Boing!

A mobile vehicle was an attractive prospect, so the front cross member was the first bit of spannering. Even that needed some dodgy old arc welding removing, and a repair section welded in. I swear this car must have spent several years submerged, for the front crossmember to require serious welding repairs in three different areas. Anyway it was fine now so I attacked it with a twisted cup brush in the grinder until it was shiny.

I had a methodical stage, and found every single component on the car which needed painting black, readied everything for paint and derusted it all at once, then painted it all black in one go. Several coats of Tetrosyl Black Chassis Paint should provide the best possible protection, this paint takes a long time to completely harden (a few weeks really, but it dries quick enough to handle and assemble in the same time as most paints do) but once it is dry, it is incredibly strong and impact-resistant. It is superbly glossy as well, and looks great when dry. It is a bit prone to running though, so care is needed. It brushes on very well, and does not leave brush marks. It can also be sprayed, I did this on a couple of things and it worked equally well.

Loverly glossy Tetrosyl black chassis paint. Hard to find, but well worth it! All metal which needs to be black was painted with this. The resiliance of this stuff outweighs the fact that some things should be satin or matt black, not gloss.

I now had a complete kit of parts to make the front suspension, along with the reconditioned uprated dampers, the new uprated springs and the dark blue polybushes. Many new nuts and bolts, the top fulcrum pins, dust excluders for the lower pivot, and new bump stops. The stub axle assemblies were reused, as the kingpins were replaced shortly before the rebuild started. The photos tell the story of the assembly.

Ahhhh life could not be better! A complete kit of clean, painted, and new parts for assembly. Add a large amount of copper grease into the equation and it's time to get spannering (Of which I have done none for months, just metal mashing and painting).

All the stuff for one side. Dark blue polybushes were chosen as they are subtle, should last a lot longer, are easier to remove, and will hopefully keep the suspension geometry near where it is intended. Nice Stainless crush tubes, too.

Lots on nice new high tensile bolts ready to be torqued up. The old bump stops were wrecked, one was missing and the other one a corroded mess. The trouble is the alloy spacer and the steel... I made up gaskets to go between them, which might help. The bolts will still conduct though, so it might not.

Fitting polybushes to the wishbone arms. First step, put one in each side. Easy, then add the correct grease to the cross hatching inside. The difficult bit is pressing in the stainless crush tube....

I got a bit more leverage using a socket which was a tight fit inside the crush tube, and an extension for more force!

Shove thee in, with some more grease....

Place it in a vice! Or G clamp, with a couple of large washers or similar either side.




Woot. There you go.

Building up the wishbone arms and pan. Note the epic amounts of copper grease, essential. All photos of the underside of the car show it filthy and covered in copper grease and hand prints. Don't worry, these were cleaned off but at the very end!

Back inside because the rain came! Oh well, it stayed dry and hot all the while I was spraying the car, so I can't complain really. I was very lucky with that. Here the dampers are being bolted on.

The stub axles were fitted at the bottom pivot, and the polybushes fitted into the top pivot. The crossmember was then transferred to the floor, and the springs put into place. Using a combination of thick rope, leverage, strength and cunning, the springs were compressed enough to get the top fulcrum pin in.

The whole assembly was bolted up to my beautiful new chassis rails, using polybush crossmember mounting pads to limit the movement of the crossmember. The steering arms were fitted and torqued, and the new track rod ends were fitted to the steering rack, which had also been fitted with new gaitors. The rack was loosely bolted into place, its final position to be determined by the steering column. With the brake disc stone guards fitted, the new hubs were fitted with new wheel bearings and shimmed to give the correct end float.

That's the front end done then!