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Tag Archives: Suspension
Finishing The Rear End – Part 2
Nearly finished on the rear end now. I finished up the painting, then refitted the bootlid (again): Before reassembling the axle: And Installing: Apart from struggling to manhandle it in place and line everything up (My other half turned up at this point and helped out, which was useful ), it was quite a straightforward job. Next up, now that the axle stands were out of the way, was to check the bits of the underside where they were. I’d forgotten that the stands were sitting where those weird brackets are at the back, and they were pretty mangled. Seeing as they had no purpose that I can see, I just ground them off. I then cleaned up the area and treated it with Metal Ready, I’ll be going back to paint those bits tomorrow. I can see a few bits I missed with the topcoat! I’ll be going over … Read More
Finishing The Rear End
Work towards getting the rear end done (until stripping and prepping for the respray) is now well under way. I finished the last of the filling this evening (the seatbelt mount point where I had to weld in a patch – I wish I’d remembered to do that before I put the rear deck back on!), and I’ve etch primed all the bare metal in the area, apart from the wheelarches (which need masking first). It’s all looking pretty good, I’m happy with the work there. I also made a start putting the rear suspension back together – I’m reusing the old bits for now, no point in putting anything new and shiny on just yet. I’d picked up a pair of trailing arms and A/R bar off ebay a few weeks back as the ones I took off had been stripped and painted previously. It’s rusty and mucky, but … Read More
More Painting
I’ve spent a bit of time recently painting a few suspension parts and various brackets, as well as the bumper. First up, cleaning and prepping: Then the first coat, POR 15 again: As you can see, I had to get a bit creative with hanging this stuff up to dry. Even after a couple of hours it was still wet, so I had to put the roof beams to good use so I could lock the garage up and go home! Then I took it all home for sanding and cleaning (The joy of having an understanding girlfriend!): Before taking it all in to work for final painting. Finished result: All ready now to fit the bushes and put back on the car.
Light Clusters
I’ve been working on the rear lights – a nice little job to do at home. I started off rubbing down the metal part and spraying with silver paint: This has made a difference, although not a huge one: Just for the hell of it, I also painted the rears – I was never too keen on the unfinished aluminium look: As my original lenses were cracked and a little bit tatty (although serviceable), I had a few spare lenses sitting in a box (for the life of me I can’t remember where they came from!), so I picked the best pair out of them and gave them a bit of a clean. Even they were a little scratched, so I buffed them up a little with some rubbing compound to get the worst of it off. They came out alright in the end, although at some point I might … Read More
More prep work
Now I feel ready to get started on the welding, I’ve started hacking the rusty old metal out – So far I’ve got the wheelarch holes cut out, filed down and ready to get started this weekend. I’m starting on the easy stuff, the big (and little) holes in the middle of the panels, I don’t feel ready to tackle those rear sills just yet! That said, I did go in the garage today and hacked the NSR sill off – it was in a right state, beyond any reasonable hope of saving. At least, after me battering, drilling and grinding it, it’s beyond saving now! I’ll be needing a new panel for that (don’t fancy fabricating a new one – too many odd curves!), but so far, that’s the only one I’ll need, so I can live with that. Next on the fabrication list is the wheelarch itself, where … Read More