Some progress at last!

So as I have spent the last three months getting every bit of Overtime I can, I have started doing a few jobs that dont cost much first of all, but are vital in insuring that I have enough cleaned up and restored parts ready for re-assembly, now rather than document individual entries from the last couple of months I'll condense them for more interesting viewing into one post.
First of all, I've been returning to the clean down of the engine, the steering rack and prop shaft. These are all a bit grubby so out came the tin of Gunk and I applied this generously to the parts that needed it, rinse off with a pressure washer and then one more coat of gunk to make sure.
The steering rack was really grubby, its position on the chassis means it collects dirt from road going, and any fluids that have leaked from the engine lump itself (Grease/oil etc). I also had to remove the bushes from the each end of the rack as these are starting to perish they are held on with twisted retaining wire rather crude looking but took me long enough to get the damn things off!

Prop shaft 'Pre-degreasing'

The Steering Rack was coated in gunk and wire brushed to the point that oil and grease was dropping off the item, Again the process above has been repeated and a rinse off done.

Wire brushed and degreased steering rack looking great!

Following the clean down of the steering column, I broke out the Hammerite rust protector paint and applied a reasonable coating once the moving parts and bits that need to remain as are were covered. the central part of the rack is a solid tube that can be painted, care must be taken as looking round the tube there is a small hole almost like a breather hole where grease might go into lubricate the joint, ensure this is well masked off to avoid spraying paint into it that will eventually dry and potentially block the hole entirely. I made a bit of an error here as it was really cold in the garage and this was affecting the rate at which the paint would dry, also the coverage looked a bit patchy so thankfully this was only a light coat.

Once this was done I turned my attention to the prop shaft which had been degreased and rinsed a couple of times, this was also now ready for coat number one. Again using the satin smoothrite spray paint I set to work. I actually suspended this from the rafters of the shed as it gave me an unrestricted area to spray round.

I have now after all the fun and games of these parts arranged the transport of the chassis to be altered, the front end to be re built to the original specification as the modification made before is neither exact nor is it pretty!

Here are some piccies of the chassis out in the cold light of day for the first time in a couple of years.

An eventful and busy couple of weeks will follow as I have some time off booked, to add the bracing to the chassis that will stiffen it up firstly, and then allow a tidier appearance to the front end that will mean I can send it away for the all important shot blast, galvanise and powdercoat that will protect the chassis for many more years and add value in the long term. I dont really want to have to strip this car down again very soon!