Practically Classics Forum

Hi all

I am new to the Classic Car scene and have a few questions. I think they are all technical so hence the post here...

The vehicle is a Ford Popular 1959, its on the road, and requires mainly interior work to finish off.
A few questions:

1. Petrol. The engine is a 103E (I believe) and the current owner suggests running on Shell Extra Petrol. I am not sure,
and could do with advice please.

2. I understand that there is a problem with petrol evaporation & the fuel pump. A work around is to fit an electric pump (or refrigerate the existing one with cooling water when needed... er no !). Are there any other ways to fix the problem...where do I get the parts from ? Its a 6v
+ Ve chassis system.


3. I want to underseal the chassis, typically I 've used Waxoyl for this, anything I should be aware of ?

(Finally)

4. I want to finish off the interior, and have located a source for the carpets and headlining. The seats I want to get re-upholstered and (I think its leather) the covering renovated. As my wife & I are tall, and driving is cramped, I 'd like to make the seats moveable, backwards & forwards....Anyone know who might be able to do the renovation & how I might modify the seats ?

I'm not really an engineer, more of a fitter, so whilst comfortable removeing & re-fitting parts, making & diagnosing are skills I havn't got.

Cheers

GAZ66 aka Adrian

Hi and welcome, Is this the "sit up and beg" model
For the purely mechanical stuff - the petrol issue first, a lot of classics were designed to run on high octane juice and don't take kindly to modern 2 star, symptoms are poor starting and warm up and pinking under load. If yours does this on 2 star but runs sweeter on "extra" then you can answer your own question
I and many owners have found that modern fuels with 5% ethanol tend to evaporate more readily at high underbonnet temperature, this shows up as long cranking time from cold because the carb and lines need to be primed and poor running after hot starts for a period untill the "cool fuel" gets through again.
You can fabricate heat shields for the carb and ensure that fuel lines are routed away from hot parts of the engine but in my experience, on a Leyland Princess, this improves matters but does not totally cure the problem. On the fuel pump, an electric should solve the priming issue but be no better at combatting hot start weak running. Note. as you have such a simple carb and short run fuel feed, evap or vapour lock on a hot engine may be less of a prob. (Other 103e owners will tell you.) By the way, some mechanical punps have a priming lever which can be pumped a few times prior to cold start. Check yours, if it has one you will find a couple of strokes fill the carb and you should get an instant start. Electric pumps, even 6 volt, can be had on numerous car mod sites such as Demon Tweaks but as a fitter you will be aware that they need to be wired with a relay and location i.e near the tank or in the engine bay depends on type and output. Could be a lot of unecessary faffing for not much gain IMO, particularly as you will have to make a blank for the old pump and redesign and plumb the fuel line.
Waxoil is brilliant but it sticks like s..t to a blanket so be carefull when you spray it and do it outdoors if possible. If it gets on the windscreen the wipers will chatter forever whatever you use to get the glass clean again.
Lastly for your seats, I have heard very good things about Newton Commercial, they sell car trimming sets for many classics and do seat covers in all materials - look them up on the web.
Good luck and enjoy

And quite a few cars were lost to fire last year due to the new fuels perishing old type rubber fuel pipe , over winter. Change it to modern pipe . If the diaphram in a cam operated pump rotted too , and the sump filled with fuel, there's a bomb going off ..