Breakers, Diffs and boot floors

Forgot to upload these! Couple of weekends ago I popped over to see Marc Cheney to rob some bits of his breaker 2.5PI estate. Its been sitting for many many years now and its looking very sad. It did yield some useful bits of trim that I was missing. Got the stainless steel gutter trims (mine were bent), some salvaged trim clips, and some interior trim which was AWOL on mine.

 We were planning to have a go at starting it as its got a very special PI engine which is destined to go in Marc's MKI estate (when he gets round to it!) But, some missing components and a very wet garage which led to a very wet engine, we decided to give that a miss!

 Right, back up to date now! Dropped the diff off at Mick Papworth on Saturday. He popped the back off and declared it to be a very good useable 3.45:1 diff. Just what I was hoping to hear! As a precaution, due to 34 years standing he's going to strip it and replace all the bearings and seals for me. Then its just a coat of paint and it can go back in.

 Sunday I started cleaning off the underneath with a rotary wire brush. Its very nice under there, couple of patches of surface rust which needed killing off with my favorite Bilt Hamer products. Whilst that was drying between coats I decided to indulge myself and start putting some shiney bits on! New rivet clips for the tailgate and rear wings first. They all needed drilling out and then riveting in place. Simple job, still took an hour though!

 The rust cure needs to dry for 48 hours, but the boot floor was perfect. after a clean up and masking I shutzed the boot floor with my usual Waxoyl shutz.

 Looks pretty and will keep it nice and protected!

Late night stripping!

I don't usually do late night spannering (unless its pre-RBRR emergency!) but having the rear suspension on the floor was too much of a temptation. Spent a happy hour stripping it down so that it can be dropped off at to be shot blasted and powder coated on the way to work in the morning.
Took longer than expected! So many things to come off (brake pipe clips, rubber bungs, trailing arm bushes, exhaust mounts etc) but its all done and in the boot of the car now.

 Diff nosepiece is winging its way to Mr Witor to be......... ahem...... "Witorised" ! Blasted, strengthened, new bearings and seals and a Stag flange to be fitted. By the time that comes back the suspension should be back from the powder coaters. Diff needs to go next and driveshafts need to go to Earlparts for refurb.

Rear Suspension

Finally got some time today, so I started work on stripping the suspension off. Rear first I think. Got the back up in the air and started undoing things.

 Its all there, light coating of rust, primer and overspray!!.......... nice Spax rear shocks. shame they are knackered! Note the Stag rear brakes (wider drums)

 When I got the springs out, (standard PI estate rears I think) I found that it has some "home-made" spacers to lift the suspension up a bit. Look like a coil has been cut off the bottom of another set, hammered flat and then popped in the trailing arms. So, do I leave them in, go back to standard height or use Witor's Polybushes +7mm spacers?............ I think I'll use the original ones.

 After several hours of seized bolts the whole rear suspension was on the deck. So, trailing arms, box sections and back plate to be powder coated, diff off to be checked and worked on as needed, drums need painting and driveshafts to Earlparts to be recon'd.

 Underneath looks good. Needs a quick wirebrush and then shutzing.

Back home

Borrowed a Range Rover and a trailer and went to collect Libby from the paintshop. This was the first time I had seen the car since it was painted, only seen photos up to now. They don't do it justice, it is simply stunning!
Rangie made short work of towing it home, even managed to back it up my steep drive. Now safely tucked up in the garage. Next job, Dinitrol cavity wax and underbody shutzing.