January 2005

November 2005

Every month I have a goal to reach. Sometimes I get close, sometimes I miss out miserably. This month I think I have a good shot. I want to finish off the chassis in paint. It will still need fitting everything back on, but to get some gloss paint on will be an achievement. It will mean I am actually constructing instead of repairing and fabricating. The only deviation will be checking the front suspension for bump steer. I have devised a way of checking it before it hits the road. If it's not right, it's not to hard to fix now. If the car was finished, would be a different story.

Before I get stuck into the chassis, I thought I would finish replacing the rear wheel bearings. First thing was to cut the outer case with the 1mm cutting disk. I then made another cut on the opposite side. It then just required a light hit with a cold chisel to split it open. It was a shame really, cause they were in really good condition. I wasn't to know that until they were split open. Oh well, better to know for sure I guess.

Once the outer case was off, I then cut the ball bearing cage in the same manner. The inner race was a bit tricky. I didn't want to cut to far and possible score the axel. That would mean a weak spot for potential breakage. I just cut far enough, then heated it with the oxy. I then drove the chisel into the cut area. That opened it far enough so I could drive it off with a chisel and hammer. To fit the new bearing was rather easy. I used an old brake drum to space the axel off the ground so the studs would not be pushed out with the pounding I was about to do. It only took a few hits with the heavy pipe to drive the bearing home.

This is my primitive bump steer checker. I used a stiff wire rod cut to 14" and attached it to the stub with the castellated bearing nuts. I chose 14" as it would be about the radius of a wheel. I then used my primitive plum bob to mark a vertical line on an old cardboard box. I centred the steering rack then attached the tie rod ball joint into the steering arm. I then adjusted the ball joint until the stub axel was close to straight ahead. I also levelled the chassis. Once I was happy with the positioning, I then jacked the lower control arm up to full height. I then moved the box in front of the pointer. I then lowered the jack slowly and observed the deviation. I expected the movement to be in a shallow arc, after all, the arm is pivoting around a mounting bolt. What I hoped to see is at the lowest point of travel, the pointer should come back to the marked line, and to my delight, it was spot on.

This is the moment of truth. With the suspension at its lowest point, it is still pointing directly at the line This is the extreme as I have not fitted the bumps stops, so the travel is more than normal. Still, I believe a slight toe in at the highest point is acceptable. The last pic is to confirm the line is still vertical. This may be wrong, and I would like to find out if there is logic in my thinking. As it stands, I feel confident that the rack is in the optimum position and I should not suffer from bump steer.

While the front end was sort of together, I fitted the calliper to find out the best position for the brake hose. This looks about right. It won't foul with anything and has enough free movement for suspension travel and steering lock. I will use one of those connectors that go through the chassis rail. The next pic is the modified steering arm compared to a front steer Holden steering arm, I acquired just in case. When I got the car, it was rear steer. I wasn't sure if I had the right steering arms to use on front steer. It looked rather straight for a rear steer arm in my opinion. My suspicions were answered when I compared the 2. It looks like the previous owner wasn't concerned with Ackerman. It looks like my modified arms will work better now they are in the correct position. Oh, the modification is just the steering locks were cut off. You don't need them for a rack. Also, while it is visible, that rack is a TE/TF Cortina manual rack. The tie rod ball joint is a Commodore unit. It just screwed right onto the Cortina tie rod. The ball joint will now fit any of the GM steering arms.

I am now prepping the front end for paint. This shows the notch I cut into the L300 cross member to clear the Ford sump. Even with a Bronco sump, the oil pump area still interferes. The only option was to cut the cross member. The engineer had a look and says no problem. The rule is, what ever metal is removed, has to replaced. I more than replaced the missing metal. That is a box section of tube steel welded into the cross member. I welded gussets as well with flat 4mm plate. It is stronger than stock IMHO. The things you have to do to get a Ford into a Ford ;-)

Here is another pic showing the gussets and the square tube. The last pic shows a big clean up of my garage. Even I was embarrassed how messy it was. This took quite a while. The chassis is now stripped bare and I am about to prep it for paint.

OK, the chassis is now slung off the beams and prepped. I was only going to primer the repaired sections, but I got carried away and done the lot. The front end came up OK as well.

I primered all the body saddles and trans plate and hung them off the chassis. Apart from the steering rack and brake booster, which will be done through the week, everything that is going to be painted is primered. The engine and box will be done when I wheel them out for the last time. I will not mention primer again...even I'm getting sick of doing it;-). Now the weather is hotter, and daylight saving is here, I will wet rub everything after work. That doesn't create noise, so I can keep going late at night if I want. Next weekend I will start spraying everything possible in 2K black. That will be the first official build aspect, cause up until now, its been repair, fabrication and preparation.

Here is the chassis, now painted in gloss 2k Black Ebony. I am pleased how well it turned out. It was extremely difficult to spray in every area. I had to use the suction gun as I was spraying at all angles and my you beaut gravity gun would not work upside down, without me wearing the paint.

My first venture with 2k was not to bad. I wore a respirator but didn't have goggles at first. It irritated my eyes that much, that I ended up putting on welding goggles with the flip front. I have a few runs, but that would be expected trying to squirt paint into tight areas. I will rub them back when its totally cured and spray them again. The diff looks great, what a nice gloss it has straight off the gun....I like this 2k stuff;-)

The diff centre still needs a bit more paint. I run out of weather and didn't want to mix any more until it fined up.

I had bits and pieces hung all over the place. The next day I took them out side with the body. The next pic is trying to find space to store parts, even my BBQ gets utilised. These need a bit more paint, but as I mentioned, I run out of weather, so most were done on Saturday. Sunday was over cast and the temperature a bit to low for 2k paint.. There are many more parts waiting to be painted.

You may be thinking, why is he showing stuff under primer again? It's quite simple and I can tell it with one word..weather! I had Saturday to do all the small items in primer and paint everything on Sunday. Not a bad plan...but on Sunday, we have had constant rain, wind and cold. In fact, it's the coldest day in November in recorded history and its predicted to continue for a few weeks.. Its hard to believe that we are in drought. Yeah, we sure need the rain, but why just now. I can do anything else on the car without the weather having much affect. It seems I have the answer to any drought..it's my spray gun! I think I should hire myself out and globe trot to areas with drought. All I would pack is a few clothes and the secret weapon...the spray gun. As soon as I get it out of my bag, it will pour cats and dogs. I should warn anyone one that is thinking of hiring me...buy a boat first, cause I'm bloody good!. Any way, what you see here is the brake callipers and front springs. I use compressed air into the brake hose and popped the piston out. I cleaned the crud out on the inside and removed the seal and rubber boot. I will replace both when I finally paint and assemble them. I then used a wire brush on my cordless drill to get the external stuff off. That took quite a while. I envy guys with a sand blasting cabinet. The brake drums are new items, so all I needed to do was to wipe them over with Prepsol and primer them.

So here is the only thing I can do while it's raining. Count nuts and bolts and create a list of what I need to buy. I purposely used mostly 5/16" x 1" UNC bolts and nuts, so I will buy many of them in stainless steel. I will also buy the body mount bolts in high tensile, which are 3/8" UNC. Not very exciting stuff I know, but what else could I have taken a picture of. I thought about a shot of my new pet frog, Freddo, that has found a new home in my pond ( once the pool ). He's having a great time.

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