Jake's Story

July 2015-07-06
The car currently sits up on axle stands, stripped almost bare. The hack engine is still in, along with the LT77 box. My gearbox crossmemeber looks like it’s going to work.
The rover gearbox remote sits further back than I’d wanted, so will probably shorten the remote to fetch the stick forward. Holes are cut for the RV8 type manifolds, but need tidying up & reinforcing once the engine is out of the way. The front crossmember & suspension with it’s coil over conversion is on a bench ready to go.
I have a set of princess 4 pot callipers to overhaul, planning to use ½” thick V8 rotors.
The rear axle came out, to take a look at the clunky backlash. One of the phenolic thrust washers was paper thin, the other missing. I’ve fitted new thrust washers on the planetry gears and side gears, backlash is no under control. I’d like to change the final drive ratio, but not sure if I need to go as high as the V8 3.08 ratio, and heard horrible things about some of the aftermarket gearsets. Planning to run the car at 3.9 ratio initially. The axle is back together, but have a couple of wheel cylinder kits to put in yet.

The body is in remarkably good condition. I’ve chipped out the majority of the sound deadening material without finding too much to stress over. The biggest rust repair is going to be on the top of the drivers side sill. I’m guessing the carpet on the sill has been wet & initiated the rust. The sill appear to be solid & rust free. I’m in the process of making up a rotisseries stand so I can flip the body on it’s side & do any ‘underneath’ jobs in comfort. I’ll post a couple of pics once the bodies up.

With to coilover set-up up front, the rear suspension needs some love. To locate the axle under V8 power, some sort of torque rods are going to be needed. I’m hoping to ditch the lever arms shocks & leaf springs, and fit one of classic conversion 4 link kits. Looks like a nice solution to me?

After months of 'thinking', and a little fabrication, then more pondering, i managed to come up with a plan to get the shell up on its rotisserie. The hack engine & box came out, then some tinkering with jacks, stands & hoists got the virtually bare shell up to the right height. With a little trepidation, eventually all the weight was on the 2 stands.
Initially a bit confused, the shell seemed heavy on the right side. Couldn't understand, maybe my brackets weren't on the centre line? Then remembered the RH door is still mounted! So far so good, the shell seems fairly well balanced (Given the odd number of doors) and is easy to flip on its side with one hand.
Hopefully next couple of days can give me a fresh perspective on the understand. One of the jobs to start with is to get rid of the rubber bumper rear axle bump stop 'extensions' - something I'd started earlier, but got a little weary of grinding/cutting lying on my back. Got to be easier with the car on its side!

Slow progress, but definite progress. The LH rear bump stop mount extension has been consigned to the scrap bin, ready to weld the bump stop mount back in it original position. I'm sure there must be an easier way, but this turned into a marathon of drilling out spot welds, chiseling/grinding/prying/sawing bit by tiny bty until I got back to the original chassis.
As a break from the frustrating job of dealing with the spot welds on the vertical chassis flange, i kept chipping away at the underseal. Probably 80% of the underseal on the LH floor is dealt with. No horror stories uncovered so far. Still not sure what method is the most effective, but an old wood chisel seems like the favorite. Chipping away at cold, brittle underseal takes a bit of effort, but leaves a clean surface. warming the panel with a hot air gun softens the sealant, is easier scraping, but leaves a sticky fil on the panel. easy to wipe down with petrol/kero, but REALLY messy all the same

If anyone is keen to lift the ride height of a chrome bumper B up to Rubber bumper height?
Amongst other things, you would be needing to move the position of the rear bump stops by adding the chassis spacers.
As luck would have it, i can offer you these spacers, as removed from our project.

Warning, some minor assembly may be required, and contains small parts!

Sorry, couldn't help having a giggle. So glad i've eventually got these little blighters out of the way, just some tidying up of the old spot welds to go

We've been on a mission to strip off the old (factory) underseal, mainly to reassure ourselves there are no hidden dramas about to jump out & suprise us.
I've tried a few different methods, but probably 70% chipped of with a selection of old dull wood chisels. We did some with a heat gun & scraper, but found the sticky residue even harder to deal with. After weeks & weeks of chipping (!!) away, i would guess 90% of the underseal is off.

Next is to figure how best to tackle the rusty spots we've found.
A little rust on top of the drivers side sill (rocker). Not rusted through, but needs tidying
A spot on the floor adjacent, through the floor but not through the sill
Some rust where the front guards fasten below the windscreen
1 small hole on the top seam of the RH rear guard
First signs of rust through the sill at the bottom of the RH dog leg

Compared with some other examples we're delighted with how good things look so far.
We'll be digging in to the dog leg a bit further soon

So things got started tonight. I've seen a couple of little perforations in the RH Dogleg, so have had a dig, poke & chop. the gap between the dogleg & sill was jammed with dry caked dust/rust/debris.
I've opened up a small hole around the rusted spots. The inner sill doesn't look tooo bad?

Hopefully can be cleaned up, treated & a dogleg repair panel used to make good. Not sure how far to open the thing up yet

Really Not sure what do do on the other side. 1 tiny rust spot that could just be from a stonechip.
How to check there's nothing grim hiding?
How to clean any debris sitting between the dogleg & sill ???