12 Apr 10 .... Assembling the Suspension and Starting on the Engine

Taken a day off work to try and catch up with a few jobs as I am getting behind schedule.......

First task was preparing all the bits for assembling the front and rear suspension on the car. I had already POR15 treated the damper mounting brackets and finished them in POR15 silver. These were then mounted to the chassis with new fixings.

They looked pretty good when finished and should not corrode for a good while. Certainly better than the original galvanized finish. Rightly or wrongly, as they are POR15'd, I did not use any duralac where they face mount on the chassis. 

Next job was to get the bead blast cabinet out and clean up the four ally uprights. The glass beads and anout 70 psi of pressure bring them up quite nicely. Whilst I had the blast cabinet rigged up, I did the rear brake caliper mounting brackets and bolts, front balljoint plinths, rear upper balljoint carrier and all four hubs. I only needed to clean up the front balljoint plinths as the new Spitfire rear toe link kit comes with new ally carriers and cap head fixings. 

Due to the limitations of my little blast cabinet, the cleaning up of the steel items was ok but there were still a few areas where the heavy rust had not been removed. Generally though they cleaned up ok.     

It was then a case of fixing the rear caliper mounting brackets to the rear uprights using Duralac on the face where the steel bracket mates to the ally upright. Then it was off to see Gerald at GST Perfromance in Newmarket to ask him (nicely) if he would press the new bearings suppied by junks into the uprights and fit the hubs.

Splendid chap is Gerald at GST, he turned them around in an hour so that I could then get on with fitting the uprights and suspension to the car during the afternoon. 

This was all pretty straightforward really, taking care to use Duralac on any bolts that were going to be permanently in ally threads (as opposed to being frequently removed for maintenance in which case I didn't use Duralac). The whole thing will be geo'd when it's rolling so I didn't bother measuring anything, just set it up by eye. Whilst I was working on the rear I drilled and bolted up the toe link inner joint steel guards and losely fitted the stainless/teflon brake lines.

I am still waiting for the nitron springs from junks, when he finds them that is! 
   

 

Whilst I was putting the front suspension together, I took the opportunity to pop on the front discs and bells that came with the car which I had loosely assembled. Just to check clearance and to stand nack and imagine what it will look like with a few more bits on. I think I am suffering from too many liong winter days staring at a naked chassis!

Infofrom the SELOC massive suggested that the discs and bells were early Eliseparts versions. The latest versions from Geary have a hard anodised ally bell in black and a different supplier to Hi Force for the discs after some quality problems. I think there was some cracking around the cross drillings. The problem is now sorted so I will be putting these diocs and bells on the rear and ordering the latest discs and bell set for the front from Eliseparts. 

So there was just time in the day to assemble my new engine stand and get the VVC engine bolted on and the whole thing upright.

The original project car had a non-VVC rover K16 and standard gearbox fitted. I did a deal with junks for a VVC and new PGi close ratio box to match to it. The plan is to check over the VVC and fit it plus the new gearbox into the race engine and then over the next winter re-fettle and upgrade the original K16 engine and box as spares for next season (or this season in an emergency). 

I went for a cheap Sealey engine stand in the end and it seesm more than man enough for the job. Whilst I am not planning to do a huge amount to tye engine other than clean it up, check it over, check the timing and fit some new ancillaries, it is so much better working at a decent heignt and being able to rotate the engine.

I started by removing the inlet, belt covers and belts, old water pump and tensioner before plugging the exposed water and oil points before de-greasing. It was then a case of liberally spraying with POR15 marine degreaser, standing back for 20 mins whilst scrubbing the stubborn bits with a small wire brush. Followed this with a washing off with water and a dry with the air hose. came up really well with only a few oxidised areas which I won't worry about    

Engine after being degreased and garage looking just a bit busy with bits ........

So that was it for the day. Allthat was left to do was tidy up, put away the tools, stand back and admire my handywork and plan the jobs fro the erst of the week..........