Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
As of today I am exactly 2 months behind my schedule to have my car on the road by next September, this is largely due to work and Christmas/family commitments and some unexpected welding jobs. Hopefully I will make this time up in the next few months, keep reading.

Fuel pipe

Fuel and LHM return pipes run along the o/s sill these have been refitted with grommets which were previously had no support.

Pipework exiting the o/s sill section

Before

o/s/r elephants ear

New o/s/r closing panel 'elephants ear' welded in place with new rubber and painted black.

Drivers floor

Where the drivers floor meets the brake pedal assembly, there is a support plate which had suffered quite bad corrosion. This has been removed and re-fabricated. New clutch pedal rubber fitted also.

Before

After, accelerator pedal cleaned and painted and new clutch pedal rubber

Sound deadening pads fitted

Rear suspension

There is a tiny hole that needs welding, probably ½ hour work however, to do it properly the rear suspension arm has to come off. The boot is stripped out so the screwed ring and clamp that joins the anti roll bar to the arm had easy access. After pipework and the suspension cylinder was disconnected this left 3 nuts to remove and the arm was off (after a bit of persuasion) There is quite a weep of LHM from the rear cylinder and the boot is split, I have all the parts to recondition this so decided to remove the cylinder. The rear sphere was removed and the clamp removed that secures the cylinder in place along with the pipework, according to the manual "the cylinder is then removed towards the front of the vehicle"... yeah right! after 2 hours with WD40, sweat, tears and a hot air gun it came out.

Now I can get on with the welding and restoring the suspension.

Inside the boot with anti roll bar disconnected

Area to be welded is circled here

Rear arm and suspension removed

Rear suspension cylinder stripped and cleaned, rebuilt with new seals

Cylinder gaiter being refitted - this starts off inside out

Suspension cylinder rebuilt ready to go back on vehicle

Rear arm bearings cleaned and inspected okay, so re-greased and built back up

New rear brake pipe bracket that had corroded away

And welded in place

New rear suspension bump/rebound stops welded in place and sealed

Welding finished and area cleaned and sealed
 Schutz applied all over apart from where the arm bolts on, this is waxed later

Anti roll bar cleaned and greased before refitting
Bolts cleaned and new threadlock applied

Rear suspension cylinder refitted

New rear suspension sphere and seal
Will have to replace pipework later on

Welding

Too busy to blog, so I'm just posting some pictures of the progress for now.

Stripping out the interior

O/S/F jacking point cut out and some repair panels being welded in

New jacking point welded in place with new gussets

O/S/F floor cut out and inner sill repaired

O/S/R floor cut out and inner sill repaired around seat belt anchor point

Black holes

Hmmm... Don't really know where to start but here goes.
Went to the ICCCR at Harrogate and bought some really good looking repair panels for the sills and floor, jacking points etc. as mine have disappeared into black holes! So started to strip the interior ready for cutting out some rusty metal. I will post some pics of the progress but as this is very labour intensive I wont be blogging to much, keep checking back!

N/S floor center

N/S/F corner

N/S jacking point

N/S/R boot floor

N/S/R floor corner

Started by stripping out the interior. Front and rear seats removed and carpet, fuel tank out and pipework. 

Stripping out the interior

On the drivers side the inner sill is not too bad, the floor has taken the biggest hit, this will have to be cut out and new panels welded in, some work is needed around the pedal plate as well.

Tin worms been at pedal box

The worst of the corrosion on the inner sill O/S/F corner

O/S/F jacking point with fuel and hydraulic pipes removed