1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

Wheel Cylinders Overhaul

While our 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane was in the workshop, its wheel cylinders were given a complete overhaul. The car is starting to come together

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Wheel Cylinders Overhaul

While our 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane was in the workshop, its wheel cylinders were given a complete overhaul.

The car is starting to come together nicely and will hopefully be back out on the road very soon.

Valeted And Looking Good

At Bridge Classic Cars, we make sure all of our restored cars look as good as new before they leave our Suffolk workshop. Part of this process involves valeting our cars so they look as clean and as fresh as possible both inside and out.

Our 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane has been fully valeted and, as you can see from the photos below, the results are very impressive.

Smallest Detail – Find the Fuel Leak on the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

The Bridge Classic Cars workshop have been going through trying to diagnose the fuel leak issue on the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane.

Jon, one of our amazing technicians, has carefully and entirely stripped down the carburettor once against to investigate it in finer detail. After total inspection, he found the end of the jet tube had actually splintered and broken, completely falling off when it was removed from the carburettor.

The team have ordered up a new jet and jet tube to rebuild the carburettor with again and to begin testing once more.

Going Deeper – Issues with the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

The workshop team at Bridge Classic Cars have been going through the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane as part of its recommissioning.

As part of that, the team have been cleaning up the original rocker cover gasket but while off, the team have gone through adjusting the tappets to the correct tolerances before the team began to try and get the classic tourer started.

Jon, one of our amazing technicians, has recently rebuilt the carburettor to make sure everything was clean and freed up to work correctly. Then, once back on the car the team could make the adjustments and start to get it running.

Eventually, Jon got the car started. However, the team noted a problem. As the engine was running, the exhaust was spitting out raw fuel from the exhaust pipes. An issue the team haven’t come across before but are determined to get to the bottom of.

The team have noted that the car is fitted with a later SU carburettor (originally this would have been a Stromberg 55) which could be part of the running issue with the Hurricane.

After it had fired up, Jon rechecked the tappets and found the coolant was actually coming up through one of the head studs which holds the cylinder head to the engine block, both of these issues will need to be investigated further.

Freshly Built – Rebuilding the Distributor and Lift Pump on the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

The workshop team at the Bridge Classic Cars Suffolk HQ have been working their way through the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane as part of its recommission.

The first stage of this round of work was to rebuild the distributor. Our technician Jon carefully inspected the unit in the car before deciding to remove it and more thoroughly going through the part on the bench. After checking its operation, Jon completely rebuilt the unit to ensure it worked correctly.

Then the whole piece was put back into the car and wired up.

Next, the team completely went through the lift pump for the fuel tank. Jon removed it from the car to completely go through every single piece making sure it all worked correctly and any gaskets were remade and the unit put back together and installed back into the car.

Rebuilt – Carburettor for the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Rebuilt

The workshop team at Bridge Classic Cars have been working on completely overhauling the seized carburettor on the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane.

Our technician Jon completely disassembled the unit to begin cleaning and adjusting each individual part to make sure it had full operation. The unit can now be reinstalled on the car to begin testing and to flush through the new gearbox oil.

Bit by Bit – Draining the Gearbox and Stripping the Carburettor on the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

As part of its recommission, the Bridge Classic Cars have the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane has been up on the ramps for our workshop team to get to work on.

To start with, the team have drained the gearbox on the car. Whilst it was draining, Jon noticed several chunks coming out of the drain. After checking, the gearbox had a layer of sludge along the bottom of the plan which has to be pulled out and the whole unit flushed through several times to try and get it to clean out.

This involves filling up the gearbox to its correct level, running it up to temperature and then draining again. Before this, Jon inspected and checked the fuel tank of the car to make sure it wouldn’t pull any debris into the carburettor if it did start. All was ok but Jon did find the fuel had gone slightly stale. So, the team have pumped the old fuel out of the tank ready to be refilled.

Then it was time to keep moving forward to the engine bay to check everything over. For this, Jon began to inspect the carburettor of the classic Armstrong Siddeley. Upon inspection, Jon found several parts had seized which meant it was removed from the car to be completely stripped down and inspected by the team. Then, it can be installed back on the car and the gearbox run up along with the engine.

Full Check Over – Servicing and Inspecting the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

The Bridge Classic Cars workshop have been inspecting and servicing the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley which recently arrived at our Suffolk HQ.

As part of the jobs we have been requested to do, the team have been methodically going through every system on the car to check both its condition and function. One of the first jobs was to check levels in the rear differential which was inspected and then topped up before moving onto the engine.

The team drained the oil from the car whist carrying out a visual inspection of all hoses, leads and wires to make sure everything was present and of its condition. Noted on inspection was the condition of the HT leads and a dryrotted fuel hose, which were both replaced.

The team could also begin to inspect and check over the brakes. These were stuck on/seized when we went to collect the vehicle from its owner so will be completely stripped back and inspected to find the root cause.

This Just In – 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

The latest arrival at the Bridge Classic Cars Suffolk HQ is this beautiful 1953 Armstrong Siddeley.

The classic convertible has come in for our restoration teams to begin work on recommissioning the car for its owner. First port of call – freeing the wheels. The wheels on the Hurricane have come seized and the team, when they went to collect the car, had to put the car onto moveable skates to get it out of the owner’s garage.

Take a look at the photos from our transport team getting the car out and on its way back to our restoration workshops.