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heres a picture of a project thats been spoiling my life for a long time, too long.

i keep getting bursts of enthusiasm for it, which quickly wastes away, normally when looking at prices for reapir parts and spares

currently sorting the back 12" of scrattyness, remaking all four rear body mounts etc to get it stable enough to chop the lhr chassis leg out to replace that.

then its axle back in, and back onto the outside.

i hate it, with a passion



this thing makes the rot on minis look like childs play! its truely horrid, even the rust traps have rust traps, the underneath was designed only to trap water and mud and fester away!




the ramp was also a project, but thats sorted and working fine

you rebodied the GTM Rich?

Is this going to be a keeper Guru or will it be sold on completion, its obviously a huge love/hate thing.

36inter wrote:Is this going to be a keeper Guru or will it be sold on completion, its obviously a huge love/hate thing.

as soon as its done, its going, as much as i like the shape of it, it just doesnt float my, or my old mans boat

we should have sold it years ago, but we got so involved in it that it became the current nightmare.

we have far better cars that need ramp time and the opportunity to be used!

Pandora wrote:you rebodied the GTM Rich?

nope, the gtm is progressing well (the coupe, the cox is in the 'pending love' pile)

im having a grp-ing session tonight actually!

Rich, WHAT is it dude ?

Strangley old S type or Rolls looking from the back.

looks like a 420, we are doing the 1st off the production line............mmmmmmmm

its a S1 Bentley, the 4.8 litre straight six version with power steering

it actually runs and drives very nice, and the trim is fairly good, its just let down by its poorly repaired lumpy full of body filler body work, oh, and the terrible chrome bumpers.......£1000 a pair for poor aftermarket ones - ouch!

theres only so much that can be done to it, we are hoping to get it into a solid tidy looking beast that can earn its living doing weddings (which is what they are perfect for), its never going to win any beauty comps, but it would be such a shame to scrap it.

my mojo is strong at the moment with this (im lying, but the sooner its done, the sooner its sold )

chassis is done, all the rear body mounts are made and fitted (using landrover disco ones - nice and cheap, about 25 quid a pop instead of a zillion pounds), chassis leg is in (£500 ), most of rear section of chassis painted.

lh inner wing remade, rh nearly made

just battery tray, rh outer wing and tool box to make

back axle & springs are cleaned and painted - the springs have leather gaitors, but they had vanished (and cost nearly a grand to have a set made now), handly my dad bought a big mixed box (for about a fiver) years ago, i hunted through and found enough to do the job!

the back axle cleaned up fine, but needs a pinion oil seal, looks like a mini hub seal, the cost????? 52 blooming pounds - for an oil seal! - i will find something else that fits!


should get the back axle and springs back in by the end of the month, but i have to make a huge leaf spring compessor to get the springs flat enough to get them in, then its tank in, wheels on and off the ramp!

ive also got to rebuild the rear shockers - recons are 350 quid each!!!!!

I spent yesterday driving a SII for a pal's wedding company, chaufers cap and all. (VERY pretty bride )

It was a while since I drove one, and afterwards my modern Saab estate felt like a Mini! It's in very good mechanical shape the one I was driving, but still, what a horrid barge of a thing, with wooden brakes and vague steering.

You should get yours finished quick Rich - it'll make the bus feel like a go-kart!

Pandora wrote: what a horrid barge of a thing, with wooden brakes and vague steering.

You should get yours finished quick Rich - it'll make the bus feel like a go-kart!

i bet its got a set of cheap radial van tyres fitted - thats what ruins the steering on them - the brakes must have a problem as well, they are mechanically servod as well, so dont work very below about 15mph - the hand brake really has to be used to 'help' at the lower speeds - once the servo is working though they are pretty fierce!

the poor brakes below 15mph are a fright though - particually in an automatic car that weights about 2 ton!


mine now has a battery tray made and fitted and the rear axle is rebuilt and ready to go back in.



nothing in this world will ever make the bus feel anything like a gokart!!!

working on this hunk of junk is actually letting me enjoy the odd little job i have to do on minis - carb swop on the sprint - absolute pleasure - everything is accessable, comes undone, etc etc.....


the back end progresses well, top leaf of the rear spring is in (i had to make a spring flattener using g-clamps and a four foot length of thickwalled 2" box section - not how the service book suggests its done, but it worked!) and the axle (which is underslung) is now in place - just the brake pipes and smaller leafs to get in and it will be back on its wheels, then i can nip the nut on the prop flange and get the prop in.

still have the shocks to sort, but i now have another, better pair

however, flushed with the success of the rear suspension i have stripped the front, and, well, lets just say that if i ever find the 'mechanic' who welded the forged anchor plates for the lower arms to the cross member (in an attempt to hide the fact that the lower suspension was seized and was trying to pivot around the cross member rather than the actual pivots) i may actually do them some damage....

ive had to cut it all off, start making good the cross member, then have had to get secondhand pair of uprights to try and use all the parts from them.

my entire garage is now full of two sets of stripped suspension, all waiting to be cleaned and inspected, then painted and rebuilt.

all because someone in the past couldnt be arsed to fix the chassis lubrication system! - which is vital for the suspension to work - it all runs on very coarse threaded swival joints, which need the oil to stop them jamming up.

small update on the hulk,

the back is all back together, bar odd tiny jobs - the tank still needs putting in, but im going to wait until all the welding is done.



i then spent an enjoyable day degreasing the front chassis to asses how bad the problems where, it was a foul job.



i also then spent a further day degreasing the ramp, gargae, tools etc.......


once it had all dried off, the full horrors where shown, the bottom suspension attaches to cast carriers, these had been moving against the chassis as the joints had all seized up. the chassis had stress cracked, been repaired, stress cracked again.... the previous owner had simply welded the cast carriers to the chassis in, i assume, a last ditch attempt to keep the car going, which had stoped the cracking, but hadnt addressed any of the issues with the worn components or the non-working chassis lubication system (which is vital for these cars)

here you can see the remains of the super thick welds that had held the carrier on



stress cracks....



more stress cracks - this is the bracket that holds the steering idlers



the hole that the power steering ram passes through, at some time the suspension has failed and dragged the lh side under the car, forcing the ram into the chassis - nice!



looking into the rh wheel arch, you can see the cross member and the chassis, its all big, chunky stuff!




unfortunatly i dont have any photos to hand of the, frankly, genius repair.

after a lot of thinking i realised that it was an impossible task to try and repair the original bottom plate of the cross member, it was such a mess that i decided to start again. the whole chassis is jig welded, but handily the plate covering the bottom of the cross member was welded on last, once the chassis was all finished, with a bit of poking and prising, we (me and my old man) decided that the plate was only welded around the outside, with no plug welds at all - easy.

i 'aquired' a 'chop-off' from another car which gave me a full spare set of suspension and a cross member which i was able to cut up from the top down to harvest the parts i needed, i then had to make a jig to locate all the new bits i had to weld in for the carrier mounts, then the bottom plate went on. this sounds simple, but from starting to chop the old one off, to slapping a bit of paint on the finished job was a three day job......

What a mare of a job.
Memo to myself, Stick to Minis.

fast forward months...........


cracked on a bit more, both shockers sorted and refitted - the shockers are lever arms and form the mounting point for the upper arms

bottom carriers, spring plates, springs (new) etc all reconned and refitted - a massive job, the springs are nearly 2000llb, so i had to construct a tool to hold it all together and compress them to half their size.

i ended up getting all the suspension parts from this car and the other spare set blasted, then primed it all and layed it all out on the floor and built one 'good' set up.

ive no photos of it in bits, but its foul stuff, the ball shaped joints at the top & bottom of the upright, and at the inner most end of the bottom arms are actually very coarse threaded things that screw together, then, as the suspension moves up and down the two parts are simply screwing in or out, so its very strong and smooth. lack of oil, however wreaks havoc, some of the ones removed off this car and worn smooth and where just rattleing around - think what a ungreased radius arm goes like and you will get an idea!


the uprights are all sorted and in place - i had to get to this stage to hold the springs in place



note, some bolts are loose, they are the ones that hold all the anti roll bar gubbings on, all the fittings that hold the uprights on are slotted so that the castor and camber can be altered. you can also set the height of the car by adding to subtracting shims above the springs, the only problem is you have to remove 99% of the suspension to get the springs out, so its hardley got the ease of a pair of hi-los!



looking into the rh wheel arch (again...) - the bit of wood is to stop it drooping so far, there is a rubber bump stop that goes in there, but the springs are so fierce that the just tear the rubber stops up if the car is left with no weight on the suspension

.


just all the steering gear to refit and the hubs & kingpins to sort and it will be rolling again!

whoo-hoooo!!!!!

might actually get to work on a mini next year!

InimiaD wrote: What a mare of a job.
Memo to myself, Stick to Minis.

when you consider that this car, when mot'd and running will have the value of about 50% of a good cooper s, its a no brainer as to why minis are such a easy car to work on and buy parts for!

my sole technical parts manual for this is the proper rr service book (which is almost like a haynes, but with less pictures)

my big 'find' this year was a original parts book (ahem £50 for that item sir - 'i'll take it!' ), with all the part numbers and drawings so i can refer to that to see how stuff should go back together - i also managed to find a specalist catalogue which uses some of the original part book drawings, which is handy for thumbing through for insperation when in the garage!

F-Kinell Guru, were you trained as a masochist or does it come naturally, I really hope you get some decent dosh for that when it goes. I am sure you must wear your underpants on top of your trousers.

Pete

whoooo-hooooooo

{trumpet blast!!!!}


the bentley is back on four wheels!

the stub axles are stripped, cleaned, rebuilt - i managed to make one good pair from 2 pairs thanks to some help from mark

a rude 30 quids worth of bits from one of the 'specalists' (four little felt seals, of which two where the wrong size (they had clearly just sent me four of the same size), a nut which was the wrong size (5 quid - bastards) despite having the correct part number on the bag, and 8 quid postage for a parcel that cost a quid to post) - grrr , allowed me to get the stubs back onto the 'fork' part of the axle, got all the chassis lubrication system in and tested (tested = making sure it pisses a torrent of oil all over the floor!) and the brake back plates on, then banged the wheels on and for the first time in three years its sitting almost level again!

flush with that small success, ive got the remaining anti roll bar and power steering bits painted, and spent all yesterday cleaning and rebuilding the confusion of drag arms, idler arms, track arms that somehow transmit the 'twirly' from the steering wheel to the actual 'turny' of the road wheels. Every steering part is rebuildable with either selectable washers or by swopping seats and pins around - it takes ages!

oh, and i need eight rubber boots for the various track rod ends - the cost?

a staggering twenty-five quid each!!!


ffs


ebay.......'universal ball joint boots'


....6 quid a pair!

ker-ching!



it will be moving under its own power by the end of the month

now THATS a promise!

Ah, Bentley and Rolls specialists: not so much "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" as "if you have to ask the price, you might find we are at it, and ripping you off like a goodun'!"

still, once it's back on the road it can start wearing out again

glad you're making progress, but what about 'ye olde max power Mk1' and the GTM?

Now that is some serius welding & repairs you have been doing there

Keep up the good work, so you can get her back on the road to enjoy