Engine rebuild.

I dropped into the mechanic today as he has begun the strip down of the engine. At this stage it will need new cam followers as the hardened surface on some are worn, I hope the cam is OK. The water pump is well and truly stuck to the head. I didn't get a chance to measure the bore size to see if it is still 1255cc or 1296cc. I will be back tonight and measure it.

I measured the bore tonight and its standard 1255. It measures 74.30mm.

 Bore looks OK but will be honed.

 Box of bits.

Cylinder head with the water pump still attached.

Cosmic's

I had a set of 175/70-13 tyres fitted today. Bridgestone Turanza with a "Buy 3 get the 4th free" deal. $267.00 for 4 new Bridgestone tyres.

Before fitting the cosmic's.

 4 new Bridgestones plus spare.

 Now with the Cosmic's fitted and looking the part I must say.

Wasn't sure if I should have removed the paint from the fins

However I think they look OK as they are. Chrome nut covers

will be fitted when its all said and done.

Getting on with it.

While the engine is away the owner is at play.
Preparing all the ancillaries to go on the engine when its completed. I had the air cleaner paint matched by the paint shop. I call it "French army surplus tank green" I have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with that colour!
If anyone can send me photos of the sticker which is on the air cleaner with dimensions and text it would be much appreciated.

 Extractors re painted with VHT flame resistant white.

 Ready to bolt onto the Webers.

The jack got some love as well.

Engine rebuild.

Well I finally did it!
I took the engine to the mechanic today to be rebuilt. He will pull it down over the next week or so and see what is required, and along with the clutch I will order what parts are required from Belgium while the machining is being carried out. I hope to post photos of the build as it comes along.
Now I need to make myself busy rebuilding and painting the other bits such as the fuel pump and paint the air cleaner and extractors. I will also put some new Bridgestone's on the Cosmic's and put some DOT4 in the brakes. Good to have it moving along again.

No Clutch!

As stated in an earlier post, I sent the clutch and pressure plate off to South Australia to be reconditioned. Unfortunately they can't recondition it, so it looks like I will need to obtain a new clutch kit from Belgium. All work on the G has ceased at the moment until I can get the clutch issue sorted.

Slow progress.

Things have slowed a bit as I prepare to rebuild the engine.
The brakes are now fitted up and the G now has a working hand brake for the first time in probably 12-15 years. I only need to put in some brake fluid and bleed the lines to have them up and working. I will wait until the engine is fitted before introducing the fluid.
The Clutch has been sent off to be re conditioned (In South Australia) and I have had the radiator re-conditioned. John Kitchen has suggested we rebuild the engine together rather than having my mechanic do it. John has built several Gordini engines over the years so I believe it would be in good hands there. I used to build my R8/10 engines years ago but I'm a bit rusty now. Not long now and it should be on the road.

Original options now fitted.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this Gordini was optioned by the original owner John Sever with chrome gutter trims and a glove box lid. The chrome gutter trims survived on the car however the glove box lid was removed some time ago, probably as most other Gordini's didn't have one. My search of many months to obtain a lid came to an end yesterday when Aussie Frogger, Anthony, from South Australia came up with the goods and gave me a lid. The lid was sun damaged and looked its 45 years of age but was otherwise in good condition. I was going to clean it up and paint it to look the same as the original surround however when I hit it with some fine wet and dry it came up like new removing all the grey fade. I had some hinges on an old chrome surround which I cleaned up and painted and now the lid is fitted and looks great. Thanks Anthony.

The glove box lid completes the original options to the Gordini.