Saturday, November 30, 2013

American vs. The Queens

For the record I am making every attempt to make this a bi-lingual blog and purely out of respect for the audience and the English language itself. Knowing this will be viewed by both American and U.K. audiences and beyond, I am trying to use the proper nomenclature for each side of the pond. This is why you will see things such as boot/trunk, gas/petrol, hood/roof etc, throughout the blog.

I cant do much about the "Football/Soccer" situation but I will contribute in other ways as best I can. Much respect and I am having the time of my life with this endeavor (endeavour).  

Dismantling Session #14 - 11-16-13 - Morning Surprise

So after puling the gas/petrol tank I did a couple of rounds of Marine Clean and a chain in the bottom of the tank with some vigorous shaking yesterday. I needed to do a couple more rounds of cleaning inside and its a bit of a challenge to get all of the water out of the tank so I left a little in the tank over night to soak. I woke up this morning to find a soapy-rusty liquid on the floor of the garage. It didn't take long to discover the four pin holes in the picture below.

Sort of lucky set of circumstances because I might not have otherwise noticed them if I was shaking and dumping. These holes were probably a bit too big for the tank sealer to have worked effectively. As you can see I decided to skip ahead a couple steps and sand the entire thing down sooner than later, especially since the weather was decent and I can work out side. I managed to discover some additional pitting in a few spots that I covered up as well for good measure. As you can see below I used Permatex, a combination of a fiberglass and epoxy sealant, to cover up the holes and the pitted spots. This stuff dries pretty quickly so you don't get much of a chance to smooth it out to make it look pretty but it will get a coat of POR15 and be hiding well under the vehicle out of view.





Dismantling Session #13 - 11-15-13 - Gas/Petrol Tank Cleaning Day

So with the leg in a bit better shape and no more crutches I am able, and actually encouraged, to do more standing and walking to get my leg muscles back. What better way to exercise than to stand, walk, lift, spray, scrub, shake and clean a gas/petrol tank?


Here she is prior to removing the fuel sending unit...

 
Fuel sending unit out. Good shape except for that filter...
 


Close up of the filter. I'm guessing this car didn't run really smooth the last time it was driven.






 
Filler tube. Looks like this tank will need some time with a chain, some shaking and some marine clean..
 


And this is what came out of the tank. It is now preventing some weeds in the cracks of my patio.


Dismantling Session #12 - 10-30-13 - Post Surgery Impatience

So per the docs orders I wasn't allowed to drive or even walk much until two weeks after surgery. So I just barely made it that long before I went completely nutso sitting on the couch. I did manage to catch up on a lot of Top Gear and Wheeler Dealers episodes including the two parter where they fix up an old Spitfire. Got a few tips when I have to tackle the intake manifold on the TR7.

So I hobbled out to the garage with my full leg brace on and my crutches and leaned up against the TR7 and managed a little light duty disassembly. I removed the wipers the wiper motor and the wind screen bottom plate. The compression sleeve on the left wiper was a little too compressed and being made of a pretty soft metal was a bit of a challenge to remove but everything else came out pretty easy and was in good shape. All tagged, bagged and boxed for later.




Dismantling Session #11 - 10-13-13 - Pre Surgery Push

So my goal was to get the axle dropped and the gas (petrol) tank out before I went into surgery to replace my torn ACL in my knee from playing baseball. I'm still not to old for it damn it. I did manage to get it done but only by a day. Knowing I wouldn't be able to do much of anything, let alone work on the car, for weeks on end I had to get this done. Here is a break down of that day...

As you can see I failed to get the lower trailing arms off the chassis. They were on there pretty good and I also had a wrist issue (another baseball injury) that wasn't allowing me much in the way of leverage. My impact driver sheared off a 3/8" socket adapter in the process so in the interest of the gas/petrol tank I carried on with them hanging.



So there it is tucked neatly between the rear of the seats and the trunk/boot. Only four nuts to loosen on the straps and a good tug and it was out.



Pretty good shape after all these years.



The resulting empty cavity was in even better shape. It will still get a scuffing and a cleaning before it gets coated with POR15. I figure she should last at least another 33 years.


Finally a peek into the trunk/boot access panel to the gas/petrol filler opening. The hole on the left is the top access for the shock absorber. Again a little surface rust but all in all in good shape.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Dismantling Session #10 - 10-5-13

Dropping the rear springs and arms today...
 
 
Left Rear Before
 
 


Right Rear Before
 



Left Rear After (Forgot to take a pic of the Right Rear After - You get the point) 


Dismantling Session #9 - 9-27-13 - Big Decisions...

Got her rear end up in the air now. One reason is I need to get the car in this position (frankly a bit higher than this) to remove the engine. The engine removal angle on these cars is odd in order that you can avoid crushing the nose on the front. Nonetheless after some local research and discussion and discovering that my floor boards and hidden metal was essentially free of rust, I have decided to forego a complete strip down and repaint and instead redo the underside and suspension. I will still be removing the engine obviously. I will then be cleaning and stripping the under carriage and painting the underside with POR-15 in a black semi-gloss. I will also remove the interior except for the dash, and POR-15 the entire floor board and interior well and install Hush Mat.

Once that is complete I will reinstall the suspension after grinding and repainting the axle, subframe, rear trailing and radius arms and prop shaft in the same semi gloss black. I will be reinstalling new shocks, struts, springs, uprated stiffer front and rear anti roll bars, poly bushings throughout, and steel braided flexible brake lines.  At that point I will have a rolling frame in damn good shape to deliver to the paint shop. A lot to do before then and below is the start of that process...



I needed to remove the interior carpeted panels behind the seats to access the top of the shocks. This is the before/during...


This is the after to expose the top of the rear shocks...



Close up of the right rear shock top... Little bit of rust through on the opening where that third screw clip goes (about 11 o clock in the pic) I will sand it down and see what it looks like but easy fix with a new clip or a quick little weld of a washer or metal strip if things turn out worse that they look.


Left side with the shock already removed. Much of what looks like surface rust here is the glue for the carpet panels and sound deadening foam.