Some Fancy Bits

Jan 17th 2015

Now that I'm getting towards putting things back together there are some particular bits that needed looking at. 

Sump Guard

The car didn't have a guard, but did have a couple of creases in the sump pan so I thought a guard would be a good idea.

I got some thickish (very technical) alloy tread plate and started to make up some brackets to fit it.

I decided to suspend them from the engine as the chassis frame was too far away and the brackets would be at an angle and maybe would cause distortion in the chassis if it took a big knock.

This became a bit tricky as the engine is mounted at a slight angle. Anyway, a bit of fiddling and a spirit level seemed to get it about right.

I bent the plate at both the front and the back as the last car got stuck trying to reverse off a hump when the trailing edge of the sump guard dug in.

In place it looks very smart and should do the trick. 

 

A couple of more general shots to show progress

Cooling System

This was in need of a bit of love and care. There was a drip from the water pump. the hoses that went around the back of the block were very degraded with oil and the top hose had a foreign body, in the shape of a stainless steeel canister, in it.

The water leak turned out to be the water pipe which runs from the water pump along the side of the block. It's the same as the Suzuki one with a flange holding an O ring to seal it to the pump body. The steel pipe corrodes and the O ring stops sealing.

I managed to get another pipe from Greggs (Scrappy, not bread shop) from a Honda Civic. They use a similar pipe. I just had to cut off one end and alter the mounting bracket a bit.

This is the hole the O ring seats in.

It cleaned up easily. As far as I know it's done the trick. When I get round to starting the motor I will know better.

This is the new pipe fitted into the water pump

This is the other end with the new silicone pipe disappearing around the back of the engine.

At the front of the engine I removed the stainless steel can and put a bit of pipe in the top hose. If that doesn't work it'll be back to the can.

Rear Compartment

I suppose you call it a boot. It was a bit dirty and the fuel tank looked like it may be rusty so I took everything out to check.

The tank was a bit close to being "Holy" but I thought it would be OK as long as it was kept clean, so I painted it.

I painted the boot space white. Not for any technical reason, but because I had the remains of a tin of white floor paint.

Footwell Floors

The original floor is a large sheet of alloy, which is fine. The footwells were smaller bits of the same stuff, but the passenger side one was not a great fit and the driver's side one was fitted underneath the chassis rails. So muck tender to collect on it and my feet would no doubt get caught up in the rails.

The gearshift and steering column pass through the drivers footwell.

I got some more alloy treadplate and cut some new footwells from that. It was a bit awkward getting them to fit and connect with the new bulkhead I was fitting. In the end it all worked fine. 

In the shot below you can see the steel "grenade guard" over the prop shaft joint and the new bulkhead panels. I've also polished the inside lining panels.

Bulkhead

To begin with I was going to strip and paint the existing bulkhead. However it seemed to be steel from building cladding which it had a pretty leather look finish to it, which was a bugger to remove. I had some alloy sheet so I've put a new bulkhead in using that.

That's all for the moment. I haven't mentioned the electrics, which are not finished yet, or the outer panels, which are almost done.

There's also the cooling fan to sort and the front brakes to finish.

Plus, of course, the bonnet to do.