On the Spit and on its side.

I managed to get it off the trailer today and back onto the spit, as I did want a look underneath.

I found 2 spots at the top of the rear wheel arches where the paint and rust was removed but no ecoat!

It looks like a large bubble of air was trapped in the arches - at least if they are airtight they are water proof.

The underside is good too, little areas of evidence of light rust removal, but most really good, again more pictures

FF transmission tunnel

Passengerside floorpan

Transmission tunnel

Driver's side floorpan

Rear Spring pan

Rear end of transmission tunnel

Rear passengerside floorpan

FF mods in more detail

Its Come Home

Got a telephone call late this morning, please come and collect your car.

So I was off hot foot to SPL.

Got it home, its NOT full of holes, after a careful inspection 5 new ones only, and small, as follows:-

1 in the plenum
1 in the bulkhead
1 in the transmission tunnel mods
1 in an inner wing
1 where one of the rear floor bungs was located.

Theres a little bit of heat distortion in some small areas, which will easily knock out, and a small ding in the passengerside roof above the rear door.

They were right about the lead loading, there's no lead left on the car at all now

Its all one colour now too, which helps, even though its a satin black "rat" effect

But otherwise a fantastic result, I am chuffed to bits. You can see now how other parts of the car were modified by FF as the process has removed all the crud and muck

So pictures now - lots of them too - sorry but I am really happy with the result.

Front inner wheel arch

Drivers footwell

Driver's rear seat area

Boot floor showing hammer marks from Carbodies where they indented for the spare wheel - its Ok and I worried this might disappear in the process. The surface rust does leave a non shiny finish in the ecoat, but thats because the metal has been converted to rust and then removed

Inner wheel arch

FF transmission tunnel modifications, again despite surface rust its all whole

Little ding in the roof that it now has - sadly

Driverside inner wheel arch, the small hole in the chassis leg is where FF didn't finish the plating, when they modified it - its not a rust hole.

Plenum chamber / bulhead above

Passenger side front wheel arch - note the hammered modification for the extra vacuum chamber

Passenger side chassis rail mods

Didn't know this weld was here on the windscreen pillar, factory done, then hammered in and presumably leadloaded

Same here on the rear pillar

View inside the plenum, showing the chemicals and ecoat get everywhere

passengerside inner wheel arch

Rear spring mounts

Underside of bonnet, hadn't noticed the marks in the bulge before!

Transmission tunnel

Even had the rear subframe arms done, ready for black chassis paint.

And thats all for now folks, I won't be able to do much on this for a few weeks due to work commitments, but it will be the small repairs and leadloading next.

And how much did it all cost......... £1860, so the spend to date is now £12884

You learn something every day

Despite the estate being away, and me working weekends I have managed to get a few hours on the car today.

I decided to assemble the front struts as I had all the parts. Now I have always wondered why the strut gaiters on my Stag were never closed at the top, or fitted to anything, I had looked in the manuals but could never see the part required, just an item marked "washer", well when I stripped the estate I found 2 of these at the top of the struts

I now understand that this is the "washer" with the remains of the gaiter, which the previous owner must have cut away when the gaiter failed, to save an mot fail on a split gaiter (I must get 2 of these for the Stag too) and this is how they fit

So on to strut assembly, here's a finished one, with an uncompressed spring by it, showing how much "preload" the springs have in this configuration

and both finished with roller top mounts and the aluminium spacer

Now onto the vertical links, these are very rusty and the dust shield paper thin

 So I removed the dust shield and started to wire brush the links, which clearly reveal the assembly method, a machined billet of steel, with the hub bearing carrier welded in, and various mounting lugs welded on

I cannot get all the rust off these, particularly on the reverse (due to inaccessability) so I intend to send them for blasting, when they are back and painted, I will fit the bearings and hubs and assemble to the struts.

The dust shields are another matter so I decided to fabricate these from steel sheet, here's one in progress

Its got the lip formed, but I still need to cut the centre out, and trim the lip, however thats all I have time for today.

I have also obtained a few NOS parts from ebay in the past weeks, firstly a genuine AE Stag oil pump, now thats a rare beast today (and it shouldn't weep oil like my County one on the Stag from the oil pressure relief valve assembly) and a Stanpart black transmission cover carpet, still in the original wrapping, but it will need some modifications so it will fit round the transmission tunnel mods, but its another rare item.

583 hours now worked - 4 today.

Heater Assembly

Just because the estate is away at Surface Treatments doesn't mean that I won't be working on various items when time allows.

Today was the turn of the heater assembly, which as you may remember was somewhat rusty, but I now had the parts back from the powder coaters.

I started by stripping the motor, to oil the bearings and check the brushes

All was Ok, except the commutator was somewhat dirty, so I cleaned this up with wire wool and reassembled.

Brush assembly fitted

Then it was time to put the motor in the housing and mount the dropper resistor that gives the slow speed.

Then assemble the motor into the blower assembly

You will note the new screws, I used a total of 52 screws in the whole heater assembly !

Fan assembly mounted into the main unit

Sealing compound fitted to edges of heater chamber

Side panels on and matrix inserted.

I greased all the cables and other moving parts, including the lever assemblies and the springs and ball bearings that give the detent steps.

And finished, flaps cables, vents etc all fitted and working from the front control levers

Looks much better, and its all done except for a snag, the heater valve doesn't fit the matrix, I hope the matrix suppliers can resolve this without me having to replace the matrix, I shall not be happy !

Total hours worked 579 - 5 hours on the heater.