22-10-2011

Well! After many internet problems Im back on posting again! and this weekends work is what I have waited a whole year and a bit for....the engine removal which marks the end of the disassembly of the car. as apart from a few cables this is the last thing to come off the car before the cutting, welding  (modification of the chassis) commences before I send her away to be blasted, Galvanised, and then Powder coated a lovely shiny colour!

Mark (who helped me acquire the car in the first place) was bringing an engine down that My stepfather had bought, and at the same time we arranged to remove my engine too as the hoist was being used. Given certain changes to the way Im now having to manage this restoration, cutting out a few hiring actions will be benneficial to the budget.

Firstly, I had to secure the Gearbox with a plank to ensure that when the mountings underneath were undone, the gear box didn't drop downwards and hit the floor.

Rearward shot showing the plank i used to keep the gearbox where it was.

The first item to be tackled at the front end was the removal of the bar at the front that I had trouble with on my last visit. This didnt take long to remove.

Removal of the Rollbar.

Once this part was removed (see above) we started to loosen all the mountings to the engine. there were a few issues with the bolts, so Mark took the top of the botl out due to access being limited through the underneath to get enough ppurchase on it. Meanwhile, I had taken out the tray that the gearbox is mounted to.

Initial strapping up of the engine

At this point a couple of nice old gnarled bits of wood were great for a bit of leverage to the engine. the hoist was strapped to the engine and shortly we were able to lift this out of the bay.

We very quickly found out that the oil that could have leaked when I took the prop shaft out, that didnt, started to run out quite rapidly at this time! the elevation was bound to bring this out, the oil though was immaculate, as if it had just been put in. Im pretty sure this Engine/Gearbox may have been rebuilt at some stage, I will run some tests with it with some knowledgable bods, and see as this will not only save time, it will save me a great deal of money! The gear box being as clean as it is may indicate this to be true.

Engine out, bit of leakage but can't be helped!

 

 

From here I discussed the modifications that Im going to make to the chassis before I send it away for work, this includes tidying up and modifying the front end of the chassis, and strengthening and bracing in the rear of the chassis just under where the fuel tank sits.

bracing will be added here, from above the bump stop on the edge rails (both sides) and be run to the verticals behind the seats. fillets will be added to the base rail to one of the uprights.

There were further mods discussed, these were the filling in of the holes in the wheel arch that allow water and other stuff to get into the fuel tank area, which must be fibreglassed in as thisll make the boot wet too! and possibly rust the fuel tank.

This are is in the wheel arch this hole leads to the fuel tank area.

This is the tunnel across the top rear of the fuel tan k that water could currently get into these curved tops need to be filled.

Well, this was a good hour and a bits work done, so next time, I hope to have bits cut that I can have welded to the chassis on my next visit (not sure when this will be though!)  so keep tuned! :)

Weekend 28 - 29 Aug 2011

Monday 29th August.
I continued to dismantle the remaining attachments to the bodywork so that I can have a completely disassembled car by the end of the year.
The previous day I had spent removing the rear suspension and brake assemblies. My dad had been available to help with this so we removed quite a lot of items.

Coil springs disconnected from the Rear Axle.

Removal of rear struts and bolts connecting axle to brake pipes.

I started the rear by undoing all the main bolts that held the struts, te rear coil springs etc together to get the axle free, I removed the half shafts from either end of the rear axle, once the drums had been removed.

Eventually we were able to take out the axle from the side of the car that had the most clearance once all the assemblies had been removed.

Axle removed, brake assemblies in place to the centre bottom of the image

The 'Removed axle' in need of some 'Refurbishment'

Once the rear axle and suspension etc were removed I went to the front of the car to start removing the drums and brake assemblies there also.

Full chassis shot with rear axle and drums removed.

The first job was to remove the track rod ends from the hub assembly, It is important at this point to ensure that when turning the track rod ends off that the turns are counted as this will assist resetting the geometry of the front end when re-assembling the car. mine were r18 and a half turns on the drivers side and 20 turns on the passenger side. ( I think!)

Once these were removed, I set about taking the hubs off the wishbones.

Track rod ends disassembled from the hub and the roll bar.

Removal of the Brake Calipers from the Hubs.

To be able to remove the hubs entirely from the mountings, there is capping on each of the front wheels, behind which a strip of 'Hairpin' clipping is passed through a hole to hold the bearings in place. this is heavily greased and has to be pulled out with a pair of pliers as the photos below show.

If you remove this, do not lose that pin!! its easily done!

Loosening the  wishbones around to the top and bottom of the shocks and springs.

I had removed the bearing and hubs at this point, so I was ready to start taking the wish bones off the front also, this would allow for removal of the leaky shocks I had.

Loosening the bolts for the Shocks.

 I must admit  I had some difficulty removing the bottom suspension strut, as the bolt was well rusted! using a combination of socket set and the break bar, I was able to get these off.

Undoing the base the front shocks.

Front end minus the wishbones and all hubs.

With all the front end now removed, (the roll bar at the front wouldnt come out so I had to leave this on until next time). I had quite a collection of parts that I could send away  to be treated and re powdercoated.

All the front and rear end parts ready for powder coating fuel tank is in the back ground.

same shot as earlier after steering removal.

That was about all I had time for that day. So the next post I should be updating will be the removal of the engine and gear box and finally calling completion on the strip down.