Time for some more scribblings I think.
So, last time I was cleaning up the brake callipers, making new brake lines and buying a set of 4 pots.
The 4 pots are now stored away until I can do some adjustment to get them to fit, the freshly cleaned and painted callipers are back on the car and the new copper brake pipes are at my local brake specialist having the ends properly swaged (I decided against doing this bit myself – I just don’t have the space). I have also fitted a very nice set of braided stainless hoses that I acquired brand new for just over £40! I’m getting the lines back in the next couple of days so will fit them at the weekend.
Something I haven’t mentioned much is the body work.
When I went to look at the car I was pleased how rust free it was. There is a small bubble just bellow one of the rear lights and that is it.
Cosmetically it’s not too bad either. What I found was a couple of small car park dings, a big scrape on the base of the front bumper, a patch of missing paint on the rear bumper and tar all over the nearside. So I got to work on it.
First of all I decided to sort the underside out whilst the ‘F was up in the air and minus its exhaust and brake lines. I started by cleaning the underside and arches with an entire bottle of Aldi Caravan Wash (39p!) in hot water. This stuff is like acid but bloody effective at getting grime, muck and tar off.
This removed seventy thousand miles of dirt to leave me with this:-
And at the back where there was a bit of surface rust to treat:-
There wasn’t much of this but anything I found got treated with Hamerite krust rust converter and a generous coating of zinc primer.
Whilst I was at it I turned my attentions to the near side sill which had been jacked up badly and creased at some point. With some careful use of the hammer this was nice and straight.
At last it was ready for some rust proofing. I decided to use the age old trick of wax oiling the cavities and new underseal everywhere else.
There’s not many cavities on the ‘F’s body shell – only the sills really. So I removed the rubber bungs at each end and got spraying – or not. My waxoiling gun had called it a day and refused to spray. So, I mixed the waxoil with white spirit and poured it into the sills with a funnel which did the job. You can see it oozing out here:-
Next job was to mask off for undersealing:-
This stuff gets everywhere so I wasn’t taking any risks. I was also careful to leave the edges of the arches exposed so they got a good coating.
So what happens after all this careful masking? The bloody gun blocks and spits underseal through the breather hole and over the boot lid. Damn! Back out with the white spirit again then...
Anyway, after a good going over with 5 cans of Shultz finest it looked like this:-
More to follow...