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Nice subframe........ and your room is a mess!

[Bungle]

juju the french maid starts next monday

[Pie]

No you don't win a prize Retros!

Yep, tis a subframe of the 'Z' variety!

Bought from 'garyhoose', delivered to Z Cars to change the tower mounts and re-powder coat, delivered on to me at lunch to try and work out how to bolt on the wishbones! But all done now (sorta):

My topic has turned to porn!

That much porn youve thrown all your clothes on the sofa behind covering all your socks

[Dog]

Gays are people too

[*Raz*]

Nice subframe........ and your room is a mess!

makes a change!! Then he comes to my LOVELY new tidy room and makes it a mess, pfft!!

Yes, that is a sexy bit of metal

[Bungle]

does he take his cloths off and leave them every where at your house

[Jammy]

Well I guess its about time I updated this!

Well as you can see from above I got the subframe all built up. You may notice that one of the wishbones wasn't bolted up. This was because I had one bolt left that was quite long, and it wouldn't go where I need it to go, so had to do a bit of a swap around with bolts and spacers. Got it all done in the end. Was left with a few bits which I couldn't quite work out how they bolted together. Quick call to Chris and we soon realised that I was missing one of the brackets that bolts to the speedo housing! Took them less than a week to make me two new brackets and have them delivered to my house.

I must say at this stage Z Cars have been one of the most helpful companies I've ever come across, considering in particular that I didn't actually buy the frame from them directly!

After I got the frame sorted I wanted to get my gearbox built. First off I decided to clean the X-pin box I got. Couple of cans of carb cleaner later and it looked like this:

(Click to enlarge)

Now, this would have been my third attempt at stripping down a gearbox, so I was hoping it would all go to plan! Thankfully I had my BMC Workshop Manual and Haynes to help me!

Half stripped:

Fully stripped:

Upon a closer look it appears its not a X-pin diff after all. So I'm currently emailing the seller about a refund. Apparently 'kentishminispares' had someone check the box who told him it was definitely a cross pin diff!

Anyway, after I got this box stripped I realise my A series SC gearset wouldn't fit this A+ case. Looking at the A series case I got with my SC gearset revealed it had cracked where the gearchange fork shaft goes, so thats scrap, and I've since broke the case thats on my engine currently, so I may use this gearbox yet!

Its also got a 3.7 FD so I'm going to try and find at least a 3.44!

[Jammy]

Next thing was to rebuild the head (another first for me), and lap the valves in.

Head stripped, double springs, top caps, coilets and valves all keep in order. Vizards books have more than just one use!

(Click to enlarge)

Couple of shots of the camber work and porting. Not sure if it was Bill that did the work, but it looks very good!

~~~

After lapping the valves in, which took longer than I thought it would I rebuilt the head, taking the opportunity to replace the exhaust valve stem oil seals. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. All the valves looked to be in pretty good condition, except the exhaust valve on number 1, which was slightly pitted, but I'm going to ignore than and hope the problem goes away!

[Jammy]

Now came the Metty engine rebuild after I'd received the rebuild bits from 'spares! Amongst the gaskets, seals and 29 tooth SC ST 1st gear Simon had left me a little present (not like that! )!

That there on the right of the pic is a rather lovely, brand new, Kent 286 scatter pattern cam! Should go rather well with the head and the Weber I'll be putting on!!

I've started stripping down the Metty engine. I must say its been relatively pain free so far! I've only had one bolt that was a pain; one of the timing cover bolts refused to move, so I ended up repeatedly hitting a screwdriver and a cold chisel under the head of the bolt to try and snap it. Eventually this work and I was able to remove the remains with mole grips. The only other problem I encountered was when it came to splitting the block from the box. All the bolts came out nice and easily, but the dowel pin was a pain. I had to drive a big screwdriver into the join, which ultimately cracked a huge corner off the box! So that case is now scrap too!

Also, on inspection I'm now really glad I decided to rebuild the engine. The big main bearing in the central webbing on the box had started to break down. Looking straight down on it from above you could see a good 3-4mm of the ball bearings as they were poking out the bearing race! The plastic cage had begun to break into peices and I doubt the whole gearbox would have lasted too many more miles!

I'll be fitting the cam and strapping the engine back together over the coming few days, so I'll get pics of that soon.

Also should be having what I consider one of the best parts of the project so far coming tomorrow, maybe the Z Cars subframe slightly surpasses it, or is on par....

[Bungle]

square wheels

[Jammy]

Nooooo Bumgle!

[Pie]

flywheel? new wheels? weber and manifold??

a new pair of socks NO WAIT.......a jumbo pack of socks!!

[CanadianMiniFan]

or several jumbo packs of socks?

[Bungle]

i'm still betting on square wheels

hes seen the future

[Jammy]

flywheel? new wheels? weber and manifold??

a new pair of socks NO WAIT.......a jumbo pack of socks!!

Got all those already!

i'm still betting on square wheels

hes seen the future

Thats the past Bumgle, I hear you Cornish often get mixed up between the two!