On Hold...

The project is on hold until August!

I have a week of gigs with a band in the 1st week of August so with practices and other commitments, LMG 5K is on hold for a few months.

Its not all a bad thing. It wil give me time to refresh and brush of all the rust thats accumalted in my hair.

Rest assured work will commence as soon as possible after!

bulkhead front...

I'm going on Holiday next week so i decided i must finish the front of the bulkhead today as i wont be able to do anything this weekend, or when I'm away!

I made a small patch for the lower right of the spring hanger and welded it in. I ground the welds smooth and sprayed the hanger with zinc rich weld through primer.

A little more trimming helped the new bulkhead front fit well. I made 4 7mm holes on the left and right of the panel to plug weld to the spring hanger, then cleaned the panel to bright metal and sprayed with the zinc primer.

Positioned and clamped i plug welded the panel onto the hanger. I then stitched the main joint with the original remaining bulkhead. I did this about 1 inch at a time with a minute or so in between to avoid distortion from heat buildup.

I ground all the welds smooth and had to fill a few pin holes with some more weld. Another grind and it was smooth, ish. A coat of grey primer will keep it all moisture free until i return from my holiday.









Next task is the rear bulkhead panel!

Bulkhead/Spring Hanger...

With the face of the bulkhead off, i made the decision that the existing spring hanger was solid and could be left. I trimmed the opening and cleaned up the spring hanger.

Using the strengthening flutes in the bulkhead as a guide i cut my repair panel to size. After some trimming and fettling it was a good fit.


In order to prevent further rusting in the bulkhead and spring hanger i gave it a coat of Hammerite and the front and rear bulkheads will be covered in primer once
they are in position.



There is a small repair required at the left hand base of the spring hanger. Some of the floor and sill was cut away to give better access.

Sill, A-post and Bulkhead...

I created a small repair panel for the front outside of the lower a-post. I started by taking some measurements with the sills still in place, then using a small piece of stock steel i marked out and cut a patch. This was tacked in place with the sill in situ to keep alignment. The sill was then removed to allow me to weld the patch in correct alignment with the foot well side.

Its not pretty but it fits.

I positioned the hing plate repair panel and tacked it on. A few measurements were taken to make sure it was within reasonable tolerances. I then placed a few stitches of weld to fix it to the rest of the a-post, but it cant be welded to the foot well side until i check full fitment with the new sills in place.

Next i decided to completely remove the outer sill. This was fairly easy as the last person to do some work had simply tacked this on, the welds had almost no penetration and broke very easily! I will keep the inner sill on as long as possible as this gives me a good reference point for the floor and bulkhead work. There a couple of layers of inner sill as again a new one was attached over the old!

I cut away a section of the bulkhead so i could inspect the spring hanger. From beneath it looks OK and the captive nuts aren't corroded. Through the inspection holes i can see only surface rust on the hanger. The rear of the bulkhead will need replacing but the hanger is solid and would benefit from a cleanup and spray. This saves both time and money with a new spring box being close to £30.

Inspecting the front cross member it appears solid too, thus saving more money and time! The remaining work consists of:
Lower a-post cover
Front of bulkhead
Rear of bulkhead
Inner sill
Outer sill
Floor
boot repairs
rear clip repairs
left and right rear shock brackets.

What Lies Beneath...

I bought a couple of panels for the left hand side and started preparing to fit them. The foot well side will be the first to go on, followed by the lower a-post repair. I'm going to try and keep the sill on as long as possible to keep the alignment.

Cutting out the old foot well side its clear that, as per the right hand side, there have been a myriad of bodged repairs to both the foot well and the sills. In order to fully remove the foot well side i had to cut away some of the sill and lying beneath it were four layers of sill and inner sill! I'm not surprised there's more than one, as the right hand had a new on old, but four layers is quite excessive and shows a complete lack of brains by the previous repairer!

After cutting a few bits, wobbling the welds was the quickest way to remove the sill sections as the weakened rusty metal fell apart.

After taking some careful measurements i also cut away the very rusty lower a-post. I need to keep the sill attached beneath this to keep the correct alignment. The lower a-post repair will go on after the foot well side.

There was some decent metal behind the a-post, so i decided to keep this in place and i cut my new foot well side to suit. I'm not sure if this is an acceptable method for this area, but it seems to work and its strong enough.

I cleaned up the edges of the panel to shiny metal and coated in Weld #2 zinc rich primer. Positioned and clamped, i stitch welded the panel in place. It looks better already.

I have noticed that there were several patched on the front of the foot well, so i will cut them all out and replace with one large patch. Also the toe board will need some work.

Front susspension and stub axles...

i decided that now the rear axle was complete, i should do the front stub axles, meaning i would be ready to the shell back on wheels when the panels are done. Of course nothing with a '70s car is a simple as just "doing" it.

Looking over the exploded diagrams in the Haynes manual for a few minutes, i started to strip the right hand stub axles and suspension. Firstly i removed the anti roll bar and its mounting, then moved on to the brake calipers. These were seized on, so took some work and WD40 to remove. Once off i could remove the brake back plate which prevents the stub axle from lifting off the king pin - that and the top trunnion, washer and bolt. With that removed i lifted the stub axle from the king pin.

I removed the four bolts holding the brake disc to the hub and then removed the hub nut after first taking out its split pin. The hub nut is 15/16Th's and i had to buy in the correct socket. Using the hub puller, still on loan from Team Neaves, bolted to the hub with 2 wheel nuts, i removed the hub and disc from the axle. It came of freely with a single slide of the puller.

The brake disc was stuck to the hub even though its four bolts were removed. With a rubber mallet i hit the centre of the hub from behind, thought the brake disc and it started to move. Five or six taps and it was off. I checked over the bearings and although dirty, they seem OK.

Its often the case that the fulcrum pin, which holds the king pin to the wishbone, rusts on to the king pin preventing its removal. This was the case for me. I have tried almost everything to remove it including an impact driver - it wont move. Its important to note the there is a small pin going through the king pin base and fulcrum pin which locks them together. It has to be remove to remove the fulcrum pin.

As it wont budge i will have to carefully cut it out with the grinder. I tried a hacksaw but i didn't cut it. This method means i will have to replace the fulcrum pin and possibly the wishbone too. The fulcrum pins don't often fit refurbished wishbones well, so it maybe a bit of luck to get a good fit. A bad fit would result in slop in the fulcrum pin thread and a likely MOT failure.

The left hand stub axle all came apart cleanly. The fulcrum pin was not seized and all components will be reused with new bushes and washers.

I will run either fast road or race bushes all round and for the mean time I'm not going to replace the wheel bearings.