Weekend 02/10/2010

Plenty to do in the shed so my dad popped up to help with a few things, the first thing was to remove the door, this I tried to do last time but had problems with the three remaining bolts in the top of the panel these have rusted solid, so I fear I may have to grind them off as wd40 and lots of turning didn't acheive success. We removed the door at the hinges and propped up the whole unit.

The next major thing I wanted to look at was the fuel tank it is one of the major elements that must must be removed in order to get the Body off, We were able to pull out the filler cap and disconnect the connecting pipe and hose, but as for taking the whole tank out, this needs access from underneath the car which at this time I can't do as I haven't yet purchased any axle stands so that I can get to the bolts underneath.

Here, the filler cap can be removed from the top and once the jubilee clips are loosened the hose can be removed through the hole in the bodywork. The resulting appearance is like so...

The rubber ring seals shown round the aperture here have degraded and will need to be replaced, it's best to keep the originals so that new alternatives can be found to match.

The next part we looked at was the Windscreen, now this was a lot easier than I had thought! as once the strips around the glass were removed, the window came out fairly freely. Again, important to keep the screen, even if you don't use it again, you have it as a blueprint as well as the sealing surround sand the silver strips that pull out of the groove between the glass and the seal.

Dad starts to remove the seals for the window and then lifts (after I've finished documenting it on camera!)

I remove the passenger side vertical strip

Screen now fully removed from the car.

A closer look at the edge of the window showing the roof was cut fairly cleanly from hereand would need a 2/3mm of filled fibreglass to make up the dpeth of the saw blade here if the roof is re-attached.

As we were in the area now of the steering column, I asked what was needed to remove the rack so that the remainder of the dash and instruments could be removed as well as the body being allowed to come off. the next few images show what must be taken off.

1st screw into the column needs to be removed, there is a bolt through the centre of the wheel that needs to be taken out also

There is a bolt on both of these stalks that have to be removed.

The two bolts on this clamp ned to be removed so that the clamp doesnt do its job of holding the column in place

More bolts here that have to be undone

Where there is a large concentration of blue wire, there is a gnurled nut in here that has to be removed carefully! as if this is lost, it will be a nightmare trying to find another! this holds the instrumentation in position and also allows disconnection of wires.

Once I was taken along the length of the column we disconnected the wipers and the stalks they are connected to, this will only come out once the wiper assembly is unbolted from the front bulkhead, these screws can be accessed (in the below piccy) through the dashboard, and the second picture from inside the engine bay.

Here the mounting bracket is clearly visible under the arm with bolts at either end

The two Main bolts for undoing the wiper motor are from the centre to the left of the image (to the left of the fuse box once these are undon the wiper motor also once disconnected from cables will come out.

Dad left me to my own devices at this point and I continued to work on a few other things around and about the car first of which was the glut of hoses that connect the radiator to the engine and the oil cooler to the engine. Here I am undoing the jubilee clips that fasten at each end of the pipe.

Image shows the very front mounted rad and the ends of the two hoses to the oil cooler the fan as it is setup at the moment, the plan is to get hold of a rad with a built in fan. mounted on the unit itself as opposed to a seperate system on a framework

Disconnection of water pipe to the radiator, jubilee clips on either end connect this up firmly, these have to be removed.

as you look at the front of the car, there is this device (Fuel pressure regulator), the horn controller, and currently a washer pump, I remove all these items at this stage.

Washer bottle bracket, this will need to be removed and then sited elsewhere once the new rad layout is in place

With light starting to fade a little, I stopped here and went indoors for Saturday. A lot of extraneous components have been removed at this point, the horn control unit, (Blue topped cylinder on the left) is still attached and so here are the horn trumpets behind the rad.