And So It Begins....

[Nigel]

Guy,
Just after you've used the tank sealer, I suggest that you blow
through all the pipework, especially the small vent tube/s,
for obvious reasons!

Good luck, excellent progress,

Cheers
Nigel

[smithymc]

And grease the fuel sender mount 'floating' ring thingy and tape/grease the studs before you put the sealer in - ask me how I know...........

Mark

[SanRemo78]

Thanks for the tips Mark & Nigel - I was planning on walking into the Frost Restorations warehouse with the fuel tank to ask about the likelyhood of fuel line blockages. I had planned on blocking the filler pipe and float sender holes with a cork bung from a beer maker with a rubber glove to give a good seal whilst the goop gets sloshed around. I hadn't considered that it might be able to find the threads on the sender ring though so great tip. I'll see if I can find a can of compressed air to clear the small lines once treated though, great tip!

Won't be happening for a week or so though, away from Friday and still got half the top surface and sides to clear of corrosion which may be covering/finding pinholes soon.
Guy

[SanRemo78]

Procrastination with the fuel tank... I'll get to it later this week I hope, there's just too much crud flying about the garage to contemplate putting paint on anything at the moment. I need to finish some stuff off and then give the garage a damn good sweep before I start working out the best method to treat it and put a timetable together (and warn Andrea I can't give her any lifts whilst it's ongoing!)

So, cleaning more stuff up.... I decided to have a look at the brakes at the end of last week whilst the next batch of bolts and brackets is off being plated. The callipers were dragged out from underneath the bench and removed from their yokes with a bit of violence. Or quite a lot. But they all came apart in the end. The locking pins will need digging out and springs replacing (probably) and I've got seal and piston kits on the way for the rear callipers to overhaul them. I'll get the front kits from Mark at the beginning of June. All the pistons are free (pushed out when I dismantled the car using wooden blocks to limit movement) and they are now soaking in penetrating fluid in the hope that the bleed nipples will release. I'm going to try it out on a scrap calliper first with the rattle gun but my expectation is just sheared bleed nipples and a lot of swearing to follow.

The carriers and yokes are responding well to the wire brush treatment, I think I need to get a tap to run down the threads but I have a question for the Forum - what's the finish on the carrier/yoke supposed to be? I assume it's plated?

[WestonE]

Gold Passivate Zinc plated

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Eric! Another trip to the platers tomorrow then!

[stableblock]

Hi Guy
I had some done and IIRC there are two basic zinc plating processes.  One doesnt work well on cast iron and the other does so worth exploring that with your plater.  If you are struggling after that Vehicle and General Platers at Arlesey did a good job on mine.  (I think it might be the acid zinc process that works but dont quote me on it).  Peter

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Peter, I've had one fail so far with the platers - the boot latch mechanism won't take the plating for some reason? Not worrying about it, I have a great spare one. Four carriers and four yokes to go in tomorrow along with another pile of sundry odds'n'sods. The callipers themselves have been soaking for a couple of days now, I'll give them a few more before trying to undo them. I may try the AFT and Acetone route, no rush. Except that the rebuild kits are sitting on the bench and it'd be nice to put everything away ready for the day.

Shopping list for Mark's on 6th includes a pair of rear discs (got a front pair for £48 NOS when I did a stocktake at Hawk Cars a couple of weeks ago) and a compensator valve plus it's bushes and a set of brass bleed nipples as well as a master cylinder. Picked up a NOS reservoir for £24 at the stocktake too! Then it's just a few unions/copper washers and the copper pipe and I'm good to go with the brakes!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Well that's another part to be bagged and put on the shelf. Steering rack fully overhauled, no discernible play in the rack/pinion, replaced the track rod arm bushes with Mark's polybush kit, new track rod ends, everything cleaned and plated, new boots and a custom made stabilised bracket to take the new Audi shock absorber.

If anyone wants the original, newly plated, shock absorber bracket drop me a PM!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Today was part something or other of the brake overhaul whilst the carriers are away being plated. They've been marinating in release fluid for 4 days or so. I took them over to Geoff's workshop to use his aqua blaster to clean them up and that worked a treat! Got home and noticed the offside arch on the Alfa had been scraped but no note left so that put me in a foul mood until I got at it with a rag and some TCut and was left with the faintest of scratches in the paint. So, thinking I might be having a lucky day after all I put all four callipers on the bench, dug out a decent 8mm socket and 1/4 inch drive for the bleed nipples. The first five gave it up without any effort and the sixth needed a little tap and a bit more force before it popped out too! Proper result! The rebuild kits are there so now all I have to do is extract the pistons. I may need to rig up something to push them out hydraulically!

Happy days!

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

Good result, I needed to use a rattle gun on my bleed screws. On the pistons you can use compressed air without too much issue rather than rigging up any hydraulic setup.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

Hi Peter, I really didn't want to use the rattle gun on something so small, if they hadn't given up with penetrating fluid the next resort was going to be a mixture of ATF and acetone and then some heat but at the end of the day it wasn't necessary.

One of the rear callipers is ready for reassembly tomorrow, I read the Haynes manual and it said don't attempt the disassembly of the return mechanism inside the piston but given that the new piston in the rebuild kit didn't have the internals there was no choice. In the end it all disassembled easily and, more importantly, went back inside the new piston very easily. I polished up the inside of the housing with Autoglym Metal Polish and there is one small mark in it half way down. I don't think it will cause any issues down the line though so it will all go back together tomorrow. Hopefully it's twin will be as good.

I've never dismantled a front calliper but the Haynes manual doesn't say don't do it so I'll have a go over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't have access to a compressor to shift them but I've got enough old hydraulic lines to jury rig something to shift both pistons. Geoff wants to see the disassmbled components, he's never seen anything like it and wants to get his head around how it works!

Amazingly none of the roll pins are damaged either so the standard Beta lines will locate properly. The only slight concern I've got is that all the locking pins are impacted into the bodies, I'm hoping I can lever them out to get them working again. If that fails I'll be employing a stainless long grub screw and tapping the calliper carrier.

Guy

[peteracs]

Hi

Never understood Haynes on the rear calipers saying do not touch. I stripped mine completely and rebuilt and they have worked faultlessly, even using the original pistons. As to the front ones they are pretty easy, the real pain is getting the retaining spring out which sits halfway down the bore. I found poking one of my dental tools through one of the two drilling’s from yhe outside helps to lift it out of its groove, then using another dental tool to gently encourage it out the rest of the way, being careful not to make a mess of the bore.

The real pain is reassembling the handbrake mechanism on the rear ones, that was a challenge which I seem to remember using the hydraulic press to hold part of it down whilst I aligned everything. I have that joy to revisit when I rebuild mine which are all cleaned ready to go back together.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

This week I've mostly been trying to recondition the fuel tank. It has not gone entirely to plan. I settled on the POR15 kit, a degreaser, etch solution and a liner paint.

The degrease process started with an initial clean using a pint of degreaser mixed with a pint of hot water, tank shaken for a while (good workout) and was then allowed to sit for an hour on each side, seven in total as the bottom has a sloped edge. Contents dumped into a bucket were negligible, I assume the two pint mixture got absorbed into the goop in the bottom of the tank. The flushed out material was horrible. Repeat the process and not nearly as much got absorbed and the flush was a lot cleaner but an internal inspection revealed that there was still evidence of crap in the tank. So today I went to Frosts in Warrington and bought another 2 pints. Came home, put it in the garage with the tank and came inside for a coffee before getting changed (this stuff is corrosive to skin) and put two pints of water in the garage kettle and emptied the contents of the bottle into the kettle and then into the tank, shook it around again, noticed a rattle that hadn't been there before and left it to sit for an hour before the next rotation. It was at that point I noticed the full bottle of degreaser in the garage and realised I'd mixed the etch solution with water and poured it in. Well, you're not supposed to do that. I think the etch solution shouldn't be mixed with water but hey ho, it got poured out and the correct degreaser solution put back in for another seven hours of treatment. What came out was much much cleaner so I'm happy to take the next step and fill it with the etch solution and then paint. But now I've got to go back to Frosts to buy another £25 bottle and have lost another day. Hey ho.

And the rattle? That was one of the two fill pipes going into the swirl pot in the bottom of the tank where the pick up pipe filter is. That's going to take some thought as to how to drop it back in place and secure through a 2 inch hole.... I think I might need a really long pair of needle nose pliers. And a beer or two after it's done this weekend.

I wish they put the solutions into different coloured containers but no, they're all white with different coloured labels.

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Life gets in the way. Progress is slow but things are still moving forward. I dropped some heavier parts off for blasting and plating a few weeks ago and collected them today. Not perfect but given the state they were in I’m happy enough! Some parts probably weren’t plated when new but just painted. So in the next month the plan is to POR15 etch and paint them semi gloss black and reassemble with new bushes and parts bought from Mark a few weeks ago. When the new springs arrive I think everything will be ready to go back on the shell to get it to a rolling chassis state. At least the parts will be ready before the welding and painting are done!

[SanRemo78]

More parts on the done shelf. All the plated suspension parts have had two coats of POR15 as well as the fuel tank. Bearings pressed in and a full set of Marks poly bushes done. Next job is the front subframe. It needs degreasing and then painting with POR 15. I don’t think I’m going to have it shot blasted or powder coated. There are 4 adjustable rear transverse arm ends in for plating and once they come back all I’ll need is the springs and one more set of poly bushes and the shell can be put on wheels.

Progress is slow but the fourth corner is done. Just the sill in the rear corner of the drivers door to fix, the top of the B post and a small repair in the rear window aperture before a roof swap. Then minor repairs to closing panels and it’s off for dipping and e-coating!

[SanRemo78]

Time for a Webasto? Well no. The blue panel is a cut from a donor car, the steel sunroof mechanism is out for good. I picked up a complete roof, chopped through the A,B and C pillars a week or so ago and dropped it off with Geoff. He'd hoped to be able to remove the complete skin and stitch it on but it turns out the replacement panel was rotten above the offside B pillar, almost up to the fold to the flat of the roof and the rear window aperture was also shot. Luckily the one on my car is solid there (amazingly for a sunroof car) but the cassette and steel roof were shot hence the decision to remove it. The edge you see here will be joggled before the repair panel is let in. The sill at the base of the B post on the drivers side has also been completed this week, I think all that's left on the monocoque is the top of the B post under the window, a repair to the lower edge of the rear screen aperture, fill the aerial hole, fabricate one of six mounting brackets for the front inner mudguards and weld in the new rear panel. Closing panels after that! Getting closer to paint!
Guy

[SanRemo78]

And every day is a learning day! I was working on the hubs this week, they had all been wire brushed and painted so unsurprisingly the threads needed cleaning out and it turns out I didn't have the right taps to do that but eBay son sorted that out. I cleaned out the two rears hubs and one of the fronts when I noticed that the internal splines on one of the hubs only went half way through. A quick check of the rebuilt driveshafts showed that both of them a fully splined so that ain't going to work. I did find a half splined outer CV joint in the stash of spares but I thin it's going to be easier to dismantle and clean up another front hub to match the driveshaft... Bugger. It won't be the last glitch!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

And I also picked up something to pull her along…

[SanRemo78]

It needs a bit of work to clean it up and a gasket set too. The sump needs repainting obviously. The engine came from a fellow Stratos builder who replaced it with an Alfa Romeo V6 many years ago. It's a 2 litre  Guy Croft motor mated to a Volumex gearbox. The sump is baffled with a ported/blueprinted head and matched to a Guy Croft offset inlet manifold and twin 45 Dellortos. It's mentioned in the Guy Croft bible on page 237 it's allegedly good for 155bhp. Looks like it has the standard distributor and somewhere along the way I have acquired a new distributor, drive gear and oil pump to fit to it during it's strip and rebuild.
Guy