Hello, I'm new here. I have just been given a '58' 2 door pillared hard top, with original wheel skirts, it was my mother's and she used it daily up until about 4-5 years ago. It was laid up for a few months while we had the starter motor re built, when we re-installed the starter, we found the engine had seized. Yesterday I set about finding out why the engine was seized. I discovered one of the valves on the passenger side head was stuck, so proceeded to remove the head. What I found was the piston closest to the firewall had water in and was full of rusty crud. It looked like it had been on the titanic. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how this might have happened, as it was fine when the car was parked, and the head gasket hasn't blown. I have now removed pretty much all of the rust, and filled the bore with engine flush and WD40. I shall leave it a week and try free the engine off again. If I can't free it, I am thinking the next step will be to take the engine out, and have it rebuilt. Would the heads need to be skimmed? Are there any U.K based members that might be able to steer me in the direction of a company that could re build my engine? Or of a U.K based company selling a re-build kit?
Thanks in advance.