Build Diary for
2013-03-29 - Build up

The last week or so has been a slow cleaning and painting of chassis bits and pieces. The easter weekend though was the start of the build up.

The weather has been bitterly cold, so only inside working up to now, but easter had been a little milder, not warm by any means, but enough so I can get outside. The chassis got moved from the back garden to the front drive and the assembly started. The aim was to finish easter weekend with a rolling chassis at least!

As mentioned earlier, the chassis was reconditioned about 6 years earlier and stood under a cover, but that has meant that everything is new: wheel bearings, discs, drums, stub axles, etc. This has meant that most could be cleaned, painted and reused, with just some bits like the tie rod ends having to be replaced due to the grease drying out and rusting up.

The rear came together quite well, just waiting on the brake shoes to complete that bit. You will see that I have plugged up two of the bolt holes in the Diff - this is because I am using a later Swing-spring which only has four mounting holes. The two that won't be used need to be plugged otherwise the diff oil will get thrown out and cover the underside of the car! I used plain bolts that I crimped the threads with a hammer; this meant that they were a tight fit and no chance of coming undone and dropping into the diff casing.

Then the front got all put back together. The new calipers got stripped, cleaned and rebuilt and so everything will work as it should when it goes back together. Steering rack was stripped, greased and reassembled with new tie rod ends and gaitors.

The rear brakes were built up with the exception of the brake shoes which are on order as I thought I had a set and then didn't! I did crack on with the wheel cylinders and adjusters and got the handbrake cable sorted and attached for now. I will need to sort out the mounting for the pivot point and compensator bracket when I get the fram on. this is normally mounted to the underside of the rear tub of a Herald.

So I finished where I wanted to be - with a rolling chassis. I had really hoped to get the engine in but I had a problem with the clutch centre plate. More on that in the next installment.