Hello All!
A long time since my last update as seems to be an increasing habit! (I'm not getting much time off at the moment paying for all this stuff!).
Well, since my last post and the delivery of shiny new blasted and powdercoated parts, the getting rid of another girlfriend etc.. haha! I have sent the old chassis back to Marcos Heritage spares to be totally refurbished, this didn't come cheap as a significant amount of rail replacement was needed together with all modification and strengthening required through development of the chassis from the 1970's until now.
The front end has been totaly welded and jigged, the front end has also had additional bracketry for snail fan mounting the new A frame at the front for the bonnet mounting and steering rack mounting. There has also been a new rail at the base rear of where the seating positions are, together with strengthening triangulation in the rear axle secton and filletting to add further strength, we have also added additional steel under the filled in sections at the rear of the chassis. Please see the images below for more detail.
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| Apologies that this is the wrong way round it was saved the right way! |
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| Engine bay rail replacement and new bracketry. |
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| Rear part showing the triangulation of the rear cross member and additional steel under the rear infills. |
We have also Refurbished the rear axle housing using the Capri 3.09 axle I acquired, the gear wheels were all in very good condition as they had been coated in old oil which still protected the wheels there was no damage to the wheels themselves either.
We spent a considerable time wire brushing and de-greasing the axle removing any surface rust or debris accumulated overtime.
Once the clean up work was done the axle was painted in Hammerite smoothrite.
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| A 'before' shot during the degreasing stage of the axle. |
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| The internals of the Atlas 3.09 axle I am using |
The gaskets and the 'original' axle back plate were beyond usefulness unfortunately there were a number of holes in the original backplate, which would cause leakage if the same item was re-used so I decided to buy a brand new unit that has the bracket on it for the brake cabling this cost about 44.00 plus postage but was a necessary evil given the parts available.
Below is a picture of the painted article and brand new powdercoated back plate of the rear axle attached gasketted and sealed with new oil placed inside.
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| Fully refurbished rear axle unit with brand new back plate. |
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| Backplate with the brake cabling bracket in place. |
As the old chassis was refurbed, M.H.S advised that due to the sheer amount of waxoyl placed into the chassis throughout the life of the chassis so far, it would make a galvanising job more difficult in that chassis tubes could explode it would also not be possible to re-powdercoat the existing chassis due to the extreme temperatures required to bake the powdercoat on, the waxoyl would start to melt and run out. (which happened a lot during welding).
The very difficult decision (and expensive) one at that, was taken to order a brand new chassis which could include all the mods we applied to this one and could be both Galvanised and powdercoated afterwards this order was placed in November and due to the high demand for chassis at the moment, I have received the chassis today which looks excellent, It was galvanised, smoothed over and powdercoated satin black Ive added the piccies below.
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| Marcos chassis at M.H.S |
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| Chassis back at the Garage on stands ready for re-assembly |
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| Rear view of chassis showing extra seatbelt mountings welded to the top rail and extra triangulation and filletting. |
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| Bit cramped in here now!!! Need to finish painting up and coating the old chassis in order to sell in refurbished and modified condition. |
Plans now are to finish painting the existing old chassis, which has had all modifications to stop failures in the structure and also the mods that strengthen the rear of the chassis in the case of a rearward impact. The shock of any impact is distributed better therefore not warping or damaging the base seat rear rail. This chassis will be finished in hammered blue hammerite as existing and will make for a good solid foundation to anyone embarking on the same project as me. Any interested parties can contact me through this blog or via the facebook marcos cars group facebook.com/marcoscars I am also on the marcos forum www.marcossportscarenthusiasts.yuku.com as MarcosGazza.
Thats all for now!
You have done a very nice job if you want see vittage cars then you can contact vith:
ReplyDeleteVintage Cars in Jaipur | Vintage Cars Restorations Jaipur
The axel is looking sleek and good as new! It's sad though that you had to buy a new chasis, although I understand that the alternative si really not an option at this point. Can't wait for how it'll look like after you've finished the refurbishing and restorations jobs. Good luck with the rest!
ReplyDeleteJustin Ebright @ www.totalautomotive.net