Ownership Verified: 1965 Ford Anglia

[Andeh]

No HMB news as-of-yet, although something very big will be happening eventually...

Croft Nostalgia weekend, at the weekend though! In the meantime, CYD news, since I know you're all hungry for something Anglia related...

CYD came in with a faulty water pump. First task, clean all the oil off that engine block to make it more work-friendly. This was done through liberal applications of Gunk and a pressure washer. All went well!

New water pump went on without a flaw and so easily I neglected to document it.

The inside of the CYD was quite filthy, so I pulled out the hoover, the Cif oven cleaner, and a nail brush. A little time later, and the seats look much cleaner! Here's a half and half on the rear bench:

And done:

A little Ford fragrance:

Also reattached some chrome which was falling off with the same plastic Golf clips as HMB, and finally gave the car some doglegs after many years living without them.

I next then gave it a quick going over with some chrome cleaner and polish

Successful couple of days, I think.

 

[Andeh]

Classic Ford run from Wednesday night.

 

[nicjasno]

That blue granada!

 

[Andeh]

That blue granada!

I see to recall you quite liked that white Consul GT I posted a while back? Well, owned by the same chap. He's a lucky bugger!

Very rare povvo spec with only the engine as a significant option.

 

[Hbriz]

You can really see where Ford Australia got their inspiration for the XD Falcon.

 

[nicjasno]

Andeh: I had a green 1980, with the 2.1 diesel engine. I'm very fond of them

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eylww1uw95vl4fr/rIpe9dv_gx

 

[Andeh]

Tacky? Yes. Do I care? No.

 

[Andeh]

On sale 13th of September.

 

[Heathrow]

Excellent!

You and the Anglia are having your Andy Warhol moment. :lol:

 

[Andeh]

Thanks Heathrow, I can't wait for it to come out.

Since the Ace the car has been about a bit more, a quick foray across the border to Moffat, then across to the Croft Nostalgia weekend including a trip on the track, the Hawes Ford meet, Astle Park steam rally, and Shugborough, and last weekend Tatton Park and Dalemain!

Quite a few miles clocked up, and as such I'm using this slow(er) week to give the gave a much needed deep clean before Hutton in the Forest and Leeming Bar at the weekend.

I've noticed it's now so highly polished, in correct lights the car has no colour, it's just a mirror...

 

[Andeh]

Spent quite a long time this afternoon working in detail on a pillar badge.

Here you can see the badge before, very little red left, missing areas of silver and actually detached from its backing. This badge fell apart I removed it from the car for the strip down.

Next I very carefully removed the remnants of the red, attempting to minimalise scratches to the surface of the plastic.

I next repainted the missing areas of the silver stars in the centre. The badge is then masked up reading for painting the red.

At this point, when held up to the light the badge appears blotchy and pink, when I first used this method on a steering wheel centre this alarmed me, but I later realised this is correct to give the badge the 3D effect that sets it apart from a reproduction.

To get the badge red, not pink, the colour is sealed in using grey primer.

The masking is removed, and when placed in the holder, the badge nearly appears complete. However, you can see the silver coloured paint around the edge of the lettering, and the lettering itself has areas missing.

I then carefully painted in the lettering using a cadmium paint.

The silver border is then applied with an aluminium paint, this was a very good match.

Finally the back is 'flashed in' with grey primer to help the depth of the badge, and keep it looking uniform.

After polishing the base and re-attaching with dum-dum, the badge is now complete. Compared to my other spare pillar badge, it's a fairly good job, and a million times better than how we started, or a reproduction (in my eyes).

I now have two spare pillar badges for an earlier car with the lettering, these are incorrect for HMB, although I may just put them on anyway, as I'm not overly happy with the repros on it now.

 

[Andeh]

Better get these popped in some time...

 

[CraigB]

Are the old springs sagging?

 

[Andeh]

Yes, they're quite soft, and the car is normally fairly well laden. (Spare wheel, camping chairs, spares/fluids, food, display board coats etc. etc, multiple passengers). The back end just feels rather soft, compared to the sharpened up front, and it's understandable that the fourty odd year old rear springs were on the way out. I would get the old ones re-tempered, but the cost was nearly the same as a brand new pair made up, so that's what I've got.

Fitting next week. Hoping ride height doesn't jump up too far...

 

[Andeh]

Today:

Brand new rear springs fitted.
Rear brakes adjusted

Springs went in very well, and have sharpened up the ride excellently. Corners much more level now, and a greater pace. Interestingly the unladen ride height has actually dropped by about 1/2 inch, although they take weight much better, as fully laden it only drops by a further 1/4 inch.

Car in the air:

New and old:

Old quite tired:

One new, one old:

Both in:

 

[jibduh]

It seems metallurgy has improved since the Angela left the factory! those new leaves (leafs?) look quite trim compared to your old ones.

 

[Andeh]

There's a couple of things making them look different sizes, mostly it's a build up of paint and Dinitrol from over the years, as well as the additional helper spring. I switched the helper over after the pic was taken.

Although, the new set actually have one more spring than the old set! So the leaves are definitely a bit thinner.

 

[CraigB]

Thinner leaves means less spring, that's why it's sitting lower.

 

[jibduh]

I thought it looked like the new spring was longer than the old.
A bit of education on leaf springs, please: is one end mounted on a pivot and the other floating? I assume if both points were mounted to a rigid frame, your ride height would have risen by more than a couple inches. And that spring rate would be monstrous.

As for thinner leaves, it makes sense that for a given material; more, thinner leaves would give less spring rate than less thicker leaves (say, a solid bar of the dimensions of your leaf bundle) due to the internal shear that you're eliminating by allowing the compressing/tensing leaves to slide.

Is the spring rate substantially firmer now? Maybe more spring rate even with the thinner bundle?

 

[nicjasno]

One point of a leaf spring is always floating.