Busy few evenings! Progress, at last!
Minispares order arrived on Saturday morning, but was working all weekend, so started work on Monday evening!
Refurbed my steering rack first.. Had it apart, washed out the internals ect... Regreased, fitted new gators and the longer track rod ends, gave it a lick of primer, lick of paint, and a coat of stonechip.
Got it fitted back on the car :)
I need to get myself some nuts to go behind the track rod ends, but I've fitted them without for now just to keep the garage tidier!
The upper arms came from minisport a few months ago, got a rebuild kit to fit them, and new knuckle joints. Painted up my hi-lo's, and fitted my new suspension cones - so this should see me for a few years, all brand new parts! Nothing nicer than working with nice clean parts!
Apologies for this rubbish picture.
Then I went on to do my ball joints... I bought four of them to refurb my hubs - I need bearings, but they can wait for now... Searched the workshop high and low... Could I find a socket or spanner that would fit the cups on the ball joints? NOPE! So, I had to postpone that till tonight, my local garage let me borrow a 1.1/2 ring spanner... Does the job!
Spent an hour or so on them. Lapped in the new joints with grinding paste and a power drill... Cleaned out, shimmed, and greased... Sorted. Fitted nice new grease nipples too. Looks a bit messy in the picture, but a quick spray with brake cleaner has sorted it out nicely!
Went to do the other hub, did the bottom ball joint, no problems... Top ball joint was stuck solid, and also had a broken grease nipple. Plenty of heat and plusgas got the joint undone!
Managed to get a drill bit and stud extractor into the old grease nipple, as it was broken off flush! New nipple fitted, but can't get it shimmed up correctly on the joint, so will give it another go in the morning!
Saturday also brought a few other deliveries!
The alternator bracket from Kam, THANKS!
Got it fitted, need to give it a clean up and lick of paint, but I'll do that when the engines ready to go in! The engine needs painted again anyway, as it was never ran to cure the paint!
This also arrived!
I need to work on the centre console, as it is in completely the wrong place for my gearstick... Nothing too major... But the dash fits perfectly!
Had the dash in to have a lick of paint, I'll do the centre console when I've decided how the sticks going to come through!
First coat.
Final product. Nice matt black finish to reduce glare. Going to use some nice big analogue dials. For fuel, tach and speedo. I will use some small black gauges for oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, voltmeter, AFR, and vaccuum. These will be fitted in the centre console area.
I love seeing progress. I've striked a deal with ABS for my front end - bit of discount for having it stickered up in their graphics!
Just need tie bars, and bottom arms, and she'll be ready to drop the block in! My sheets of steel arrived today too!
