Pete Lewis Posted February 25, 2019 Report Share Posted February 25, 2019 that rusty stud is also common on the front wishbone brackets , they are always worth checking , seen this problem a good few times its hidden waiting to part company Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted February 25, 2019 Report Share Posted February 25, 2019 15 hours ago, Bordfunker said: And seeing as I had the blasting gear out, and I was already thoroughly covered in grit, I thought I might as well crack on with cleaning up the chassis. I was blasting TR7 parts last week in the cabinet and reached too far forward so the glove slipped off the mounting inside the cabinet... I decided to keep going and ended up with one completely black arm between the end of the glove and my shoulder. That stuff gets everywhere! (Aluminium oxide granules) It gives you a finish like no other... wire brushing just isn't the same. I've a Herald bodytub needing blasting so I'll take it to a local shotblaster rather than do it outdoors at home and have the stuff blowing everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted February 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2019 Mark, all the studs that I have removed from the rear suspension have actually been in really good nick, and should be good to go again with a clean up and some new Nylocs. Has your Midge spent time at sea from the look of the bolt? Colin, I know what you know about the finish, it’s lovely and smooth, but with just the right texture to take paint. Wire brushing just doesn’t get close, but then all the muck it removes has to go somewhere, and that typically seems to be over me! I look like a coal miner after a blasting session! I would dearly love a blasting cabinet for the smaller components, of which there are many. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfella70 Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 Fantastic thread! Really enjoying reading this from the beginning. Just joined the forum having acquired a 1973 Mk3 GT6 in need of some TLC and a little recommissioning. Previously owned a Spitfire 1500 back in '86 and a TR6 on twin carbs in 2012 which I wish I'd kept! Have tried creating a thread in the introduction section however haven't been successful (may be to do with the format on my iPad) but will keep trying! Looking forward to following progress on this one, great work all round !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted February 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 Glad you’re enjoying the thread, it’s been fun doing it, and the help and advice I have had from others on this forum has been a godsend. With regards posting on the forum I use a laptop for anything with photos as my iPad is next to useless for it. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted March 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2019 As the more observant amongst you may have noticed, it has been a little breezy today! Which combined with the heavy rain, has meant I wasn't able to roll the body tub out onto the drive, thus giving me space to work properly in the garage, which in turn has limited what I could get done today. So I'd thought I'd have a go a sorting out a better solution for feeding grit to my media blast gun, as a length of heater hose stuck in a bucket isn't quite cutting it! The first challenge was finding some 8mm internal diameter tubing in the Banbury area, cue 2 hours wandering around various DIY barns looking for something appropriate to no avail. Nothing for it but to look online, which highlghted the fact that aquatic shops stock this stuff, so trip out to a very down at heel aquatics place in Banbury, which did at least have a length of the right size hose. Hooray!!! Which allowed me to modify my media gun to this. Originally the gun had a large plastic shroud and a long feed tube for use with a bag for spot blasting, but that was just getting in the way, so off came the shroud, and the feed tube was cut down substantially, which means it now fits into tight corners, which is what I need for the chassis. The next bit gets really Heath Robinson, as I rigged up a feed hopper from an old lemonade bottle and funnel. I did tell you it was very Heath Robinson! Hey, but it works, which did allow me to get some blasting done. Having said that, I think I might have to invest in a blast cabinet as there are a myriad of small parts to clean up, and I'm currently making such a mess of the garage! Anyway, I had another go at the vertical link that I started on last week, and gave it a scaping with a small screwdriver, which revealed that areas that I thought were solid weld, were in fact compacted crud! The two areas circled in the photo below were 'solid' before I attacked them with the screwdriver, and then blasted the cavity clean. Leaving me with this! And that folks is the sum total of my progress this weekend! The good news is that I have Monday and Tuesday off, so weather permitting, I may get a few more hours in the garage over the next couple of days. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted March 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 After a somewhat lengthier break than anticipated, due to picking up a stinking cold from my daughter, which wiped out the two days off that I had booked, as well as last weekend, I finally managed to get back in the garage today. Nothing for it but to crack on with cleaning up the chassis ready for painting, which meant girding loins and tackling the underseal on the inner faces of the main chassis rails. This is after a bit of initial clean up with the hot air gun and scraper. This was then attacked with brush cleaner and rags to remove the remaining layer of underseal which the hot air gun struggles to remove, leaving me with just the most stubborn elements, time for the flap wheel in a drill, followed by media blasting. Much better, and the other side looks the same as well, but as the view below shows there's still work to do. The rust on the top lip of the chassis rail is surface only, and due to the under seal trapping moisture against the original chassis paint. I also tackled the driver's side front diff mount, which just needs a few blobs of old underseal removed, and a coat of rust stopper, which the rest of the chassis will also receive. I won't bother media blasting the exterior of the chassis rails, but due to the need for the epoxy mastic to have a good key on the base metal, I have started giving the chasis rails a going over with my DA sander with a 60 grit disk, which should provide sufficient key for the paint. You can see the keying in the shot above, which should mean that the epoxy mastic stays adhered to the base metal for many years to come. Not sure if I'll get any time next weekend as off to the NEC for the Practical Classics show, the aim is to get the rear half of the chassis ready for paint by Easter. Karl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 Karl - What brand of expoxy mastic are you using and where are you getting it from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted March 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 Rust Busters epoxy mastic. https://www.rust.co.uk/product/cat/em-121-epoxy-rust-proofing-chassis-paint-7 They were at the NEC last year. Good stuff, but if your spraying you need a gun with 1.4mm nozzle or greater as this stuff is thick. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted March 31, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 As expected I didn't manage to get anything done last week due to going to the NEC on Sunday for the Practical Classics show, and given that today was Mother's Day, I wasn't expecting to get much done this weekend either. I did have Friday off as it was my birthday, no point working your birthday, but spent most of it lazing around eating and drinking as one should on one's birthday. However I did get a workshop vacuum for my birthday, so first order of business was to give the garage a hoover up after all the unrestricted media blasting over the last few months. But Karl, you are just going to make a mess again when you do the next lot of blasting? Not so, I ordered myself a blast cabinet, one of the reasons for asking for the workshop vacuum, which should turn up next weekend. Well that was the hour and a half I got in the garage yesterday, and I wasn't expecting any time today, however Mrs B was busy sewing, so I pootled off to the garage for a couple of hours. First order of business was to continue to clean up the main chassis rails in preparation for paint, using the angle grinder and a fresh wire wheel as the old one was flinging wires at me! 5 minutes in I watched in horror as the power lead for the angle grinder got caught in the rapidly spinning wire wheel!!! You've never seen me react so fast as I tried to switch off the grinder while trying to stop the cable snagging and potentially electrocuting me! I then spent the next 30 minutes, firstly calming down, then swapping the power lead off the heat gun to the grinder. HSSE lesson well and truly learnt when it comes to power tools and electric cables! Anyway, I stripped the main chassis rails back to bare metal, as per the pics below: Then gave everything a wipe down with white spirit to remove any traces of underseal, which the grinder would have liquidised. Then it was out with the FE123 to neutralise any rust. I also attacked the insides of the top hat sections over the rear diff mount with the FE123, which means that the rear of the chassis is now ready for a coat of epoxy mastic, hopefully next week. With the blast cabinet arriving next week, I should be able to make good headway on cleaning up the smaller components and prepping for paint. Karl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglefire Posted April 1, 2019 Report Share Posted April 1, 2019 Rotating stuff and power leads are never a good combination! I did manage to cut through a hedge trimmer cable some years ago! Battery drills are the way forward! 😃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2019 Mark, an air or battery powered angle grinder does look very attactive right now! Following last week's near HSSE training video incident, I'm starting to think I shouldn't be allowed near garage equipment, as having taken delivery of my lovely new blast cabinet, I managed to break the perspex in the most moronic way possible. This really belongs on the 'Blonde Moments' thread. Now you may remember I got the vacuum for my birthday, to go with the blast cabinet, with the aim of using it to extract the muck that comes off the parts I intended to clean up. So far so good, so with that in mind I read the instructions for the cabinet,(how hard can it be) which advises you to remove the plug on the filter hole. Cue look at filter hole, no plug fitted, just a nice hole for the vacuum hose to go in. Insert vacuum hose, fire up vacuum. Look of bemused concern as gloves 'inflate' in the cabinet, rapidly turning to horror as the perspex starts to bow before shattering!!!!!! Turns out they meant the blanking plug on the other vent, the one I hadn't spotted! Arse!! Nothing for it but a trip to B&Q to get a peice of perspex, and install it, leaving me with this. It now works beautifully, but could do with another tub of grit, as you have to keep shoving it around to keep the hose buried. Having repaired my idiocy, I actually got to blast some components. All of the suspension bolts have come up lovely, and none are corroded, which allowed me to run tap down the threads to remove any lingering muck and rust stopper. As you can see I also cleaned up the top spring clamp plate ready for a coat of rust stopper, which they have all now received. Also in the rust stopper queue was the rear vertical link. As well as generally breaking stuff, and removing crud on Sunday, I also made a start on sorting out the diff and it's various leaks. First out came my as yet unused puller, which made short work of the prop shaft flange that had proved so stubborn, followed by the yoke itself to allow easier access to the leaking seal. I am assuming that the seal is just supposed to pull out? I didn't try and remove the seal as I want to make sure I understand how it's supposed to come out before I break anything else! So I then turned my attention to the two drive flanges as while neither of these currently appear to be leaking, Sod's Law dictates that if I don't replace them now, they will start after the car is fully back together again! All of the Allen bolts came out without too much of a fight, but neither drive shaft is willing to just slide out as the WSM suggests. As can be seen from the picture above, they turn, they even come out about 4mm, but they do not disengage. What am I missing? And finally a bit more cleaning, this time the yoke, which still had patches of under seal and rust on it. Note how 3 of the washers have remained firmly attached, whilst the fourth simply fell off! There are still a few stupporn areas of under seal to come off, but I'll do that next weekend. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted April 9, 2019 Report Share Posted April 9, 2019 9 hours ago, Bordfunker said: This really belongs on the 'Blonde Moments' thread. Now you may remember I got the vacuum for my birthday, to go with the blast cabinet, with the aim of using it to extract the muck that comes off the parts I intended to clean up. So far so good, so with that in mind I read the instructions for the cabinet,(how hard can it be) which advises you to remove the plug on the filter hole. Cue look at filter hole, no plug fitted, just a nice hole for the vacuum hose to go in. Insert vacuum hose, fire up vacuum. Look of bemused concern as gloves 'inflate' in the cabinet, rapidly turning to horror as the perspex starts to bow before shattering!!!!!! Turns out they meant the blanking plug on the other vent, the one I hadn't spotted! Wow! I'd probably have made the same mistake, TBH. My blast cabinet (a DIY kit from Eastwood many years back) doesn't have the "other vent", just the big sucker. Mind you, it's a side-door type and that leaks plenty to prevent really big pressure drops. I've also replaced the goes-frosty-in-one-use perspex with a sheet of decent grade glass, which stays clear much longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 9, 2019 Report Share Posted April 9, 2019 the short shafts can need a good tap to free them, there is nothing inside other than old oil and gunge , changing the seals on them needs a colar clamp drag as the bearing have to be removed and they are very tight on the shaft and fitted right up to the seal hsg. there is a circlip thats fun to remove the nose pinion seal just !! leaver it out , if its solid then fill gap with paper towel and chop through the seal case with sharp old wood chisel or similar to release its just a tap back in the new one till level on the 4 front mount to carrier bolts they should be wedglok a bolt with a tapered shank and the internal stars you seem to have reason is the holes are bigger than the 3/8 thread size ,, believe me it std are fitted and one comes out it locks the prop up with a lot of noise . pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2019 Pete, thanks for that. Is this the type of thing I’m looking for to remove the bearing? https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1?q=bearing+separator&client=safari&channel=ipad_bm&biw=1024&bih=666&tbs=vw:l,ss:44&prds=num:1,of:1,epd:10149031928751868136,paur:ClkAsKraX0IBNtdm9bx-QKkmIDdaDD1RU5dn2KagmoDnle_tDTk90IGTCqnQNfJgB00kqQcdIvewmkjVvQo4Z0qn3lFz8dPzCDhGPuLUJ5fNchBVyHUY7q9P4BIZAFPVH72DBC5VDSPRYtOJJJKnWR6HzfSKZw,prmr:1,pid:10149031928751868136,cs:1 If so I’ll order one off the bay of evil, and have a go at the weekend. I did check the nose bolts and they are all tapered as they should be. Rob, I was surprised at just how airtight the cabinet was! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 9, 2019 Report Share Posted April 9, 2019 Yes that will get behind the bearing ok Can take some shifting Its a lot easier to bash the thing back on Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2019 Thanks Pete. I’ve ordered a pair of the bearing removal clamps and their associated pullers off of e-bay as the bearing looks to be a whisker over 50mm, while most of the pullers are either 30-50mm or 50mm+, and the set I’ve ordered has both for the bargain price of £22. I also managed to remove one of the drive shafts from the diff with gentle levering with an old screwdriver. So the aim this weekend will be to strip down the diff, and replace all of the seals and gaskets. Thanks Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2019 The bearing separator set turned up on Friday from the bay of evil. It weighs a tonne! Before I started on stripping down the first drive shaft, I mounted it on a block of wood to make handling easier. Which proved a good idea when it came to removing the circlip which keeps the bearing in place on the shaft itself! You need at least 3 hands to do this! 20 minutes of trying various implements, and a bit of swearing, I managed to get the circlip off. Time to try the bearing seperator. This is where things started to go awry, as I promptly stripped the threads off the bars that clamp the two halves of the seperator together. Bloody things look to be made of monkey metal, either that or the 50 year old bearing and driveshaft are made of titatnium! Luckily I have some long bolts in the garage, which I could use instead, leaving me with this after half an hour. As you can see I wasn't working on this in the garage, instead retreating to the comfort of the study, a much nicer environmant in which to work on a somewhat cool day in April. And broken down into the component parts. I need to dress the inner flange with a file as the clamp has marked it, before I drift out the old oil seal then everything will get a clean up with a rotary wire brush, a coat of rust stopper, followed by reassemby, after which I get to do it all over again on the passenger side. Fonunately I'm off this week, so should get plenty of opportunity to rebuild the differential. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahebron Posted April 13, 2019 Report Share Posted April 13, 2019 You have a study! Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2019 I call it a study, Don’t get any ideas about a sumptuous office with a wonderful wooden desk and luxurious leather office chair it’s just a 2 metre square room with two desks and a load of shelves, where I work from home a couple of days a week!. It is at least warmer than the garage! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 14, 2019 Report Share Posted April 14, 2019 Pleased it was .........easy!!! Seen reports of thread strips on some cheapo pullers, look good but do fail easy but youve got there in the end On the 2000 and versions the coupling is seperate on a taper on the short shaft ....took 12tons to part them Beyond homework .unless you have a decent press Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyman Posted April 14, 2019 Report Share Posted April 14, 2019 The Wooden (squirell?) in the background looked as though he was laughing at you Karl Good work though... Tony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2019 Pete, working in the garage a few months back, one of my neighbours paid me a visit. At first I thought he was going to complain about the noise as I had the compressor running, but although it was the sound of the compressor which had attracted his attention, it wasn’t to complain but to find out who was using a large compressor locally. Turns out he’s restoring a DeLorean and is a development engineer for Nissan, so has a wealth of tools at his disposal, including a press! When the threads stripped I thought I was going to have pay him a visit and request the use of his press. Good to know it’s an option though. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted April 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2019 1 minute ago, poppyman said: The Wooden (squirell?) in the background looked as though he was laughing at you Karl Good work though... Tony. It’s supposed to be a glasses stand that I got from Malaysia when I first went out there on business. Needless to say I have given it plenty of opportunity to laugh at my idiotic antics! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 14, 2019 Report Share Posted April 14, 2019 Renault used to ship car engines transmisions and more though the dunstable truck plant destined for lotus and delorean Had I known some diversion would have been possible Ha !! We also e coat and primed sealed heritage shells .....if only I had a TR or Mg those were the days you always knew someone who knew. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now