Weekend 21-05-2011

This weekend's work was focussing mainly on the bolts that hold the chassis to the bodywork. My recent trip to the Stoneleigh Classics show had allowed me to purchase a shiny new Impact screwdriver with which to remove some of the stubborn little bolts that didn't want to leave the bodywork in a hurry!

My new favourite tool!

The first order of the day (and possible the easiest) was to remove the side trim panels that run under the doors between the wheel arches. The impact driver was used on all these bolts as they were rusted so a couple of hits with a rubber mallet (ensuring no damage was done to the driver or the bodywork) and these would each be free.

One of the first of three under rail bolts being removed.

There were three bolts on the underneath of the rail, again using the rubber mallet I was able to remove these with relative ease using the driver.

The rear most bolt on the trim panel

After the three bolts on the underside were removed, the trim panel basically comes away from the body work revealing a further set of body/chassis screws going in from the side into the chassis. these were quite rusty too where the water has got in from underneath.

Removal  of the trim panel. When I re-assmeble, I am replacing this panel with a nice stainless steel one to tie in with the chrome elements of the exterior.

Trim panel removed note the rusty chassis bolts here. careful work with the impact driver required.

I set about removing the rusty bolts in turn, ensuring that the driver wasn't hit too hard to avoid bending/damaging the bodywork.

Again use of the rubber mallet allowed a great deal more control and 'restraint' while effecting this operation.

Eventually all these bolts were removed and I worked my way down the otherside of the car. these were fairly difficult as I don't have as much room on the other side of the car.

Almost removed Passenger side Trim panel (front wheel to the left of the picture).

All these bolts were removed from the passenger side also, so set about removing some troublesome bolts in the cabin area. mainly three bolts in the drivers footwell, and all four from the passengers side of the car.

Passenger footwell right hand side Base chassis bolt.

These footwell bolts were rather tricky to undo as it required a bit of flexibility from myself in terms of getting myself into positions to get at them! I was able to go in from the top of the passenger footwell, the drivers side was a little more difficult.

I went on to removing a couple of in dashboard bolts (only managed one as the steering wheel side one meant I couldnt get the hammer and impact driver in to do this.

Chassis bolt next to heater inlet/outlet

Suspension mounts for the rear wheels.

After I had removed these chassis bolts I went on to remove the Rear suspension mounts that hold the rear suspension setup in place. these bolts were quite hard to remove that heads aren't particularly large so it was rather easy for the spanners to fall off the bolts.

Suspension mounts from within the wheel arch. (passenger side)

A bit of WD40 was needed to loosen the bolts up so that I could start turning them, again the exposed chassis rails loooked good in these exposed areas. I was able to lodge a spanner in the wheel arch to grip the bolts as it would have taken something extraordinary for me to bend myself into a position to hold the spanner and turn!!

Passenger side suspension retaining bolts removed.

At this point the retaining bolts have been removed from the passenger side, and one of the bolts (top most bolt) have been removed from the drivers side. I had a great degree of difficulty trying to remove the bottom bolt as this was hard to get a spanner onto and wouldn't move, help required on this one. There are also two bolts in the rectangular area (visible here) that I cant get to as they are a way forward that I cant stretch to, to get any purchase on the impact driver. once these are out all bolts holding the rear of the body work to the chassis will have been removed.

Car as it is at the moment (Slowly but surely this body is getting closer to removal!)

Well I thought I'd finish on a high at this point so I will upload a bit more next time I'm over to work on the car.

Gazza.

Weekend 29-04-2011

Hello! More work accomplished this weekend as I managed to grab some assistance from my dad and set to it without delay! Main camera was dead yet again! stupid forgetful memory!

First off was to prepare the body work and engine bay for body removal as there are a number of irritating things that need to be removed from the car to effect the 'body off'.
We started by fiddling with the electrics, the main wiring loom was still in the car and had really to come out of the car, (Dad inspected the lengths of cable and found that a lot of it has melted the outer flex on the runs of wire, so Its possible that a few metres of new wire will be needed (Dad doesnt know this yet but I want him to help quite a lot on this!)

We made sure that all items were disconnected, eg. old bulbs, switches etc. before carefully feeding this through the hole for the junction box on the bulkhead. (Please see below)

Disconnected cables from the engine bay have allowed us to take this run from the front end and pull through.

Once we had carefully removed this, (I'm not looking forward to having to put this beast back in again!) It was great to see it all laid out for inspection. (See also below)

The business end of my electrics! there are loads of lengths we need to look at as a few of the runs have melted flex, this calls for an 'unwind' of all the unsulation for further detailed inspection before we decide how many runs need to be replaced completely.the power to the drivers and passnger door mirrors could do with replacement due to earlier damage.

Other dash board bits to remove here include the heating unit that is connected  with a jubilee clip at the neck of the hose that feeds under the dash and back up to the bay. I loosened this off and dad pulled the hosing through.

Heater unit, just visibly the jubilee clip just underneath it (below the white label).

By now we were making real progress and carried on, there was a deadline to reach as with the Royal wedding that day, (Thanks to Wills and Kate for an extra day off!) we all had to be places so next we tackled the rather tricky windscreen wiper assembly that is quite nicely buried in an awkward position and has to be unscrewed in lots of hard to reach places! I had started a few months ago to take bits off here but couldnt quite complete the job (Dad had this done in under 5 minutes!!!)  certainly pays to have someone around who's done it before!!

Dad has removed the motor unit (Passenger side) and has unscrewed the little bolts on the reverse of the unit to gain access to the  'coil' type fixture inside, that pulls the wiper arms back and forth. 

Motor unit removed: note the darker rectangular bracketted area where the unit used to bolt to.

Once this item was removed, we were able to feed the piping and the arms out through the holes in the dash board. By this time, there is now nothing in the dashboard!! (I will get a better picture on here of the whole thing shown empty when there isnt so much activity in the shed!)

Next items that were quite a pain but a necessity to remove was the Door hinges, I hadnt taken these off with the doors and now I realise why! The bottom bolts on both sides had rusted so badly, that we had to spray them to death with WD40! (smells good though!) We got all but the one bolt out cleanly, the bottom passenger side bolt broke under the stress as it had rusted so badly so part of it is in the door still this will need to be pulled out with some sort of tool.

Drivers side door hinge removed

Removal of top bolts for the passenger side door hinges. note the generous application of WD40!

Hinge removed, (Note the very bottom one has sheared)

Above are of the passenger and drivers side door Hinge removals, (Note the Blue steel support bars bolted to the chassis that run up through the windscreen frames, apparently it will be good to keep these as it will add strength and rigidity to the screen which by itself is not particularly strong.

Next task was the handbrake, this is bolted on the body tub inside with all the cables connected outside and will also cause a problem when getting the body off, so we removed this dad went under the car to do this and while disconnecting, I heard a gasp! I may have mentioned earlier that I would change my gearbox to a Sierra type 9 (2.8 upwards) Gearbox with 5 speed. My dad has convinced me that I should stick to this one as it is immaculate he was vey surprised when He looked at it, it looks original, looks clean, and has everything in tact. so all I need to do is find a Triumph Gear knob with overdrive switch and I can then use this gear box. both the engine and gearbox will have covered the same amount of mileage (8168miles ) or thereabouts. sounds hilarious I know! I know that a lot of V6 Marcos owners opt for the 5 speed type 9 or MT75 units for their cars so keeping a huge part of this original will be rare and great to see. (See pictures)

Handbrake removed.

My Gearbox (from an earlier post) Dad wasn't wrong!

Well, that is all for now, also interesting to find that I have either a Cortina or Escort rear axle!! as the gubbins are fitted from the front rather than on the back of the unit! I need to source a 'wide configuration' 3.09 axle if possible?

Gazza