Steve 13-60

Morning Andy, yes, pity that side wasnt a full footwell. I'm going to cut the overhang back to the weld then give it a coat of seam sealer. Whilst it is easy enough to take the bodywork off you do get to the stage where you start wondering if it'll ever get back together!

Thankyou, stay tuned for the next exciting post!

By the end of next week I should be ready to start refiti g the tubs. Always nice to be moving forward again eh?

Underside of the front tub isn't too bad, it's had new footwells in at sometime in it's past. Just needs a couple of patches around the body mounts as probably no access when done as the body was still on.

A good weekend, if somewhat cold but the front chassis all welded up and stone chipped ready for painting tomorrow. I continued and welded in plates to fully box section the front and sides. No doubt it's not needed otherwise would have been done at the factory. But I like to play. And it does seem a lot stronger, can just up on the front corner and nothing moves. Sections also sprayed with Dinitrol so shouldn't rust again.

Front bulkhead moved back so work can commence on the front chassis

Rear suspension and chassis done, now removing everything from the bulkhead so I can tip it rearwards to sort out the front cross members and continue boxing the side rails. Double width garage which is nice but being built in 1975 it's only 4M deep! Can only just work on it with the garage door closed. 1m extension will be built......once I find a builder. And don't get me started on the structural engineering calcs! The chaps first idea was to use more steel than in the Forth Bridge! I red penned his plans and sent him back to try again. He stated all the steel work to be hot dip galvanised..... Where ya gonna find someone with a tank big enough to do a 5.5m girder.....and if ya did ...imagine how much that would cost.

I have a set, bloody brilliant, not as good as post lifts of course, but I use mine a lot. Makes changing oil, brakes etc soooo easy. Mine has 18" lift. Comes with 4 rubber blocks that you slide fore/aft to match the jacking points. I also use so bits of 2" thick wood to take up 'slack' between the lift and jacking points.....gains an extra couple inches of lift. Trouble is...they don't fit the Herald, they are about 6" too long, which was slightly annoying as that was the main reason for buying them! Although, once I've finished welding them up, the side rails should be strong enough to use.

Well that's bloody annoying, I ordered the above shaft assys, which never turned up. Apparently they were returned to the seller with no reason why. He then sent them on 24hr service with parcelforce.... 4 days later they are still stuck in their hub....not even out for delivery yet. Meanwhile, bored and can't move forward til it's on 4 legs again. Also annoying are printer makers, I dug out the old Epson photo printer, which was reet good .....but they don't do a driver for windows 11..... All printers seem to be a right ripoff.

After polishing up all the gear teeth and pivots it ran non-stop overnight. But to do that I had had to disconnect the balloon on the right. It is supposed to drop over an hour then raise up again. But it seems to put too much friction in and only runs for 10 mins...but I'm making progress, which can't be said for the Herald as the new drive shafts haven't arrived yet.....fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Just finished building my Xmas pressie. It keeps stopping tho, there's a 'high' spot or something similar, could be a sticky tooth, gotta persevere and keep polishing bits. Runs for approx 5 mins then stops, just too much friction. But not bad for being made from wood. VID_20241227_154924.mp4

Good job I just measured....they are 3/8"!

But... found when putting the hub on the passenger side that the thread on the shaft is mullered. Fortunately got those pairs of spitfire shafts coming so will replace it.....BUT ...spring compressor ....what do you folks use? Not gonna fook about with the 4*3 again. Thinking of getting some 300mm lengths of 7/16" studding to replace 2 of the main spring/diff studs so can slowly wind the spring up and down into place. Must be a nightmare of a job to do with the body on....e.g. when fitting spacers.

Rear suspension back together. If course, I gave no thought to a spring compressor before starting to put the shafts back in. Fortunately a length of 4"*3" and some ratchet straps worked a treat. To try and get it level I used some bits of dexion to make some dummy shoxs. Mind you, there was a slight problem when refuting the wheels. I have replaced the standard wheels studs with M12*1.5 Freelander ones.....but ordered M12*1.25 nuts ...DOH!!! Currently on by half a thread, but will do til the proper ones arrive. It took 5* 25kg bags cement plus one wife to get it level!

Before painting the chassis I folded up some sheet steel and welded them into the side chassis rails, now they are a box section. Must say it seems to have stiffened up those areas nicely.