an understatement.
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Amazing pace

Crack on! She said that and meant the garden, not the Westfield. So, we spent my two days off rendering garden walls. Saturday was written off too, having to visit a secondary school in the morning and a meeting for a private commission in the afternoon. Sunday (today) we laid 5m of brick paving and despite feeling physically broken, decided to do some work on the car too. The afore mentioned calipers were toast - the pistons were very firmly stuck in the bores. Quickly calculating the time ve
Wagoneer

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Stop go. Stop.

Aha! Steps forward again. Having removed the master cylinder and pedal box all over again as described briefly before, I took a good look at it in order to remedy the slack pedal thingy. Having read (by accident) a report on bulkhead flex I decided to keep the strength already there but to improve it somewhat. You can see in this previously posted picture the plate that the master cylinder was bolted to. This plate trapped the bolts holding the master cylinder and was then in turn bolted to t
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What? No update?

No, sorry chaps (and a lady), Having got the pedal box back in and replaced the rear wheel cylinders, I set about bleeding the brakes all round. The peculiar thing is, the relationship between the brake pedal and the master cylinder has gone sour. No longer is there a good fit, the two parts seem to have drifted apart. Much confusion. Having at first thought that the push rod in the master cylinder was binding with a molecular level lump of clag, I took it off again only to find that it works j
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Cozy Powell

Well, after my many hours of toil trying to remove the nearside brake drum, I think a little Cozy would be worth listening to. It's off! We persevered with the process of using Rost Off and jiggling the drum about plus a generous amount of filing around the axle and eventually, pop! it came off. Just visible on the right is the red handle of Alan's diamond file that did a sterling job of removing enough material from the end of the axle to allow the drum to come off. I'll be giving both the d
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Brakes broke

Now that the engine's running well enough to get on the road I thought it wise to turn my attention to the brakes. With the nearside rear wheel off (It's a genuine Wolfrace slot!) I figured that the axle and brakes had once been under the rear of a MKI Escort which was good as I knew how to tackle them. Having loosened the brake adjuster with a spanner that's followed me around for years without being used I fully expected the drum to fall into my lap. Silly boy, it'll be stuck on the centre bo
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Four stroke success!

Right then, ditch the points, condenser and old coil, distributor and leads. Buy a new set, or, like me, buy an electronic ignition set. Having researched a few, I settled on Accuspark. They provide a new distributor, high power coil, triple electrode plugs, ignition leads and for a little more, a timing light and rev limiter. I fitted these items (all but the leads) and tried to remember how to set the static timing. The distant memory of getting No1 piston to TDC crept back between the burn
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Ignition - or not...

Well, the time had come to try and start it. Tuesday just gone my neighbour and I set to and checked all the connections, put some fuel in the tank and cranked it over a few times with the coil disconnected. No spark. Diddly. Not even a twinkle. A quick look at the points revealed verdigris normally reserved for 14th century Venetian chapels. Oh, and the rotor arm was slacker than a politician at a trouser press convention. After a few minutes of cursing we packed up. I very nearly went out o
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Watery bits

Not too much to report as I've been busy building walls again but I did manage to re-fit the fuel tank and some of that rather large fuel pipe from the new filler neck down to the tank. Here's the new filler neck, aluminium and locking. That's an improvement over the push-in type that it came with. I know the tank is tiny and the amount of fuel small but I still don't fancy having it syphoned when I'm not looking! I'd forgotten how soft the fibreglass is when a file is taken to it but I ma
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A good start

More progress. I'd earned plenty of points by building some retaining walls in the garden so set to on the Westfield again. The thermostat and water pump got re-fitted after being cleaned. The new gaskets and sealant made the job a little easier. I purchased some new water hose and elbows to go from the pump and thermostat housings. So, we went from this; ...to this. The alternator got a clean too. Having removed the securing nut and pulley, the cooling fan part got a bath in an electrol
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Let's begin

First job, give it a wash! Fifteen years of dirt and spiders washed away. That's better! What a difference already. OK, I know it's just a wash but this boosts the confidence a little and makes the other jobs seem less of a chore. On to the next part. Here's the engine bay: Plenty of corrosion. Most of the pipework has had it so that'll need replacing. The aluminium thermostat housing and the water pump both have some very interesting things inside them too. I think that whatever was i
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Back to '99

This is the story of a 1990 Westfield SE7 sports car. Now I don’t know too much about it other than what I can see on my drive or the few items of paperwork that came with it. This therefore is a voyage of discovery, the best kind. What I do know though is what to expect, you see way back in 1989 a friend and I built one, an SEi to be precise. Apart from having a live rear axle (ours was an independent rear end) this new car is almost identical. The log book tells me that it was registered in
Wagoneer

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