The Restoration of “Virginia”
As you all know I finished my restoration of “Virginia” she was at Corowa this year and she was in Anzac day helping out and she got two tasks. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to drive her myself and had to ask my friend Andrew Seymour to drive her. I did keep an eye out for her on television, and there she was, two trips and each trip she had the privilege to transport three diggers.
Unfortunately her engine wasn’t running too good. She used lots of oil and blew even more smoke. So after being back on the road for like two outings she went back in to the garage, this time to get her engine fixed.
I started stripping the engine down till nothing was left of it, parts everywhere. The engine then went off to be hot tanked and see what was wrong with it. While stripping the engine down I discovered that by the looks of it, it was the first time the engine was taken apart. The pistons where still the standard pistons, as were the bearings. Good thing was, being a Ford guy, everything was Ford marked, but that happiness didn’t last for long. The engine went for her trip to the engine rebuilder to be, as I said before hot tanked, bored, honed or whatever needed to be done to get her back up to scratch.
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Transporting servicemen on ANZAC day 2009 |
Ready and Able - lined up on ANZAC Day |
What was wrong I hear you think? Hmmm let’s see. The block was cracked and needed stitching in several places, the crankshaft needed to be done, bores needed to be bored to 0.030 (remember it was standard before), she got hardened seats, one bore needed a sleeve, the valve guides have been k-lined, then the real good news came the head was cracked too and needed repairing. I started to wonder if there was anything right with this engine.
At some point the engine rebuilder rang me and said, Leon, you better start looking for a new block just in case we can’t fix this one. I thought oh no here goes my matching numbers jeep. At this point I was ready to buy a gun and go and shoot the poor thing, get her out of her misery once and for all. After being at the engine rebuilder for about 6 weeks I finally got the engine back, and started to put things back together, what do I hear you say? Everything is ok now? Uhm, no not everything went as smooth as it should have been, remember Murphy’s Law? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, well that was my luck that Mr Murphy was hanging around me with his silly law. Anyway with a little bit of luck “Virginia” will be back on the road soon. Let me see it is Wednesday 21st October now while I type this, and I hope to get her back on the road by Friday 23rd October.
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Virgonia at Corowa |
Transporting servicemen on ANZAC day 2009 |
By the time you read this she definitely will be back on the road, cruisin’ along doing plenty of trips.
Then I can start the restoration of my Bantam trailer which I acquired recently, more fun to come.
Happy jeeping
Leon (Murphy’s Law victim)