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Bought My first Project car! 1956 Humber!

Thanks for the tip Tripod, will check them out.

I got a few more pics of the head, its purdy for sure. Today I was going to get everything back on the head so we could put it back on. But I opened up the baggie with the parts inside and started cleaning the plate which bolts on to the back of the head... Well it didn't take long before I realized it was totally ruined.. full of pinholes and an interesting old repair gone mad...

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Oh well, I'll probably get a new one made up. Its pretty basic so I'll just get a bit of steel and use the old bit as a template. The second problem we ran across was that the gaskets for the front plate were in poor shape and their shape distorted from not being stored properly.. bummer. So we need new gaskets and new plates before we can get it together again! Oh well, the head is looking sweet!

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"Magic" on the head.

Might be an occasion to contact the Humber club for that plate. Could be a lot easier than making one and it will be the exact right shape. Looks like the plate provides access to the water jacket in the head which is why it's rusted out. That means it's a common problem and the club would be familiar with it.

Welsh plugs mentioned upthread are to allow expansion of the cast iron block. They also allow access to the water jacket if block flushing is needed. Because they back into the water jacket they do eventually rust out like your plate but might not need replacing yet.

Locate them and give a good jab with a screw driver in hand (You can practise on your plate, hahaha). If it punches through the plug was already too weak to work for long. Might also be one at the back of the engine which would be hard to see. Stupid early Holden ones are inside the pushrod sideplate which means water gets dumped in the oil when they fail !
 
Well, due to the crazy season I haven't had time to get much done on the 'ol girl. Right now the main thing stopping progress is gaskets, so I have bought 2 square meters of gasket material. Should do the job! I went ahead and bought the kit for electronic ignition, a new distributor cap and new ht leads. HOPEFULLY we should be able to get the engine together after getting it all in the mail and once we have time and motivation to do it!

I'll repair the handbrake so we can move it around the driveway and the next big step will be rebuilding the brakes and fitting them, then re-wiring, then suspension and tires.... then bodywork and paint... then seat belts and interior.. THEN ENJOYMENT!
 
I was just gonna mention that...Older motors basically MUST have hardened seats or they knock & eventually have premature wear. There is no reason once you get this neat car fixed up that you can't use it everyday, should you desire to..
 
Making progress again!

Well we have had some spare time recently so we have managed to get a few things done and we are now starting to put the engine back together. The head is now ready to go on and we have started by putting back on the sump and the plates that cover the pushrods.

We also managed to free up the rear wheel that was seized up so its not so much work to move the car now. Every time we literally had to drag it out which is a particularly difficult job when you only have front wheel drive 4 pot cars to pull it out.

We are going to pull the fuel tank and check that its clean and has no leaks and replace all rubber hoses, should be ready to run the car once all that is done! It feels good to be making progress!

Terrible quality phone pics:
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I have been making a digital copy of the service manual, but there has been no signs of the torque settings for the head bolts yet.... HMMMM
 
FINALLY had time to get some more work done!

SO, we finally got the time to get some more work done on the humber.
Head is back on, exhaust and intake manifolds back on and we are starting to gather the last needed parts for the fuel system and ignition.









SO good to be making progress again!
 
Good progress.

I'm thinking about selling my old one. No where to go, no clubs to join and no budget.
 
Time Flies!

Jeez! Sorry for the lack of updates here, both my mate and myself have much busier work lives which means progress has been glacial!

However, we got the engine back together and she runs! No knocks or scary noises from the engine which makes it less of a worry. Although it seems its very difficult to find decent seals for the oil filter as this is an ancient cartridge filter type, so at the moment we have to have a large container to catch the oil during test runs as it is basically an oil (and petrol) fountain. The carburetor's seals have all but disintegrated so petrol also seems to just seep out of everywhere from it. So for now further test runs will have to wait until the carby is rebuilt and we either find a decent seal for the oil filter or replace it with a more modern oil filter setup.

other than getting the engine going we really haven't had the chance to get much other work done on the beast. Although we are accumulating lots of good parts which is a good thing. So far we haven't had too much stress finding the parts we need. e-bay searches occasionally come up with some rare parts too. Now we are looking into a full rubber replacement kit. But its a fair investment at $875 :sigh: but I suppose you cant get into a project like this and be surprised when things are expensive.

Anyway, here for your consumption is a video of the adventure up until now. As a little warning there is a little bit of language and minor shenanigans. If you just want to watch the first start you may want to start watching at around 5:08 :D

http://youtu.be/IpXcGY8XEEI
 
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