Quick round up before Christmas

Some weeks at Bridge Classic Cars we have a workshop full of customer’s car, other weeks we have a workshop full of our own competition cars. No two weeks are the same and heading into the final week of 2024 we were busy as always working on both.

If you watched our recent Torque Show you’ll see that Jon is the man in charge of our competition vehicles, making sure they are all in tip top shape for shoot day, draw day and delivery day.

Check out our Torque Show on YouTube where Molly digs a little deeper into Jon’s roles and responsibilities here at Bridge Classic Cars:

Here is a little sneak peak at what Jon’s been up to this week, on his final full week in the Bridge Classic Cars workshops before we pack up for Christmas.

1987 Maserati BiTurbo

We’ll start off with the Maserati. We’ve fitted the new bonnet rams and boot rams. Then moved on to work on the choke. We’ve remove the old choke cable, drilled out the end of the new cable to take a 5mm bolt. Prepared for fit but the cable is different from the existing one we’ve had to modify it.

Then we’ve route through the dash and out into engine bay before securing it to the control lever mount, connected it to the lever and tested.

1987 Mercedes 500SL

Then on to my own Mercedes 500SL. Jon spends his weekends (before Ipswich Town kicks off) progressing with my 500 SL. He has now attend to the heater. The clips are now here for the heater box. We’ve worked out how controls fit and fixed both side controls to the heater. The bolts have been cut to length and secured the controls into position. He’s then fitted the top vent outlet and vacuum controls.

1975 Volkswagen Beetle

Then on to our Volkswagen Beetle 1303. Time for it to go on to the ramp to be fully inspected and appraised. We’ll then carry out a full report of what work is required.

1969 Daimler 250 V8

And as we briefly spoken about previously. Our 1969 Daimler 250 V8, although is an absolutely beaut of a car, it seems to be struggling with running so it’s now time for Jon to attend to this issue.

Fit 8x visual spark checkers and run up. We have viewed the sparks to see if they drop out at point of rough running and all appear good. So we’ve now stripped and removed the carburettors starting with nearside first. Strip, clean and inspect but nothing seems to be wrong so we have cleaned, reset and refitted.

Jon then repeated this procedure for offside carb and again nothing seems wrong. We reassemble after cleaning and refit.

Check for leaks with ignition on and all is ok. We run up to temperature, test again and it’s still the same. We’ve ordered a set of points to convert back to points from electronic ignition system to see if this makes a difference.

1968 Ford Lotus Cortina

We’ve discovered a large split in inner arch where bonnet mounts so Jon has called upon the skills of welder Pete to tackle this one for us!

Whilst Jon gets on with stripping the offside rear brakes and fitting new handbrake contact pad into the lower shoe. Refitted the wheel and torque up.

Once Pete had completed the weld repair, Jon could then refit the bonnet and align before running up to temperature and carrying out a road test.

Jon has found no gate between 1st gear and reverse gear and the car is holding back, not pulling as it should so we’ve had to return to the workshop.

Strip and remove under dash shelf and centre console.

We have then removed the gearbox remote gear shift to inspect. Found new ball/fulcrum has been fitted and is too tight to lift the lever and select reverse.

Strip and grind out ball socket until ball is loose enough in socket for lever to lift before greasing and refitting.

Grind away at nylon gate until lever will no go into reverse position without being lifted.

Refit nylon gate to bottom of the lever.

Next up, we’ve refitted the cover for the remote gear lever before refitting the centre console. Tested all gears and all ok.

Strip down, remove the top and all jets. We’ve then inspected and cleaned, blown out and reassembled. We’ve repeated this process for rear carbs before reassembling. Lastly for this one, Jon cleaned and refilled both air filters.

1960 Austin Healey 3000

This week, we also saw the welcome return of our 1960 Austin Healey 3000. Last with us in 2020 having some remedial paintwork carried out, the owner has decided to let the car go and offered it to us as potentially a future competition car.

1977 Ford Granada

Arriving this week, Gordon has a new toy! He’s been searching for a Ford Granada 3.0l Ghia for some time now and it looks as though he may have found one!

Full of praise from all of the technicians when the car arrived. Although most of the time the technicians have differing opinions of what they prefer this car seems to have gone down really well across the board which will please Gordon somewhat.

First to get his hands on the car is Pete, to give the car a full and thorough appraisal. In his exact words, he is what he has found:

• Drivers door handle stiff from outside

• All lights working when tested

• Drivers seat recline is notchy/stiff to operate

• Interior light not working on doors or switch

• Dash lights not working

• Headlining is saggy

• Passenger rear window mech is noisy

• Boot lock/barrel loose but operating

• Expanding foam evident in drivers rear quarter and around wheel arch.
• No other notable points found.

• Spare wheel 185/R14 uniroyal rally 280 as new condition but dot code not evident no signs of damage or perish.

• New brake fluid

• Water only in radiator no antifreeze

• Powersteering fluid is black

• Aftermarket electric fan fitted, dial setting for temp fitted.

• Washers not working, fluid in Boyle but no pump noise.

• Scattered lose wiring and disconnected connectors around engine bay.

• V6 engine looks to have new core plugs and shows no signs of any oil or coolant leaks topside.

• Mid height checks,

• Play in steering joints, drivers track rod end is knackered, suggest changing pair.

• Power steering fluid leak (minor) at drivers rack gator.

• Bottom of doors are dented and a little scabby.

• Chrome bezzles for lower fog lights are peeling drivers side.

• Damage to passenger side wheel arch trims front and rear, small dent in sill trim.

• Both rear quarter lowers require attention for body work.

• Tyres, matching falken sicera 185/80/R14 91T Dot codes match at week 34 2012 tyres show even wear at 5mm tread depth.

• Full height checks,

• Slight oil leaks to oil sump

• Slight oil leak to gearbox tail

• Missing bushing from selector/kick down linkage.

• Slight oil leak to rear differential

• Wheels removed checks,

• Front discs fine, calipers free, pads show approximately 5mm friction material remaining, all pins in place.

• Rear drums removed, approximately 4mm of lining remains across all 4 shoes, inside of drums show no wear.

That completes our round up of Bridge Classic Cars’ own vehicles signing off for 2024.

The final activity from everyone at Bridge Classic Cars HQ is to clean down the work space and get it ready for work to start again in a few week’s time. Over the Christmas period we’ll see new management offices being built and a lovely new extension to the paint shops. The entire workshops will have a fresh coat of paint.

For now, our benches are clean and we’re heading off to enjoy some quality time with our families.