PAINTING PROGRESS

Well the first layer of white paint has been applied underneath and inside. I did expect it to look better but then I always do. Ideally I would have liked more time to smooth the engine bay and other bits in the cockpit but I guess it is a rally car and not a polisher. The second and third coats will go on this weekend and then hopefully the hole car will be painted by Christmas. In-between painting I need to design and make a new fuel tank with straps, work out how to lower the shell back down and restore the princess brakes from my donor car. Apart from that I only have to rebuild the engine, make a new wireing loom, win the lottery and buy the seats, harnesses, wheels and tires, tune a second engine, buy a fire extinguisher and so on.

ADJUSTABLE TOP REAR PARALLEL ARMS

Diff-icult Job L.S.D

Diff-icult job.
It has taken some time and a lot of patience but the Slippy Diff is now shimmed and the Axel is complete. The problems I faced when fitting the slippy diff were as follows.
* the Pinion was too long and clashed with the body of the diff unit.
* the diff carrier bearings need shimming to ensure the crown wheel and pinion mesh correctly, and I only had the two original shims.
The first was simple really I didn’t have any other choice but to machine the pinion down so that it cleared the diff housing. Unfortunately I didn’t take enough off the pinion and I really didn’t want to go through the hole process again so I machined the diff housing down by 1mm which gave me the clearance ( this can be seen in the photograph on the body of the diff) So to solve the shim problem I referred back to the workshop manual and calculating the shims is quite straight forward. Obviously with only the two original shims I dint have enough. I measured and calculated the shims that I needed and laser cut some new ones, I sent them off for surface grinding to achieve the correct sizes as we don’t have a grinding machine. Once the shims came back I found that the back lash was to big so I went O.T.T and made about 20 shims varying in 0.1mm. So as I said a lot of time and patience and the diff is in and the crown wheel and pinion are correctly meshed.

shims

slippy diff with machined body

cleaned and painted 5 speed box a bit of DIY sand blasting

stage 1 of engine cleaning

collecting all the parts as I recondition them.

lightened fly wheel