Front Suspension

Friday evening saw me in not so sunny Doncaster with Colin. He offered to build up m front struts for me as he had just done his and could remember what went where! He also very kindly donated some better strut tops and the new thrust washers. So, couple of hours in his garage and they were done....... Pizza time!!

 New shocks, new gaiters, new strut top bearings all in nicely powder coated shock tubes, cups and springs............ pretty!

 This morning saw me fit the x-member and bolt it up, the I could start putting the suspension together. Spent what seemed like most of the day getting the powder coating off the mating faces and out of all the bolt holes! But, it went together pretty much ok.

New Stag discs and calipers, fully poly bushes, new ball joints, new bearings, all assembled. Just got to do the other side now, then fit the rack and do the brake pipes.

I'm back!

I'm back!!...... did you all miss me?....... no, didn't think so!

Had a bit of time off from the car, spent my time doing jobs round the house, going on holiday to France in the caravan and various other bits and pieces that just took up all my time........ but, back to the job in hand now!
Masked and shutzed the last wheel arch. What a messy job, I@ll be glad when this is done! Just the floor pans to do now!

 The rack was rebuilt thanks to EJ Wards. Being as it was a low mileage car I wanted my rack rebuilt rather than exchanged so it took a little longer than usual. Quick coat of paint and its as good as new.

 All the front suspension is now back from the powder coaters. I borrowed Brian's press and pressed the new bottom ball joints into the lower arms and fitted the new polybushes.

 The front crossmember, now powder coated, needed some minor assembly. Rubber bump stops to be refitted and new steering rack bushes. These are the only bushes on the car that are not Poly. I don't like the poly bushes in the rack, I find it gives too much "kick" to the steering, so standard rubber bushes are in there now.

 Then, polished up and refitted the gutter trims on the offside, and 2 of the door trims before it was time for dinner. Not bad for about 4 hours work this afternoon!

Small parts painting, shutz and a bit more chrome!

Cleaning and painting some smaller parts today. The front suspension is not back from the powder coaters yet so I'm a bit lost for things to do! Had lots of little things to do, so I thought I could do the odd bit and then move around as things dried, waited for re-coat etc. So, out with the bench grinder and cleaned up the other front hub, towbar spreader plate, the handbrake compensator, steering coupling and the two front brake hose brackets. Few coats of gloss black and all is well.

 Whilst I was doing that, Bradley was cleaning bolts for me................. bless.

 Doesn't take long, but makes it so much easier when it comes to put it all back together.

 Whilst the paint was drying, I masked up the front n/s arch (o/s had some rust cure still drying) and sprayed the inner arch with shutz.

 That shouldn't rust again in a hurry!

 Then the postie arrived, with a parcel containing some NOS front chrome horse shoes. They looked sooooo nice I couldn't resist fitting them (again, using the Mike Weaver style with no clips!) then cleaned and polished the 2 stainless steel trims and fitted those.

 New chrome on this car does really look very nice!!

Front shocks and crossmember

Went shopping first today. I managed to break 2 of my big 1/2 inch drive sockets yesterday, so I went to Halfords with the intention of just buying 2 new sockets. After a bit of negotiation and a flash of the old Halfords trade card, I ended up buying a complete new Halfords Professional 1/2 drive set. Bargain price and its really good quality (plus another drawer in the cabinet filled too!)

 Took out the rest of the suspension, mainly the steering rack and crossmember so the front is now totally empty and ready for cleaning and shutzing.

 After a few hours of fiddling, the front struts are apart. Springs new powder coating, shocks are shot and the strut tops are unbonding. Thanks to Colin Radford I have a set waiting for me in Doncaster to collect so I just need some new thrust washers and gaiters and those will be ready.

 Once that was done I then stripped the crossmember down. Lots of small rivets holding the brake pipe clips to it (Stag system, so the n/s front brake pipe goes under the engine rather than behind it), the steering mount bushes (little swines those are I can tell you!) and the bump stops......... now it just needs powder coating.

 Also stripped the tow bar down, so I now have a pile of bits to go to the blasters. Still need to get the ball joints out of the track arms and the seized bolt in the steering arm to hub so a trip to Brian's and some serious heat and a 10 ton press and we should be fine!

Front end stripping

Time to start stripping the front suspension down. Normally, I would have thought a couple of hours would have got this done............. oh how wrong I was! Every bolt was rusted, seized, rounded or just horrible... it fought me every step of the way! In the end, I got it all out with only one bolt holding the steering arm to the spider just not playing..... need to drop that in to Brian's and get some Oxy-acetylene on that I think! Now got another pile of bits for shot blasting, tomorrow I'll strip down the legs and get those ready to go.

 The hubs and spiders I decided not to have powder coated, I just thought there is too much potential to get powder coat where you don't want it. So, I spent a happy few hours with the rotary wire brush until I got them clean...............

 ............. then a bit of masking and a few coats of spray smoothrite and they look as good as new!

In the end, the front end stripdown, excluding wire brush and painting took 5 hours!!!!!! 5 hours I ask you, why do we do these silly things?!?!

Rear finished, bit of bling, bit of polishing!

Busy day today. Got the rear end finished. Brakes built up with new shoes, springs and cylinders. New handbrake cable fitted with stainless fittings, Polybush spring mounts top and bottom, new coil over shocks, original powder coated springs, driveshafts coupled up and the brake lines finished.

Even though I'm trying NOT to build a show car, and I blame Mike Weaver for making me do it to this standard, I do have to say it looks superb! Mike is'nt making me do anything, but I love the way his car is turning out and I find myself trying to keep to a similar standard!!

I managed to pick up a rechromed fuel filler cap at Stoneleigh last weekend. Bit of a bargain as there a couple of ripples in the chrome...... not that you'd noticed unless you look closely! Built it up with the original lock and springs, just needs the inner seal, which I'd forgotten about and just ordered off fleabay!

Fitted the NOS number plate lamp chrome trim (another Stoneleigh bargain from Mr Dolphin) and then fiddled and fitted the NOS boot lock.

Then managed to get the new fuel cap in.................. oooooooooooooooo , shiney bits!

Gutter trims next. Mine were badly dented, but a salvaged set just needed cleaning up. The resident polisher Bradley seen here at work with the polishing mop in the bench grinder.

Wonderful little tool this, from crusty to shiney in about 5 seconds!

The concentration on his face............. and they call me "the polisher" !!!!

Gutter trims on one side, had to modify the vinyl roof a bit, needed trimming back about 2mm just to allow the gutter trim to sit properly. Then we lowered the car down, pushed it outside and turned it round.

Then got the front up in the air ready to start stripping the front down

Crusty and 'orrible.......... this won't take too much to get it looking pretty.

The discs, apart from having surface corrosion, actually look like they were replaced not long before the car was laid up. No lip at all, so if anyone wants a decent set of MKII front discs that will probably be ok with a light skim, let me know! This is having Stag brakes on the front end so I don't need them.

I couldn't resist finishing off the day with a bit of bling. Bought a leather Mountey steering wheel off ebay, which cleaned up really well (only cost £10!), coupled to an astrali hub I had hanging about, with the front of a stag wheel to fit the badge......... that looks better!

Wheel clearance

Time to trial fit the wheels on the back. The recon driveshafts were fitted, drums bolted back on (no brakes or springs in yet) The brakes couldn't be fitted as I needed some adjusters (thanks Mike Weaver for supplying the correct set!) and I left the springs out so that I could lift the wheel into various positions to check the clearance on the wheel arches to determine the offset required for the 2nd set of wheels.

Even if I do say so myself, these wheels do look good on here! Yes, I know it ought to have gold minilights on, but I just can't find anyone who will make them for a reasonable price and I just don't like them! I've always wanted a set of Revvies, so now I have got some!

There is about 20mm of clearance at running and full load heights, so I could get the wheels made with an extra 20mm of offset. Considered using some spacers, but then the wheel studs would need to be longer and I don't want to open that can of worms! They actually fill the arches quite nicely, and although I could get a set made further out, there is a clearance problem on the inner arch. Where it has been modified, it sloped down to meet the outer arch, and with the wheel space 20mm out, on full compression, it could foul the inner arch.

Thanks to Colin Radford who spotted this! So, this being the case, and the fact that they look just fine, shall be ordering another set identical to this and running with matches wheels (which makes more sense anyway.)
Brakes, springs and shocks next..................