A Good Friday and Saturday...

Finally had a few days in the garage to get on... I had started patching the sills with ok results but felt I was chasing the rust along the sills so decided new would be better.

With a recent pre-show discount offer I bought both sides for £190 delivered. But before tackling these I needed to finish what I had started.

Last week with my two partners in welding crime saying bigger is better – while I was making a the tea they cut a large section of the front flitch section. Then showed me how to used the swagger, bending and tack welded in a complete replacement section - thanks Pete and Dick again!

Leaving me to get on I finished off the welding, I patched the turret and the chassis member - with some extra finishing required on the engine bay side, I'm getting there.

18hrs

Inner flitch panel repair...

A box of goodies turned up last week - one Inner flitch repair panel and WKC2449P (repro) full Inner front wheel arch.

The Inner wing arch turned out to be a very poor fit panel - I've since found lots of talk about these panels on forums. After a couple of hours spent trying to fit it with damaging, I gave up.

I spoke to the supplier who's now given me a full refund - now need to find a better quality panel.

The rust area on the flitch panel needs repairing and as its visable within the engine bay I decided on a repair panel that I would butt weld in place rather than used as a patch.

I started by trimming down the panel to the rough area I wanted, then cutting out the rusty section and fitting the trimmed panel. Weld tacked it in place and with further tweaking and welding should look ok.

6hrs

Engine rebuild pt6...

Timing cover, timing cover... I've spent lots of time trying the cleaning my old one, so when I saw a new one on Rimmer Bros clearance sale for a £10 I bought one!

I say new - it came in a sealed box with blue BL logo on it, so new thirty years ago maybe.

I'm going to refit my electric fan kit, so I don't need to install the top pulley assembly, viscous coupling and fan blades - to cover the casting flanges I cutout a plate from 3mm aluminium.

Fitted the cover with the newly painted timing marks plate and the cleaned alternator brackets. Also fitted the front lifting eye.

4hrs

My old one before trying to clean

New parts...

Received a box of goodies - shells, thrush washers, top and bottom gaskets - VAT free offer from Rimmers.

Checking shell sizes...

Quick call today to Rimmer Bros to double check I had the right sizes for ordering new big end and main bearing shells.

The block and crank was a exchange units and my 1985 invoice indicated +0.20, but the shells had 010 and 040 marked on them. He confirmed I would need the sizes as marked on shells and the invoice was only a guide to say it had been reground!

Interestedly a re-ground block and crank will cost over £470 today.

My friend Rimmer...

So I entered a Rimmer Bros Facebook Polybushes competition to win a mug!

And won, I'm now the proud owner of a Polybush mug ;)

In the post today...

Received replacement poly bushes for Rimmer Bros today!

Two working days not bad, just a shame I was required to send both parts back.

Jiffy bag & postage – £3.95

Spot the difference...

Assembling all the parts to refit the font suspension I discovered that the spacer tube for the new inner track arm poly bush is 5mm short.

The front/rear suspension poly bush kit was purchased a few months ago from Rimmer Bros, I called the returns department and was told I needed to the return the bush and a replacement would be sent out by return.

Now I know why some rebuilds can take so long! 

30 mins