Working on the rear diff, brakes and steering

Still on the rotisserie good opportunity to get on with doing the brakes and brake lines.

Rear Brakes

Front Brakes

Rear suspension and Differential back in position.

Underneath is nearly finished 

Paint stripping and rust removal

 

 

Watch this video, these wheel rims have been in this solution for about 3 weeks.

I found this method of paint and rust stripping , its cheap but it takes a few weeks and is a bit messy, so wear some gloves. I start with a large container and fill it with a mixture of  1 part molasses and 8  parts of water. Then place the metal parts into the mixture for about 4 weeks, keep it covered as it smells and you probably want it out the back somewhere, what you'll find is the paint comes off rather easily by spraying with a hose and most of the rust will have fallen off. you may have to scrub a bit with some stainless steel wool to loosen some of the bits that have remained. Caution do not put any parts that are not steel like alloy.

The metal will be bare and will corrode very quickly so treat it with metal ready and dry and paint as soon as you can.

 

I still use paint stripper on really thick paint because I don't really want to wait too long to get my guards sorted. there was about 4 coats of paint on these guards see the layers below.

                                                                     Bare metal at last. 

The underneath has only the original paint so I'll let the molasses strip that.

Doors had the same thing heaps of paint and it was crazzing and cracking on the top surfaces.

Bad rust repair which I had to cut out and repair properly.

Just a bit tidier and at least it shouldn't rust out as before

Some more repairs needed here but I'll do these after the rust has been treated.

Note the original part numbers and build date info on the rear of the front panel.

Work on the front guards

Here i am removing sections of rust in the guards and doors.

First I'll do the metal work then I will have to  strip the  paint and remove any remaining surface rust.

This guard had the worst rust it was  a previous repair that caused more issues so I had to cut out a big piece

These guard were in really good condition for 47 years old.

New section to be welded in.

I bolted the guard back into place to avoid any distortions before continuing with welding.

Finishing off the undercarrige

 

 

 

 

Trial fitted the bumper, fuel tank, taillights, chrome mouldings  etc to make sure everything lines up before carrying on, don't want to have to redo things as it takes long enough as it is to restore a car properly.

 

Need to yidy up all the welds and clean off any surface rust before sealing and painting.

Paul Knight from Classic Autos did a great job of welding in the rear chassis rails and fitting rear panels, saved me a lot of work and he has organised the repairs to be certified.

Here the welds are all ground back an painted now begins the panel sealing then I get to under seal the rest of the rear this Labour weekend.

Here I'm sealing all welds, seams and joins this will help prevent water getting in but need to leave drain holes so if any does get in it can escape.

Let it dry off prior to undersealing.

 

All undersealing finished off today, also got to fill chassis rails with body cavity sealer to prevent future rusting from the inside off all the rails and torque tubes.

 

I'll keep rotating the body and add extra cavity sealer so that it sloshes all around tthe inner cavities.