468 replies to this topic

[rally515]

Thank you Rob, I'll get on the case :)

[bigrob]

No worries. We didnt come to any major conclusions, a couple of useful points were made though

[rally515]

No worries. We didnt come to any major conclusions, a couple of useful points were made though

 

Rob, I posted in the Topic linked, finally sorted my Password out too!   Thanks to you  .

 

Bought a Anti-Static Strap Monday, think it'll be a new period extra to smarten things up nicely :)

 

Also found the blue police beacon I have and put it on the metro, looks quite funny in person. 

Edited by rally515, 04 March 2015 - 08:04 PM.

[rally515]

Hi There,

 

Just to bring this a little more up to date I thought I'd better upload some of the photos I've been taking.

 

The Photos are quite dark but the lighting in the garage isn't great!

 

Never the less the work couldn't be better or anymore exciting!

 

First thing after I got back from work Friday I made a little trolley from some dolly wheels and a pallet I chopped in half, turns out the garage floor was a bit too rough for the dollies to run along safely so I opted for a fixed form of standing the rear on whilst working on the rear suspension.

 

 

After supporting the rear safely I took both wheels off and started to look at what (or were rather) the rear suspension had failed so badly to cause the rear to collapse right down to the Bump stop (Thank god for Bump stops!!  ). 

 

Yes the connecting pipe going into the N/S unit had corroded and snapped as soon as I tried to un-do the nut, oh dear!

Also you'll see the leakage on the 90 Degree connector piece I tried to take a photo of too.

 

So with the problem solved and a greater understanding of the rear running gear, it made sense just to strip the units out and start thinking of a simpler system to go back in, at least the Hydro units are reusable for someone else right!

 

It's rather difficult jacking a car this low up off the deck, in the end I had to lever a block of wood under and lift either side up whilst my mum bless her shoved the low lift Halfords "special" jack under the subframe  .

 

That's all I'll upload till mid week, should spread the updated out to be most frequent for viewing enjoyment

 

Cheers,

Cliff

[Ben_O]

Have you decided what suspension to go with yet?

[rally515]

Have you decided what suspension to go with yet?

 

Yes Ben, I'm going for fast road coils and Hi-lo's all round, put a picture up about half way down page 24 :)

 Ordered a few bits yesterday so should be here tomorrow or Wednesday to crack on a bit more, just have some things in paint at the moment :)

[bigrob]

Looking forward to the outcome on this one. How are you going to fit retainers for the springs?

[rally515]

Looking forward to the outcome on this one. How are you going to fit retainers for the springs?

 

Already sussed & sorted Rob, Just waiting for the weekend now really to crack on some more .

You didn't get rid of yours did you ? I saw the thread about Mgb's

[bigrob]

No i've still got it. I've had it nearly a month and havent touched it. Theres a fair bit to do on it, and being that i live in a flat with it parked in a communal car park really doesnt help me with cracking on.
The mgb thing, i have liked my previous metros, and i'll probably like this one when its done, but i really just fancy something else, slightly bigger, slightly faster. Plus i can insure an mgb for £400 less than my metro...

Edited by bigrob, 10 March 2015 - 08:48 AM.

[Archived4]

Make sure to make a jig for me so I can whip some up after you've done all the hard work ;)

 

You going to make shock absorber brackets too that dont require turrets?

[rally515]

No i've still got it. I've had it nearly a month and havent touched it. Theres a fair bit to do on it, and being that i live in a flat with it parked in a communal car park really doesnt help me with cracking on.
The mgb thing, i have liked my previous metros, and i'll probably like this one when its done, but i really just fancy something else, slightly bigger, slightly faster. Plus i can insure an mgb for £400 less than my metro...

 

The parking situation doesn't sound ideal I must admit, makes things ten times harder than usual, and even worse if the neighbours are a bit...snotty with you  .

400 quid is quite a saving I suppose, something different to look out of the window at too would feel nice  .

 

 

Make sure to make a jig for me so I can whip some up after you've done all the hard work ;)

 

You going to make shock absorber brackets too that dont require turrets?

 

Well I don't know about Jig, it's not rocket science!  .

 

Yes I will Nathan, last thing I want is to survive a pot hole but then have the rear rebound back up into the air!!!  .

 

Well mid week has arrived (only two more days till weekend!), so here is the other half of the progress in pictorial form  .

 

Firstly I went about removing the Hydrolastic system all together and assessing what parts I had and what I may be able to re-use (saving the world and all that...  ).

Turns out I can still use the side plates and after making a template out of card (which I was rather proud of), it would be better and a lot quicker/ more productive to recycle components and keep the fabrication and modifications to a minimum.

 

 

 

Removing the side plate (four bolts at 14mm if memory serves me right) was a real PITA of a job, I used a little Halfords jack to support the radius arm up because the lower right bolt isn't easy to get to, long extensions really do help when undoing these VERY tight bolts.

 

Last part before night fell was mark and cut out some end plates for the rear of the subframe with the intentions of welding them on next weekend.

 

As can be seen from the last photo there will be roughly 60mm that needs to come off of the Hi-lo extension bar, with using a Lathe everyday it shouldn't be too much of an issue to slip this "foreigner" in without anyone noticing  .

Some form of update will follow at the weekend, whether it's a delivery of my parts or more work on the car itself :)

 

Cheers,

Cliff

[rally515]

So, today a Parcel arrived, it's the knuckle joints!  I ordered the type for the mini radius arms seeing as I have mini Hi-lo's and also I'll admit as a risk presuming the nylon cup housing would be the same on metros.

So tonight I've been out looking at it and it seems Austin/Rover kept it the same! Phew!  .

 

Also I saw that the length of the Hi-lo bar doesn't need to shortened by 60mm, hence why I said "roughly"  , with the knuckle it seems to be about 95mm, but this is with the Hi-lo's on there lowest setting so as a bench mark I'm going to shorten it to 100-110mm.

 

 

 

As you can see there's a lot of wear in the old joint and what's left of the nylon cup.

Before fitting the new knuckle I checked to make sure all of the nylon cup was clear of the seating and then wrapped a extended DIY chisel with a rag and some tape and sprayed it in WD-40, served the purpose of cleaning the grease and grime off quite well.

 

Side plates wire wheeled and etched

 

Back plates I've made need to be identical (in my mind) before welding in, so I drilled a small hole in the centres of them and clamped them up with a bolt, this is so I can grind them both together and ensure symmetry :). 

After that's done I'll Zinc prime and clean the subframe up were required.

 

Also, this is the previous design, I wanted to make an adjustable setup that bolted on and off any metro, but after some more thought and considering I didn't like the thought of shear forces on bolts, it was scrapped.

 

 

And lastly is the rear towing eyes, to mount a rear Anti-Roll Bar I need stronger mounts as fitted stock on the GTI Metro, I think I'll modify these mounts and make them stronger before I buy a set of stainless ones from Ralph

 

Cheers,

Cliff

Edited by rally515, 11 March 2015 - 07:56 PM.

[bigrob]

Progress looks good. You've gone the way i thought you might.
Yeah when the neighbours see me using 2 spaces to work on my car, i'll pop upstairs, come out after 2 minutes, and 2 cars have magically appeared either side of mine.

[bigrob]

Oh and when can i pop up for you to do mine? ;)

[Ben_O]

Hat's off to you Cliff!