Looking
back over the past week it seems to me that progress, despite having a week’s
holiday, has been slack. This is mainly caused by the fact that I had to change
my plans. As a result of the cold weather I can’t continue with the interior,
so to keep some progress I have decide to switch to the suspension. First job
to do was put the axle on some stands outside the workshop and strip it of its
coating.
For
this I used a trusty old angle grinder with a steel wire brush;
And
because it is a rather dirty and noisy job some personal protection was needed.
Needless
to say that when I was trying to get the old paint and road grime of the axle,
outside the workshop, the sun was shining happily, raising the temperature to
nearly 10ºC. Which is rather warm when you are fully wrapped up in protective
gear. But got most of it of in the end. As can be seen some small patches of
the original coating remain, but most of these were also removed, just took the
pictures in between a change of brushes. The old one was at that stage so worn
that it didn’t reach into the nooks and crannies.
It
is obvious that this axle casing is in pretty good condition. No corrosion
anywhere or visible damage to the welding. This combined with the fact that the
innards are also pretty sound, prompted me to only coat it, and not touch the
inside, just new gaskets and new oil.
After
the noisy stuff it was time for a few relaxing hours with the paint brush. For
the coating I used smooth black Hammerite, mainly because I have had pretty
good experience with it over the years. Have heard some negative reports, but I
think that has probably more to do with the fact that it wasn’t applied
properly. At least it looks good at the moment. Not completely ready, still
need to do the inside of the lower brackets
and the alloy nose cover. These were partially inaccessible due to the
supports.
With
the axle almost sorted I wax-oiled the inside of the doors in preparation for
their reassembly. Despite the still coldish weather, even after a few days
there’s still wax-oil dripping out!
Same
will probably be the case with the sub frame, which also got a liberal dose of
the greasy stuff.
And
with the messy stuff done it was time for some cleaner jobs. First with the
help of René and a hydraulic lift I removed the frame, on which the car was
resting, and put it on axle stands. Had to do this because the frame was fixed
to the lower suspension points at the rear and two of the sub frame mounting
points at the front. Not very helpful if you want to fit the suspension!
With
the car on axle stands it was time to start on the suspension parts. Most of
these were done last year so I only had to go through the various boxes to get
all the suspension related parts together. After which I spent a few hours on
the front TCA’s. These had also been powder coated, as a result of which the
ball joints wouldn’t go in without some extreme force. But after an hour with
some coarse sand paper this was solved. So they could join the rest of the
suspension parts in the cupboard;
To
make room in the cupboard the front struts needed another storage place, so I
fitted them to the car;
It
slowly but surely starts to look more like a car again 😎
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